Remit2India – Atrocious service March 11, 2008
Posted by Vikas Tandon in Business & Economy, India.Tags: Online Remittance, Remit2India, Times of Money
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If my recent (first) experience on Remit2India.com is anything to go by, it seems to be yet another example of the mercenary ways of some Indian businesses – just launch the product, and market the hell out of it, without really bothering to ensure the service and customer support levels to back up your claims. Here’s my experience in a nutshell:
1. I wanted to remit money from my overseas business account to my India account. The instructions on Remit2India as to what I need to do in my overseas bank’s internet banking account to transfer funds do not match the internet banking interface. So I am unable to fill some details, or have to second guess others.
2. On the 3rd business day I still see the status as Money Awaited in Remit2India so I try and confirm whether they have at least received my money. Bank’s are of course notorious in promptly debited your account but letting you know only after several days in case there’s a problem in the transfer.
3. There is no customer service number I can call on the remit2India site. In fact, unlike most other transaction oriented sites, there is no prominent “Need Help?” prompts.
4. The number they DO have is a toll free number for automated advice only. No one answers!!
5. Tried calling the Times Financial Services board number on the TFS website. No one answers!!
6. Tried using live chat. Service is busy.
7. Tried after 30 minutes. Janhavi comes on the line and confirms that I will receive the money in my account today. I feel relieved, but am a bit suspicious. So I ask her if R2I has received the funds in its accounts. She repeats “as per 3rd working day today it will get converted.”
8. I insist that I need a confirmation that the money has been received by their account, and that I’m not so worried if I get the money later. After some more pressing she reveals “sorry sir i wont be able to check whether or not we recieved your funds.” and signs of with a curt “dropin mail for further quiries”.
9. So I ask how was she confirming that I will receive the funds today when she can’t even confirm if R2I has received the money? And would you believe it she had just disappeared from the chat. Without as much as a thank you/good bye, she had just logged off and refused to respond any further!!
Here’s an edited transcript of the chat session..
Welcome to Remit2India Online Money Transfer Service
How may I assist you?
Janhavi> Thank you for contacting Times Financial Services. This is Janhavi. How may i help you?
You> Hi, I transferred XXXGBP from my BANK UK A/c to BANK India A/c on 6th Mar
You> It still says money awaited and there is no way to trace the money.
You> please help
Janhavi> May I know your customer id or email address in order to process your request?
You> cust ID is YYY
Janhavi> Kindly stay online while I check the details of your remittance.
Janhavi> sir it will get converted today.
You> have u received the funds in your Bank account?
Janhavi> as per 3rd working day today it will get converted.
Janhavi> are you there sir?
You> I need a confirmation that the funds are not lost in transit and that you have received them that’s all.
You> its okay if you convert later today or tomorrow, juts confirm you have received the same.
Janhavi> dear sir, there is now way that your funds will be lost because its a bank to bank transfer .
Janhavi> is the money debited from you acoount?
You> yes, obviously, the money gets debited from our account the moment i make an online transfer, but…
You> it can always happen that BANK UK debits my account but after 1 week finds my transfer details insufficient and then reverts to me after sitting on it for 1 week….
You> you see, your transfer details were not exactly in accoirdance with BANK UK intertnet banking platform..
You> there is no place to enter a BACS code
Janhavi> sorry sir i wont be able to check whether or not we recieved your funds.
Janhavi> as we dont need your BACS code.
Janhavi> dropin mail for further quiries.
You> then how can you say with so much confidence that I wll get the money today? Shouldn’t you check the facts first?
You> are you there?
You> Janhavi??
You> please give me a number in India that I can call? This is very disappointing service from the times group!! Extremey rude and unhelpful!!
END OF CHAT!!
This is a service that deals with money from one of the largest business houses in India – how does Remit 2 India expect to inspire any confidence with this kind of service? The formula is simple:
a. Increase the number of ways a customer can sign-up for your service. Make it as easy as possible. But,
b. Cut-down the number of ways a customer can bother you for some after-sales.
c. And for the ways remaining, err, don’t bother, just leave it to some juniors to manage!
try ICICI Bank’s Money2India instead..the service is much better
Thanks Amit, will do. But need to get my money back first
!
Vikast
I couldn’t agree more. I too have blogged about the horrible experience with Remit2India
Tried Money2India from ICICI Bank and definitely better experience, thanks again Amit.
