Blogger's 'Online Satyagrah' Against Private Bank Has Been On For 51 Days

New Delhi: It's very common to see customers today using social media as a forum to voice discontent against companies. More often than not, companies address their complaints and the issue is resolved amicably enough. Sometimes, however, the two parties can't reach a satisfactory conclusion. And that's what happened with blogger Karthik Srinivasan.

It all started on January 29 this year when Mr Karthik tweeted about HDFC Bank signing him up for a Preferred Banking Programme for which he would be charged Rs 400 per year. Mr Karthik claimed that the Virtual Relationship Management Programme that the bank signed him up for was unethically charging customers a 'nominal fee.'
 

Hey @HDFC_Bank @HDFCBank_Cares - just got this email. Why is this VRM program 'opt-out'? Shouldn't it be 'opt-in'? pic.twitter.com/rPUEWFRy7S

- Karthik (@beastoftraal) January 30, 2017

Instead of being given the option of 'opting out' of the programme, Mr Karthik wanted customers to be given the choice of opting in for the programme in the first place. You can read his full blog post here.

HDFC Bank's response did not satisfy Mr Karthik. Even though he did opt out of the programme, Mr Karthik decided to protest against what he called the unethical practice. He decided to tweet about it every single day till the end of 2017 until the bank apologized to all its customers.
 

@MystiqueWanderr Planning to. Meanwhile, plan to tweet it *every single day* till end 2017 or till @HDFC_Bank apologizes to all. @kalyansury

- Karthik (@beastoftraal) February 1, 2017

As days went on, Mr Karthik stuck to his promise and tweeted to HDFC Bank every single day.

From asking for legal help...
 

Day 31: Lawyers on my timeline: can @HDFC_Bank escape this legally using 'estoppel'? Ethics is my point, though https://t.co/LDxoYLaZVV

- Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 3, 2017

... To tweeting funny gifs, he did it all
 

Day 46: Baby = customers. Rabbit = @HDFC_Bank - why you behave like this HDFC? Please do the right thing, will you? https://t.co/ayDkFPTWWJ pic.twitter.com/nryrpeBo1C

- Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 18, 2017

His online protest gained momentum slowly as other customers started tweeting about their experience with HDFC Bank:
 

@beastoftraal @HDFC_Bank opened a DEMAT a/c after being promised that not a single penny will be charged. In 3 months, charges started (2/n)

- Anand Dureja (@ananddureja) March 22, 2017

@beastoftraal @HDFC_Bank ! 6 years after moving to USA, I am still struggling to prove my identity to them to get them to close my acc

- Manju Muralidharan (@ManjuMu) March 23, 2017

The campaign has completed 51 days today.
 

Day 51: Thank you for being so candid, @HDFC_Bank - this is THE problem! https://t.co/wt8tmq8jfv
Background: https://t.co/ayDkFQbylj pic.twitter.com/zU9nmUnm8z

- Karthik (@beastoftraal) March 23, 2017

HDFC Bank hasn't shut down the programme yet, and users are still receiving emails about it. We will have to wait and see if Mr Karthik's protest will bear any fruits.