CitiFinancial
CAP Plan Payment of $112 Disputed; $247 Paid by Phone

CitiFinancial's customer service center in N.C. is the most hateful, rude, unscrupulous bunch of people in this country. Do not ever do business with them. And if you discover they bought an account of yours from someone, do everything you can to either pay it off or get a bank loan to pay it off, as they will treat you terribly in every way. When I was unemployed late last year and early this year, after moving back to Texas from Alaska and then to Oklahoma to go to work, I contacted CitiFinancial to try to make arrangements to get my account caught up, as I was having trouble making the payments.

They offered to put me on what they call the CAP program (customer assistance program). They offered to reduce my payment to $112 and 10% interest until the account was paid. Fine. They offered, and we accepted. They told us that we had to make an immediate payment of $189 and that after 3 consecutive payments of $112, our account would be shown current and we would no longer get calls from their collections department. The papers that we signed and faxed back to them indicated $112 payments. I have just made the fourth payment, and I am still getting harassing calls from people talking about us owing them money, and the amounts keep changing! One person says we owe $389.

I get into an argument with them about it and tell them the entire story about our CAP program (obviously, they can't read their computer screens), and we don't owe them anything more according to what we were told when we signed up. They respond by telling me that we do owe them and they will continue to call until we pay them. Now we have had many calls from them, and we get a different story every time.

Some people say that we are not on a CAP program, and some manage to actually see on their screens that we are and even confirm that our payment is $112. During the latest call we got yesterday, the people told us that our payment was $120, not $112, and we owe them $247. (Notice how they can't seem to decide what we "owe them"?) I ended up getting tossed around their phone system and ended up with a particularly nasty woman who claimed to be a supervisor. After I tried to explain the many problems I was having with them and this CAP program and the confusion I see there, she got belligerent with me and told me that they don't have to offer this program to me, trying to intimidate me into paying this supposed delinquent amount. (Keep in mind that I didn't ask for this program. They offered it to me, and I accepted and held my end of the bargain in good faith.)

She also insisted that the payment amount was $120, not $112. I tried again to explain that the papers I signed said $112, and why didn't they call me three months ago, when I sent them the first $112 payment, to tell me it should have been $120? Also, I asked her to look up the paper I signed to see the payment amount. She said that she didn't have to, that she didn't have to prove anything to me, and that it doesn't matter what was on the paper. The payment amount is $120, and that's what I am supposed to pay. We argued a little more, and I finally got frustrated and hung up.

Today I got yet another harassing call from them. This time I was told that I have a delinquent amount of $55 to pay. Once more, I tried to explain the whole story with the CAP program to this man (Dwayne). To my total amazement, he looked at his computer notes, saw everything I was talking about, and verified that what I had been saying all along was correct, and he said, quote, "I am in awe that Collections is still calling you. Your payment is $112, and you are making them as agreed. I don't know why they (collections) are still calling you. Let me stroll over to the CAP area and see if I can get this straightened out."

He put me on hold, and like it happens at all of the giant corporate companies these days, I got sent into the abyss of the hold queue. After a few minutes I got rolled back to the front-end queue, and someone else picked up the line like it was my first time to call, not knowing who I am. I told him who I was on hold with, and he said that there are over 300 people in there and he doesn't know any Dwayne. To his credit, he was at least sympathetic after hearing my story (again) and ended up sending me to the senior CSA queue, having given up hope of finding Dwayne, and I got on with someone named Melissa. She ended up being a carbon copy of the woman I fought with yesterday.

We went round and round, and I got the same intimidating, belligerent song and dance about paying up or continuing to get calls. She side-stepped my questions and attempts to reason with her, simply ignored other questions, and gave me the same "We don't have to do anything for you" line. They threatened us with continued accumulation of late fees if we didn't pay what we "owed" (now the amount was $247) and with more calls from collections. Having been completely emotionally exhausted, frustrated, and angry, I decided to pay the $247 ($12 fee for check by phone), and she told me that my account was now current and that my next statement would show an amount due of $120.

Does anyone want to take bets on whether I get another call next month from their collections department looking for another $500? Also, it is likely, based on past experience, that there will be no record of our conversations this month, and I will get the same treatment I got this month.

Whatever you do, stay far away from CitiFinancial!!!

Company: CitiFinancial
Country: USA
State: North Carolina
City: Charlotte
Phone: 8005255234
Site: citifinancial.com

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