Citibank

[Nathan7777]

Citibank are, without doubt, THE WORST institution I have dealt with - and that includes the telcos! I will never deal with them again and if I can convince one person or one thousand to do the same, then I will be happy. Like you said, call centre is a waste of time, head office is a waste of time - but if you can't get something done, mention the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman and you will be given very prompt service with a comparably quick resolution. Shame Citibank, shame!

[bodogbodog]

Nathan
Apologies I understand your sarcasm - like you I am very frustrated with Citibank - and their call centres (which I saw they were moving to a Philipines based operation from Australia (can the service or understanding of customer issues get any worse?)

[Nathan7777]

You will find that 'Congratulations' was filled with very bitter sarcasm!

[temp-on65dc]

I can't understand why you are congratulating Citibank on their moves- they tried to weasel out of the payment - as they did with me in the same promotion.

I would NOT ever do business with Citibank in the future. Their call centre is a bunch of "robots" who can't discuss any resolution - they just respond with standard boilerplate.

My issue was despite lodging the application by the due date - which I did - but then Citibank started asking for supporting material and questions that weren't part of the application - I didnt mind providing this information but resolving those took longer than the deadline - they argue the application wasnt completed on time therefore no bonus (they still opened the account. I have been trying to get the account closed ever since but the "robots" wont accept an email despite it being an online account and as they have half done things and I cant access the account online I cant send them a "secure email" via their system - so I am still getting "statements" recording my non activity - I have told them I dont want to recieve anything from Citibank and I dont want an account - but their system can't cope with closing the account.
I think they used any excuse to not pay the account bonus to applicants on this promotion. It's not good enough.

[trinity1982]

Well, they keep prank calling my partner at really inconvienient times. I swear thay are sitting outside our yard calling us like teen brats at a phone box.

[Nathan7777]

Congratulations Citibank - more incompetence.

My saga started with a Ready Credit account with a $22k limit. I was considering moving my mortgage to Citibank, but after the still Australian call centre messed up a very simple requested, I decided that was it and bye bye Citibank. How wrong I was.

I sent the letter to Citibank to close this account on the 7th Oct 2003, and paid $21,700 into the account on the 15th Oct. Citibank advised this account would not officially close for another month, in case of any authorised transaction I had made - ironic when no direct debits had ever come out and they could just reject any other tranactions, but hey I accepted. Anyway, we notified payrolls and all institutions that put money into this account and thought great finally over.

The problems started when my partners work put her pre-Xmas salary into the old account - stupid but true. What is more stupid is that Citibank accepted this deposit into a closed account 2 months later. We then have to go through the process of requesting our own money back in writing, that can take 4 weeks to process and then they post a cheque and once this arrives I have to wait a week for it to clear.
The first time I accepted it, but by the forth time I had had enough and went to the banking ombudsman. And don't Citibank change their tune when the Ombudsman's Office is involved. I was given a direct number to a personal contact in the complaints department and my money was electronically transferred overnight. This was after they told me it was posted, no it was electronically done, no it was posted - "I don't know!" They say they were not aware of this problem, dispite me raising it 4 times myself within 12 months. Not to mention the saga of asking for a supervisor - I was lucky to have any phone calls under an hour to Citibank and I really feel sorry for some of the people I spoke to but this was NGE. I would have spent between 50 and 70 hours on the phone to them trying to fix this. And the majority of these calls were never logged on my customer history file.

Terrible systems, terrible customer service staff and a disgusting institution. I will never deal with Citibank again and I have told everyone I know about this story, and now hopefully 1000's I don't know. This version is very abreviated to fit in this space and FYI - Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman Office is not much better!

[NGE]

The Top 10 changes every 2 weeks. Each alternate week focuses on the Winners Board.

Members were advised of this change via newsletter & homepage announcement some time ago. This is also noted in FAQ.

The Top 10 forum is not archived.

[oldjonesy]

How often is the top ten gripes updated? This one >>
has been there a while.

I guess it has been a bit slow around here

[NGE]

Fatboy please contact NGE via Contact Us/General Enq

[fatboy]

I have to agree with the lack of service from Citibank - here is my story -
On 20 August 2004 at 12.07pm I telephoned to request a convenenience cheque (7.9% interest
as per letter of offer). When I checked the account yesterday - the transfer request had not been completed. So I called the 13 number - after waiting a very long time, I was told that there was no record of this request. When I asked to speak to a complaints officer I was told the same thing and that it could not be followed up until I provided details of who I had spoken to, on what day etc. So when I got home, I again called with these details and again was told that the request had not been processed and I would have to make a new
request. I had to be somewhere so I terminated this call. Later I rang back only to be told the same thing, with these additions - the request is being investigated and any new balance transfer will be offered at 4.9%. OK ! however it was still going to take 10 working days to process. I asked
to speak to a complaints manager and was cut off. So I rang back - and again cut off after hearing a similar message to this 'no customer complaints officer is available, please refer to team leader'. So I rang transfer requests to provide the details AGAIN and was told that the details were on the system but had not been processed. So 5 phone
calls later, replies by incompetent call centre operators, being cut off twice - I was in fact right, there was a record of my request for a
transfer AND CITIBANK HAD NOT PROCESSED IT. Then this morning someone telephoned me insinuating that I had hung up! I have also given up on my application to have the credit limit increased - again, call centre staff who do not know what they are talking about! It is no wonder that there is not a customer complaints officer available - I imagine that Citibank would get many, many complaints about the service offered.
The upshot of this is that I paid off and closed my account (still getting statements though) and despite writing to the complaints officer in Sydney and sending further emails, I have not received an explanation; apology or compensation. My advice is steer well clear of Citibank and their offshore call centre!

