Hello,

I would like to lodge a complaint against the travel card issued to me by ICICI bank.

Background

I got the travel card (AUD denominated) for my holiday (honeymoon) visit to Australia. My travel itinerary included Australia (3-Nov to 17-Nov and 21-Nov to 24-Nov), New Zealand (17-Nov to 21-Nov) and Singapore (24-Nov to 27-Nov). Since my maximum stay was in Australia, I bought the travel card for Australia and chose to spend currency in cash for New Zealand and Singapore.

I realized during my stay in Australia that the card is not being accepted at any ATM or merchant location. The primary usage of travel card (VISA network) which is a prepaid card under the RBI guidelines is acceptance at ATM and merchant locations (which are authorized to use VISA network).

Factsheet

1. The card was issued to me on Oct 23, when I got the card with necessary documentation and mail from ICICI
2. I used the card for an online transaction for payment of my hotel bill in Australia
3. During my visit to Australia, the card was not accepted at any ATM or merchant location (the error message was “Card or Bank account invalid”
4. I spoke to ICICI Customer Care from Australia, who acknowledged the fact and hence helped me password change, which again did not lead to any success. The customer care then admitted that, the Bank has omitted to activate the magnetic stripe on the card; hence it is the mistake from the Bank’s side. They requested me to use the replacement card and agreed to activate the replacement card. However, the replacement card also did not get accepted in a similar way as the original card, ICICI customer care representative admitted that the magnetic stripe for both original and replacement card has been erroneously missed out and hence not been activated
5. Hence, after multiple calls and discussions, with ICICI, they agreed to send the new card to us at our New Zealand address. However, the card never reached me and when checked with courier agency, the AWB sent me to via EMAIL from ICICI Bank was invalid (attached is the screenshot and the email confirming the same). The bank claimed on Nov 17, that the card was dispatched on Nov 16 and shared the courier company and AWB details. To track the status of the courier, I learnt that the AWB was invalid, did not exist, and shared the details with Bank on Nov 20. However, the bank on Nov 23, claimed that the card could not be reached due to some custom related issues. In general parlance, the courier company would maintain the details of any document dispatch from the date of receipt i.e., Nov 16 to customer delivery (which never happened); we have contacted the courier company on Nov 20 and were given to understand that no such AWB exists and no packet has been sent in my name by ICICI Bank in New Zealand.
6. Again, after series of discussions, ICICI agreed to reimburse / not to charge for the following –
a. All charges levied to my ICICI bank Debit card and ICICI bank Credit card used in lieu of my Travel card will be waived off. Please note that I was forced to use the foreign exchange which was meant for my stay in New Zealand and Singapore (being $NZ and $Sing) in Australia until the time I could arrange for more Australian dollars from my family in India and hence I was thereby also forced to use my Debit card & Credit cards in New Zealand and in Singapore. Hence all charges for the same need to be compensated by ICICI Bank. The debit and credit card charges amount to Rs 2520.53.
b. No courier charges to be levied for any delivery of card to New Zealand
c. All expenses incurred by me in contacting ICICI Bank and for calling my family in India or for arranging cash from other sources namely International telephone expenses be reimbursed. The phone expenses amount to Rs 9165.

7. Further after the return to India, I wanted the money on the travel card to be returned to my savings account. The customer care suggested that I will have to visit the branch for the same. I visited ICICI bank branch – Nariman Bhavan, on Nov 29, they said the branch is closing and I need to visit other branch. I went to the branch –Free Press House on Nov 30, filled the application for transfer of card balance and shared all the details; however the wealth management executive was unable to trace the card on the system. After series of calls with customer care and branch personnel, the balance was finally transferred on Dec 2. However, forex charges were levied to the tune of Rs 3924.49. ICICI Bank agreed to reimburse all forex charges as the card could not be used for the trip, and hence, the balance had to be credited to savings account.

8. The details of charges are enclosed in the document “Charges levied – due to ICICI travel card - which never worked”

9. The details of correspondence exchanged with ICICI can be known from the below emails and telephonic recording available with ICICI prepaid card – customer care section

I must confess that after being ICICI customer and wealth management client for over 10 years, I am disgruntled, upset and annoyed with the quality of services and the poor response which has led to harassment and lot of damage to my vacation. Customer care has indeed not taken any care of the customer and the prepaid business and operations team needs to seriously re-evaluate the operating model which does not benefit the customer and leads to such grievance. Being an ex-banker myself, and working closely with financial services industry, I understand the business and operating framework, hence I am amazed with the poor service quality. All the bogus claims made by the bank and support provided by the bank speak volumes for themselves.

I hereby state and assure you that I will go full length to my fullest capacity being a High Net worth Individual in making sure that ICICI Bank and its travel card business pays heavily for the above namely:

I. Issuing a Travel Card which never worked
II. Defective claim of sending a new travel card with non - existent AWB bill. A complete LIE from ICICI bank about the issuance of a new travel card and the same being sent to me via courier to NEW ZEALAND, the same has been confirmed by the invalid AWB number and the courier company.

I hereby give ICICI Bank a period of 3 weeks from the receipt of this email to make good all the above charges (Rs 15,610.01) and offer me proper compensation for completely ruining my Rs. 10 lakhs Honeymoon which has in turn affected my married life.

The details of the complaint and the expenses are attached for your reference. I cannot attach the mail, the email has bounced 4 times since Sunday hence I am sending this email in parts, this being the MAIN COMPLAINT LETTER with 6 emails having attachments being sent seperately.

Please note that after 3 weeks of lodging this complaint I will approach the necessary government departments & the consumer court along with the media as per the RBI guidelines.

CC to:
1) Ravi Jagtiani - Solicitors & Advocates

regards,

HEMA SHIVNANI