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!