But a horrible, horrible exchange rate, a full Rs1.5 below prevailing rate
.
“Surprised with bad reviews! REMIT2INDIA is honest and hassle free
I am surprised at such bad reviews. I have been using Remit2india’s smart wire service since last 8 months transferring approx £1200 each time. For me it has been very smooth with no hiccups, my account also shows me the status and never had to call them for delays or other hassles. I have used everything from xoom to ICICI earlier (with ICICI giving the worst exchange rate) but nothing was as hassle free as this. In recent month they seem to have also revamped their site and its pretty user friendly now, yes I agree earlier it was a little cumbersome, but now it’s a breeze.
I am not switching over to any other service anytime soon. “
Remit2India is better than the rest
I am recent convert of Remit2India and to put it on record my experience has been fabulous. My brother transfers me money every month from Singapore and so far he was using either western union or money2india(a pain!), but both these offered a really low rate and the also charged a service fee. With remit2india I don’t have to go looking for an authorised center to receive my cash, it comes directly into my bank account. The exchange rate is slightly better too. For me Remit2india is any day a better service than the dozen others out there
DO NOT USE remit2india. I just had horrible experience. I can assure you you will get lower rate then rates posted on their web site. They lower their rate for few hours during day and that is the time all funds will be converted. Horrible customer services.
I have also had my first nightmarish experience with this company Remit2India. It is a total scam! I don’t have the energy to detail the entire experience, but the company has both charged my account AND locked the account so I cannot make any transfers. No demand draft was ever issued to my recipient in India so they have, in effect, stolen the money. Now they keep emailing me telling me to log on and “verify my banking details”…but it’s locked!
All this and they have all of my personal banking details which I am sure aren’t secure. I wish I’d never come across this site. Would rather pay double the rate and get a reliable service.
again we NRIs make the same mistake. Get carried away by over expectations when at the same time we want free transfers. I think we should all accept the fact that no one is out to do charity. If someone is giving free transfers and decent rates, then obviously they need to compromise somewhere to afford paying salaries. If they had highly qualified people and super service, then we would end up paying high fees. so let’s cut down our heartburn and realize that to get sumthing free..v have to compromise somewhere!!
From a fellow NRI bretheren
what are you talking guys? most of the NRI’s are using remit2india service. see here: http://www.fresherjobs.in/forums/showthread.php?t=582
[REMIT2INDIA IS TOP ONLINE MONEY PORTAL FOR NRIS
Remit2india.com is the number one online money transfer portal for NRIs, an independent study conducted by ACNielsen ORG Marg India has shown.
The portal has scored over its competitors across parameters, including geographical coverage, pricing, payment and delivery options and product innovations. Remit2India operates across 31 countries, including the US, Europe, Canada and Australia.
With a market of $23 billioin annually and a growing Indian diaspora of over 20m across the globe, Remit2India has emerged number one in this segment.
“Nothing is perhaps more flattering for a company than having been adjudged the world’s number one service in its arena,†said Vineet Jain, MD, Times Group. “I am immensely proud that our company, Remit2India, has in such a short span achieved what we envisioned at its inception, and has emerged as the undisputed leader and the preferred choice of thousands of NRIs.
It was a path-blazing trail that we have treaded all along, courting innovative courses and challenges in a fiercely competitive industry,†added Jain.
Remit2India has the distinction of having the widest delivery network in India. It enables direct credits into beneficiary’s account across 6,000 towns and enables ATM withdrawals across 15,000 Visa ATMs with the remittance card facility. ]
And apart from this remit2india check out all the points which NRI’s are creating before starting their first remittance. like:
a) How much does it cost to transfer the funds?
b) Can I negotiate on exchange rate?
c) How fast can it transfer funds to India?
d) Does it provide an online portal so that I don’t waste time running between banks? How good are the features on the portal? etc..
so i strongly believe in quality of work and which many NRI’s found in this service..
I am not agree! thousands of NRI’s are using remit2india as we know this is far better than any other services that we have used so far. I am regularly transmitting my fund since 11 months and every time i enjoyed a quality of service. my parents are also happy wid home delivery of money. with their online tracking service we are able to track our funds online and wat else you need?? i am much happy wid remit2india service and recommended to all my friends..
Hey guys spoke to same girl janhavi with some online accnt problems, she sd will call in 10 mins and never called. Good goin Remi2india. I always use icici money transfer service but since they came up with sme Rs 25 fees for all transaction thought would try remit2india which was my first money transfer service.
