Work load keeps increasing

Many thanks to so many of you for the kind advice on how to handle my increasing workload.

But, it is not that simple when one is a writer and unofficial legal advisor.

I presently have four books under preparation, and each requires that I suffer no writer's block.

The first book is the Coffee Table Book of Cake Designs, called "Edible Art" by Annikki.



The fact that we very successfully did the Coffee Table Book for our Mumbai Cathedral School 59ers 50th Year Reunion, (ruined by the ICICI Bank with no remorse, of course) has only driven Annikki to complain that I have not given enough thought and put in enough effort to complete her book. That is true, as all of the work is on my table, Annikki having done her part in producing those fantastic cake designs over the last 25 years.



The second book, a real life story called "Last Will and Testament" will be on hold so long as some of my older relatives in India are still alive. I have completed this book. Recent developments only helped confirm my suspicions. Now I have the required proof of the misdeeds of the people concerned. But this book is on hold, although I continue to work on it at regular intervals.

Oulu "Lawyer" Kari Kantakoski outside the house
he has illegally appropriated for himself!

The third book called "Inheritance Nightmare" is another thriller real life story of the degree of corruption prevalent in Finnish Society. Although the original manuscript was ready many weeks ago, new facts keep coming to light which makes it mandatory for me to update the chapters till I am sure that I will not have to change it again for a couple of years. It shows the handiwork of a Finnish Master Conman working through the corrupt Finnish System!



The fourth book, which handles the ineffciency and incompetence of Banks in India, primarily with Annikki and my recent experience with the ICICI Bank, was originally just going to be a letter or web page.

But the grossness of their actions and their inability to take responsibility, plus a whole lot of new evidence which came to me through the internet and also by contact with persons who have had the horror of dealing with this bank, made us change it from the internet / letter idea, to a full fledged book.

Let there be no mistake about this - if you deal with the ICICI Bank, you do so at your own risk Ask my friend "Mr. N." who was promised a Housing Loan Application to be cleared in 48 hours. It took over 3 months!

Or take the experience of someone who, because of tragic circumstances, defaulted on a loan given by ICICI Bank. The bank, in a manner chosen especially to embarrass the loan taker in front of his community, sent the collection goondas at the midnight hour, to stir up a dramatic scene and cause the embarrassed individual to lose face.

I am assured that ICICI bank is the only Indian bank that follows such a horrible degrading practice.

But all this pales into comparison with what Annikki and i experienced between October 27th 2009 and January 2010. If any person was to view the data which is now contained in the book, whose title is yet to be chosen, I think they must be real fools to keep their money in this bank.

But more fool them then us, as we have already withdrawn all our funds from the ICICI Bank!

So this book, is now raring to go, once I find an appropriate title. Any suggestions?

In addition I have one application for justice to file with the European Court, another application to be filed with the Finnish Chancellor, another application to be filed with the European Ombudsman, and several small but major litigations to handle in Finnish Courts at different levels.

Most Finnish Lawyers are untrustworthy. Their only intention is to line their own pockets. These litigations and applications, therefore, have to be done personally by me! Annikki steps in whenever a Finnish Translation is required.

So this workload can never decrease, as each day sees many more steps of work coming along the way.

Oh, to be retired!

ICICI - Untrustworthy Bank; I eat my words

This should be in a new blog - Best Buy; Worst Buy - India!

After the experiences we have had in India during the past two months, maybe it is time to start this blog!

A few weeks ago, I was in raptures about how the ICICI Bank had treated us, Annikki and me, when we went to open our NRO / NRE accounts.



When I started to use the bank, I found that their entire online, as well as regular banking system, does not work. It is in chaos.

In addition, their staff have been taught to fabricate false information and give it to their customers. Their only objective is to take the money out of the customer!

Because of this, the bank has put me into immeasurable hardship. Jobs which I had to complete before I left for Finland on 13th December cannot now be completed, causing me immense additional expenses and embarrassment, and wasting my entire time reorganising things due entirely to the incompetence and inefficiency of the ICICI Bank.

On Saturday morning, I went to the ICICI Branch in Pragati Vihar, New Delhi, to meet the Branch Operations Manager, who is also in charge of Complaints. I had already met her to discuss the problem a couple of days earlier.

She had not kept her promise of the day before.

Today she swore that the password to my account would be delivered to my residence by 8 pm, even taking the name of my caretaker, whom I had alerted especially to receive the documents.

I reached home by midnight.

No password had been delivered.

Why do people lie?

If a bank employee lies to the customer it shows the nature, not of that employee, but the policies and methods of the bank.

