Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Customer is not always the king

With growing consumerism, we’ve a saying that Customer is always the king and all companies will do whatever it takes to get business from these customers.

In reality, it is not always so. When demand is more than supply, service providers get to chose their pick and often get to chose the customers they wish to serve. Some examples:

1 Several resorts in India prefer foreign tourists to Indians. This is because foreign tourists often tip generously and spend well on additional services, while Indian tourists are often cost sensitive. They expect everything to be included in whatever they’ve paid and in general do not spend much unless necessary. Also the concern is huge that many Indians are notorious for stealing accessories from hotel rooms or damaging the property by plucking flowers etc.

2 Bangalore autos are notorious for not coming to wherever  you need to go. There was a tweet sometime back “I just asked a driver to take me wherever he is going, he still refused!” I do not know the exact logic used by drivers to decide if they wish to take the passengers to a particular place or not. Some reasons like destination being too far from auto drivers home might make some sense late night, but refusing to come to a nearby place in broad day light must have other reasons. Once I remember reading in Hai Banaglore that because of goonda problem, auto drivers hesitate to pass through certain areas.

3 Buses plying long distance do not entertain passengers who’d like to get down in first few stops, as it may mean opportunity cost of not getting to accommodate a passengers who might travel full distance

4 When it comes to self drive car rentals, India has a long way to go. Many agencies are just not keen on self drive rentals, because of multiple reasons- not much demand, risk of customers mishandling the vehicle which can increase its maintenance, risks involved in vehicles getting used for illegal activates and so on.

5 Certain timeshare company is criticized of buttering the prospects till they signup and subjecting them to all sorts of difficulties once they commit to the membership. Customer is the King as long as he/she parts with his/her money?

6 Getting a passport has been made extremely complicated now, ever since the process is outsourced to a private company by Govt of India. Despite paying the prescribed amount, passport applicants are subjected to all sorts of difficulties and delays.

As a customer, we’ll only be fooled if we expect to be treated like a king. We need to be on guard always and have backup plans. Do you agree?

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!

BlogIt - autoblogging software for YOU

BlogIt - autoblogging software for YOU

ICICI Bank Longterm customer feedback

We use blogs to vent our anger and complain when something goes wrong. We seldom appreciate when everything goes right. I’ve been a customer of ICICI Bank for over 6 years now and this post shares my feedback, which is largely positive.


I’ve seen many internet users complaining about ICICI Bank, noted that most of them were related to various loans. I’ve not availed any loans from this bank and have used only Savings account and credit card service from them, so my feedback is based on only these 2 services.


Initial 5 years or so mine was a salary account, so not sure if that influenced any preferential treatment, if any.

My only issue was when I was charged some 200 Rs + for not having enough balance and a pre-authorized monthly deduction failed. Bank neither alerted me that funds are not sufficient, nor waited for couple of days for salary to get credited. Couldn’t recover this amount and eventually took extra precautions to prevent such from happening.


All my points were getting redirected to iMint, a venture by ICICI Bank. Had some trouble with iMint cards initially, [Read my detailed review of iMint here], but eventually this was solved and am able to redeem my points in time.


When the Satyam fiasco happened, all banks slashed credit limits of Satyam Employees. ICICI was no different, but after sometime, when Deepak Parekh and other govt appointed board members criticized this move, ICICI Bank did restore the limits to previous amount for those who’d not defaulted.

When ICICI Bank advertized 8am to 8pm banking I was happy, but only to learn that this is applicable to very few branches in each city. This doesn’t apply to the branch near me.


No complaints on the credit card front either. Always paid my dues in time and never paid a single rupee in interest but they still haven’t charged me anything for causing loss of revenue by not defaulting… J They did charge me some good amount for using the credit card abroad. It proved to be little more expensive (compared to paying in cash after factoring currency conversion cost)


Luckily there was no occasion when I had to call their customer care for some sort of assistance. Used only mail facility offered in internet banking. Mails get prompt response. No complaints on that one.


Tried using their international debit card abroad to withdraw money, but after the ATM warned me that I’ll be charged about 250 Rs, I promptly took out the card, went to forex counter instead.


HDFC Charges Rs 100 per year for ATM Card, Rs 500 per year for debit card for non salary SB Accounts. ICICI doesn’t charge such fees as far as I know.


Overall having a trouble free experience with ICICI Bank as SB Account and Credit card customer. Refer other reviews if you want feedback on loans and other services.

Related: ICICI Bank Cycle banking * Recruitment frauds- Job aspirants beware * iMint * SBI accepts me as Customer * ICICI Cashback- your chances of winning * Aircel long term customer feedback *

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!

BlogIt - autoblogging software for YOU

BlogIt - autoblogging software for YOU