How two readers got justice and got their money back
POSTED BY ON February 16, 2012 COMMENTS (127)
Today I want to show you how 2 fellow readers of this blog were in a fix when it came to their hard-earned money and they were struggling to get justice from their respective banks and financial institutions. They mailed me and commented on this blog and when I saw those comments, I thought – “lets see what can be done!” This is a post where you can learn what kind of things can be done if you are having issues at times and then try to resolve it further.
Case 1: How an old lady got justice from ICICI Prudential
Some months back an old lady named “Nita” commented on this blog how ICICI Prudential representative have taken advantage of the situation and played around with her money. It was not a case of miss-selling, it was actually unethical behaviour (or call some kind of fraud). So I decided to help her in whatever way I could. Here is what she wrote
Dear Sir,
I was holding ICICI Prudential Life Time Super policy (Policy number: XXXXXXXX) and have already paid two premiums. The third premium was due for payment in July 2009. Due to delay, there were frantic calls from ICICI Bombay office for making the payment. On 28th December 2009 when called again from ICICI Prudential Bombay office, I requested them to get the premium collected as assured by their officials at the time of issuing the policy. I was told by their office that a representative would come on 29-12-2009. On 29th Mr. K N Pandey mobile No XXXXXX a representative of ICICI prudential came and after verifying his credential from Dehli office in-charge Mr. Mratunjay Sharma Mobile No XXXXXXXXXX a cheque for Rs.50000/- was given. He demanded that a photo and a signed copy of form was required to get the lapsed policy restored. these were given to him.
Later on, finding that instead of a receipt of the premium paid for the old policy (policy number: 05225842),a new policy “LifeStage Assure Pension- policy number: 13129468″ was delivered. This was issued under forged signature.(photocopy attached). Soon after the receipt of the new policy in 3rd week of jan-2010, the matter was reported to the company’s representative Mr. K.N. Pandey and his immediate superior Mr. Akhilesh Gupta Financial adviser of ICICI prudential Mob. no 09838506002 and Delhi office Mr. M Sharma. They accepted their mistake and I was assured that the new policy will be closed and the amount of the premium will be transferred in my old policy no: 05225842.I trusted them since they begged saying that if the matter was reported, they were to lose their jobs.
But, having failed in my efforts the matter was reported to the chairman ICICI Prudential in September 2010. I never got the reply but when I presented all the documents before ICICI Prudential Manager at Kanpur office I was given a copy of reply sent by the Bombay office in Sept 2010.
(photocopy attached)
The local office after having gone through the records and finding my complaint genuine, they again sent the complaint to Bombay office and I was asked to wait. Again there has been no communication from Bombay office but on my approach to local office I have been given a copy which is ditto of the previous reply.(photocopy attached). On the advice of local branch manager to save my one Lac rupees deposited earlier in policy No. 05225842, I have borrowed the money to deposit Rs ONE Lac i.e. two years premium to get the policy revived. The amount has been debited from my account on 26/05/2011 but I have not yet received any communication regarding revival of my policy.
The fraudulently (under forged signature) issued new policy No 13129468 is still hanging in abeyance and my Rs.50000.00 is at stake. Since I am an old lady with meager source of earning I cannot afford to operate two policies and that’s why I have been trying to get the amount of the second policy credited for the old policy. Since now, I have come to know about IRDA can help in such matters I therefore request your good office to look in to my case and help me to get justice.
Yours faithfully,
NITA TRIPATHI
06/12/2011
What I did
I tried to find out who is the current CEO of the company and tried to find his email id, but failed. Then I found him on facebook and left a message to him (didn’t get any reply). I then contacted a PR agency in Mumbai who earlier contacted me on behalf of ICICI Pru and I knew they must be knowing someone at ICICI Pru who could help the lady. This worked and I got a mail from ICICI saying that they will work on this and get back with their response. I replied back to them on email like this –
If it was a normal misselling case , I would have let this go , as misselling is same as misbuying . but here it was fraudualant activity and without any reason the old lady is harrassed and she is not able to do anything . Please take up this case with priority and more than professional grounds , help the lady on human ground . It would be appreciated if you can follow up with the concerned people who were send to collect the money from lady and even their seniors .