Not only has the bank been incompetent and inefficient, but to make its employees tell blatant falsehoods shows that the ICICI bank cannot be trusted with ANYTHING.

My advice to my international NRI audience is that the quicker you shift away from the ICICI Bank, the better it will be for you and your money.

Believe it or not, when I opened my account in the ICICI Bank, my drivers in both Bangalore and Chennai, told me that what I had done was make a very very bad decision. They could not explain why, but they had been categorical about their observation.

Now I know why!

I have had problems with many companies in my life, Finnish and Indian. Only on a few occasions have I had someone blatantly lie to me. But in this instance, it was not just once, or twice, but several times in the space of a week.

Would YOU do business with such an organisation?

Now let us get down to specifics.

Due to problems with Indian Bank, with whom I had been banking for the last 30+ years, I decided to open accounts with ICICI, a private Indian bank. Annikki and I visited their office in Bangalore, and has been recorded in another entry, they treated us like royalty and opened our accounts with no hassles.

However, I should have got warning bells at that time, as in the process, they did not give me my NRO debit card and cheque book, only my NRE debit card and cheque book.

When an NRI is in India, he or she would first like to consume the NRO account for purchases as the NRE amounts can always be repatriated or converted back to the foreign currency.

It was only when I used the debit card for the first time, I realised this problem.

At that time I had been to Chennai and Mumbai and had reached Ahmadabad.

I reported this to the branch in Ahmadabad, and I was told that these instruments had been sent to my Finnish address.

The persons I had met in Bangalore knew that I was going to be in India for two months, so what was the use of sending instruments I needed in India to Finland?

Stupidity or incompetence - please answer that yourselves.

The first few times I logged into my ICICI login account, there was no problem. However, the third time I logged in, I was told on screen that due to security problems, I had to login again using my original user ID provided by the bank and the related password.

I did so, and it was rejected, saying that I had two more attempts, after which I would be locked out.

I made one more attempt, and again it failed.

Instead on making the third attempt in isolation on my computer, I went to the local branch in Ahmadabad in Pralahad Nagar, and explained the situation. I told them I urgently needed access to my online account for several reasons.

Using the bank's computer and in the presence of two bank employees, I made the third attempt exactly as was dictated on the screen. It failed - locking me out of the account altogether.

The bank employee seemed to understand my situation and immediately placed a request for a new password, etc. . In my presence, she gave specific instructions to deliver the same to me at the nearest branch to where I would be staying in New Delhi. Golf Links near Khan market.

I was leaving for Delhi in a couple of days and things were quite desperate, as I was using my international debit cards to survive while my funds were locked away in my ICICI accounts. Foolishly, I had already transferred most of my funds in Indian Bank to the ICICI accounts. So even that avenue had been knocked out under me.

When I reached Delhi, at the first opportunity I went to the bank nearest my residence, in Pragati Vihar. The first shock I got was when the Operations Manager, who was also handling Complaints, told me that my password had been dispatched by DHL to Finland. Short of having a fit, I told her that the employee in Ahmadabad has specifically asked for the password to be sent to Delhi, in my presence.

Luckily for me, that employee in Ahmadabad had been over zealous in trying to make me make investments in ICICI Bank and in the process had given me her phone number. So, then Operation's Manager in the Pragati Vihar Branch was able to call her and determine that the instructions were specific to deliver the password to me at the Karol Road Branch.

The first question to be answered was why the instruments were being sent to Karol Bagh in North Delhi, whereas I was living in South Delhi.

Incompetence on the part of several layers of bank officers as I had specifically told them I wanted it delivered to me at the closest branch to Golf Links near Khan Market in New Delhi.

My driver, therefore, in Delhi had correctly taken me to the Pragati Vihar Branch in New Delhi, which is also next to the Regional Office of ICICI in New Delhi.

After having determined that what I was saying was correct, the Operations Manager said she would tackle this herself and would get the password immediately delivered to the Karol Road Branch. She said she would call me that evening and inform me when I could collect the same.

I have a busy schedule in Delhi and each visit to the bank takes over a hour. The lady failed to phone me that evening or the next morning, so I had to again make a personal visit to the bank on Saturday morning.

She tried to explain all the banks problems to me, which were of little interest to me, and I told her so. All I was interested in was that I received the instruments to do my work.

She made several calls, and it was obvious the bank had goofed on several fronts - the password had obviously not even been processed, so then the lying started.

This Manager told me that the password was already in Delhi with the courier company and could I collect it from the Karol Road Branch in the evening. I pointed out that being Saturday, the bank closed at 14:00 hours. She told me that the bank employees would be working till 18:30, so all I had to do was go to the bank and tell the guard, and he would let me in and I would receive my password.

