Nightmare of the worst order. Review on ICICI Bank

In July of 2002, I applied for a home loan from ICICI HFC Ltd. A home loan utsav was going on in Chennai and I went in for a spot sanction. I also saw an ad in the paper and took all the necessary documents as per the ad. When I walked into this utsav, little did I know that it was to mark the beginning of a never ending nightmare.

It took me a while to find someone who could help me. I started to explain my background to him, he asked, ''Where is your husband?'' I told him I was single and he had this look of utter shock on his face. He told me I wasn't eligible for a home loan. When I asked him why, he told me that I was likelier to take the money and run if I was single.

Then he told me that ICICI's rules prevented him from giving loans to single people. I couldn't take my parents or siblings as co-applicants. After asking several of his ''higher-ups'', he agreed to process my application on the condition that I could produce a non financial guarantor. After we finished the form filling, I gave him an HDFC cheque for the processing fee and he said he would only accept a cheque from my salary account. When I asked why this wasn't mentioned in the ad, he said, ''Everyone knows this, only you are asking''. It took me 10 days to get a sanction letter. And by the time it came, the sanction amount had reduced some 30% because of errors made by him. I was told that the letter was valid for a year.

Little less than a year later, when my builder needed the money, I tried to contact ICICI. The man who processed my loan papers had quit, and so had the relationship officer assigned to my case. It took me a month to figure out that my loan sanction had expired in 6 months. I reapplied for the loan and another month later got a new sanction letter. By the time I got this letter, I had switched jobs. I sent a letter to ICICI HFC giving them details of my new employment along with a copy of the signed sanction letter. When I followed up to ask for a disbursement, I was told that my sanction had been withdrawn. Reason: change of job.

Several months of running after different people, I was assigned a new relationship officer (R.O.) who promised to reopen my file. This was because I threatened to take my loan to another bank. I asked him why he needed to reopen my file and he said, ''You didn't have the decency to inform us of your job change.'' I told him that I sent him the letter in writing. He claims he received the form I sent with the letter, but didn't get the letter itself. I started taking names of people that had worked (slept might be a better word) on my file and it turned out that none of them was with the company anymore. I asked him how long he planned on being with ICICI and he got very upset.

I made three trips just to ensure that my loan would be disbursed. Finally, the R.O. promised that if I met him before December 31st, 2003, he would disburse the loan the same day. He promised me that I would need to make only a single visit to the office. I traveled to Chennai and called him as soon as I reached there. I was asked to call him the next day. When I asked if ICICI was working, he said they most definitely were. So I called the next day and there was no response. I kept trying and finally the guy answered his phone on the 2nd morning. He asked me to come to the office at 5.30 that evening. Reason: the calendar year had changed and the format of the loan document had changed too. So better to wait and see what the changes are.

I was there at 5.30 p.m. and the office was emptying. I was asked to wait for an hour and then someone who had never handled my case earlier came and spoke to me. I had to explain my case from the beginning and then he called my R.O. The R.O. asked me where my co-applicant was. I told him I didn't have one. He says, ''Oh goodness Madam, how can I give you the loan? You are a sole applicant.'' I explained my case again and I was told that I should bring one of my parents in as a co-applicant. I told them that this was against their rules and the guy says, ''For you, we'll make an exception.'' (Yeah, right!)

The RO promised to send an executive to my residence the next day at 10 a.m. At about ten minutes to 11, the guy calls to ask for directions to my place and tells me that he is calling from his office. He tells me to keep 3 blank cheques ready. I said I would do no such thing. He reaches my place with a form that would help make my mother a co-applicant and a home loan document. The document had several blank columns and he asked me to sign everywhere. When I refused he told me that everyone signs on blank pages and agrees to give blank cheques, and I was the only one that had refused.

Then he asked me to hand over the original receipts of payments made to the builder. I asked him for an acknowledgement of the same and he refused. He ultimately agreed. Then he asked me for the original sale deed between the owner of the plot and the builder, and the document showing the title of the land for the last 13 years. I told him I didn't have that and he said he couldn't give me the money. Then I made him speak to my builder who explained that the project was already approved by ICICI and that all these documents had already been submitted. Then the man asks me for my registration documents.

This is after 6 months of explaining that in Karnataka, the registration takes place only after 80-85% of the building is constructed. He didn't understand. He finally took all my papers and when I asked for the cheque he said it would take time. I told him that I was promised my disbursal on the same day and he said, ''You were promised the disbursal, not the cheque. Trust me, just because 6 people in ICICI have let you down so far, why do you blindly assume that the 7th will also do the same.''

After returning to Hyderabad, I was on the phone for hours everyday until the partial disbursement cheque was handed over to my father. At his age, he had to go several times to their office and wait.

All was well until I needed the final disbursement. By this time our RO had been transferred to another branch. So my ordeal began all over again. The apartment had been registered, all papers submitted and I ask for the money. Once again the guy asks me to submit 3 blank cheques. When I refused he says, ''Madam, don't you trust me...for your safety, just cross the cheques and write ICICI HFC Ltd on them'' I was beyond angry. I told him I would give him cheques with the amount written and nothing else. The he said he had to wait for his technical report. This took 10 days. Finally he called my father and asked him to collect the cheque at 11 a.m. When my father reached the place, he was told that the cheque had not yet come in. Can he please come back at 3? No apologies.

Then our man went on leave and was not reachable. After another week or more, my father was called yet again to collect the cheque. When he collected it, we found that the money was a lot less than what it should have been. Again, our man was not reachable. It turned out that since I refused to give a blank cheque, the last pre EMI was deducted from the final disbursement. This I have come to know today because my father spent another day at ICICI.

On the whole, these last two years have been a nightmare. I have realized through this experience that this is not the fault of any of the ICICI reps I interacted with. The fault lies with ICICI itself. It has maintained an organizational culture of impoliteness and rudeness, and had instilled a sense of ''I don't care'' in all its employees. If you feel life has been going very smoothly until now and want to sample a bitter pill, go in for