I am cc’ing Mr Kunal Pradhan and lady Nita Tripathi .
Thanks
Manish
The case was resolved and Lady got her money back
After that there was no activity for few days and some weeks back I got a mail from the lady and she confirmed that the things are resolved now.
Dear Mr Manish,
Wish you a VERY HAPPY HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.
I am extremely sorry for not writing to you earlier about the progress in the matter. In fact after your intervention, ICICI Pru immediately responded. They have now cancelled the mis- sold policy and have credited the amount to the old policy account after getting the formalities completed locally.They have issued the receipt and provided the number by email but I have not received the hard copy as yet.
Honestly speaking I have no words to express my gratitude and thanks for all the help. I pray to GOD to give you all the success and happiness in life.
Thanks once again.
Nita Tripathi
Case 2 : How Bharat Kamble got his Rs 24,000 back from ICICI
One reader Bharat Kamble was struggling to get back his money from ICICI Bank. His credit card was charged twice and ICICI was making him run around here and there without any valid reason. Here is the problem he was facing. I thought of using twitter to communicate this issue to ICICI bank and ask them to act on priority.
Within 24 hours, I got a message from ICICI stating a reference number and they asked Bharat to reply back to ICICI and mention that code number in the message subject (I guess they take it with priority and seriousness). Bharat did exactly that and then he got his money back. I asked him to write a testimonial for us and here is what he sent back in email (problem and solution both).
Dear sir,
I am a 29 year old Geotechnical enginner from mumbai. I am planning for migration to Australia and have already applied for an Australian PR (Permanant Residence). On 21st June 2011, i have paid the fees for PR application to the IEA (Immigration Engineers of Australia). The amount was Rs. 24603/-. I gave the details of credit card in the application form and the amount of Rs. 24603/- was deducted from my ICICI credit card. This amount was reflected in my July month statement. Later in the August month statement i saw the same transaction been done again on 22nd July 2011. I called up to the IEA department for clarification. They said that the first transaction was unsuccessful and hence they did the second transaction which was successful.
I told them that the money has been deducted for both the transactions. They said that ask your bank to talk to our bank (commonwealth bank) for the unsuccessful transaction, also they me the reference file number for the failed transaction as a proof. Later daily i had been calling the customer care of ICICI bank for the problem and solutions. but i got only one answer from all of them stating ” its the mistake of commonwealth bank and they have to sort out the issue. The only alternative for this is that to raise a dispute against this amount”). I was really very tensed and worried about this problem. I showed them the reference file number which was given to me by the commonwealth bank , but they said that we cant check this reference number.
On 23rd Sep. 2011, i file a dispute against this transaction with ICICI bank. They told me that it will take 45 days to solve this dispute and also the result make not be in your favour. i was really suffering from a bad time in that period. after 45 days on 18th november, i called the CC of ICICI bank for the status of the dispute and they said that it will take another 45 days to solve the issue.
Finally while surfing on the solutions on internet i came across “jagoinvestor”. I read all the comments (some of the problems were similar to mine one but not the same exactly and thought lets put up my problem over here. Within 24 hrs i got a valuable feedback from Mr. Manish Chauhan. He gave me a code number and said that put this in the subject matter and send this email to icicibank@customercare.com. I did the same thing and after 3 days i got a reply to that email mentioning that the amount has been debited on your account. I felt like my feets were not on the earth. I was relaxed and happy.
What should i say about this guy. I am very thankful to him.
I would like to inform you all that beware of such kind of theft and use of credit card has to be limited.
What you can learn from this?
