The Principle of the Agent

A Gurgaon based Multinational was approached last month by a person representing ICICI Bank offering a Solid Gold Card. Amongst the freebies...

A Gurgaon based Multinational was approached last month by a person representing ICICI Bank offering a Solid Gold Card. Amongst the freebies offered were: no annual charges for two years, a Rs 500 shopping voucher from big Bazaar in Gurgaon, medical, accident, baggage insurance, discounts of domestic and international basic airfares and so on. 15 to 20 of the employees signed up and got their card in no time.

The problems began when Rahul Kumar, a usually alert consumer, decided to check if the benefits had actually kicked in. Calls to the customer care number told him that no, there was no annual fee waiver, he will be billed soon for his first year, no there was no free gift voucher. He then asked if his insurances were in place. ‘No sir, you have to first ask us for the forms, we will send, once we get them and approve, then your insurance is effective.”

Kumar was told by ICICI Bank officers that since these claims were made by a Direct Sales Agent (DSA) and not the bank, these looked to be false. Emails with this newspaper quote B Madhivanan, Business Head Credit Cards at ICICI Bank writing: “as discussed there seems to be a false promise made by the agent”. After two weeks of calling the customer care number, he had to use personal contacts to get an answer from the Bank.

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When this newspaper contacted ICICI Bank on this, V Vaidyanathan, Head Retail Products said: “This is an error, it is an exception. The call centre may not have been aware of these benefits. There is such a package with us and it has been given to this company. In fact, we have waived the annual fee for three years for this company. Also for insurance cover beginning, no forms are needed”. He also said that the Bank is responsible for the promises made by the DSAs and will stand by it.

Seems like the head office forgot to tell the people on the ground its policy of Six Sigma efficiency and customer satisfaction. Kumar was told that though his annual fee had been waived (after the newspaper got into the loop) for three years, his gift voucher is not going to come. This is a promise made by the DSA that the company cannot fulfil. Then who will?

The issue is not of 500 bucks or an annual fee waiver, it is about being cheated. If the Bank is not responsible for the actions of the agent, who is? It is obviously not enough to have a theoretical policy of honouring all offers made by the DSAs if that is not carried out on the ground without media intervention.

Also, if the Bank finds its agent making such false promises, do they initiate action against them? Is the agency ever terminated? If not, the needle of suspicion points to a cosy relationship between banks and their agents, where the customer is the only fool.

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The buzz on the ground is that the DSAs are making promises that the banks do not fulfil, leaving the customers calling call centres with no answers. If the Reserve Bank of India can take a view on the retail loan market, it can regulate this free for all between the banks and their DSAs.