State Bank of India — Local services in London

Journey of Torture and frustration-I have my bank account with India branch and it has got deactivated as I live in London since last 2 years.I contacted my locan Indian branch and they said as Its not possible for me to visit India I can visit UK SBI and get my documents certified and ask them to email giving varification of my ID to my local branch.Now the tourcher starts.Countless calls and different answers- they said I have to open an account first.I am now ready to open an account ,than now they are saying it will take 4 weeks to open an account.Fine by me now they are saying they can't contact my local branch.Best answer is SBI have no centralize system for overseas branch and local branches.SBI UK treats itself as an independent bank(A joke-If you don't have any centralized system what the hell you are doing in UK.Why the SBI is paying for such hopeless staff for doing nothing)I have an emergency for my own money.I am not begging to these people to loan me any.The staff is fantastically rude and would like to admit Indian staff is better than this UK staff who look upon you when you say you have an Indian passport.Now my question is why any British will use such pathetic service of SBI UK when they have fantastic banks like Barclays etc.So yes I am with an Indian passport in need of my own money bagging to these UK Branches to help me to get my own money.I will say SBI is with good product and worst staff(Specially UK STAFF).Will you trust this bank to keep your money for when you will desperately need them?I certainly not.I will warn people to move your account from India to other relaible branches and make all necessary arrangements that when you need your money you...

Absolute disaster with Indian Tax payers money. I initially thought it's only SBI India is full of incompetent staff , but looks like this in in gene of the organisation. Can't believe this is supposed to be one of the biggest bank in india. As long as everything is setup properly , then there are minor issues like service will be down , you will be logged off automatically etc. But the day you have to deal with customer service , you will get to know the real issues. Just to give example . I called the customer service and they said my issue has to be solved by branch and they gave me a number . When i call that number , it was wrong number . Then i got hold of a correct number , i called ; noone picks it up. It again goes to same call center again where again you have to do the same process again. One time call center told me that it is 5:30 UK time and people might have gone home. Whereas it was 4:30 UK time. I will not blame call center people as they are reading from the information shared with them. It's the Management which is at fault . After some calls , someone will say that branch will call you , forget it . It is not going to happen. The only way to deal with issue is to take all document , take your laptop , take internet dongle , go to branch , sit there and resolve issues. I have decided to close my account in India and London SBI. Can't deal with them . It's waste of time and these guys are not going to be improved. I wish the Bank go bust and employees become jobless . Then only people will realize the pain faced by customers. I can give multiple examples of dealing with branch . But leave it , nothing is...

Unless you have to do do business in India that requires an Indian Bank, I would strongly advise not banking with the State Bank of India. This is a Bank that has clearly been scammed and victim of fraudulent withdrawals many times. Consequently they have set up the most complex and infuriating security processes that it makes online banking virtually impossible, passwords are constantly having to be changed, simple direct debit instructions require a visit to a branch, other payment instructions have to be done in writing supported with ID documents, that take over 14 days to action and are not processed without further checks. The consequence for me was important payments were not made resulting in charges for missing payment deadlines. Contacting a branch by telephone is virtually impossible, all calls go through a call centre and promises are given that calls will be returned and they are not. All in all a pretty hopeless service for a supposed modern international bank. When I closed my account after just too many frustrations, a rather casual bank clerk apologised lamely and seem quiet indifferent that I was closing my account. Avoid if you need a professional...