This post was to show you that one should reach some key people in the company and then communicate the issue to them. Just talking to customer care wont help. Reach to CEO, MD directly, mail them and expect some help. Leave messages on twitter or facebook pages of these companies. At times it works. However I am not saying that this will always work, but nothing to lose if you try!
Hope more people use the power of twitter to express their dissatisfaction. And eventually curb this mis selling and fraud by the agents and the bank.
And Good Work Manish on helping those two people!
Hi Manish
I have a Life stage assure Policy from ICICI Prudential which I took on 24/08/2009 and iam paying Rs 30,000 yearly and i have already paid Rs 1,05,000 but Iam having only Rs 72,000 as my fund value as on date. So whether it would be appropriate to surrender my policy now. And I would like to know what will the approximate bonus amount i may get after Ten years if i continue the policy
Regards,
Satish
Satish
Its not possible to suggest anything like this without looking at things in detail . Better ask it on our forum with more details – https://www.jagoinvestor.com/forum/
Nice article to read and great help done by you Mr.Manish
Good to know that the problems got solved.As on date a few customer care numbers of ICICI are not even working and they are still given under customer care!!! My debit card query ?(BOB) was solved instantly when I mailed on the id provided on net and the reply they gave was marked to the manager of the concerned branch as well.
I work in a general insurance company and we try to solve the matter at the earliest when any query/complaint is made by the customer. 🙂
good to hear about your case . which company are you working from ?
United India Insurance
Hi Manish,
I request you to start a new forum for customer complaints under Jago Investor.
This forum would have facts written by victims and discussion forums.
This would really help investors in taking decisions.
Thanks,
Abhishek
Abhishek
Thats a good idea . will try to do that soon
Hi Manish,
Just give me some time. I would also come up with some sort of structure on how the forum must look.
Thanks,
Abhishek
Great Job Done Manish.. Congrats..
This website along with your inputs are really helpful..
Thanks..
Hi Manish,
I opened a ICICI demat account 3 years back and I never received the user id and password courier / mailer. Obviously I have not logged in to ICICI demat account, have not done any transaction. Last year I received a SMS from them asking to pay the AMC money for 2 years.
Am I liable to pay the amount?
Please advice.
Regards
Bharani
Bharani
Why do you think you are not liable to pay the amount ? The account was opened, but you didnt get the user id and password . It might happen that they have sent it , but it didnt reach you , did you enquire about it ever ? The account was open and the yearly charges were accruing
manish,
You made us proud of you…again
first, by en-lighting us with so much of precious knowledge every day
and then with such work…!
great job!
Thanks Amol
Great Going Manish!!!! Wish You All the very Best for a Brighter Future Ahead…
Thanks Suneel
You really did a great job Manish !
Kudos to you.
Sahil
Hi Manish,
Good to see your ‘.. Bachav investor..’ actions 🙂
A very good way you have found to ‘do good to the society’.
I hope the word spreads.
Regards,
Harsha.
Thanks Harsha 🙂
Hi Manish!
Feeling proud about you. Keep up the good work. You are always helpful remain as such hereafter.
By one among the crowd who got help from you
Jagadish. P
People generally, even the highly educated ones, keep their mind and eyes shut while buying life insurance. When they receive the policy cover note, they put the envelope in almirah even without opening it. Crook agents take advantages of that.
Manish,
Just wished to say that there are internal mechanisms in every company to address the grievances on a fast track. When someone raises issues in Jago Investor, I think such people can help and guide…
ok got it now
hi manish keep on serving the people. you are really a great help for people.
Thanks Vin 🙂
Any organisation for that matter is a group of individuals. Company’s approach depends on the higher managers and their approach towards customers and hence instructions and pressures to lower employees to deliver. Many of the internal people may be JI followers … They know the best path to hitch the issues… Hopefully then can discuss and guide…
Great work Manish…
Satish
I am not sure what you are concluding here ?
Hi Manish,
Its rare to see people helping others without expecting anything from them. You are on of them. Keep it up. I pray God that he should keep you in a happy and long living life.
