[Resolved]  ICICI Prudential — Cheating while selling and utterly third class customer service

Address:

Delhi

I had the misfortune of buying ICICI Pinnacle policy (#[protected] in Dec 2009. I was not interested in buying the policy considering inappropirate allocation and fund management charges, but somehow fell to the promise offered by their slippery sales agent Lalit Matta. He promised that he will all allocation charges/fund management charges reduced to maximum of 3-4% consolidated for first year and there won’t be any charge except a very minimal amount (1%) from year 2. Since, I was a repeat customer who was using their service through another policy since 2003, he said the company can take care of it as a special case.

I deposited 50k as the first premium amount and was told I will be getting extra units issued or a refund cheque in lieu of rebate in the charges. That was then and I never again got a whiff from Lalit Matta. Finally, for the second year payment, the guy resurfaced again and told me that he has got me extra units alloted and I will be seeing the same in my statement. I fell to his promise as I assumed that there must be some checks and balances in ICICI Prudential. I was told that if I do not deposit the premium anyways the policy becomes null and void. As I deposited the money, Lalit Matta vanished again along with his promises. I finally found out that the actual charges are 14% and 4% for year 1 & 2 respectively.
But this time, I didnt want to give up. So I followed up with the grievance redressal unit of ICICI Prudential hoping they will be better but they turn out to be the biggest sham ever. Their promises on the website are all empty and I would like to congratulate them that their exemplary principles of mistrust and third class customer service are being taken up very correctly by their agents like Lalit Matta. Atleast ICICI Prudential trains their agents correctly so I should give it to them, so what if the training is exact opposite of what it should be.

After 6-7 reminders from January till Feb end, 2011, someone from the so called Griveance redressal team got in touch with me to tell me that they have investigated and would want to close the case. Though they are sorry for their agent's behavior, but they cant help me with any resolution. Now my money is stuck with them and I have no option but to wait for the time period of this policy to get over before I get to see my money. No wonder that the policy has been one of the worst policies I ever bought. Their legal cross check was if I have any promise in written else they will get in trouble. Well, the agent promised in front of 2 other people but the typical cusomer service agent could not understand this and I cant blame her for she is nobody in the whole game of deceit that this company is running.

If there is any senior enough person in ICICI Prudential who has the guts to accept their misdemeanours and see if there is something called dignified business, I would say something good came out of this relationship. This company needs a serious lesson in customer "care" rather than have nincompoops manage the show.

Nevertheless, I will no longer do business with them and strongly recommend my family and friends not to deal with ICICI Prudential ever. Someday, they will realize the value of lost business though I wonder when..