The other day I went to HDFC Bank, Koramangala branch in Bangalore to get a torn note exchanged – It was a Rs.100 note half the way torn from the middle, guess someone gave me that in between other notes and I did not notice.
I did not know which counter to go to, still going to the cash teller’s counter was the best bet. I stood in queue to get my chance to talk and when my number came I asked the lady at the counter to give me a fresh note for this torn one. I was surprised to hear what she said next. Here’s the full text of the conversation.
Me: Hi, am here to get this torn note exchanged with a good one.
Teller: Do you have an account here?
Me: No
Teller: Sorry then I cannot exchange this note.
Me: Why? Why should I have an account with your bank to get a note exchanged?
Teller: We do not exchange notes, sorry.
Me: Seriously, as a Bank you are telling me you will not exchange notes? Then who will?
Teller: Sorry we cannot do it.
Me: This is ridiculous, torn currency notes are supposed to be taken up by the Bank officials since they can get it back to RBI in exchange for better note. As a citizen of this country I should be allowed to get this note exchanged here in a bank and not told to open a bank account just to exchange a note!!
At this point in time, the man in the other teller counter barged in this conversation which was heating up and said YES we will take it!
I thanked him, gave an angry stare to the lady and moved towards this man’s counter. But his counter’s queue was too long so I had to get back in line to get this note exchanged, finally. Or so I thought.
This man again came out of his seat and started talking to the other lady, guess he was giving his piece of mind to her for creating such a scene out of nothing.
Then he asked me to come closer to the counter and told me again that they will give me a fresh note in exchange but I will have to do one more thing before that. I said, sure tell me what do I do. He asked me to put an adhesive tape at the torn part and then give it to him and he would give me a fresh note.
I felt strange about this request since I was thinking this note will anyways go to RBI’s dustbin or into a shredding machine hence appearance should not matter and that was the whole point of getting it exchanged, but then I had already wasted so much time on this matter that I wanted this to end asap. I looked around and asked a couple of people for an adhesive tape but I did not get a good response. What kind of a bank (or an office for that matter) does not keep an adhesive tape?
But then a good hearted security guard approached me and guided me towards a brown color papery/plasticy adhesive tape at one of the unmanned counters. I licked it with my tongue (that was the kind of tape it was, like a postal stamp) and then put it up on the torn part of the note covering both side. It looked pretty weird since this currency note was now brown in the middle.
Anyways, I stood in the queue (again) to get this thing done finally. My number came and I got the note exchanged in seconds (he did examine the adhesive tape though but then that was mere seconds).
Finally the job was done and I was out of the bank. It would overall 25 minutes to get this thing done with and the lesson we learn here is that BANKS WILL ACCEPT TORN NOTES AND GIVE YOU A FRESH ONE (need not be brand new one). So go ahead exchange yours.