Like many other people, my experience at ICICI bank has been a real bitter experience. Very first good points are, their customer care people are polite. Bad thing is they totally lack knowledge about their banking product. I had to open an account to operate my export business, believe me 3 customer care people told me different rates and different time to clear the check. The amount varied from rupee 150 to rupee 750 per check and the time varied from 2 weeks to 3 months. So I dropped the idea of operating my business at ICICI Bank. Instead I thought to open a private saving account. I went to Bank with all the documents written on their web-site. Their web-site says following documentation is required:
Documentation
Tier I
An introduction by an existing account holder (six months old).
OR
Tier II
Proof of identity:
Passport
Or
Letter from existing bank
Or
PAN (along with self cheque drawn on existing bank)
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So I went with my passport and cash amount plus a couple of other checks that I needed to deposit. Since I recently moved to Lucknow, I do not have any other local bank accounts, hence opening a bank account immediately was demand of the day. The lady at counter told that she will need a self drawn check as well. Anyway she was nice enough to send a representative to my house next day. The representative took all the documentation from me. After 2 days when I went to bank to deposit my checks I came to know that my account is still not active. From home I called ICICI four times and got different answers about how much time it takes to activate an account. These answers varied from 1 day to 5 days. Today is 6th day, my account is still not active. When I called to customer care yesterday, they wrote a complaint on my behalf with a promise that someone from branch will call me in next working day, of course noone has called me so far. When I call customer care now that what will happen next 2 customer care people have responded 2 different things. one responded that I must get a response within 24 hours, the other told me I will get a response in 3 days.
So to make a long story short here is a bank which took 8 days to activate the account. Banking is a business of trust. How can I trust a bank with such a lack of knowledge in banking products. I am very sure that if they are doing the same thing in giving credits/loan to public very soon the bank will be a history.
Your comments are most welcome. Generally I never write a review and specially a bad review about anyone, however this has been a real bitter experience for me. As of now I am new in this city, don’t have enough currency money in pocket (for sure tomorrow I will open another account in some good bank), have money in checks which I cannot open unless I get a bank account and this ICICI bank has already taken my 9 -10 valuable days.
EDIT:
I am editing this post after nearly 2 years. I am maintaining my account with them since last 2 years now. After initial difficulties everything worked very smotth and now I am very satisfied customer of ICICI