[ivt]

glad to see that Citibank responds to NGE, they have never responded to me the Customer

[VCjoye]

This week's Citibank article triggered my memory of the receipt of two Citibank fyshing emails that I received. Being an NGE member I decided to try to contact Citibank and advise them of my receipt of these emails for them to investigate. However, after searching their website and finding a place to email fraud, I was totally surprised when the email was reported as undeliverable. I am not a Citibank customer and when my email was not delivered I gave up.

[ivt]

Yes, Citibank have finally credited the full amount back, that is after I made 4 seperate telephone calls, some lasting as long as 20 minutes. The final call took place on 1st November, the Customer service operator based in Sydney told me she would investigate and definately ring me back the next day, I AM STILL WAITING AND IT IS SUNDAY. I only knew the full amount was finally credited after I checked my online account on 3rd November as Citibank has NEVER rang me or spoken to me about this matter. I am very disallusioned with this card as I am a very frequent traveller overseas and use my card to purchase items over the net, never before have I had any problems with any card as I am always very careful. I still cannot fathom why Citibank would not listen then I told them this was a fraudulent transaction, and it was only my persistence over the 4 calls I made that they finally listened, but who knows the amount was charged back so they probably won't investigate at all!!!!!!!! Citibank gold visa holder, beware

[NGE]

Some company in Turkey had charged 50,000,000.00 (that’s right 50 million) Turkish lire to my account complains Ivt

I went to BPay an account using my Citibank Gold Visa, only to find out the transaction was rejected as I was over my limit.

Knowing this was not possible, I checked my online account to find out some company in Turkey had charged 50,000,000.00 (that’s right 50 million) Turkish lire to my account on 26 October which converted to $4669.21 AUD.

I immediately rang Citibank and fumbled thru their online banking, eventually giving up and going for the option of reporting my card stolen. I advised that I knew nothing of this transaction and asked where it originated from. Their answer NO IDEA. Next question what currency? Answer NO IDEA (Turkish lire has band code of TRL not TL).

I told them I knew nothing of this charge and they should investigate as someone had fraudulently hacked into my account. I was told they would send me a form within 5 working days, to fill it in and dispute the charge and then they would investigate. In the meantime I should pay this amount.

Right, I hung up and redialed and asked to speak to a supervisor, were they not worried that someone had fraudulently used my account. No not really was their reply.

I then gave up. I rechecked online on 31 October to find that their charge had been reversed on 27 October (remember on 29 October they had no record of reversal), but due to currency fluctuations I am now out of pocket AUD $107.12, which I have to dispute.

I checked all of my 6 credit cards and there was nothing else suspicious.

Citibank have no interest in pursuing this matter unless I make a disputed charge form that they must mail, they have no facilities to email and fax the form!!!!!!!!

Citibank, have you ever heard of the electronic age? Obviously not.

I will now be canceling this card that I spend on average $6000 a month, as they obviously have so much money that the do not consider a $4700 fraudulent charge worth following up immediately.

That's right, the customer has to pay this charge first so why worry it’s not their money.

On the other hand, because I travel to Malaysia and purchase airline ticket in Malaysian ringets for around $AUD 200, that is worth a call to tell me that they will cancel my card, as any Citibank Visa used in Malaysia has to be cancelled as fraud is so rampant in that Country.

Well Citibank look at Turkey.

Citibank’s response

Dear Ms Ivt,

Thank you for your correspondence addressed to www.Notgoodenough.org regarding your VISA Account, and the issue of the unauthorised transaction on your account.

Please accept my apology for the level of service provided to you. I am disappointed it has adversely affected your experience with Citibank.

On 26 October 2004, an amount of $4,699.21 was debited from your account.

On 29 October 2004, the merchant ascertained that they had debited your account in error. On this day you contacted Citibank and advised that the transaction was not authorised by you. At the time of the call the transaction had not been credited back into your account.

During the overnight processing of your account on 29 October 2004, the original transaction was credited to your account with an effective date 27 October 2004. It was this reason that the Customer Service Officer was unaware the transaction was in the process of being reversed.

On 1 November 2004, an adjustment of $107.12 was credited to your account, effective 26 October 2004.

Customer satisfaction is of great importance to Citibank, so I thank you for your feedback. I have been able to forward the issues raised to the Customer Service Manager for further investigation and review. This provides us with the opportunity to improve our level of Customer Service and identify where further training is required.

I trust your concerns have been addressed and I am confident that future dealings with Citibank will be met with satisfaction.

Yours sincerely,

Chris A Mason
Team Leader
Customer Response Group