Thanks
Tmk
Thanks Tmk
Over the course of time, I too had faced few issues with the banks and luckily got resolved at the next escalation.
After home loan foreclosure, I was requesting them for property documents and customer care gave me a month time only to collect the docs and if missed gave a horrifying procedure to recall back from central office. I am a NRI and one month time us too short for me. I wrote to VP and he understood and co-operated with me. They gave me a freedom to collect the docs as and when I arrive in India. I eventually collected after 6 months of closing the loan.
Another instance is Form 16A. The bank says original docs were sent to me which never reached me. Tax filing date was nearby and the matter is passed on from one point to other without any resolution. I escalated to next level and it worked like a magic. Next day, the duplicate forms were issued to me.
Great Job. Congratulations to Jagoinvestor team
Thanks Anurag
Great Job Manish,
Very few people these days would spend time for an unknown person let alone taking steps you’ve taken to get this helpless lady.
Clearly you’ve earned this lady’s goodwill & blessings for life.
All the best
Yea Sarath .. Felt good when she got the money 🙂
Glad that they got their dues. And great work done, Manish.
Thanks Palin
Manish
Manish,
Great job. Appreciate your help to get the justice done.
Rakesh
Thanks Rakesh 🙂
Hi Manish,
Good job…keep up the good work
Thanks Smitha
If you could publish a page on your website of key people ..that would go a long way to help people.
We as a community can probably help collecting the details of some key people in the institutions..
what say?
Puneet
the issue is that there is no list already prepared like that .. depending on situation one has to find out the key people and those people keep changing .
Manish
Awesome job Manish, I have no words for this kind of amazing work!
Thansk Ram
Good work Manish..
I hope you remember one mail I send to you regarding my issues with Geojith.
Yea .. remmeber it .. but you never wanted to escalate it 🙂
That was because I already got the justice. What I wanted to point was If you contact the MD or CEO or any other big shots of the company, there’s a better chance of problem getting solved.
Yea thats true ..
Great job done by Mr. Manish & team (JAGOINVESTOR TEAM).
Thanks Sateesh
Manish,
You have done an awesome job and enlightened everyone to use latest tools to fight with big corporations.
Viswa
thanks .. appreciate your words
@Sushil,
Rightly said, keep ICICI out from all the avenues….. Only thing that they are not doing so far is stealing the money from ICICI Bank customers account.
This is so very inspiring to know. Simple actions need courage and commitment to produce results.
Good work Manish, keep it up. As someone pointed, social networking is double edged sword.
I too had bad experiences with ICICI (and not with other two banks I am using) and I stop using my SB & DP accounts two years ago. Recently I have re-activated these a/c. Thinking, whether to stay away from ICICI. Not to bias, the most of issues I read are related to this bank.
Venkat
I have only used ICICI bank till now and happy with it as of now , never had any issue 🙂 . So I would say it depends on experience which one has ..
Manish
Manish
You have done a very good job
Congrats for this
one lesson i learnt from this—that was my perception earlier- but now it is very clear
the lessoon is-AVOID ICICI in any form
Sushil
Not sure 🙂 .. my experience with ICICI bank has been really great till now (my personal banking) ..
I’m sure there would be many people who would not be satisfied with their Insurance Policy/other Investment Product but now they have a solution for any mis-selling.
Infact its very good to hear that you also took so much pains and helped your Readers with their Mis-sold policy
Thanks Karan 🙂
wow you realy did a great job .please be continue….
Thanks Vimal
Manish
This is indeed how many of ‘customer’ injustice need to be addressed. I am part of Jagoinvestor exactly for gaining such experiences. Last year I had similar experience with ICICI-Lombard Ins for transferring my No Claim Bonus to a new car from Hdfc-Ergo Ins. It took me 6 months to get mt refund of NCB to my satisfaction thanks to a good quality assurance manager to whom I escalated my case. I always believe that there are some sincere managers/staff who help out in such problems whether it is private or public bodies. It is for us customers to raise our issues with supporting facts and expect such good resolution of problems. Of course in some cases I have failed also. Bu this should not put us off in raising issues. After all as you always reiterated, Manish, it is our money and if we don’t take care of this relationship, who will?
