The online trading system as well as the phone-order service of ICICIdirect broke down today leaving numerous customers feeling completely helpless. However, the company is keeping mum so far.

ICICIdirect.com, ICICI Securities Ltd's retail trading and investment services portal crashed today due to technical glitches. This has put all of its customers in deep trouble. Till writing the story, the trading or customer login page on icicidirect.com was showing an error message saying:”Dear Customer, Our website ICICIdirect.com is not available today due to technical issues. We truly regret the inconvenience caused to you.”

ICICIdirect.com was down since morning with a message that the services will be resumed at 8.55am, the time when trading commences on bourses. However, throughout the day, customers were not able to log in or do any online trading. Even its CallNtrade facility used for placing orders through a phone was not working.

According to some customers, their repeated calls to ICICIdirect's helpline were met with replies like "Sorry, but we have a technical problem"; "We cannot transfer to our superior because he is on another call" and "Our superior will give you the same response”. The media relations person first put Moneylife on hold and then did not take the subsequent calls. Our query to the CEO, Madhabi Puri Buch has not been responded to.

ICICIdirect does not have a dedicated helpline and the customers have to go through the ICICI Bank helpline in a series of complicated steps, with a wait time of up to 7-10 minutes at times, a customer said.

The magnitude of the technical problem was such that the brokerage was not even taking orders over the phone, confirmed another customer.

The Sensex jumped by more than 200 points within seconds of opening today thanks to strong overseas markets. Customers who wanted to square off their shorts were forced to watch their losses mount due to the technical problem. Those who wanted to sell their shares could not book profits.

"ICICIdirect is one of the most expensive online brokers and a breakdown in its services is very upsetting,” one customer told us.  — Moneylife Digital Team