‘No money was deducted, recon issue’: Groww responds to backlash after ‘investment error’ 

Investment platform Groww, in a fresh response, amid backlash for deducting money from an investor’s account but not really investing it, has said that no money was deducted from the customer. Groww landed in the soup after a social media user alleged that the company deducted money and never invested but generated a “false folio number”. 

Initially Groww responded and said that it had refunded the amount “to ensure that the investor doesn’t get anxious about the claimed amount” and in good faith. In a follow-up response, it clarified that the amount was never deducted. 

“A Groww customer reported on June 19, 2024 that she was unable to redeem a mutual fund investment. Upon investigation we found that the customer’s account was showing an incorrect investment due to a recon issue. The customer never made this investment, and no money was deducted from her bank account. We deeply regret the reporting error and have resolved the issue,” it said. 

A relative of the customer in question took to social media to share the incident. The user said that his sister invested in Parag Parikh Mutual Fund back in 2020 through the Groww app. The transaction was successful and they received a folio number too, after which the app reflected the current amount, growth and other details. The user said that they eventually decided to withdraw the amount but were unable to do so. Upon checking with Parag Parikh Mutual Fund directly, they found that no investment of such details were made. The folio number too did not exist.

The user also complained of the Groww customer services executives of being arrogant. He said they, nevertheless, assured them of redeeming the amount. “Then they asked for CAMS sheet from us to help debug the issue,” he said, adding that since they never invested the money, they just refreshed the details with CAMS and removed the folio details saying that the issue was resolved. He accused them of wiping the details of the investment clean.

Groww responded to the post and said that no transaction took place and the money was never deducted.

The user, however, updated that upon clarifying with the Groww team, the company accepted that they made a mistake and created an invalid entry, thereby creating a wrong folio number. Groww decided to refund the amount, he said, but asked them to remove the social media post.

“To ensure that the investor doesn’t get anxious about the claimed amount, we have credited it to the investor on good faith basis. We have also asked the investor to provide the bank statement evidencing the debit of the said amount, claimed to have been invested. This will facilitate our scrutiny, as well as that of our regulators, of the claimed investment in question,” said Groww.