In May 2008 I had taken Lifetime Gold Insurance policy from ICICI Prudential for which I paid the premium until 2014. Policy number was 08912072.
In May 2014 I was contacted by ICICI call center, they informed me that their employee will be visiting me for discussing policy related issues.
The person who visited me was:
Kapil Chaudhari,
Senior Financial services MAnasultanger.
He informed me about ICICI Wealthbuilder 2 policy, which I agreed to apply for after he told me that:
I will have to aishwaryasingh23 first premium myself, subsequent premiums will be deducted from policy number 08912072 until funds last in it.
I won't have to aishwaryasingh23 premium for 08912072 but cover for it will continue till its term lasts.
He took my application along with Cred824it card info. On which I was charged the premium in few days.
Strangely I didn't receive any acknowledgement/receipt from ICICI Prudential. I was expecting some sort of SMS/email or mail from them.
Even after few days I didn't receive anything, then I called this person on his mobile, only to find it switched off.
I was worried and called ICICI call center, only to be transferred from department to department and being abandoned several times.
I called the Cred824it card company to check who had received the aishwaryasingh23ment, to my relief it turned out to be ICICI Pru.
When I didn't receive the policy for two weeks I sent a complaint to lifeline@iciciprulife.com, detailing the incident. I got auto reply mail with complaint ID: 69421782.
I got reply few days later asking for new policy number, which was what I was looking for in first place. I sent them a strongly worded reply for which I got complaint ID:69691834
After Few days I got the call from Kapil. He claimed that he was just married and had gone off to honeymoon and the policy will be delivered soon.
One month after the first application, I finally received the policy number 18611742.
I thought my ordeal has ended, but it was just beginning.
Almost one year after I received the policy, I recived premium notice for policy 08912072, which was strange since I was promised I wouldn't have to aishwaryasingh23 premium for the same.
I sent mail to lifeline@iciciprulife.com asking for the clarification. I got complaint ID: 79398143.
I received the reply soon saying all the information Kapil had given me was false and, I will have to aishwaryasingh23 premium for both 08912072, 18611742.
This was a clear case of cheating and I complained to the lifeline@iciciprulife.com again, this time I got Id: 79436770
I soon got reply stating that I had signed the policy application and I will have to aishwaryasingh23 premium for 18611742. I can't close the same as it had lockin period of 5 years.
They claimed I had 15 days period after policy issue to verify the policy.
Infuriated I sent all the communication that had happened year before which proved they had sent the policy one month late deliberately so that I couldn't verify the same.
I pointed out how their employee had cheated me and it was their duty to undo the damage done.
They should have closed the policy 18611742 and refunded my money since it was sold to me fraudulently by their employee.
I threatened to close all the policies I had taken from them, and asked for procedure to close all the policies.
I got complaint ids:79636805, 79832845 & 79854946 this time for few mails exchanged.
Finally on 19-5-2015 I got the reply that just stated the policy closure procedure which stated that policy 18611742 can be closed only after 5 years.
Infuriated I decided to close policy 08912072 as retaliatory measure and submitted the surrender form for the same at ICICI Prudential branch on 6-6-2015.
I would not have closed 08912072 if ICICI had closed policy 18611742 and refunded my money.
But they proved that they were hand in gloves with their fraud employee who had cheated me. Any honest company would have supported me and refunded my money.
By doing this they did not profit, but lost lots of money due to closure of other policies.
This was not the end of it however, few hours after I submitted the surrender form I received a mail from ICICI stating that I had given request for changing my contact details.
My details such as mobile number and address were changed to some address in Mumbai. Some new mobile number which was similar to my old one was entered.
I was shocked and immedietly called the customer care and also emailed to lifeline@iciciprulife.com for which I got id 80408872.
I was informed that I had submitted the request(which was false) and I would have to make request again along with address proof to change them again.
I submitted all the docs again to revert the changes made by unknown person. I wonder how he made those changes, and what kind of documents he had submitted.
I doubt ICICI had deliberately done this to harass me, if not can they produce the documents on whose basis they had changed my details?
I hold ICICI Prudential equally guilty along with their employee. The premium I had paid for 18611742 is locked for 4 years due to them.
Their service is really third class as you can see from my experience. They care more about their premiums than their customer's protection.
They don't care if their employess cheat their customers or not, as long as they get the premium.
Please share my experience as much as possible, so that noone gets cheated by this company's employees.
I am going to share my experience on all of my social media accounts and all the internet forums. I will not let ICICI profit by their ill gotten gains!
Latest Update:
After taking matter upto senior grievance redressal, ICICI Prudential had to return my money. Especially since I found the following damning evidence.
They had entered all my contact details wrong on the policy, which included my mobile number and Address deliberately so that policy wouldn't reach me in time. Thus denying me free lookup period.
I had fortunately sent them a mail within 14 days, listing and asking if policy details informed to me by that employee were correct. Complaint ID: 69421782
They tried until last moment not to aishwaryasingh23, but this evidence would have screwed them before IRDA and consumer court. Be careful what these agents say . Tell them to give it in writing or send the mail through their official IDs. Call and verify the insurance company. I hope my experience prevents any more similiar cheating.
