Danamon's extra charge

Danamon's extra charge

As a customer, my relationship with Bank Danamon only began
about 50 days ago but the experience has been disgusting.

On July 11, 1997, I transferred a small amount of Australian
dollars from my AUD primadollar account to Australia. For that
transfer, besides a fixed transfer fee of Rp 15,000, the Danamon
JSX Branch charged an additional US$3.00 fee because the amount
transferred was below the equivalent of $3,000.00. I was
disturbed by this additional fee because:

a. Aware of misleading practice by many companies, before
opening the account I inquired about any charges and fees that
the bank may charge a customer for various account-related
activities, but such a fee was never mentioned.

b. It is very difficult to understand the logic behind the
charge because the fixed transfer fee was relatively high for
smaller transfers while larger transfers will not benefit the
bank as they represents a reduction in bank funding.

c. The teller in charge failed to show me the bank's written
provision regarding the extra fee's validity. The teller simply
said that the branch didn't keep a copy of the provision because
it had been in effect for a long time (therefore, they had
memorized it and customers should not question anything about
it).

Again, on July 22, 1997, I transferred A$3,000 from a
primadollar to primadana account. The exchange rate for such
purpose displayed on the board was $A1 = Rp 1,935.60, but the
rate applied to my transaction was $A1 = Rp 1,908.53. Danamon's
staff explained that due to rate volatility at the time, the head
office had corrected the rates and the rates displayed were
misleading. Because of the bank's misconduct in displaying the
wrong rates, I asked the bank to cancel the transaction without
charging me additional costs. And do you know what the staff
said? The only way to cancel the transaction was to buy back the
$A at the rate of $A1 = Rp 1,974 point something. Which means the
bank made around Rp 200,000 in a matter of seconds by cheating
and being misleading. This suggestion will even make an idiot
laugh and an angel angry.

In some countries such a practice could cost a bank a fortune
in the form of heavy legal fines and lost customers. And as a
well-known company in the 15th most competitive country, I think
it is time for Danamon to stop preying on weak customers.

ALFONSUS S

Jakarta