The Citibank experience is not worth it, believe me!!! My mother saw a promotion from Citibank that offered a $150 Gift Card for opening accounts at Citibank. For us, this promotion was just horrible and a stressful experience! When a company makes you go through hoops just to qualify for a promotion, it is simply not worth all the stress!
What happened was my mother is at the point in her life that she doesn't feel comfortable driving anymore, so I offered to take her to Citibank so she could qualify for the $150 gift card promotion, but I didn't realize that it was the last day for her to qualify for the gift card. When I found out, I left work early so I could pick her up and drive her to the nearest Citibank branch. By the time I picked her up and she was in the car, there was just enough time to get her to the local Citibank branch just before closing. To assure we would be on time, I asked my mother to use my cell phone to call the local Citibank branch and verify that we had the correct street address and ask for some basic directions to the branch location.
When she called Citibank, it was ridiculous! She was put through a huge barrage of computerized voice menus and sub-menus that said "press or say, #1-0" etc. for this, that, or the other. She eventually found her way through a labyrinth of menus, pressed the right combination of buttons, and eventually got a live person on the phone, but then it seemed that she was having difficulty communicating with the connected Citibank representative. I thought it was because of the car, or the noise of driving, so I pulled off the road so she could hold a conversation. Then she said, "This is someone from India," and I could tell my mother was having a lot of difficulty understanding the foreign Citibank representative. Oh My God, this is absurd, I was thinking, it seems this person is not going to be of any help to us at all! The representative was definitely not local, not by a long shot!
Can you imagine, you're on the road with only about half an hour to get to your local Citibank branch before it closes on the last day to take advantage of a promotion, and so you attempt to call just to get your bearings, and your call is then routed to someone who isn't even in the same country, or even the same continent for that matter! Furthermore, if I worked for Citibank and someone from India called me in the United States just to ask me a question about their local Citibank branch in India, I wouldn't blame them if they were upset also, especially if I couldn't help them, or they couldn't understand me.
Anyway, I just thought Mom could call the local branch and ask someone for simple directions and verify the street address. Was I wrong!!! We didn't get any useful help from the foreign Citibank representative on the phone, so by the time we got to the Citibank branch, it had just closed by about a couple of minutes or so. I felt so bad for Mom that I offered to give her the $150 out of pocket, but she refused, because she's always encouraging me to save my money.
This whole miserable experience was so upsetting, due to the outsourced customer service from Citibank, that I told her I would be willing to pick her up next week and drive her to a local branch and she could close any accounts she had with Citibank. Hopefully she can find a bank that will let her talk to a person from her local branch.
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