Kudos to you also on Jagoinvestor book recently published and the interesting and simple way many facts have been presented.
With best wishes
Cv Easwaran
Yes
There can be some cases where we need to take up the issue further and it will work and fail at times, but we need to keep trying
You are taking the blog/forum to new heights! Kudos!
Thanks 🙂
My take on this is ‘Dont do business with ICICI’.
Vijay
Not sure if thats too extreme 🙂 . MY personal banking is with ICICI only and I am happy
Congratulations.
Though there were many complaints against ICICI, i feel that the malaise is spread across. I had two instances with two other organisations, which i could sort out by going to higher authorities/ ombudsman.
The reasons, as i see, are mal-intention(in some cases) and ignorance of the staff(in some). In my case, in both the instances, it was the later.
Only way to check this is becoming knowledgeable. Then spreading the knowledge to others.
Congratulations once agian, Manish. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Srinivas 🙂
Great Job!
Thanks Manish and Team JI for this nice act.
I wholeheartedly appreciate your concern and help directly ( as you have done to Nita and Bharat) or indirectly to all your readers.
Dobal
Thanks Pramod
Would extend my help whereever I can 🙂
Congrats Manish, it is surprising having come so far in the market world we have such frequent instances of indifference, cheating(mis selling in this case) and callous behavior from our corporates. One has gone thru such indifference in daily life . I have been watching Jago investor since initial days years. It is a yeo man service that you have been doing . My compliments to you and your fine team
Thanks Nagendar 🙂
Hi Manish,
Congratulations for helping the small investors. It looks most of the fraudulent activity is done by ICICI only….
Siva
Siva
Yea there are lot of cases like that .. but others banks also do this
Kudos to U, Manish. Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Arudra.
Thanks Arudra !
Dear Manish
Congrats!!! You are a rockstar in real life…
Just to bring a point … why ICICI (group as such) is at the receiving end … i have seen few instances as well of not working of their potential
Regards
Vikas
Vikas
Both these cases were from ICICI .. not sure of other banks !
Dear Manish,
It really feels heartening to know that grievance redressal is a reality if we take up the issues. I thank you for the effort taken and rest assured that we will have somewhere to fall back on in case we face similar mischief. Best regards.
Dibyendu
Thanks 🙂 .
Great work Manish !!!!
Thanks Santosh
Really great help to the Victims!!
Thanks manish, for this kind of innovative Site and Blog…….
Jiten
Thanks 🙂 . Keep coming !
Wow! Great!
Thankyou for teaching the way of dealing with such issues and also by your behavior and personality of attitude to help the genuine!!
Thanks Bhushan 🙂
Hi Manish,
You are doing a great job. It is nice to see apart from spreading awareness financial literacy, you are personally take up people’s grievances and resolving them. My hearty congrats to you!!!
Best Regards
Gopal Gidwani
Thanks Gopal 🙂
I can only say “God Bless Manish”.
Great help Manish, keep going. Bottom line… Avoid ICICI. But I guess the problem is with all financial institutions, I had a issue with HDFC recently when I tried to cancel a ulip with them. First they declined saying I was late n blah blah… after insisting and providing proof that the delay was from their end (I followed them up over email as well as hard copies to their branch), I got an email reply saying the policy would not be cancelled. A hard copy was sent to my home saying the policy was cancelled and I’d be getting back my refund (which I got eventually). This just proved that their system is flawed and their internal teams are disconnected.
Shib
hmm.. yea a big issue is improper communication within internal systems .
Manish
Hi Manish,
Good work. Heartfelt wishes.
Pls keep doing it and let everybody aware and alert.
