I was planning to open a Demat / Trading Account with ICICI Bank. There were certain doubts regarding ID, Proof of Address etc after I browsed their website. So I contacted their Call Centre in India. The executive who handled my call was very helpful. He gave me the address and phone number of the branch of ICICI Bank in Doha, Qatar. So it was smooth sailing till this point.
I tried contacting the branch over phone. I was surprised that no one picks up the phone at ICICI Bank. Possibly the phone number has changed. The change in phone number has obviously not been advised to their Call Centre.
So, one day I drive down to the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) where ICICI Bank has its office. At the QFC reception the lady tells me that ICICI Bank has instructed that nobody is to be allowed into their office. I asked her to contact the branch and inform them that I need to talk to them regarding Demat and Trading Account I plan to open with them. She spoke to one Mr Rao (I could only hear one side of the conversation) and he refused meet me. I was surprised. An Indian entity, depending on deposits from Indians, treating Indian Citizens like dirt. I wonder whether their bosses in India know about the way they treat their country men in Qatar.
It is high time that ICICI Bank realizes that it is the small amounts of the lowly paid Indian expats that constitute a major share of the banks deposits. It is the educated and the well read ones who withdraw their deposits as soon as some rumors float regarding the safety of the Bank. I am sure the ICICI Bank bosses wouldn't have forgotten the scare they went through some months back.
I do not expect to get a reply to this or the Doha Branch of ICICI Bank to transform itself to a more customer friendly office. I am writing this because on the day I visited ICICI Branch in Doha, I felt insulted by my own country men.
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