Well looks like with this kind of service i will go bck to icici even with Rs 25 hike.
BTW got some good positive feed backs from citinri accnts might try tht.
Have fun guys
Guys, I’ve just been staying away from R2M. Money2I is much better. i recently did another transfer and there was a slight problem (not their mistake), but it got sorted out real quickly. At least there was someone INTELLIGENTLY responding to my queries and not spitting out boiler-plate drivel!
Incidentally I have also used Indiatimes Hosting for one of my sites and have had the same experience. The DNS service is often down bringing down the whole site, and the only thing that works is calling their support in Hyderabad! No point using the support email ID!
ALL THE GOOD MESSAGES FOR REMIT2INDIA HAS BEEN BLOGGED BY THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES
the most simple way to send money is demand drat by any banks
it is the most safest way to transfer money
BAD BAD BAD R2I.
Its really a disappointing service provider. It took about 11 business days for my money to get transferred to Indian account. Its ABSOLUTELY hopeless!
My strong feeling is do not use remit2india for remittance.I had bad experience with them and still not resolved.
Its really bad thing and I initiated my transaction two months ago and still not delivered and I am suffering lot.
guys i don’t want you to be faced same kind of experience.
please do not use the R2I and go for M2I
I have used remit2india twice this past month and the transactions are up to par, they have delivered what they promised. Previously I used ICICI (I ham a banking customer of ICICI for the past five years) and have been disappointed by their service. They give the worst exchange rates, transaction takes too long to complete, and their customer service stinks! I do not intend to return to ICICI’s transfer funds service again!
I found a lot of conflicting reviews for remit2india vs ICICI, so I decided to carry out an experiment. I transferred the same amount (USD 1005) on the same day using ICICI and remit2india to my acount in india.
Both services debited my acount on the same day and put the money in my indian acount the same day (after 5 business days)
BUT – ICICI gave me an excahnge rate of 42.50 while remit2india paid 42.27!!! and this when the dollar was hanging at the 43.20 mark!
MORAL OF THE STORY: everybody will rip you off when you try sending money back home. Its just that remit2india are bigger cheats than the rest.
If you dont trust my judgement try a similar experiment with all the services.
I feel that the simplest way to transfer money now is a wire transfer. all these free services are a sham
email: apurv[dot]awasthi1984[at]gmail[dot]com
My experience has been that ICICI rates are worse than R2I. But my main problem with R2I (and from what I have read, for others too) it is the unreliability and lack of proper support in receiving the money. ICICI seems to be better of there. As regards poor exchange rates, you’re absolutely right the rates would be worse than “market” rates but then that’s how they make their money. Wire transfer may give you better rates but will have higher charges (esp when transferring small amounts), and is more of a pain. Online is so much easier.
THANX GUYS OF GIVING ME REVIEWS ABOUT REMIT2INDIA TRANSFER….I THINK I AM SAVED WITH THE HORRIBLE NIGTHMARES…..THANX AGAIN……
Horrible experience with Remit2India, I lost my money.
I will go for remit2india, recently they introduced “my exchange rates service” which lets you to choose the value of rupee and they will send your transaction on the day when your chosen value is equal to that days rates isn’t it great? now we wont loose any cents..
I have been using it for 2 Years now. Until now, I have had no problems except that the exchange rate is not exactly the same as when we do the transfer, unless we use Rupee Express. Also there are some hidden charges, I believe for the DD. I am surprised by the reviews and little bit afraid now …
No need to get afraid, its just a miscommunication problem. even i have found many people who are saying rubbish things about many companies on the basis of their first experience but they are not always right sometimes people hide their own mistakes , blaiming others. i am using icici as well as remit2india and happy with both services ( reason to use both is ups and down in exchange rates, whichever is better i using it). remit2india also started my exchange rates service (havent tried yet) and their quality of work is also nice
DONT SEND MONEY OVERSEAS USING http://www.remit2india.com because next time you wouldn’t even know if your money would reach to your loved ones. This company does nothing else except for promising to give better exchange rates and advertise crap on their website.
To add to the poor services of Remit2india,they have some guys to call you on the phone every once in a while to ask if we want to send money -blah blah blah.I have finally changed my number to random number in my profile.
To sum up.My experience with remit2india and money2india for the past few years are as follows.
