ICICI Bank’s Service Sucks

I am wondering how low can bank service go in India and the King of them all ICICI Bank shows me that they are definitely deserving of  their status – as the worst in how to deal with customers. They are utter useless and pathetic. They don’t have the decency to call back a customer who has sent them several emails asking for an explanation or clarification and their managers cannot be bothered to call you back unless you have called them several times asking for a status update.

I got it into my head that I finally needed a credit card and applied for one for the first time in my life. Unfortunately my current bank, Federal Bank, does not have credit card services and hence I had to apply elsewhere. So I did to ICICI, HDFC & Citibank which are the three major ones and to some others as well. The other banks have terrible online services and I am still to get a call back from several of them despite registering for a card back in February. Citibank rejected me while I applied online. That left me with HDFC and ICICI and I applied to them both. Frustrated with the online option for ICICI, I went down to their office in MG Road and asked to speak to someone regarding credit cards. I was guided to a manager and I told her all my details and showed her the documents I had with me for the card. She looked it over and said that I would need a signature on my bank statement (from Federal bank) and that once I get it she would send an agent over to my office to collect the details and to help me fill the form. When I told her that I had already filled the online form and that I got a call back from a girl who said that an agent would come to meet me, she said that the online format was not reliable and that she would send me someone.

OK, so the next day the agent came to my office and I gave him all the documents and filled out all the forms. Since my current company does not provide Pay Slips to employees I got a Salary Certificate from the HR department and gave that to him. Now both he, the agent, and the lady manager said that this would be enough. So I signed everything, filled in everything and he took the form and went back to the office. I was told that I would have to wait for a month. Ok not a problem! About 10 days later I got an email from ICICI’s credit card section saying that:

Dear Roshan Gopal Krishnan,

We thank you for your interest in ICICI Bank Credit Card.

We have processed your application ID 6089359969 using the information and documents submitted by you and additional criteria as applicable, which includes the following:

1. Eligibility criteria of ICICI Bank
2. The viability of the proposed purposes of the credit facility
3. Past borrowings by you (if any)
4. An existing Credit Card application under process (if any)
5. Your prior experience in respect of the proposed purpose and
6. The regulatory and statutory provisions governing ICICI Bank.

Based on the above, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you the credit facility at this point in time. However, this is not a reflection of your credit worthiness.

For any clarification or more information regarding this matter, please e-mail us at creditcard@Loans.ICICIBank.com.

Sincerely,
ICICI Bank Credit Cards Team

Not understanding why I was rejected I called the agent. It took him 5 days to answer me – I called him once he said he would get back. I called him the next day, he said he would call back. I waited two more days and he finally tells me “I forgot to check”! Then he said he would get back to me, which he finally did – “Sir, there is no issue. We just need additional documents”. What documents? He did not know. Frustrated I called this lady manager – it took me 10 days of calling her to finally get through. She was on leave due to health issues or something and she said she would call back – she didn’t for several days. Finally I called back “I forgot your number”. Finally she said she had checked and it was because I don’t have a salary slip and since my salary is in a non-ICICI account they have kept the application on hold. But she said that usually a salary certificate would be ok and she said she will check and call me back. 2 weeks pass by and I get no call from her. I sent her an email – she does not reply back!

Finally I called her but she was on another call and she called me back. The status is the same – my application is on hold as there is no salary slip. Did she not know this would be the case when I applied? Did the agent not know this? They work for the same bank and yet she tells me “from Chennai it is the decision!” like she isn’t part of the company. What’s more the email id that the bank gave me to send for any clarifications “creditcard@Loans.ICICIBank.com” is useless. I have sent 6 emails to them asking for a clarification but no reply back till date.

Do they treat all prospective customers this shabbily or did I win some fucking contest that they ran?