Credit Card Customer Care is Blind and Illiterate

It is not very uncommon experience to have bad customer service when the correspondence is by means of an e-mail. However, in case of ICICI Bank's Credit Card division the customer service is worse. Looks like they are illiterate too.

We have in our possession an e-mail by one of high profile customer now working with Barclays Wealth-UK, who is frustrated and facing mental agony due to ICICI Bank's 3rd rate Quality of Service. This customer has never received a Credit Card which ICICI Bank had sent to him in 2003. Recall the Credit Card Scam in Bangalore last month ? Looks like he is a victim of such a scam.

The worst thing is ICICI bank has his e-mail address in their records but they never sent a single e-mail until 2007 informing about what has happened to the credit card nor a word about amount due on it and they have waited for 4 long years. It could be ICICI Bank's poor IT systems as well, they have a terrible system since I am a FRUSTRATED USER of ICICI Direct.

Readers check out about the Day Light Fraud ICICI Bank has committed. In very fine print, they publish that they can consolidate all of your ICICI Bank accounts. So what ICICI bank did is, they found Savings account of this victim and debited the amount due on his credit card. This is a straight forward FRAUD. You guys have to be aware of all these things as this is your hard earned money. This is the reason why I specifically give written instructions to keep the Credit Card account secluded and lonely from all other accounts.

According to VISA / Mastercard in the United States, you are not liable for any dues on your card if you have not used the card. Banks and Financial Institutions are running a lobby in India by ripping of their own customers instead of investigating cases of fraudulent activity and bringing the merchants to book where such shady activities have taken place.

We will escalate the matter if the victim is willing to co-operate and first bring this arrogant bank to book.

Holiday Shopping Offers - Debit Card

ICICI Bank has the following offers on Debit Card Purchases. Their are few people who have reported that ICICI has not honored its words, so make sure the offer is valid at the time of purchase. [I have been told the following offers are good till Dec-31st-2007]

• 5% Discount on Diamond Jewelery on ICICI Bank Debit Cards at D'damas, asmi, sangini and Nakshatra. Offer not valid on Solitaire, Diamond Engagement Ring and D'damas Gold brands.
• At Westdie if your bill is in excess of Rs 4,000 you will get Rs 200 gift voucher if you use your ICICI Bank Debit Card

Sometimes I wonder why do these banks take so much pain to make these heartless offers which are full of fine prints and terms and conditions. It is better to shop on Credit Card and keep earning regular points.

Critics on Interview with GM Customer Service

Mr. B Madhivanan is the General Manager of ICICI Bank Customer Service. He spoke to Business Line on the 5th of Nov. Excerpts and some questions to the GM.

Why are interest rates no coming down on Credit Cards ?
He quoted the same thing which I had written a month ago - Once CIBIL is fully operational it will be easier to evaluate a persons credit worthiness.

Credit Card Market and Segment Size.
At the top layer their are people who spend more than Rs 150,000 per annum on credit cards. These are the ones who are pushing the average spend on credit card upwards and the average seems to be Rs 30,000 per annum. At the lower end of the spectrum the spends are only Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per annum.

To a question on if he sees any danger of more people falling to a debt trap, he said,
We want the customers to read the fine print and understand what they are getting into.

Mr. Madhivanan, you should be ashamed to say that. Why do you guys go for a fine print ? Can you not print it in regular size and fonts ? Your sheet of paper on which you print is worse than my toilet paper. Shame on ICICI Bank.

He concludes by saying that CIBIL has helped them a lot. CIBIL report tells you if the consumer has defaulted or missed any payment. It is a valuable tool in judging the consumer. ICICI Bank is fined Rs 50 Lakh for hiring Underworld Goondas for recover.