ICICI Bank UK

DocProc

Internet banking with ICICI Bank (UK) is a poor experience and is only OK until things go wrong. That's when psychology kicks in as you now begin to find they are so very difficult to deal with.

The first port of call is to their CS Rrepresentatives. This is when you find out and now begin to realise they have only a limited understanding of their own systems and hardly any understanding and appreciation of using the Internet too.

Their CS Rep's are merely 'message takers'. They write down your problem as best they can and pass it onto others. It is these 'others' who make decisions and take action. However, responsibilities are obviously extremely 'tiered' and to make a decision concerning refunding money will take at least a few weeks. I rationalised that a few pounds to us, might actually amount to a day's or week's wages to their Indian CS staff.

Lastly, you have to understand that the Indian staff have been brought up within a society that has structure levels, which are primaily to do with 'status'. Thus, at any level of problem, you are likely to find an inability to be able to accept or deal with the reality of a problem, if there has been some kind of a 'c##k-up' resulting in their bank not having done something right and is not quite how it is done 'in the west'. An admission of some kind might mean that 'status' might be affected.

One consequence of them being an Indian bank, is that they have UK procedures and systems, which are almost alien to the understanding of too many of the staff.

eg, A HiSave account, which is a joint account, will have Tax Certificates issued to each of the Joint Account Holders as though they were not Joint Account Holders but actually Single Person Account Holders. Of course, such Tax Certificates aren't a right lot of use for your Tax Return. Trying to explain exactly what is required to an Indian Call Centre Junior Bank Employee, and one who hasn't had too much experience to boot, is just about an impossibility.

And, as you can no doubt guess, my example of the sort of problem, namely getting the right sort of Tax Certificate, is just a very simple example. Neither does it take much writing down. A knowledge of English voculabulary and grammar is a big help but, as you know, we all of us tend to use bad grammar, slang vocabulary or even technically incorrect words. We can also easily get our 'debits' and 'credits' mixed up, too.

So, all in all, things can get very, very difficult just dealing with an Indian bank.

highet

others may have a different experience but from recent dealings with icici customer services anyone who deposits large sums of money with this bank is bonkers - they may offer a good rate of interest but they appear to have no idea what they are doing

ps2659

My wife opened an account with this outfit approx 2 years ago and deposited £1.00 what a dreadful experience the £1.00 is still there never used the account, I contaced this outfit and applied online to open a 2 year fix to which they are supposed to reply in 24 hours by email no reply after 7 days telephoned them they told me to apply again so I did 4 days passed no email therfore I telephoned them on saturday and asked to speak to a supervisor after listening to the waffle from the person I was speaking to the supervisor stated how sorry she was asked me some details checked the 2 online applications and said she would cancel one and email me details re the other one, then she read out my email address and it was not my email address but the 1st 4 digits started the same as my email address, today I received a standard email from them.
Dear Mr.

---

Thank you for your recent communication.
We are sorry to learn that you have been dissatisfied with the service we have provided and can confirm that we will be conducting a thorough investigation into your concerns. Once we have completed this, we will write to you within four weeks from the date of receipt of your complaint.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at [EMAIL="ukcustomerrelations@icicibank.com"]ukcustomerrelations@icicibank.[/EMAIL]com.

---

,
Service Quality Team,
ICICI BANK UK PLC.

I WOULD DEFINETLY NOT INVEST ANY MONEY WITH THIS FIRM 2 YEARS FROM MY WIFES APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE HAS DETERIATED. :mad:

Pagan98

I agree with DocProc's comments. My wife had an issue with 1,300 going missing from her account. Trying to get a response from the CS representatives was like pulling teeth. They seemed to have no inkling why she should be concerned that her money had vanished and were only able to take messages and issue vague, unhelpful form emails. No sense of urgency whatsoever and, even when the money was returned there was no explanation. They didn't even manage to follow her instruction to close the account. Avoid.

samratds

I have an account with them ,they have a poor customer service and everything is done from india and also their website is crap ,its a headache to have an account with them ,you will get frustrated very soon.

lisyloo

I've had customer service problems with them.
I have needed paperwork for benefits before.
The will provide nothing at all.
They say they have sent income tax statements but these were never received.
No way to get statements.
This has caused hassle and delayed getting benefits for us.
No way to get anything sent recorded delivery (indian call center working from scripts).
They expire your logins after a certain period and I've heard they even make accounts dormant.

If you need no service you might get on fine.
But if you need something, like a statement at any time, then good luck to you.

neil324

Like the date of thread, just had a 2 year bond mature @ 7%, remember all the comments of doom at the time.
Anyway my experience has been all positive, any questions, just send secure message while logged on, it gets answered within 24 hours. I have phoned before having to renew password etc on the account and no problems.
They have changed their system this year where you print any tax statements from off line,allthough i never used this as i'm registered gross. I would say if there was a mayor problem i could see problems phoning as their english is not the best. But saying that they do have serveral branches around the UK and you could pop in.

Loughton_Monkey

I use ICICI, but I do so (a) because of their very competitive products, and (b) below the compensation limit. Apart from that, don't expect much else. As has been said, their website seems to have been built by a 15 year work experience programmer, and their service is not good.

Only last week, I had a query and thought I would phone them. I did so at 9:30 a.m., leaving the phone on "speaker" so that I could continue working on other things. When my wife called me at 12:35 for lunch, I decided to call it a day. Besides, by then I had forgotten my query.

humphrey12

I agree they are the awful - im pulling my hair out with them

humphrey12

Money may be safe but they are horrendous to deal with - never complained before but this bank has driven me mad