Every one here who has had a negative or bad experience with ICICI, I empathize with them.
I first wanted to basically trade options and went to one of their banks for the account opening through a friend’s introduction. This was in Dec 2014. They took a million signatures on about a dozen or so pages but I was impressed that everything was done in one day!
Both the ICICI bank and ICICI demat account opening sales reps were there.
That was the end of the good experience.
At the time of opening the bank account I was told the minimum quarterly balance was X amount but after about a month of opening the account, I got an email communication saying the policies have changed and now it is a minimum monthly balance and not quarterly. I thought, alright its a bank regulation issue so although a bit annoyed I took it with a pinch of salt.
I had specifically asked for an F&O account at the time of opening and clearly mentioned this to the sales rep but when I actually logged into my account, it said "you do not have this service available, please refer to details"! I thought maybe its taking time so called the call center and they said there was no application for F&O!
This was at the end of Jan 2015.about a month after first opening of my accounts.
I called my sales rep and he said I will have to apply for this F&O account. I was furious cause I had specifically said I wanted to trade F&O. He should have taken another half a million signatures at the time of opening for this. I would have been OK.
He said he will send me the application form and the form came after a about a dozen follow ups. I sent whatever documents were needed at the beginning of Mar 2015 and waited until the end of Mar. No communication from ICICI. I followed up with the sales rep and he said he sent the application form but it got rejected so he will send it again! I lost my cool. How come he did not even update me on this? Why do I need to follow up everytime? and why the heck does this process take so long whereas the bank account opening and my transfer of funds into the account was so quick.
Anyway, I waited again until about three days ago and called again. This time again the sales rep said the application needed some more signatures so he will send me the documents on email. I literally blew my lid this time. This is CRAZY .
I asked him to send the document and he said he will send it on 24 Apr 2015 as he was on sick leave. Today is the 25th Mar 2015. I still do not have the document. And of course, if I call him he will say its a Sat and he is off so he will send it on Mon. I wish I could record that conversation and post it here.
Either way, people, BEWARE OF ICICI. This is my experience and may be there are a lucky few who have had better experience with this totally unprofessional bank.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ICICI EVER.
Pass on this message to everyone you know.