[Resolved]  ICICI Bank Credit Card — Failure in service quality by ICICI Bank

Dated 25th July’2009

Mr. Avijit Saha
Head-Customer Service
ICICI Bank Ltd
New Heaven Enterprise Pvt Ltd
49 H, Parsi Panchayat Road
Andheri, (East), Mumbai - 400069
Email: [protected]@icicibank.com


Dear Mr. Avijit Saha

Ref. 1. ICICI Credit Card No [protected], valid from 07th July’2007
2. ICICI SB A/c No[protected]Gurgaon Branch), effective from October’2006
3.ICICI SB A/c No[protected]Gwahati Branch), effective from Febrary’2008

I am a customer of ICICI Bank since October’2006, since my Salary account was created in the same month at Gurgaon. Based on the relationship, I was issued above subjected Credit Card in the month of July’2007.

I was using the services offered by the SB account and the Credit card since then without any difficulty and complaint. There was not a single instance of late payment against the expenditures made on the Credit card. At that time I was working with Hughes Communication, Gurgaon and the contact details maintained was a) My residential address (rented) in Gurgaon, b) My official Email ID, c) My official cell phone no.

In February 2008, I got a new job and shifted to Guwahati, Assam. Since I was quite comfortable and confident o[censored]sing the ICICI credit card, I preferred using the same credit card In Guwahati also. Before coming to Guwahati, I called up the ICICI Customer care on 07th Feb’2008, and put forward a request for change of my contact detail (New address in Guwahati, and my personal Email ID as I cannot access the official ID of Hughes any more). At that time I could not provide new phone no. I opened a new Salary account in Guwahati as the ICICI Bank representative confirmed me that the account in Gurgaon cannot be transferred, and account no would change in any case. I had to maintain the bank account in Gurgaon as that account was linked to some of the investments I made.

Even though Customer care representative confirmed that contact details change would take place shortly, practically it never happened. Even after that, I managed to make payments on time by calling up customer care every month. Plz note I didn’t receive any statement as my contact details were not updated. I had to spend several thousands of rupees in last one and half year by making STD calls to the customer care no, every time I used to request for change of contact details without any result.

Plz note there was not a single instance of late payment from my side till May or June of 2008, I used to manage that by calling up the customer care to know the amount due.

However in the month of May or June’08, when I called up the customer care no to check the amount due, I was intimated that the credit period has been reduced by few days and hence my pyment is already due and is under late payment condition, I have to bear the late payment charges and interest. I was surprised to see how such a change can be implemented without communicating to the customer, finally the customer have to bear the consequences, as is the case with me. That is the hype o[censored]nprofessional service, failure in quality commitment made by ICICI Bank. At that time my expenditure on the card was approximately 5, 000/-.

Even then I was confident of resolving the issue and continuing my relationship with ICICI Bank. I insisted on an immediate implementation of my change in address, and early settlement of the issue. I requested for waiver of the additional charges and confirm me the exact amount spent on the card, so that I can make the payment. I repeatedly requested for escalation of the matter to concerned official and asked for phone no with whom I can discuss the matter further. However, every time I was conveyed that concerned dept would contact me shortly, but it never happened. Even my contact details were also not corrected.

After almost one month I called up again to check updates on the issue, the customer care representative asked me to make immediate payment, and said collection people were trying to reach me, but could not, as my contact details maintained in their system were not correct. I made a request for change of contact details again to the representative, this time only the phone no was corrected. Probably the ICICI Bank representative was satisfied as the purpose of getting me over phone was resolved, however the importance of correction of address and Email ID, and my request to settle the due amount was not honored.

Thereafter, I received numerous calls, almost every day from the collection deptt, I reiterated the issues faced by me, every time I was committed for a suitable resolution of the problem, but literally it didn’t happen. With time, the collection people became more aggressive and showed obnoxious behaviour in order to convince me to make payment. The late payment charges and interest made the amount much higher that what I spent. I insisted on getting the expenditure details, so that I can pay the amount that I spent and for the charges imposed, the collection people committed to take care of. Finaly my Email ID was corrected but the statement that I received didn’t reflect the details of expenditures. I repeatedly requested for the details, but I haven’t received the same till date. Plz note the address is still not updated in the system.

In the mean time some of the self claimed ICICI bank employee made fool of me by committing that all the interest and additional charges are waived off and would be reflected in next statement, and requested me for a minimum amount payment so that no more late payment charges are levied. But once I made the payment, the person vanished and never picked my phone. Following are some of the nos that used to interact with me on this –

Mr. Harshwardhan – [protected]
Mr M.K Denny – [protected]
Mr. Mukesh – [protected]

Suddenly one fine day, I got a message that my SB account #[protected] was auto debited by approximately 4, 000/- and the account is blocked, upon inquiring about it, the customer care person reluctantly said auto debit has been initated by collection deptt. Plz note even after I made numerous requests for settlement of the dues, I was penalized for no fault of mine.

Even after that, I persisted on resolving the issue, made several calls to the customer care and after much effort, and spending at least 4, 000~5, 000/- on my STD bills in lat 1.5 years, I got following phone nos, but couldn’t contact them -

Mr Arijit Ghosh –[protected]When I called up this no, it was said it is not the right no and the dept
has changed, plz note the correctness of record provided to your customer)
Mr Samrat –[protected]The no keeps ringing, but nobody picks the phone, plz try yourself).

Again last week, I received another message that my SB account #[protected] has been auto debited by almost 14, 000/- rupees. It is not at all acceptable; this SB account is in no way linked to the credit card. It is the complete failure of the Bank process that lead to all these, and finally I have been victimized with these auto debits without any intimation and authorisation. The safety of fund deposited in ICICI bank is a question now. Plz look into the figures below, what I’ve gained and what I spent and who is actually responsible for this.

Amount spent – 5, 000/- (approx)
Amount paid – 1, 500/- (approx), as per request from collection people with a commitment of settlement.
Expense in phone calls made to ICICI Bank – 5, 000/- (approx)
Amount debited from my account – 18, 000/-

Spent 5, 000/-, paid 29, 500/-.


I still believe the issue can be resolved with your due intervention, I hope you’ll understand my position and would take necessary action on this. I request an immediate reversal of the auto debits to my SB accounts and a suitable resolution on the probem.

Thanks,



Samarjit Baruah
[protected]


C.C :

1. Mr.Shiva Kumar Tadikonda, Nodal Officer.
2. Mr. B. Madhivanan, Senior General Manager, Service Quality.
3. Branch Manager, ICICI Bank (Fancy Bazar Branch), Guwahati