Submitted by: minnachi
Complaint Details:
I have had an NRI account at ICICI Bank since 2005.
Last week, during my vacation in Bangalore, I went to the ICICI Bank, Cantonment Branch, near Safina Plaza, to deposit some money to my account.
I ended up dealing with a Miss Shireen Sabahath. After we finished with the deposit, she urged me to transfer my money from my ICICI Prulife account to a new plan that would be far better and make me more money in the long run. She called up a Mr. Tapas Jagadev who worked at the ICICI Prudential on Residency Rd. He later came over to my sister’s house, where I was staying to “educate” me on what the policy was all about. He said the current policy I had – the ICICI Pru Lifelink Wealth – was not worth it since would have to pay 30% tax when I withdrew the money. Instead he suggested I take another policy called “GWP Plan” which was tax-free and would pay off much better in five years. He didn’t;t have any details but gave us an outline which sounded good. He then immediately phoned Miss Shireen, who came over. She took a photo of my passport, asked me to write a check for Rs. 50, 000 (first installment) and made me fill a form where she asked who would be the nominee etc. I gave my niece, Sangeeta Zachariah’s name. Since I was leaving the next day, Tapas said he would have details of the policy dropped off .. and confirmation of the signed policy mailed to me.’
The next day I didn’t receive any documents so texted Tapas.. he made all kinds of excuses.. saying he would then “email” it to me. I left the following day for Bombay.
While I was there, my niece received some paperwork saying that the policy was in HER name and that I was the Nominee! She immediately questioned Shireen about that. Shireen then told her that they put her name as the policy holder, instead of me, since I was TOO OLD!!! Never once did they mention that to us when discussing it while I was in Bangalore. My niece also said they misspelled my name as Meera Elizabeth Zachariah instead of Meera Elizabeth Cheriyan!!! They also had her name wrong. So immediately she asked them to cancel the policy and refund my Rs. 50, 000.. WITH NO PENALTIES. Tapas told he he would and that it would take about 7 days for the money to be transferred back to my ICICI account. So far I haven’t seen a thing.
I am SO disgusted at the fraudulent activities practiced by your employees…..they lied to us all the way and tried to cheat us.
This is not the first time this has happened to me. In 2009 I was similarly lied to about taking a Prulife policy. Once I realized i was lied to, I tried to cancel it, but it took so much red tape and so many phone calls and emails to finally get it canceled. I even wrote to Ms. Chanda Kochar after which it was resolved. In 2011, a similar thing happened where I wasn’t fully informed about the LifeLink Wealth Policy… and after many, many emails and complaints back and forth, it was finally straightened out.
The problem with your lying, cheating employees is that they are SO desperate to get bonuses that they LIE and hide the facts behind the policy they are trying to sell. And since every time they know that I am leaving for the US within two days of signing a policy, they take advantage of it. They remain incommunicado and don’t return emails, phone calls and texts. All the emails I sent to Tapas Jagadev have come back to me saying they are “undeliverable”. And this…coming from the email address on his business card!!!
After I wrote to Chanda Kochar, the guy who falsely talked me into the policy and lied about it was fired. I hope Tapas Jagadev and Shireen Sabahath face the same consequences. They are liars and totally incompetent. This is no way to run a multi-million rupee business.
I also intend to write to Ms. Kochar AGAIN about her lying, cheating employees and how disappointed I am with ICICI bank. I also plan to go public if no action is taken.
I hope to receive a response from you and ASAP and hope you will make sure my monies are returned to me WITHOUT penalties ASAP.
Thx,
Meera Cheriyan