This is for those people who want to know that how ICICI Bank treats its customers and what happens if the cutomers are trying to get an update on a service request which is pending for 8 months. There is no fun even writing to Head Service Quality as well.
My case is 8 months long and I have been following hard to get it resolved. I had a very long relationship with the bank spanning for more than 4 years with 2 credit cards, 1 Auto Loan, 2 Personal Loans and 1 Savings Bank Account.
The bank states that it has a welcome kit which states that " ICICI Bank may, without notice, combine or consolidate the standing balance on the Card Account with any other account(s) which the Card member maintains with ICICI Bank, and set-off or transfer money standing to the credit of such other account(s) in or towards the satisfaction of the card member’s liability to ICICI Bank under his/her card account.". Now this book never came to me.
Also I never signed any paper which gives bank the right to deduct my savings bank account for 20, 000 INR which is under dispute and the matter itself is being looked into by the bank. Now the case story is that I instructed the bank in may 2008 not to allow any overlimit transactions for my ICICI Bank Credit Card.
The executive confirmed it and I payed up the dues for the month of April in which overlimit charges were levied. The executive confirmed me that these charges will be reversed in my next billing cycle. No such thing was done and later when I got the bill for the month of June 2008, there was one more overlimit charges and that was the start of closing my relationship with the bank.
And to my amazement there was not even the overlimit in the month of June. I started following up with the bank but ti no avail. I stopped making payments and instructed them to settle these transactions otherwise you will keep on carrying them and I will keep on filling the Bank’s pocket with no fault of mine.
The Bank, or I would refrain from using the word Bank, it was so called designated agencies of bank, in october send in two local goons to collect the money but the society guards accompanied them so that they cannot make any hassles. They went away stating that we will make sure that your bank account will be blocked. In the mean time I kept following up with the bank but to no avail. I had to travel to Delhi for my wife’s operation in November End.
I got her admitted in the hospital and the moment I went to bank’s atm to withdraw money for the initial deposit, my heart almost sank. My savings account had no money at all. Not even a single call from the bank that your savings bank account is being debited for this purpose. Wow thats you call up a fantastic customer service " Hum Hai Na".
I arranged the money from some of my friends and immediately deposited the money with the hospital. 2 days later I decided that I will take up the issue with the bank i.e. on Nov 26th. And since that day I have almost more than 35-40 communications with the bank but to no avail. I also tried to follow the escalation matrix but to no avail. Finally my mail got to Head Service Quality and even with them I am following up since Jan 20th but to no avail. So this is the kind of service you expect from Bank.
I do have bank accounts with other couple of Banks as well like CitiBank, SBI but never faced this type of irresponsible behaviour. They are day time robbers. I know the story is long but if I can take that much pain to write such a long incident you guys must have understood that how much pain I have gone through and have to go through.
Apart from this big time default, there has been many cases wherein bank on its own deducts for ECS Bounce which has never been authorised. Keeps the money with them for almost a month and then return backs half the amount stating that there was a mistake at their end. Who is going to pay up the interest and the reimbursement for the mental trauma which I have gone through.
The money in savings bank is kept for the purpose of safety but with ICICI be assured your money is not in safe hands. This deduction of ECS Bounce charges might have occurred with many a people and I am sure the bank has certainly invested that money in financial markets to make a merry out of that and later returned the principal amount stating that it was a mistake at their end. The only good thing about the bank is their website, rest everything needs to be aligned up.
I have already forwarded the request stating closure of all my relationships with the bank but even for that I don’t know how much I have to follow.