[Resolved]  ICICI Bank — MAB charges deducted mislead by ICICI representative to keep the account idle instead of closing it

Address:

Kothrud, Karve nagar

Have been pursuing this issue for sometime. I raised level 1 complaint with the customer support on the website but still the issue is unresolved. I am not at all happy with the way this is been handled by the ICICI bank. The bank is not able to understand/diagnose the problem properly. It seems the bank does not intend on reimbursing the money. Provide a proper contact person to whom I can contact since the customer support is not competent to resolve this

I have been a customer of ICICI bank since 12+ years. I am 68 years of age & I am diabetic for past 35+ years and have Diabetic neuropathy problems because of which I struggle to walk properly. I have retired and I am not a pensioner.

I switched from my savings ICICI account to new life plus account on behest of the ICICI employee. I was hesitant to open the another account with the same bank since I wanted to keep the account as it was my salary account and was expecting salary in coming next 3-4 months but ICICI employee was pushy enough to make us open another account at that time. I had specifically asked the ICICI person what should be done about the savings account since we did not intend on using or have 2 account with the bank employee suggested on keeping the savings account open and the account will be automatically closed.

On 11 August 2016 after leaving the savings account idle as per ICICI executive's suggestion. We considered the account was closed but there was an unexpected amount been deposited in that account and there were MAB charges deducted of around rupees 3042/-. I took up this issue with the Kothrud branch and was promised that the money will be reimbursed and the issue would be raised in the ICICI system and the money will be credited in the account. I was also handed over account closure forms to close the account once this is done.

After this meeting it was decided to contact the ICICI executive in two-three business working days.

The ICICI executive did not clearly know how this process of reversal is to be done at actual. He was clueless. So he discussed with people in bank and told us that he would raise the request in the system. To my disappointment he did not raise the request at the very moment in front o[censored]s he said he would do it later and trusting him we left. Then even for this we had to follow up with him for this multiple times. Yet there was no action taken on his part. Then after few weeks he could not figure out how to do this so he told to contact another lady executive in the bank this is in December 2016 4 months had already passed. I had to again explain the whole story to the lady executive. On hearing the situation she replied since this is month end or year end so there were settlements during this times in the system it is better to do this in January 2017 at the start of month which will be good. So yet again four months into the issue the money was not reimbursed and left the bank disappointed. While talking to the lady executive she brought up one problem that could happen while initiating the reversal. The issue was since it took four more months to address the issue there will be more MAB charges that would be charged to the account and even If we reimburse the amount then it will again get deducted from the account. Why was this not thought of in the very beginning when the same was discussed with the Branch manager the issue would have been resolved in August 2016 itself?
And the story continues in the next month the lady did not do the reimbursement and I was told to the contact earlier bank executive who was first looking after this. The very same person who did not know the process of reimbursement. This employee gave another unique solution to the problem in the process of reimbursement that could have happen while reimbursing the money since it took four more months to address the issue there will be more MAB charges that would get charged to the account and even If we reimburse the amount then it will again get deducted from the account. The solution to the problem was we will get the notification once the money is deposited and I would have to immediately withdraw the money within 2 hours of reversal. Clearly it did not happen this way and the money again got deducted before the employee or we came to know about the reversal. After this contact person/employee had no answer or solution to what next can be done. This whole process took one year i.e. July 2017. Unfortunately the money go deducted again.
Upon this we contacted the senior manager to which he raised his hand statin it was start of new financial year and his reply was nothing could be done about it.

I again before Covid visited the branch but I was given same reply. Dejected by this I decided to raise the complaint on the website itself. The Bank manage did not have solution to this. I only had to think of taking up this issue on the website.
Attaching below snap of that as a reference

This process in 2016 was very long drawn and time consuming. Had to take follow up multiple times for this to get done. With multiple visits to the branch and explaining the same problem to multiple times to multiple ICICI employees even right now I am doing the same by writing the this letter of grievance. It took 11 months for the reversal. But in the end the objective of me getting the money was not achieved.

In the first place there is no need to keep two savings account with one bank it was unnecessary and just to meet the sales deadline the sales person insisted to open an account. Literally he told us he had a target for the month and it would help him meet that. This could have been avoided instead of having the focus of meeting account opening deadlines the person/bank should have focused on giving proper guidance and letting us know that the we should keep the account active and maybe in 2-3 months times I should close my savings account and then only open the Life plus account. We would have happily obliged.

I was considerate enough to give bank representatives ample time to resolve this even after multiple follow ups from me. Just a reminder this was during the demonitisation period and people were crowding the banks. Clearly it was a mistake by me for been considerate enough and been accommodating. The representatives do not have wholistic understanding of the cause and effect/inter-relationships of the processes they needs to follow in order to service clients. This started with representative who gave us this golden suggestion of leaving the account open and not close it.

In a separate incident few years back the cashier was adamant on not giving money to my wife who is joint account holder I had to visit the bank to withdraw the money. I had to personally come the withdraw money at that time.

Been a life plus account holder means I am a senior citizen. I need some person to accompany me every time I step out of my home and every time have to request someone to accompany me.
Before lockdown I visited the branch but was not presented with a proper solution for this again. Since I am retired person without pension every penny counts for me.

if were guided properly while opening new account with the bank, this would have been avoided the account would be closed and the money would not have been deposited in 2016.

Consider this a genuine feedback from a customer. The representatives are not fully attentive this is the impression I have got. Communication is 90% non verbal. My multiple visits to the bank make me realize that bank representatives don t listen to what I am saying. There is always someone or the other who keeps on disturbing the representative while I am speaking the representative or the managers as well with work. They are busy with some work on their laptops. People are very eager to come up with solution without thinking through and no right solution is presented to me. Employees are very eager to close and move on to next customer they don t listen through to what the situation which results in this type of customer experience. Employees failed to empathize with our situation

There is a serious doubt on whether the bank ever intended to reimburse the money in the first place. Because in the end since it took one year the Manager raised his hands said since its the new financial year so we cannot go further with this. So this was a pure time consuming tactic on the bank's side.

ICICI BANK is not patient enough to listen to the customers problems as customer we only have to think of solutions and counter question the validty of the solutions provided . The bank is eager on giving solutions in a very hurried way just so that they can get rid of the customer for that moment. But this results in customer suffering and having to visit the bank multiple times. This all could have been done in more efficient way. If the problem could have been understood better by the ICICI bank and right solution would have been given at the very start. This could have all been done in one to 2 days times. Imagine the time, petrol, efforts and mental fatigue this has caused to an old customer otherwise having good record.

This has been the cause of my worry and inconvenience after retirement.

Request to reimburse my total amount of Rs 3042/- with the bank. The process would have been easy had the amount would have been transferred directly to my new account or a cheque or DD would have been drawn something I suggested at the very start of this. So please since it is covid I cannot risk my and my wife s life to come up for follow up in the bank this time instead of going through the tedious and time consuming process. Please reimburse at earliest and provide with an alternative to close the amount since it is locked and I never intend on using the account. Also since the account is locked the card is also blocked and anyways we wont be able to remove money from the account due to very reasons that caused problems in 2016. Provide a better alternative for this. Been an old customer with the bank I am sure a better alternative is provided.