Remit to India- marginally better exchange rates(but atlest a few cents less than what they publised in their website),delivers late ,poor customer support and telephonic nuisance.
Money to india -marginally less exchange rates,marginally if not equal delivery time to r2i,no telephonic nuisance.No comments about Customer Support.
I normally prefer to take advantage of the maximum limit during travel to India and convert thru my banks agency which gives better rates than the bank.
would be grateful …anybody knows how to reach customer support of R2I as i have not got any headway with emails.
Hi,
I suggest NOT TO USE Remit2India.
I have been using Remit2India for almost 2 years and suggested to many people who came to US through the Company where I am working and friends too.
I had 2 big incidents where I lost confidence and hope on Remit2India. So before getting into my story, I suggest NRI’s NOT TO USE Remit2India.
I have initiated 2 Transactions to my regular beneficiaries in India on 4th August and status was changed to “Money Transferred” on 8th August. But today August 22nd, till now Money was not credited to my beneficiaries back home in India. I used Remit2India to pay my House EMI due on 12th of every month. Now they are charging Rs.300/- every day as Late fee and lost money and peace. Bank started Issuing notices. Never I was defaulter.
When I tried to reach Customer Service from 12th onwards, it is horrible and so pathetic that they are asking me to send mail to info@remit2india.com and spoke to almost every one who works during night shifts.
They are trained to speak lies to Customer and the started asking me contact my beneficiaries and their bank.
They do have standard dialogue as” We have raised this Issue to the concerned department and they are working on this. We will reply as soon as we get reply from them”. They do not have courtesy to reply or follow up after 24 / 48 / 72 hours after the Issue raised.
REMIT2INDIA is a FRAUD and FROGERY COMPANY. Their strategy to dupe customers is very easy. I have understood how they work. This is how they do it. They project a conversion rate on their website for the current day which is very alluring say around 44.1 when the current market rate is 44.3. They also mention their policy that the actual conversion rate will be only as per the day of the transfer which is around 3-4 days after the online transfer you make. So I was observing the exchange rates they project on their website very carefully all through the 5 days since I make the transfer. They never showed it below 44.1. Now when I receive confirmation that my money has been transferred, I do the calculations and see that it has been converted at the rate of 43.1. Now when I mail them asking an explanation on this, they simply reply, “Sir, as per our policy the rate is as the rate our company offers on the date of actual transaction”. When I mention that the rate you offered on your website on the date of my actual transaction is 44.1, they do not reply. THIS COMPANY REMIT2INDIA IS FRAUD!!!. Try it and observe the way I did. You will notice. THEY SIMPLY DUPE CUSTOMERS PROJECTING HIGH RATES ON THEIR WEBSITE BUT THE ACTUALY RATE THEY CONVERT IS WAY LOW. BEWARE OF THESE THIEVES!!!.
Remit 2 India are the biggest FRAUD company the biggest cheaters duping people our own country people shame for this company run by the Times group> They have the most ineffecient persons as relationship officers who do not know how to speak to customers and worse than the relationship officers are the main managers .Please do not send money through REMIT TO INDIA and repent later they eat up your hard earned money they have no proper information on their website.Do not wait for the day till you get cheated my personal experience i have had they drove me crazy and did not deposit my money for months till they got a great exchange rate.
soon u can remit direct to an atm without a card from your account or card in 60seconds fully automated with a fixed 3% exchange rate plus the atm cost
called m2cash
Well, if you guys are looking at transfering money from UK then I suggest that you try Barclays Online Money Transfer. The service is prompt, there is no fee and credits in a day. The exchange rates are better than both Money2India and Remit2India.
Cheers,
Remit2india.com is not reliable to send money to India. They are not giving the exchange rate the one that they are advertising on their web site. In my case I booked to Transfer US $11001 on 30th Oct 2008 they said I will get exchange rate of 31stOCT2008 at 7:15 IST. The rate they published on that day was 49.32 INR/1 US$. I also checked the rate on xe.com on that day and it was almost same(49.36 INR/1 US$).
But in actual I got remittance was 46.56 INR/1 US$ which is ~7% less than what I suppose to get. This 46.56 is never before and after the at least 30 days the transaction I booked.
