I would never ever recommend this bank to common man. Even State Bank of India is nowadays more professional than ICICI - as far as the city of Hyderabad is concerned.
If you have a salary account, then you are okay - because then you **can use the weight of your organization’s brand-name to tackle any messup by this bank - and that is exactly what I had to do to deal with this unprofessional incompetent bank.
ICICI is not a bank - it is a total mess being run by a bunch of idots - who just know how to speak broken English, and try to act oversmart with customers thinking that they are the smartest ever persons ever born on this planet.
My company (located in Hyderabad) has a tie-up with ICICI bank, and hence we are sort of forced to have our salary accounts with this bank. I was happy with my salary account, online banking as well as prepaid mobile recharge facilities offered by the bank.
The Grid debit card - that is probably one of the biggest ever messups in the history of Indian banking.
As one of my high-school teachers used to say - "Common Sense is the least common". This statement aptly applies to ICICI bank.
These idiots sent me an email sometime in 2nd week of January intimating me about the issueing of new grid debit card, and requested me to provide any changes in address if applicable. Fine - no problems. There was no update from my side.
I took a week’s leave and went to my home from March 1 to March 11 - the debit card came to my office, and it was returned. On my return, I saw an email dated Febraury 28 (minutes after I left the office) saying that my grid debit card has been dispatched to me.
I lodge a complaint saying that I was out of town and I was not informed about the debit card delivery - hence please re-dispatch it. I receive prompt response with a SR number and promise of delivering it to me within 11 days. **11 days pass - no response - another complaint - another 20 days pass - no response.
I came to know that 100s of my colleagues are also facing similar issues - some had had their card returned back 3 times as the courier guy could not trace the address - the height of unprofessionalism. My office is at such a location that even a roadside beggar can tell the address :-).
*And worse of all, whether you recieve grid card or not, the jokers have upgraded their website to accept online transactions if and only if you have the latest grid debit card. After lot of hullabaloo by several customers like me, they reverted back to old system of older debit card for online transaction.
Does it make any sense ? If they had to revert back to older system, then what was the need to introduce new grid cards ??
*Thinking from the bank’s point of view, aren’t they wasting money due to this unsystematic messy work by them ?
Well, coming back to me and my affected colleagues - they offered to issue new grid debit cards from the bank branch located in my office campus. I opted for that option - I was told that I will have to surrender my existing old debit card and then they will issue me a new grid debit card. I opted for that. **But what about the card which is stuck in post - that card had my name printed on it, and not the temporary card which is being issued in lieu of that card ?
They said - If you recieve that card, then you can get that card activated by surrendering this particular debit card.
*So, I decided to push for the debit card which had not yet reached me. A flaming email sent to escalations@icicibank.com and harshil.mehta@icicibank.com from my official email id did the trick.
So, after that email, I got an apology call (Man, that guy’s voice was literally shaking - I remember clearly :-) ) - and I got the debit card (with my name printed on it) within 5 days of recieving that call.
Thats not the end of story - my dear friends :-)
The debit card which I finally recieved by courier (and this card had my name printed on it) , had the same 16 digit number as my old debit card, which I had surrendered to the bank branch. So, the card recieved by courier is not active - it is hotlisted !!!
So, finally I have to use the debit card issued by the bank branch (this card doesn’t have my name) - the same issue is being faced by 100s of my colleagues, and ICICI bank has no answer to this - only way is to request for a fresh debit card !!!! Anyway, since the grid debit card issued by my campus branch allows me to do online transactions as well as ATM usage, so I am not too much bothered about not having my name printed on it.
I am seriously considering opening an account with any other bank so that I always have a backup to do online transactions in case of such GREAT ICICI MESSUPS in future again.