Regards,
Raju
Thanks Raju
GOD BLESS U Dear… I know U must’be felt great after getting specially Aunty’s feedback … Even I was able to help one of my close friends to get back his ULIP investment in BSLI when he faced some issues from latter side… He got back his money & it felt really great deep down …. It’s all ‘coz of Ur JI site ..
Saurav
Yes .. it really feels great when some one gets his work done because of you 🙂
send policy no I will try
Hi Manish,
Great Job done..ICICI bank focuses agressively on new customer acquisitions, however not able to manage existing set of customers. Their customer service have deteriorated over the years.
Thanks for sharing the experiences of these two customers on your blog, this can be an eye-0pener for other ICICI bank customers like me and may be some day ICICI management will notice these things will work to save their tarnishing brand image.
Rohit
yea .. i am sure it will help existing customers to know what to do and what not to do !
Manish
I appreciate your efforts to make them happy by suggesting right approaches.
Thanks Sreedhar !
Manish
Hi Manish
It is good to learn that you have been able to help two persons. Having read this I have decided to share my problem with you in the hope that you will be able to suggest something.
Presently I am based in Ludhiana.While I was working in Mumbai I took one policy from Vashi Navi Mumbai Branch Of LIC. The policy matured last year. I was asked by the Vashi branch to send my claim along with the original policy document, which I did. The claim document was witnessed by my bank manager.I sent the documents to Vashi office by Speed Post. I have sent several reminders to the Vashi branch office but they have not acknowledged my letters. I would like to know what can be done in this matter.
Anil
this is not a dispute actually .. its more of a delay from LIC side .. So better you talk to their nodal officer and see from customer care why its taking such a long time ? Also tell LIC that what is the the turn around time for this ?
Manish
Kudos Manish, keep up the good work!
Thanks Vinayak
Good work Manish. This will definitely boost your reputation. I am very happy that you decided to help an old lady in this matter.
Amit
thanks 🙂
Thanks Manish!
Well Done Manish!!
Keep it up!!
Thanks Bhavana
Manish,
God bless you! Consumers in India are really given a raw deal, with most corporations investing in their pre-sales and sales initiatives, but not in delivering what is promised to the consumer. Your cause is very noble indeed, there needs to be a major revolution in the area of holding product/service providers accountable to the consumer.
Regards
Rajaram
Thanks 🙂 .. True that a lot of work needs to be done in this area !
One thing common to both the cases is ICICI. Any coincidence.
Great Manish….
Good job done Manish… appreciate your helping the members..
Did you note both companies were ICICI….there service has deteriorated over the yeara
Nilesh
Pure coincidence ! 🙂
Wonderful. Congratulations to Jagoinvestor team
Thanks Ravi !
Manish,
These are wonderful things that you have done indeed. Congratulations !!
Here I would like to add that talking to customer care doesn’t help solve any disputes. Mailing them after logging in to the ICICI bank account online actually helps much more. I am not sure, but I think a mail is like an open case which has to be closed by the recipient, or else its a blur in their internal resume.
I got some of my credit card issues solved just by mailing them from my account.
-Regards
Imon
Imon
Thanks for sharing that .. that seems to be more robust mechanism !
Manish
Wow! Cool! It is really a great thing that this site has done for these individuals. I thought such kind of things only happened outside of India – in developed countries. It is great to see this kind of help, activism – whatever you want to call it in India. It is also great to see and know that we can reach out to such large corporations over and above their prescribed “customer support” options. Thanks again for this wonderful help to the readers of your blog.
Thanks Dhwanil 🙂 ..
Manish
Dear Manish,
Congratulations! Your suggestions/learning at the bottom of the article are bang on. In fact, the latest issue of Outlook Money also communicates the theme along the same lines. This article of has reinforced that thought process.
Social networking websites are indeed a double edged sword. Its us, who have to know how to wield it effectively.
Way to go and appreciate your honest helping hand.
Regards,
– Pavan
Pavan
thanks for your comment .. yes , social media if used properly can really help !
manish