Moreover, they are calling me at least twice every day and playing their advertisement by means of automated call. Sucking calls after that bad service. They are not just fooling people but also giving harassment by means of automated advertisement calls.
its funny that there has been no official response by remit2india. i guess thier silence confirms the fears that the people here have shared! If anyone from remit2india is reading this – i suggest you respond to the posts as someone from remit2india and attempt to sort people’s issues offline – afterwihich you could then document the same here. what say?
From Remit2India
To our NRI customers who are facing an issue that has been unresolved within the stipulated time, we request you to write to us at grievances@timesofmoney.com. We do apologize for any issues that you may have faced and are committed to address the same at the earliest.
Please include your name, email id, landline & mobile number & we ensure that a senior representative will get in touch with you within 24 working hours of your email & work towards addressing the issue to your satisfaction. Also, to be able to respond to & resolve your issue & to prevent some of the posts being misused, we encourage you to write to us at the above mentioned id with all the details mentioned.
We appreciate your need for an explanation and we are keen to help you with the same.
Thanking you for your co-operation.
I have been a user of Money2India for a long time now, the service is just ok, however I have never got the exchange rate that the site shows. Its always lower than what they list. When I call them up, they always say that is the exchange rate that was applied when it was transferred. They have been consistent in giving lower rates than what they show and I am really tired now. I have monitored the rate closely and argued with them but no use.
Hi,
I got duped by Remit2India
I have used them many times and every time they convert money they have some stupid reason for rate fluctuation.
This time the rate was same for 3 days but still they gave me less rate.
I think we should do a complaint in consumer court
File as many complain as you can on FTC.gov or BBB.com, Their website really sucks and it falls short of what they need for financial transactions, I also have read the bad reviews at mouthshut.com which are true. They also are not cooperative with removing your personal information or bank account information which could be harmful. The same posting by remit2india staff is also on that site (mouthshut.com) but there is actually no customer support who can help. This is how they do their business! even if you do get to talk to someone they can not help with anything, “sorry, I can not do that from here, please send an email to info@remit2india.com“, which is total BS, dont forget to file your complain to FTC regarding the malpractice of exploiting the exchange rate, this is serious offense!
Remit2Inida is useless. Takes 5 days for them to even begin doing anything only after you send a complaint. They don’t even reply, but rather get off their sorry rear end to start doing something. I have sent over doezen transfers through Xoom with zero complaints. Poor website + pathetic service. benefits one to stay away from this crap remitting service. My recommendation – AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Remit2India are CHEATS!!! Those who say they have been happy with them must be illiterate. Remit2India is not transparent about fees they charge and exchange rate they are paying. It is a financial transaction and I got hit with a fees equivalent of $8 or an exchange rate of rupee 48 when teh exchange rate never dropped below rupees fify. I have used XOOM over a dozen times in the past with full disclosure of the rate, fees etc and each time the transfer took 3 to 4 days. With Remit2India, they didn’t even begin the transaction till the 6th day. Over 10 days later, the transaction is still in process. Remit2India needs to go out of business as tehy are outright unethical. You can write as much as you want to grievances, the fact their mode of operation still remains unethical, this is a hopless company to do business with.
I found this site along with few others while searching for online money transfer service from US…it amazingly surprised me to see so many bad reviews bout this service..i stopped myself but realized that ppl are still using them and falling victims of their poor service…thats y i compiled all the gr8 places including ‘chordsoflife.wordpress.com’ revealing the truth bout remit2india.com in my blog.
R2I is a cheat. They do not disclose the exchange rate and transfer fee applied for the transaction. They just shows the total ammout converted. Once we do maths to try to understand the exchange rate, we get a shock. I asked myself how can i get such a conversion rate when the conversion rate never touched that level on r2i site? For a euro i get about 0.50 rs less per euro in conversion rate (wrt published indicative rate on m2i, even after considering the transaction fee. ) .
I will call them cheaters as they keep the conversion maths hidden to make additional hidden profit.
Hey thank you all guys, I was about to transfer money using R2I or any other method..but I think best way is to make a bank SWIFT transfer..its the safest the money will not get lost…all right one pays for the safety but i think safety is utmost important..if u loose ur money or make endless calls to track ur money its worth a shit…better to send safely and have a nice sleep…yes the bank charges but compare it to the tension if the money gets lost…though very few people have lost it ( but lost ) its worth thinking that all these services are an eye wash..and remember that India is one of the most corrupt countries in world..be wise send by SWIFT..saving a few dollars could be suicidal…