At 16:30 or thereabouts she rang me and said that the instruments would be delivered to me in the evening at my residence. I told her that I had a dinner engagement and would leave by 19:30. She told me it would be delivered at 20:00 hours and so could I give her the name of the person authorised to receive it. I did so, and therefore had to change my entire afternoon and evening schedule, the programme for my car and driver, at a huge cost to me.

I got home at midnight and my caretaker told me that no one from the bank had come and delivered anything.

What does one make of this?

To me it is case of the employee of the bank telling falsehoods to cover up the total failure of the bank to meet its obligations.

My entire Indian programme has been thrown into disarray because if the incompetence and inefficiency of the bank plus the untruthfulness of employees of the bank.

We are scheduled to fly out on Sunday of next week. Payments had to be made tomy suppliers in Kottayam, Changanacherry in Kerala and to another in Bangalore. Material has to be made ready based on these payments, shipped from one place to the other so that the final product could be put together and given as a complete product next Sunday, before we fly out from India.

Now that is impossible. It is impossible for me to change my flight schedule as not one but three tickets are involved and we have obligations in Finland.

As I said, I was not interested in the problems inside the bank, just as much as I was not interested for the bank to know what my operations entail. The job of the bank is to provide me with a service they promise.

ICICI Bank has failed on every count in this instance - that is in Bangalore, Ahmadabad, New Delhi, as well as their online operations.

Who is going to tackle the responsibility. Who is going to compensate me for the immense reorganisation that I now have to undertake to ensure that this operation is completed? Who is going to apologise for the embarrassment that has been caused to me.

As I said earlier, the ICICI bank is not a bank that can be trusted. It should be struck off as a banking organisation.

I should have listened to my drivers, the common men, who knew what I was letting myself in for.

I intend to meet the ICICI Regional Manager in New Delhi on Monday and lay this out in front of him. Let us hear his explanation! Will he hear mine?

Do not hold your breath!

DNA Finland Oy continues to DEFRAUD customer

On April 6th 2008, over a month ago, I drew your attention in my Oulu Best Buy blog entry Worst Internet Service Provider - DNA to how, for over a month and a half, I was denied internet access by DNA Finland Oy by their pure incompetence and inefficiency.

Now it is May 18th 2008, and for over another month and a half, my Fixed IP, Full Rate ADSL internet connection has been running at less that 50%, and usually at below 10% of the Agreed Download rate.

You can view the entire download and upload test results from Speedtest.Net from 31st March 2008 to date 18th May 2008 on this Web page Speedtest.Net Results for IP Address 213.139.166.91

(Click on image to see the latest updated results.)


Even while I was discussing the problem and the question of refund of the huge telephone bills I had to incur in using my 56 kbps modem to keep my internet connection alive, DNA has been putting punitive costs on me for holding back a few days in paying my bills, while they have not bothered to make the refund which I extracted as a promise for thanks to Tuomas Helander, a DNA Finland Oy Oulu employee.

As DNA Finland Oy continues to defraud me, I want to know how many other of their customers is this company similarly defrauding?

The latest insult was when I went to the DNA Office in Oulu and talked to one young man who refused to give me his name.

First, he told me he could do nothing about this matter. When I was forced to raise my voice, he rang someone and said that someone would attend to my problem in 3 days, something that Leena Jokela had said would be done a week earlier and which Tuomas Helander (the only one in DNA Finland Oy Oulu Office who has made a real effort to help resolve this problem) had taken to trouble to contact the person in ELTEL who was to attend to this defect.

This young man who was totally non-co-operative when I went in with the figures showing my 8000 kpbs download connection was running at 731 kbps. He said that DNA had nothing to do with this as all aspects of online work was the responsibility of ELTEL and I should contact them.

I do not have any contract with ELTEL. My contract is with DNA Finland Oy. This young man could not get it into his thick skull that it is the responsibilty of DNA Finland Oy to get in touch with whomsoever they have entered into a contract with - NOT ME!!!!

This young man was insistent as I was living in an old house the connection was bad. He refused to see the results that on 5th April with Miikka Parikka resetting the connection a blip connection speed of 6233 kbps was seen.

When you have such ignorant and incompetent persons manning the desks in DNA, then you have this type of fraud and rape of customers taking place.

Such lack of dedication to handle a customers real problem for over 3 months seems indicative of every single person that I have talked to in DNA (except Tuomas Helander). It is also the incompetent people who refuse to give their name as they do not want their incompetence to be exposed!

The sooner this irresponsible and incompetent Internet Service Provider is punished for fraud and closed down, the better for Finland.