Dear Members,
I am presenting below the mail I have shot to my account manager (though I don’t know who is that holy angel is) through their Internet Banking System. Am yet to receive the reply. Will update you as soon as I get one. Time and again I am astonished at their apathy and utter contempt towards the very customers they are supposed to serve.
Now for the mail.
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Hi,
I issued 2 cheques from my ICICI Powerpay account expecting my salary credit. Since the salary credit didn’t happen on the said date, I went and deposited cash into my account for the shortfall amount, through your Anna Salai Branch (in Karumuttu Centre). I deposited the amount through the teller by around 10:10 a.m. on Monday (6-Oct-2003).
When I checked the balance in ATM (located inside the same branch’s premises) at around 10:30 a.m., I found the deposited amount is not reflecting in the balance. When I enquired with the branch’s staff, they said it normally takes 20 to 30 minutes for the transaction to get cleared and reflect in the balance. Amusing On-line systems.
But when I checked again (thru netbanking) at 12:20 p.m., the balance was still the same and I called the Anna Salai branch. The staff listened to my plight and put me on hold for 5 minutes. Finally she came back and announced to me that the entry is cleared now(!!!!) and I could see the updated balance online within 5 minutes from thereon. But nothing happened till 1:30 p.m.
I really fail to understand how a deposit made through hard-cash can take more than 3 hours to be reflected in my account balance with all your so-called online systems. I don’t know if the cheques (that I have issued) were dishonoured when presented for payment during this intervening period (from the time I deposited the cash till the time it reflected in the balance). I expect ICICI bank to take the full responsibility for any dishonouring of cheque citing reasons in line of funds in-sufficiency. I also expect ICICI to compensate me for any financial charges (or legal proceedings) that I may have to face from my cheque payees.
I don’t expect your regular ’apologies’ or ’regrets’, but a honest introspection of your customer service and care. Also train your helpdesk angels to first listen and then deliver their sermons. As soon as I call your helpdesk, the angel started blabbering that my cheques will not be dishonoured since the my account balance is sufficient. I have to literally shout down her to make her listen the actual problem of delay in reflecting the updated account balance.
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End of the mail.
Friends, I also received the most absurd reply, when I called my home branch (where I hold my Powerpay account) today. When I asked the bank executive (probably executing the customers for no fault of theirs) whether the cheque that I mentioned in my mail has been presented for the payment, she fumbled with the system for sometime and told me that since she don’t know which menu (in the software) to be used to find the answer for my query. I was at loss of words and before I could respond the line got cut.
With all these customer brickbats, I wonder how is that the CEO of ICICI is hailed as the most techno-savvy. Shame on this bank.
Follow Up:
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Dear Friends,
This bank never stops to surprise its customers by being consistent in providing its crappy customer service. I had a fresh set of experience today (8-Oct-2003) involving the same branch. As usual, I am providing the text of the mail I have shot to the angel called Account Manager.
Now for the mail.
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Hi,
I went to withdraw cash from the ATM located in your Anna Salai (Chennai) branch on 8-Oct-2003. Due to some technical snag relating to some switch problem in your ATM, I was not able to withdraw cash. When I approached your branch’s staff requesting a withdrawal form or blank cheque. The curt reply was it is the bank’s policy is that I (a customer) can withdraw only either using my own cheque or only through ATM. Do you expect me to carry the cheque book always anticipating your ATM failures? Do you recognize that this tantamounts to you (the BANK) denying to pay me my own cash from my own account?
After much of argument, branch’s cash officer asked me to meet the operations manager who gave a stupidest suggestion of trying my luck with some other ATM of ICICI. What do you guys really think about the customers? A Moron? And the way he spoke and behaved in a way that conveyed a message that he thinks of me as an unintelligent alien. All the time he listened and spoke to me, he was only looking into the computer terminal trying to pull mails (not relating to my problem). It clearly suggested that he is least interested in setting the things right.
Finally he acceded to give a loose cheque, but only after I should give a requisition letter...!!! I was drained of my energy by that time so simply wrote that damned requisition letter.
The whole exercise took me one and half hours (for a regular 5 minutes job), which makes it a very bitter for me with ICICI time and again.
I presume you are taking the customers for granted and reserve this kind of shitty treatment only to customers in India and not to the patrons of your newly opened branches in foreign locales. If not, I fervently wish you are in a terrible surprise.
And just to remind you, Am yet to get your reply on my previous mail to you dated 6-Oct-2003. So much for bank’s commitment in replying to its customer within 48 hours.
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End of the mail.
Over to you folks....