Linda marshall
Level 2 Member
My story isn’t short, but I really want to share this experience and hear from anyone out there who has a similar situation or thoughts about this one.
(It's too long for you, Matt, so here's the shortened version: Citibank closed my husband's citigold account under mysterious circumstances, making it impossible for me to meet the bonus requirement deadline, but a very dedicated CSR is helping me resolve the problem)
I was in a panic yesterday when I remembered that I had not yet funded my husband’s new citigold checking account. With only a few days left to submit a bill pay in March and satisfy one of the Citigold Checking 50K promo requirements, I contacted Citibank customer service yesterday to find out my options for funding the account. Because there are no Citibank branches in the Pacific Northwest, I could not make a cash deposit, and due to the 5 day hold required for new accounts funded by ACH, it looked like I was out of luck. A few minutes after hanging up however, I received a call back from the customer service rep (Will) who had been helping me. He explained that he was calling back because he had failed to inform me about one other possible option. I had mentioned that I had a citigold checking account in my name and after hanging up it occurred to him that if I transferred funds from my own citigold checking account to my husband’s account, there would be no hold on the funds and the bill pay could be made before the end of the month. I was both relieved and also very, very grateful that this CSR cared enough to take the time to call me back and help me resolve the problem. He processed the transfer and confirmed that the funds would be available in my husband’s account by Monday. But, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Several hours later, I received a call from a different department notifying me that the transfer had not gone through because my husband’s account had been closed. Closed? This CSR was unable to provide any details without speaking directly to my husband who was still at work. When we called back later, we were informed that the account had been closed because it, “could not be verified” apparently, we had not submitted “account verification documents.” Wait a minute. I asked, “Why would a debit card be sent to a non-verified account and how is it that I have called multiple times over the past 2 weeks to 1)get help linking the account to the creditcard account online, 2)order checks and 3)discuss options for funding the account, and yet was not once, ever informed that account verification was pending. I asked to speak to a supervisor. This sounded completely crazy to me! Would they really send out a debit card and welcome letter to an account that has not been verified?! And wouldn’t they at least follow up on the request for documents or confirm that they had been received (they had not), prior to shutting down the account? I asked all of these questions when I spoke to the supervisor, and the answers I got were confusing and contradictory; “The request for documentation came with my original packet” —no such packet was received, only a debit card and welcome letter. “The request was probably sent via IM on the account webpage”—there was no “account webpage” until I linked it 2 days ago, AND there was no such message. “The request would have been sent to the email listed when the account was set up”—no emails ever received. All of this was very strange. The supervisor was formally apologetic, but definitely stuck to his story that there was nothing that could be done. He was quite clear that he had no access to further information and could not submit a request for further inquiry on my behalf. It was very obvious that he had little interest in actually helping me. My only recourse was to call back on Monday and request that the account be reopened, which would take 3-4 business days if approved. Obviously this would make it impossible for me to meet the requirements for the bonus offer.
This morning, I was completely surprised (and delighted) to receive another follow up phone call from Will, who returned to work today and saw that the transfer he had helped to secure had been denied due to account closure. He was unaware that I had already been contacted and wanted to call to let me know the circumstances (account closure) and apologize for getting my hopes up about the transfer. When we compared notes however, he was surprised to hear that I had been told the account was closed as “unverified” because according to the notes he could see, the account had been closed “per customer request!!” I asked, and it was confirmed that these were the same notes that would have been available to the CSR I had spoken with yesterday, AS WELL AS THE supervisor! HMMMMM . . . Will agreed to do more research into the matter and when he called back later, he confirmed that while there were some documents pending, the account WAS in fact verified, and these documents had nothing to do with the account closure. He explained that per the records, on March 22, my husband had called in and requested closure of the account. This could not have been further from the truth as my husband refuses to participate with my MS activities beyond signing up for accounts and being on the phone long enough to give the necessary approval to hand the phone over to me!! He certainly DID NOT call up to cancel the account!! W00ill was like a bulldog in his investigation of what he called, “a tremendous mess!” He called back a few minutes ago to give an update that the matter had been turned over to the fraud investigation dept. who would be listening to the phone recordings to try to determine if in fact there had been an actual call by someone claiming to be my husband (Right! Someone who would actually know the answers to all the verification questions . . . And who would call in fraudulently in order to CLOSE the account?! Not likely!!) Will confirmed that it was also possible that it had been a CSR who requested the account closure, and later in the conversation he admitted that the closure appeared to be a deliberate attempt to keep us from meeting the bonus requirements!!
I have to wonder if in fact this was deliberate, if Will will in fact, have a job next week! He claimed that he was determined to “get to the bottom of this” because it was “wrong.” He also mentioned tha t his supervisor was equally concerned and would be working with him to resolve the matter. The best news of all was his promise to put in a special request to extend the dates for the promotion in order to make sure that we are able to meet the requirements!
Has anyone else encountered a mysterious account closure or this level of personal commitment to customer service by a CSR?
P.S. I was tempted to title this post “A tale of two Citi’s: Possible Citibank shenanigans? And The best customer service response ever!” but my 13 year old daughter told me it was too cheesy!!
