[Resolved]  ICICI Bank — Harassment of collection officers on settled Credit card! Customer penalized for Bank's Fault!!!

Address:

Gurgaon, Haryana

Through this Forum, I wish to write to ICICI Bank about the inefficient working of the Bank staff and the malpractices followed by ICICI Recovery agents for collection of dues.


Dear Customer Care Team,


With great Agony, I wish to inform you that your Team of collection officers are not following the RBI regulations and have been harassing me for the past 1 Year for no fault of mine.


To give you a background of my case, I had a credit Card # [protected] from ICICI on which there were some accumulated dues and because of my financial position not being good, I had entered into a settlement with the Bank on 26th November 2012 for a Full & Final settlement amount of Rs.15000/-. The said amount was to be paid in 3 instalments of Rs.5000/- each and the reference number of the letter I received
from the Bank is CC/1211/0006375 dated 26th November 2012.


As indicated in the letter, I made 3 cash payments of 5000/-each at your Sushant Lok Branch and also updated the collection Manager, Ms.Ritika Gupta regarding the same from time to time. (I have all the SMS
conversation details and email communications with me).After settling the said amount, when I asked for the No Dues Certificate, I was told that after 30days, I can walk into any of the ICICI Branch And get the same. However, to my shock, I was dissapoined each time and was told to contact the collection Manager. When I called up the collection Manager, I got a response that I can contact the customer care and request for the No dues Certificate and that the Customer care would e-mail it to me.


I Contacted Customer care and they agreed that they had received the 3 instalments and said that they cannot help me with No due certificate but only the Branch can help me. Since I was happy to get the
confirmation from customer care about the receipt of money, I did not bother much about the delay but kept trying at the Bank Branches and tried calling upthe Collection Manager. Now, Ritika Gupta had stopped taking my calls and the number was also indicated as incorrect number. Apparently, her number had changed. However, I did e-mail her but there was no response. I also e-mailed Customer care but got no response. Since I was not well in the midst, I stopped my follow up thinking that anyways the customer care had confirmed that my dues have been received.

However, suddenly i started receiving credit card statements which showed amount outstanding and I was really shocked and I also started receiving calls for collection but once I explained, they would stop calling me and so I
thought that they had checked and found out that I had paid off the dues. In the Last 2-3 months, the harassment from the credit card collection agency has been really a torture and a cause of depression for me since they called up my office Landline and my friends and revealed my personal information that I Have
dues that I haven’t paid.( I had actually paid it 2 yrs back). They spoiled my reputation by calling my relatives and friends and even distant relatives whom I am not in touch with at all and disclosed my personal details. RBI Directions very clearly state that collection/recovery agents need to maintain a respectful approach towards defaulters and that personal information should not be leaked at any cost. However, your recovery agents harassed me and caused agony not only to me but to my relatives as well by abusing them for supporting
a defaulter.


I Spoke several times at gurgaon sector 14 Branch as well as sushant Lok Branch and they kept telling me only the Rohini Branch can help me and since I could not visit personally, I could contact customer care and seek
their help. When I called customer care, they told me that my credit card settlement was declared Void since it
was paid in 3 instalments where as the settlement letter was for 1 instalment. When I requested the customer care to show me the letter where it was mentioned that it had to be cleared in 1 instalment, they said that they don’t have a copy and cannot send it to me. I was really surprised because I had been given a settlement letter for 3
instalments.However, Unfortunately, that e-mail was deleted and so I had lost the soft copy. Luckily I had the email from collection manager Ritika which referenced 3 instalments and also my SMS messages in which she had asked about payment of instalments and I had mentioned the details.


With all the information, I visited Rohini Branch on Saturday, 30th August 2014 at 12 pm and Mr. Vikas at the 2nd
Floor counter No.4 was very kind to help me with Ritika’s new number. He also patiently listened to my trouble and assured that the needful will be done if they found that I was correct. He also indicated that the system showed that
the settlement agreed upon was for one shot payment. I called up Ms. Ritika on her new number and Madam recognized me. She was on her way to office and requested me to wait and finally reached and when she checked her e-mails….she actually found the letter of settlement which showed payment in 3 instalments!!!


Finally, she said that she has intimated the changes in the system and within 3-4 days, I can get my NO DUES CERTIFICATE and explained that it was just a technical error in updation due to which the amount was
showing as still due.


‘Just a technical error in updation ‘ but does the bank realize what a pain it is for a person who undergoes such humiliation and harassment even after making the payment based on trust over the Bank’s commitment for a settlement? Why is it that ICICI appoints such goondas for collection who first of all call from a mobile number ([protected] is one of the mobile number from which calls came to my office landline.) and abuse the customer and his/her relatives and later when customer calls up on the mobile number, say that they would call back and then talk from the registered Landline very politely as everything gets recorded !!!. Also, they do not reveal their Identity and always say that they are not authorized to do so which is really a shame…A Bank of such repute is certainly not expected to resort to such unfair techniques of collection. Even for legitimate claims, a bank cannot use such measures and for an illegitimate claim like my claim, I have been harassed and, my relatives
have been harassed too.


My CIBIL Score has been hampered because of my account being stated as ‘overdue’ in place of ‘settled’ for the last 2 years and my mental peace has been disturbed by the unthoughtful collection agents…please answer as
to how you are going to make good of all the torture that I have been through because of a careless employee
of ICICI who was the cause for the error in updation and then the casual and careless approach of ICICI itself in appointing third grade, uneducated and uncivilized recovery agencies. Please answer as to how the bank is going to compensate me for the torture and trauma caused to me over this matter. I am Still waiting for my NO
dues Certificate which I was told, I will be given in 3-4 days( by 3rd or 4th of September by posting a request through customer care.
I called up customer care and the first feedback I received was that i owe 21000/- to the Bank and when i explained the whole thing, the customer care agent takes a detailed look for updation from backend and confirms that the same is in process of being rectified. Will I ever get some poeace of mind and written document from ICICI Confirming NO DUES?