ICICI Home Finance: Glossy ads, but third rate customer service!!
Its really amazing that ICICI, thanks to its high profile advertising, has managed to substantially beef up its loan portfolios. But it comes an absolute cropper when it comes to customer satisfaction and more importantly, customer relations - a glaring fact brought out by the number of adverse comments with reference to its products and services, that continue to be registered on Mouthshut.com.
I would like to share the bitter experience that I had with their Home Finance section recently. Around the second week of June, I got a call from the collection department of ICICI situated somewhere in Mahalaxmi or Worli (Tel.no.24949723), from a lady, saying that my post-dated EMI cheques from July, 2003 onwards were yet to be received by them, so could they send their person over to my office to collect them? I was a bit flummoxed, so I asked for two days time and told her to send the person on the third day.
That evening on reaching home, I rummaged through my housing finance file and located the copies of my letter dated 21st January, 2003 which stated that I had sent the relevant cheques on that very day, to ICICI’s Head Office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. I had couriered the letter and post-dated cheques, and had asked for an acknowledgement, which till date I had not received! I made copies of the same and handed them over to the ICICI representative, with a request to his superior to call me back . The call never came, and so I had to call them up. I called almost everyday for a week, and I was told that they were looking into the matter and would get back to me. I gave them my mobile number to expedite the matter. But everytime, it was me who ended up calling them, only to be met with the standard reply that they were still finding out, and they would get back to me on my mobile number. But they never got back! After returning to Mumbai from out of town on 3rd of July, I called them up yet again, because my post-dated cheques were to banked on the 7th of every month and I did not want to be termed a defaulter for no fault of mine! Again the standard reply, but this time with an addition, ’’Please wait till Monday, and we will definitely revert..’ As usual, there was no call, so meantime I started calling the ICICI Home Finance Head Office, which had shifted to a new office in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, with new telephone nos:56769147/56769149 and 56769004. As and when I was lucky to get through, a new voice would come on the line- I was made to repeat my travails in its entirety- a promise of reverting to me on my mobile would be made, and the call would end. But there was no call back.
I then called the ICICI office at 24949723 and the person on the line informed me that there was no sign of my PDCs and that I should issue a fresh set of cheques. I banged the phone in disgust and then kept calling the Head office numbers.The smart asses have a caller id facility, and after a period they just stopped taking my calls as they could recognize my office and mobile numbers.So on the 17th of July, I left office early and went to the Home Finance Head office.The receptionist took down my details and asked me to wait for ten minutes, as the person whom I was to meet was busy with some clients.As I went and sat in the reception area, through the glass doors, I could see that there was nobody seated in front of him and he was on the phone - so I barged inside and what do I hear? He is telling the other person on the line to check whether my PDCs have been received, and to look for them in such and such places!So it took my personal visit to galvanise them into action!After being made to sit for about half an hour, the person returned with a sheepish grin, holding my PDCs in his hands!
Imagine, the PDCs that I had couriered on 21st January, 2003, were fished out, literally out of nowhere, as if by magic, on 17th of July, 2003!While all this was going on, on my adjoining table sat one Mr.Sugathan, with a very agitated look.I asked him what was the matter, and he blew up saying that although his bank passbook had an entry of crediting his EMI cheque for the month of March, 2003, the officials at ICICI Home were insisting that his cheque had bounced and that he should issue a fresh cheque!I told him to take heart - even I had gone through that same exercise at ICICI Home a couple of years back! Only, that my cheque had not bounced, but they said that I had not paid two instalments - an issue which was settled after producing a photocopy of my bank passbook showing the relevant entries!
And the crowning glory, if one were permitted to use the term, was when I heard one of the officials tell his colleague that there are 30 cases such as mine -misplaced/lost PDCs!
I pity all those 30 persons who sooner or later will have to face the same music that I had to. As I left the premises, Mr.Sugathan said that he had told all his friends - never to take loans from ICICI. I told him that I second him, and will advise all my friends similarly.
I sincerely wish that Mouthshut forwards all the complaints against ICICI to its CMD Mr.Kamath, and asks him to look into them. Mr.Kamath and his senior management should be made to realize the non-existence of good customer relations. High powered advertising will bring you customers in droves, but you can be dead sure that nobody, just nobody, will venture into an ICICI premises a second time after getting the kind of treatment that is meted out. It is a place where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing!!!