Dec 29, 2004 05:53 PM
5337 Views
(Updated Jan 06, 2005 09:48 PM)
Why did I select this particular company's credit card?
2 years back one of my cousin recommended a HP petro card from ICICI. Since our business at that point of time involved lot of transportation by my own vehicle and also since I did not have any credit card and it really is convenient to have one, I opted for this card.
The card had a tie up with HPCL and wherever the credit card was accepted (Which was at most of the HPCL petrol pumps) I had points which were added each time I filled up the petrol tank and you could accumulate the points till lifetime which could then be exchanged for some gifts.
After two years I switched on from the ICICI petro card to the ICICI Big Bazaar card as I changed my profession and was not using my car much. Since my mom does her fortnightly shopping for groceries at big bazaar and you could add more points if you shopped in big bazaar through a big bazaar card, I felt this was a good deal.
Good aspects of this company's service.
1) The Company does not have lengthy procedure for signing up for the normal credit card and card gets delivered within 20-25 days of applying.
2) You don?t get any telemarketing calls from the company.
3) The Customer Service department does not give any false promises. I was promised a Baggage set worth Rs 7000 if my spendings were above RS 40000 within a period of 3 months and I actually got a the gift hamper delivered very neatly at my house and it is a fabulous gift which was deleivered appropriately on Christmas this year.
They also keep giving free coupons and discount coupons for various restaurants, shopping malls etc.
Bad aspects of this company's service.
1) The Follow up procedure for anything in this company is too slow and time consuming. I had a simple request once, change my Petro card to Big Bazaar card, cancel my brothers add on card and instead put my mothers name. Very simple request. I am in the field of customer service and something like this shouldn?t take more then 15-20 working days. It took me nearly one and a half months to do that and trying to make the customer service associates understand my scenario and to transfer the points that I had accumulated took the same time.
2) The Call Centre of ICICI is based in Hyderbad(Which is primary) and Mumbai(Which is secondary). I have no issues with that. But someone has to make all of them learn to speak proper English. Its fine by me if they speak to me in Hindi but they should not converse in any language they are uncomfortable with and confuse the customer even more. I am a very patient person and being in the field of customer service I know the work pressure but believe me, effective communication with the customer is half the battle won. You will make a customer more irate if they can not understand what you are talking. I am not asking them to speak in an American Accent or even the queen?s English, but proper simple understandable English should be a very important module in the training environment of this company.
3) At times, you don?t get the monthly statements and getting them on request on phone is very time consuming.
4) The gifts that are available for redemption of points are very silly and cheap.
The online experience when using this web site.
The official website of this company is https://icicibank.com. When you get registered, they provide you a 4 digit pin (Which can be used on a phone to find out the spendings of the credit card) and an internet username and password which needs to be activated within 25 days of getting the slip. In case you forget or loose the password, they issue you a new password which gets couriered to you within 7 working days.
More or less, my experience with the credit card department of this bank has been good. But off the late I have read many reviews which do not have good things to say about the banking section. I suggest that all those customers who have been cheated by the bank at any given point of time must launch a complaint with the consumer guidance society of India.
Their Website is https:// https://cgsiindia.org.
Their contact information is,
CONSUMER GUIDANCE SOCIETY OF INDIA
Block 'J' Mahapalika Marg,
Mumbai-400 001
Tel : 2262 1612
Fax : 2265 9715
E-mail : cgsibom@bom4.vsnl.net.in
PS ? For all those who have seen the commercials and hoardings which mention that ICICI credit cards gives a 5% cash back on all purchases over RS 2000, there is a catch, They adjust the credit in your bill, but they also deduct points. BEWARE!!
