Questions to the DPO of BlueDart Express Courier

BlueDart is one of the respected courier agencies in India. I have used their services and have been a satisfied customer in many instances.

I am however bringing this incident to public notice for general awareness since Blue Dart has not tried to resolve my grievance and tried to hide behind technicalities to cover their suspected deficiency of service.

We are aware that many delivery persons donot make a proper attempt to locate the delivery address and report “Address Not found” or “Address changed address” etc and claim charges for their visit. This is cheating the consignor besides adversely affecting the consignee with delayed delivery. This practice is not expected of Blue Dart. I am sure that the company would vehemently deny this.

But I suspect that this happened during a recent document sent by HDFC Bank which was not delivered to me under the excuse “C’Nee shifted from the given address”.

This is a blatant lie since the consignment was addressed to me and I have not shifted from the address for several decades.

On enquiry the company stated excuses “Name was not clear, PIN Code was not proper and Bank had not given your phone number”. They washed their responsibility in the incident.

I have now raised the following questions to the DPO of Blue Dart through the customer service department.

Quote:

Please treat this as a notice under Section 43A of ITA 2000 read with DPDPA 2023. I am exercising my right to seek information from you as a data fiduciary. This complaint may be forwarded to your Data Protection officer and Grievance redressal officer under copy to me for further processing since this is no longer a simple service deficiency.

1. I want to know what was the address mentioned in the communication by HDFC Bank to you and why you accepted delivery without the contact phone number of the consignee?

2. In my conversation with your representative I was told that the name was mentioned as “Nagaraj” and the PIN code was not “560050”. My full name was Vijayashankar Nagarajarao and no sane person truncates it to only “Nagaraj”. My address is No 37, “Ujvala”, 20th Main, BSK first stage Bangalore 560050. Since you have mentioned that the “C’Nee Shifted From The Given Address”, I have already informed you that this is a “False Statement”. Please show me cause why I should not presume that you have not made an attempt to deliver the document and returned it to the Bank charging them for the consignment. Will this not amount to “Cheating” the Bank.

3. Since you have mentioned that I have “Shifted” from “a” address, please let me know which is the address which was on the delivery list?

4. Your representative said that my phone number was not given by the Bank. Please let me know why you accepted the consignment with incomplete information?

5. I am aware that normally you collect the phone number when a document is delivered from the consignee. I presume it is for verification purpose. But is that practice only a collection of personal information for the purpose of your marketing?

6. As a result of your deficiency of service, I am not able to get the document even today. This has resulted in a possible loss of Rs 75000/- to me. Please let me know why I should not take action in a consumer court for deficiency of service?

7. I am expecting an immediate reply to this email along with the photo of the cover mentioning my address and your delivery person’s note.

8. I will be placing this complaint in public domain through www.naavi.org to increase the awareness of the public on such malpractices of couriers.

Unquote

I am not sure if I will get a reply. But I am optimistic.

I am separately taking this up with HDFC Bank also and will place that also in public domain.

This is to expose how big companies are yet to understand the impact of DPDPA on their services and what compliance measures they need to initiate.

DPDPA is not child’s play. It requires understanding and effort to comply.

The legal questions that arise here are

1. Since DPDPA 2023 will be fully implemented with its penalty sections only after 13th May 2027, is this complaint maintainable with the Adjudicator of ITA 2000 as a complaint under Section 43A read with the rules of 2011 and interpreted with DPDPA as a reasonable security practice and expected due diligence

2. How this incident represents the right of a data principal under sections 11,12,13 of DPDPA 2023?

3. What is the status of Blue Dart?…Is it a Data Fiduciary ? or Is it a Data Processor?. If it is a “Data Processor”, ,is it obliged to present the instructions of the Data fiduciary such as the address given to them in the above case?

4. Will this complaint sustain in a Consumer Court as “Deficiency of Service”?

It is time we learn from such mistakes…..Your comments are welcome

Naavi