At 6.50am of Oct 15, I had had the unfortunate experience of my car getting repossessed by EON Bank Berhad. Though this might sound strange, the agent that took my car on that unfortunate morning was very polite and apologetic.

While the morning incident with the EON Bank’s agent was pleasant, the same cannot be said of EON Bank’s own employees.

As a customer of EON Bank Berhad for the past four years, I would like to inform your readers that I found the entire experience to be completely and utterly dissatisfying. My biggest complaint stems from the severely lacking customer service skills displayed by the front desk staff of their Pusat Bandar Puchong branch.

The unfortunate events started on Oct 6 when my mother went to the EON Bank Puchong Jaya branch to pay for a two month installment for the car and was told flatly that they were unable to accept payment due to the system being ‘blocked’.

However, they said they could accept payment for 2 ½ months but my mother said we could only pay at a later date as the money apparently was not enough.

The drama begins with the arrival of an agent on Oct 15 morning with the letter of authority to repossess dated Oct 8. He stated the amount overdue was RM2,008.65 and I was told by this agent that once the mentioned amount is paid, we could reclaim back the car on the same day.

At 1 pm the same day, we when to the Pusat Bandar Puchong Branch to make payment for the amount stated but were shocked to find that the amount that we needed to pay was actually RM3371.57!

When we inquired, they simply told us that we need to pay four months of installment and a repossession service fee of RM634.and late charges of RM77.57 as the month of October was included in the statement dated Oct 9.

As we did not have the enough cash at that time, we came back at 3.50 pm to the same branch - Pusat Bandar Puchong - to make the full payment of RM3, 371.57 as we wanted to reclaim the car on the same day.

At 4pm, the amount was paid but then they now said they would have to wait for a confirmation letter from their Credit Recovery Center (HP) unit at Bandar Park.

The entire time that I spent waiting for the confirmation letter to be faxed by Yap Seng Weng and Shaiful Hizam Hashim from the centre, there was never an update made voluntarily to me. Instead, when I took the proactive step to inquire about the status of the fax, I was told to contact the centre by myself!

Finally at 5.20 pm, the fax was received. I asked an employee of Eon Bank’s Pusat Bandar Puchong branch can they call the Too Warehouse in Subang to confirm that I would reclaim the car that day but they just said ‘Oh, you have to call them yourself, it’s okay they close around 6.30pm’

At 5.30pm, I called Stoney Chan of Too Warehouse, Subang to confirm that I wanted to reclaim my car but he said they had already closed at 5pm.

My questions to EON Bank Berhad are as follows:

1. Where is the clause on my hire purchase agreement that they can block payment and refuse to accept payment as the amount deemed to them is not enough?

2. Why am I as a consumer being patronised by EON bank employees who keep giving me vague information, misleading information and wrong information about my hire purchase loan agreement?

3. Why do I need to pay a repossession service fee of RM634 when I gave the keys voluntarily to the agent (no tow-truck was used). Why do I have to contact the Credit Recovery Center myself to confirm whether the fax have been received and if they have faxed back the confirmation letter to release the car?

4. Why does the bank have all the capabilities to repossess a car but when a customer has paid up all the fees, the bank doesn’t lift a finger to assist in getting the car back. Why can’t the agent deliver back the car? I have to pay RM634 and still do all the work?

My suggestion to EON Bank Berhad is instead of asking your employees to wear buttons reading ‘Ask me how to win RM1.5 million ringgit’, you should get them to wear buttons reading ‘Tell us how to improve our service’.

I have had a very bad customer experience with EON Bank Berhad and if I could return back to the past, I will never ever want to associate with them anymore.

When making policies, so many banks in this world fail to look at their customers as human beings, only to find themselves wondering what has gone wrong when their businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy.