"One of our most valuable assets is our reputation for integrity, professionalism and fairness."
"We must strive to foster a culture of honesty and accountability."
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- excerpts from ICICI code of Business Conduct and Ethics
I have undergone massive stress due to ICICI, and to-date I have not hated anything as bad as I now hate ICICI. They are making me run for my own money (a sum of INR 9 Lacs), and for no fault of mine. The below letter that I am going to submit to the Bank may give you a partial feeling of how much I detest this BANK!
And yes, please evaluate the opening quote taken directly from the ICICI’s code.
As for me, I am neither going to continue with ICICI, nor going to enter into any financial transactions with any persons/organizations unless they have a non-ICICI alternative. I further pledge that I will protect the interest of millions of innocent and helpless Indians by informing them of the ICICI’s code of conduct. Remember that we, the people posting/reading here, are among the ones having the priviledge of information. I wonder how much a common man can suffer due to this highly ethical Bank.
To,
The Manager,
ICICI - Hiranandani (Powai) Branch
Subject- Recovery of the money (INR 9, 00, 000) that was deduced from my saving account for the purpose of fixed deposit in my name, but the fixed deposit account was never opened.
A few days ago I was contacted by the ICICI sales querying whether I would be interested in a fixed deposit. I had spare INR 9, 00, 000 with me, and so I thought of opening an FD account. An ICICI representative promptly came to my home in the evening of 8th March-2008 and collected the cheque of INR 9, 00, 000 (cheque number 778981), and the money was deducted from my account on the 11th March 2008.
When I did not receive any details for the Fixed Deposit (FD) account, I inquired at the Powai branch and through the phone banking, and after a lot of struggle learned that due to some problems, my FD account has not been opened and that I am required to visit the Ford branch to sort out the matter. Because travelling to Ford is very inconvenient for me and because in this matter the entire fault is of the Bank, as I did exactly what the executive who collected the cheque asked, I wrote to customer care that I cannot travel to Ford. In reply, the customer service officer, Radhika J, asked me to visit any ICICI branch along with a claim letter (I have attached a print-out of the email). And so, I visited the Hiranandani branch on 24th March 2008 and explained the situation. The executive, __________________, told me that she will sort out the matter and would call me by the evening of 24th March. But as I anticipated, she never called back.
Needless to say, I am astonished. As I searched on the internet and discussed with people, I could find innumerous instances of innocent customers being tortured and neglected by ICICI (including my father who is struggling to get back the money he put in for an IPO). I can also remember the popular incidence, in which ICICI used goons and unsocial elements to recover its money from a customer who defaulted on a personal loan, even when the amount was only INR 50, 000. And here is a case, when I was contacted by ICICI to open the FD account, and I did exactly what I was told, the money was promptly deducted from my account and is being used by ICICI, and now I have to run helplessly to the indifferent ICICI executives to recover my own INR 9, 00, 000, forget any interest amount.
While I cannot use the muscle power that your esteemed bank can, I am by no means ready to suffer the way innumerous innocent and helpless Indians do. I demand that the Bank not only resolve this matter, but also answer the following questions:
(1) Why wasn’t I informed of the problem? Why is it that I have to dig this out taking so much of trouble?
(2) If there were any omissions in the required information, who is responsible?
(3) Given that my FD account has not been created, why didn’t you reverse the cheque? Why are you using my money?
(4) Why is this matter so difficult to resolve that it is taking so much time on your behalf to sort out the matter?
Kindly acknowledge the receipt of this letter.
Hoping an action,
M******* S******
(Customer Id: 5054****; Saving account number 62840150***9)