In the ancient days of the Internet circa 1995, logging on to websites was something like this: one clicked to log on, then took the dog out to let him irrigate the countryside, came back to find the right windows open, entered one’s ID and password, clicked again, ordered a pizza, found the home page opening, took pizza delivery and then settled down to surf or write mail or whatever one did in those days between bites of pizza, burps and curses at the speed of the net...well, you get the picture.
As the camera pans on 2005, Rajiv Gandhi’s 21st century has dawned and high-speed fat pipes are the order of the day with download speeds of 128 kbps and above the norm. Even dial-up connections canter along quite nicely.
So, why then is ICICIdirect still stuck in the rut of last century’s legacy? To clarify, on most days when the market is buzzing and you need to buy/sell or simply gloat or despair as the case may be over your portfolio, you can’t even get to the home page, leave alone transact.
The country’s leading private sector bank that’s given a complex to the entire banking community seems to be dragging its feet on investing to scale up the trading site’s back end.
Strange, when it should be setting new records in terms of volumes transacted and brokerage earned. Instead, one keeps getting feeble pop-up apologies about some technical glitch or systems upgrade or whatever: and an apology of an upgrade it is, since it’s about as dependable as it was before.
On the other hand, the site itself is not bad: easy to navigate (when you can!), packed with information, updated regularly and offering alerts on market developments, etc.
However, imagine when you discover the sweet spot to sell a few shares and make a few rupees, the damn site is inaccessible. Sure, they’ve got phone back-up, but getting through is a pain in the wrong place and if you do, after long hours of trying, remember that the call is chargeable. By the time you can reach the sell button, the stock has slid and with it your hopes!
The trouble with ICICIdirect is the basic infrastructure that they obviously hadn’t geared for more than maybe a few thousand trades at a given point. Well, who doesn’t make mistakes? But then, when you’re sitting on tons of cash and straddling rivers of cash-flow, why can’t you set it right and quickly at that? I’m sure they have no excuse with all the resources in terms of people and all the money at their command.
Wake up ICICIdirect before your name is mud and your customers have crossed over to the competition.
To my friends on mouthshut and their friends too, do NOT choose ICICIdirect, at least until they’ve fixed this issue. And then too, shop around for other brokers who will probably charge a lower brokerage!