I closed my Citicards Mastercard account after my divorce and started paying it off. I cut the card up and made a payment agreement. Around March I got a phone call from a customer service rep offering to re-open the account. I told him no, but he was very persuasive. He clinched his deal by offering to lower my interest rate almost 14 points, so I agreed since this would of course lower my payments. I never received a new card, though.
I made my payments as agreed and did not use the account. I only wanted to pay it off.
In May, an online service that I use attempted to charge my annual membership fee to this account (although I had closed that account, too). I called Citibank and they said the charge was taken off, so I thought everything was fine.
The charge showed back up on my July bill, and my bill did not reflect the new interest rate. I called Citicards at 6 pm on 7/24/06 and I ended up talking to a very rude young man named "TJ." I had already been switched around several times and was crying while I was on hold.
At no time did I yell or curse at this young man. He immediately started off by telling me I shouldn't be upset. I said I was very upset. He continually interrupted me and kept asking if I was "in dispute." I told him no, that something had been charged to my account by mistake. He got sarcastic and said that was what "dispute" was. How was I supposed to know that? He also told me I had no reason to be upset. I thanked him for telling me I had no right to my feelings and that they were not valid. He smarted off with, "Oh, I guess it's for no reason then."
At that time I told him I didn't want to deal with him. He told me I could call back if I didn't want to talk to him. I said for him to transfer me. He told me he couldn't transfer me, and to call back. I didn't want to go through their automated system and get switched around again. He told me that then I had to deal with him, and attempted to start his "thank you for calling, have a good evening" process so he could hang up on me.
These calls are recorded, and if anyone plays them back you'll find out how rude this young man is and how obviously stupid he thinks his customers are.
Customer feelings obviously don't matter, but maybe the loss of business will. After I finally got to someone else I closed this account. I will never, ever do business with Citibank again.
The error, by the way, was Citibank's and has been fixed. At least they took the wrong charge off. That would have been okya with me, since they took responsibility and fixed it. The smartaleck account rep, though, is what cost them the customer.
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