(It's too long for you, Matt, so here's the shortened version: Citibank closed my husband's citigold account under mysterious circumstances, making it impossible for me to meet the bonus requirement deadline, but a very dedicated CSR is helping me resolve the problem)
I was in a panic yesterday when I remembered that I had not yet funded my husband’s new citigold checking account. With only a few days left to submit a bill pay in March and satisfy one of the Citigold Checking 50K promo requirements, I contacted Citibank customer service yesterday to find out my options for funding the account. Because there are no Citibank branches in the Pacific Northwest, I could not make a cash deposit, and due to the 5 day hold required for new accounts funded by ACH, it looked like I was out of luck. A few minutes after hanging up however, I received a call back from the customer service rep (Will) who had been helping me. He explained that he was calling back because he had failed to inform me about one other possible option. I had mentioned that I had a citigold checking account in my name and after hanging up it occurred to him that if I transferred funds from my own citigold checking account to my husband’s account, there would be no hold on the funds and the bill pay could be made before the end of the month. I was both relieved and also very, very grateful that this CSR cared enough to take the time to call me back and help me resolve the problem. He processed the transfer and confirmed that the funds would be available in my husband’s account by Monday. But, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Several hours later, I received a call from a different department notifying me that the transfer had not gone through because my husband’s account had been closed. Closed? This CSR was unable to provide any details without speaking directly to my husband who was still at work. When we called back later, we were informed that the account had been closed because it, “could not be verified” apparently, we had not submitted “account verification documents.” Wait a minute. I asked, “Why would a debit card be sent to a non-verified account and how is it that I have called multiple times over the past 2 weeks to 1)get help linking the account to the creditcard account online, 2)order checks and 3)discuss options for funding the account, and yet was not once, ever informed that account verification was pending. I asked to speak to a supervisor. This sounded completely crazy to me! Would they really send out a debit card and welcome letter to an account that has not been verified?! And wouldn’t they at least follow up on the request for documents or confirm that they had been received (they had not), prior to shutting down the account? I asked all of these questions when I spoke to the supervisor, and the answers I got were confusing and contradictory; “The request for documentation came with my original packet” —no such packet was received, only a debit card and welcome letter. “The request was probably sent via IM on the account webpage”—there was no “account webpage” until I linked it 2 days ago, AND there was no such message. “The request would have been sent to the email listed when the account was set up”—no emails ever received. All of this was very strange. The supervisor was formally apologetic, but definitely stuck to his story that there was nothing that could be done. He was quite clear that he had no access to further information and could not submit a request for further inquiry on my behalf. It was very obvious that he had little interest in actually helping me. My only recourse was to call back on Monday and request that the account be reopened, which would take 3-4 business days if approved. Obviously this would make it impossible for me to meet the requirements for the bonus offer.
This morning, I was completely surprised (and delighted) to receive another follow up phone call from Will, who returned to work today and saw that the transfer he had helped to secure had been denied due to account closure. He was unaware that I had already been contacted and wanted to call to let me know the circumstances (account closure) and apologize for getting my hopes up about the transfer. When we compared notes however, he was surprised to hear that I had been told the account was closed as “unverified” because according to the notes he could see, the account had been closed “per customer request!!” I asked, and it was confirmed that these were the same notes that would have been available to the CSR I had spoken with yesterday, AS WELL AS THE supervisor! HMMMMM . . . Will agreed to do more research into the matter and when he called back later, he confirmed that while there were some documents pending, the account WAS in fact verified, and these documents had nothing to do with the account closure. He explained that per the records, on March 22, my husband had called in and requested closure of the account. This could not have been further from the truth as my husband refuses to participate with my MS activities beyond signing up for accounts and being on the phone long enough to give the necessary approval to hand the phone over to me!! He certainly DID NOT call up to cancel the account!! W00ill was like a bulldog in his investigation of what he called, “a tremendous mess!” He called back a few minutes ago to give an update that the matter had been turned over to the fraud investigation dept. who would be listening to the phone recordings to try to determine if in fact there had been an actual call by someone claiming to be my husband (Right! Someone who would actually know the answers to all the verification questions . . . And who would call in fraudulently in order to CLOSE the account?! Not likely!!) Will confirmed that it was also possible that it had been a CSR who requested the account closure, and later in the conversation he admitted that the closure appeared to be a deliberate attempt to keep us from meeting the bonus requirements!!
I have to wonder if in fact this was deliberate, if Will will in fact, have a job next week! He claimed that he was determined to “get to the bottom of this” because it was “wrong.” He also mentioned tha t his supervisor was equally concerned and would be working with him to resolve the matter. The best news of all was his promise to put in a special request to extend the dates for the promotion in order to make sure that we are able to meet the requirements!
Has anyone else encountered a mysterious account closure or this level of personal commitment to customer service by a CSR?
P.S. I was tempted to title this post “A tale of two Citi’s: Possible Citibank shenanigans? And The best customer service response ever!” but my 13 year old daughter told me it was too cheesy!!
