Saturday, September 8, 2007

My Bad Experience with ICICI Bank

Well, I am sharing my horrible experience when dealing with ICICI bank.

I want to withdraw some good amount in cash (my own money) from some out station branch of ICICI and since their is limit in ICICI that one can not withdraw more than 50K in a day, I contacted ICICI Bank Customer care and they directed me to contact personally with the manager of the branch where I need to withdraw money. I reached to that branch and contacted manager. The manager said, you must have taken approval from your base branch before coming to him. I asked him to talk to manager of my base branch, which he tried but somehow not able to make it. Then I take the numbers and tried, but phone kept ringing. it was monday, and staff was supposed to be in office with full force and a dedication to serve the customer at their best. But it was my bad luck, I kept trying those numbers full day, but every time it kept ringing. somehow I got the direct number of manager and tried their, but story was same. Then I managed to get mobile number of manager and able to talk to him after 2 unsuccessful attempt and let manager of outstation branch talk to manager of my base branch using my cell phone in roaming (they their self not managed to talk and since i was in need, I paid for.) now both of them got clarity as how I can proceed to withdraw more money than usual limit.

The process is, the manager in outstation branch will take request from you, send an email to the manager of your base branch for approval, and once got the approval, he will release the payment.

Keeping in mind today's technology and peoples efficiency and the speed with which email can be send and received, it should not be more than 10 min job. and in worst case, when either or both are busy with their daily schedule, it should never take more than 2-3 hours. after all your customer is waiting and you are liable to serve him on time. but to the worst of my luck, I waited for 7 long hours (from 10:00 AM till 5:00 PM) and got sense that my base branch is so busy with their schedule that they don't have time to serve their customer even though they get several reminder. I tried calling, smsing, calling on desk phone but probably manager was not keen to serve so didn't picked my call after 2-3 conversation in the morning.

Also, since it is a money matter and I was running out of time, as my other promises getting false, I opted to withdraw partial money as much I can, that day using ATM and withdrawal from counter, and tried to fulfill my promises, but all was not sufficient enough to even cover my half promises.

Probably it was the blessing to me that people (whom I have to fulfill my promises) came out of their way to help me settling my promises through some other alternative.

But the question remain in my mind.
Does putting a cap like this, and not allowing you to withdraw your own money whenever required is a good practice for such a big brand bank like ICICI??
Does Flexibility shown in Private Bank, (like Online Control, ATM, Anywhere Bank) is really working like that and really helping customers for their need??