I have an ICICI add-on credit card issued since November 2001 and valid till November 2006. Yet sometime in the month of October 2005, when I received an offer for a new gold card from them, I decided to take it up. Wonder which mad dog had bitten me to take that decision! But oh so promptly within 48hours of my giving them the okay the card was delivered at my residence. Of course I was mighty impressed with the promptness of their action little knowing the nightmare they had in store for me. I made my first purchase in November against the new card for an approximate amount of Rs.1530/-. Subsequently one day on reaching home from work I was given a message that ICICI had called regarding non payment of bills. What non payment? What bill? I did not give it much thought, but the next week when I got a similar message I even enquired with my building security whether any mail had been misplaced and a thorough investigation revealed nothing amiss. The following week I left a message at home in case ICICI was to call to please advise them to call late evenings coz I now wanted to talk to them. Sure enough I received a call sometime beginning of December from one of their call centre executives who told me very curtly to make the payment of Rs.1530/- against usage of credit card. On telling her that I’d surely do so on receipt of the bill she promptly said, we have sent u the bill. I told her that I had not received any and would she kindly send it to me, she had the audacity to tell me that when I use my credit card I should even remember about payments! I was annoyed and I told her to just send the bill and not talk trash and I hung up. I received no bill and in the month of December I even made another purchase against the same card for an amount of approx. Rs. 1000/-. Then on January 22, 2006, I made a purchase of Rs.1200/- from Pantaloons and I was told at the payment counter that my credit card was being rejected. I was aghast! Of course the others in the queue started giving me looks as though I was a criminal and I wished the earth would open and swallow me up so embarrassed I was!
Luckily I had my other credit card with me and I could go ahead with my purchase. This other card incidentally was also an ICICI card. Now I was livid and made up mind to call them up which I promptly did the next morning. I really wonder if ICICI knows the meaning of the words Customer Care…that they don’t care is NOT the meaning of customer care..Will someone please explain that to them? After explaining for 15 minutes to some Pooja the reason for not paying was non receipt of bill…she made the same audacious statement made earlier…when you use the card you should also remember to pay. By now I was absolutely livid and asked her to get some supervisor on the line. On comes an Arti ( I wonder if these are their real names…just like a Yadav and Jadhav of MTNL..all fictitious!) online and once more I have to repeat the entire embarrassing situation faced by me in Pantaloons. Now being a supervisor of some sort she goes one step ahead of Pooja and states in a condescending tone that the card is not cancelled…only suspended. By now I was ready to pop a blood vessel…what difference did that make ..ultimately the fact of the matter is my card was rejected! But do you think she let up? Well no..but neither did I. I gave her my other credit card number and asked her to check the credit history to see if I had ever once even faulted on any payment. But she was stuck on just repeating the same thing over and over again …please make your payment and the card will be activated. Finally I asked for the manager. It was then that she told me that she would be reversing the late payment charges and that I would have to pay only for the actual purchase. But now I was adamant. I insisted that not only reverse the late payment , compensate me in some manner for the mental trauma and embarrassment. So she said okay by end of the day the manager will revert. On enquiring she told me her name was Trupti. Till date I have received no call from any Trupti or anyone else but in the meanwhile I received three bills instead, showing an outstanding payment of more than Rs. 3100/- with all interest and late payment charges intact. Contrary to what I had been told, no charges had been reversed at all. Anyway I paid ICICI only the amount due for my purchases, and subsequently have shredded the credit card to bits. Just the treatment ICICI deserves!