Have you ever had a bad experience with a company and then receive a survey asking you to share your thoughts? You know what I mean – if you’ve ever gotten one of these and thought, “I’m the wrong person to ask, but since you’re interested…..” and then proceed to unload on whoever has to read your response?
That’s just what happened to us and our dealing with Citi’s Fraud Department.
We just signed up for a new Citi card and used it to make a tax payment. Meeting a spending requirement is one reason it makes sense to pay the surcharge for paying taxes with a credit card.
A few days after the payment, we received a voicemail. The person said they were from the Citi Fraud Department and were calling about a new application. We needed to call them back at a number (that was not listed on their card or website) to confirm our information, or future charges would be denied.
Instead of calling the number given, we called the number on the back of the card. We were forwarded to the Fraud Dept and provided the reference number left on the message. They said that the call was to confirm that it was actually us that applied for the card and now everything was fine. But is it really fine, really?
The next day, we received an email asking about our experience with the Fraud Department.
Since you asked, here’s everything wrong with what happened.
On the initial email link, I clicked on 2. That got Citi’s interest.
I need to add that I Googled the number left on our voicemail. Half of the people commenting about similar calls felt it was a scam, even after calling and speaking to someone who asked them to confirm personal information and recent charges to the card.
The next questions didn’t really pertain to our situation. However, I think that paying taxes with a business card is a normal activity. I’d hate to be the person who had to call the Fraud Dept 3+ times to resolve a problem. I guess we were lucky.
Our representative couldn’t explain why Citi called us or what the possible fraud was besides applying for a card from Citi.
These scores are based on my opinion that Citi should not have bothered us with such questions after approving a card, sending it to us, having it confirmed by us while logged into our Citi account and then asking if we were the one who applied for the card.
Having to Google a number for the Fraud department before making a call is not efficient or easy.
We’ve heard many stories about Citi’s customer service but we’ve never experienced it in person. To make things worse, the card in question was in Sharon’s name, so she was the one who needed to make the call. And her motto is, “I hate talking on the phone. Don’t make me talk on the phone.” I’m still trying to figure out how to make it up to her that she needed to make a phone call that we still can’t figure out why it was necessary.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
5 comments
Wait until you have to deal with Bank of America customer service, or if possible, just avoid it.
Seems like an interaction that I have with Citi at least once or twice a year except they actually turn off my card first. Finally gave up on Citi and started cancelling cards. two down, one more to go.
In December last year, I applied for a Citi AA card. Took me over a month to get it. Citi agreed that it was taking too long, but absolutely refused to expedite a replacement. When I finally got the card, I cancelled my Prestige and my Double Cash – no way am I paying $500 a year for this crap. Met the minimum spend on the AA card and promptly sock-drawered it. Will only use it once or twice a year to main activity on the account.
A little later, I had a similar experience with AmEx. They also agreed that the new card was taking too long to arrive, and agreed to expedite a new one at no charge upon me asking. Had the replacement in hand a day or two after my phone call.
In early September we discovered a $19800 fraudulent charge on our AA account, supposedly a transfer using flexloan.
We reported it to the fraud department over 6 weeks ago and still no response from them. Now we are in to the following statement period they have now started to claim there is a payment due and also charge intertest.
Cit fraud department is a fraud in itself. When money is stolen from your account, they REFUSE to reimburse you, instead putting the blame on you say, the theft came from your computer IP so you obviously transferred the money yourself. Pathetic. Almost $40,000 stolen from my account and Citi still has not reimbursed me. Obviously, Citi KNOWS where the money went, if they know it was stolen from my IP on my computer. Advise NOT doing business with Citi!