Recently buoyed by the stock market upswing, I decided to invest in the market through Mutual Funds. I sent my enquiry to several fund houses, on my intent to invest in their schemes. Only one fund house responded to my query. It was none other than ICICI Pru MF. They sent the advisor immediately to me and had me invest in their scheme within couple of days. To say the least, I was very much impressed with this level of service from ICICI, based on my bad experience with the ICICI group earlier(in Bank, Credit card).
So far so good, I got my folio number within a day of my investment(wow!). So impressed with this I tried to put more money in their schemes using my folio number and then started tasting their world class customer service! With folio number in hand, when I tried to invest online, their site used to say, my folio is not valid one, but their customer care center sweared by the god that the Folio is active. Anyway, this continued till 4 working days and I was able to invest further in their schemes only after 4 days from getting my Folio number.
Then, I invested in couple of their schemes and opted for Dividend Payout option. But, to my surprise in 2 of their schemes my Dividends were not paid out, but Reinvested in the scheme, even though I opted for Div Payout! When I enquired them they say in one scheme min Div amount for payout is Rs 100/-. I said fair enough. But, in other scheme the min Div payout amount as per them is Rs. 2500/- . Oh my gawd, where is this rule mentioned in their scheme information document? These points were nowhere mentioned by ICICI Pru AMC, to the prospective investor. I was pissed off, but still didn’t loose my cool, in the hope that I might get good returns in the schemes I had invested.
But, to my dismay, they cheated me in another way after couple of days later. In one of the scheme, days after I invested in it, the exit load structure was changed for the scheme and for redemptions/switch out after a month the exit load was made nil. So when the fund didn’t give proper returns or Dividends, I decided to switch to another performing scheme after 1 month and 5 days and to my dismay I was charged Exit load, as per old structure! When I asked them they say, the exit load structure is applicable only to new investors and not existing customers! What kind of logic is this?
Based on all these experiences I would say, beware of the ICICI Pru AMC, before investing. Invest at your own risk and be ready to be taken for a royal ride.