Yes, I applied for Elite card. Agent came from SBI cards branch and took the signature in the application form. I consider this is same as online application starting stage.
With in one week, another agent came for home verification and took my biometrics and explained the card details again.
After that, no response for two weeks.
Got a call after that, again some basic verification and card details explanation.
Again a gap of one more week, and then got a message that Card is approved and dispatched to Address given.
Note: in these stages, online application status was not at all accurate.