New IPO services many a times are not listed in icicidirect to apply for subscription. The recent example is IRFC Tax free bonds which is open and many investor are investing. I called up icici direct and they gave stupid reason that its already over subscribed and you will not get subscription. The customer care, the person told that Govt of India called ICICI and said to stop new application and hence they have removed. I have my wife’s account in HDFC securities where I checked and asked how come HDFC securities is allowing Tax Free Bond application? The answer was you will not get allotment and so you should not invest. Similar thing happened for few IPO shares which they say assumed was not good and did not provide application via IPO services. Bonds can be issues on pro-rata basic by govt, but its really difficult to explain this to the person who picks up the call in customer care.
Also to add, if you are buying Mutual fund online via icici direct, they charge Rs 100/- extra. But if you are doing the same via HDFC securities, they do not charge anything for the Mutual Fund.
I am annoyed about their customer service as they do not have a process to raise case or ticket which can be latter followed for small issues. They say, please write an email and we will someone will reply. In today’s world, even with ticket or case number one does not get service with big vendors like ICICI, do you expect that someone will respond to you on email. Well, I did write an email and then reminded them again to please respond. Probably I was an active trader and so someone called me and politely spoke give the same stupid reason. All in all, very bad customer services when I compare to HDFC Securities which I also use for my wife’s account.