If there was an equivalent of Windows Modal dialog box in web applications, a similar one can be found in ICICI Direct stock trading application.

1. They keep showing the above dialog box requesting you to update your information and not providing you an option which says nothing to update.
2. If you choose the option "Will change later", their later is hardcoded to be "Just Now"
3. If you want to update anyway just to make it go away, there's a dialog box in javascript straight from the 90's which says Occupation not mentioned or something similar.

Now it is understandable that web applications can have errors pushed to production, though it is scary for a financial site.

What is not understandable is the response of their customer support at their call center:-

1. Sir there is a technical problem with the site, it should be fine by tomorrow ( oh yeah, you dolt you haven't even heard my description of the problem ).
2. Sir please click on trading ( ofcourse you doofus, I know how to click on trading to make the screen go away but it comes back when I click something else )

All in all an arrogant and pig-headed customer care of ICICIDirect designed to make people go away means that an easily fixable javascript problem won't be fixed until someone in their own QA detects this edge case. Why is it so hard to listen to customers instead of continuing to parrot inanities. The financial institutions like ICICI are extremely vulnerable to phishing fraud precisely because they have no culture of listening to people and also seem to think spamming with misleading e-mail subject lines is 'great marketing'

Am I the only one or do all ICICI customers and many non-customers routinely get legitimate looking ICICI bank communication sent via domains which are not icicibank.com and un-subscription forms(hosted on non https server again not icicibank.com) which ask for way more information about you than is required to un-subscribe you. Infact the so called donotcall forms might be used to generate illegitimate leads as opposed to un-subscribing a person who has been spammed and tried to un-subscribe in good faith.

There is a fraud waiting to happen on a large scale and ICICI Bank is responsible. The sleazy Internet practices of clueless, security un-conscious Indian banks and other businesses needs a large doze of self-regulation and infusion of clue.

Indian banks please get a clue. Do not send communication to people who didn't sign up for it. There is no point in a person trying to un-subscribe from a Lead Management System, as everytime a marketing moron decides that he can use the database to start marketing yet another useless and dishonest banking product. Ethics and 'non-fee based' activities of Indian banks obviously don't go together.

For e.g. its dishonest to run ads for apartments on portals and then using that leads database to try and sell retail banking products. Using the leads for a purpose other than they were collected is un-ethical and counter productive.

Which idiot runs mission critical trading sites on Winblows. Apparently ICICIDirect does. And they go down right in the middle of a trading day. Happening right now the IIS 500.13 error code web server too busy.

Update: 5 minutes later They are back in action, perhaps a (winblows)reboot or something helped.

A few weeks back before I went to a short 2 week trip to US, I provided an ICICI 'bank official' at my office with a lead by filling a ICICI lead form(paper) for opening an ICICI direct depository and share trading account. The form mentioned the date and time which ICICI should call me. I was surprised when I got a call on correct date and time when I came back. The person who called me asked if I had wanted an ICICI 'share trading' account and if he can come down and have me fill up the form. Sweet!! I thought, these guys are methodological. Now once I came into the reception area of the office sure I found this person. He hands me over an indiainfoline.com depository/share trading account form and ... I am like what the **** is that.
Agent: Sir we have a tie-up with ICICI
Myself: Maybe, your depository allows linkup with an ICICI bank account for direct funds transfer which definitely doesn't constitute an exclusive tie-up for providing depository services to ICICI customers. Moreover I had asked an ICICI bank officer to send someone over for opening a ICICIdirect depository/trading account.
Agent: Sir our transaction costs are lower.
Myself: Its a question of ethics, you guys are un-ethical, can I speak to your manager.
Agent: Calls up the 'manager' on his cellphone
Myself to 'manager': Which company do you work for
'manager': Sir I work for indiainfoline.com ,
Myself: Ah! so how come you are able to obtain an ICICI bank's lead ??
'manager': Sir our trading account is cheaper ...
Myself: Yes but it is un-ethical and I shall complain to ICICI bank about how their leads are getting leaked.
......
A few minutes later I try the customer support numbers mentioned on ICICI bank's website and sure enough I am un-able to get through to a live human in any reasonable amount of time. So ICICI bank is blind and deaf in realtime which is the difference between a customer being defrauded and being able to obtain authentic information in good time.

Now I don't really know or care if ICICI bank is promoting indiainfoline.com instead of their own icicidirect service even to customers who specifically asked to buy it or it is their DSA( Direct Sales Agency) in Bangalore which decided that they get higher margins by selling ICICI customer information to direct competitors. Now all that remains to be done is that my ICICI bank account needs to closed and this recommendation for my friends(and readers of this blog) on perils of dealing with financial institutions that are ethically challenged or blind/deaf/un-reachable to their customers. I am not claiming that indiainfoline.com has a company policy of being un-ethical, maybe they just happened to hire an ethically challenged sales agent/sales agency.

Update: After several weeks of trying to get an account from error-ridden DSA's of reliancemoney, sharekhan, religare etc. I eventually settled for opening an icicidirect account and retaining icici bank account. Welcome to the world of 'real' choices that India provides.