Damn. I’ve never quite had such a worthless experience with a company before. I shall attempt to explain. I signed up for a Citi Preferred Rewards card last year. When I called to activate the card, some dude from India harasssed me continuously about their credit production plan. But, I like signup bonuses, so I thought I’d enjoy more pain and applied this year for a Citi Professional card with 15,000 signup bonus points. Oops.
To obtain my points, I make my $0.59 purchase. I bought a bagel, I think. Anyway, at some point it shall be time to pay that. So today, I sit down to login to citicards.com. Not so fast, though. The professional card requires a new login, since it’s apparently a business card.
First, Citi’s Web site does not work at all in Opera. It works poorly in Firefox, with a full screen flash thing appearing and obscuring access to most of the front page. Once you login, many drop down menus are obscured by more flash crap.
Eventually, I managed to navigate to a link to signup a new card. Somehow I have a security word, but these days companies won’t even tell you what the hell you security word was about. So, I made some random guesses and ultimately got locked out. Lovely.
I just want to pay this crap and be done, so I call the number on the card. My balance isn’t due yet, according to the recording, so I can make no payments. I tell the voice to go play in traffic with a pony, but results in my being transferred to a real bitch.
I explain that the Web site won’t go and I just want to pay off my balance. She explains it isn’t due yet. I tell her how I got burned last time by Citi’s Web site. It took two weeks to verify EFT and I ended up paying the last day by phone for $14.95 charge. Pissed me off, a lot. I explain I just want this to go away, to pay it. She tells me “this isn’t a crisis, the statement hasn’t even closed yet”. From tone of her voice, I believe she meant to say ‘calm the fuck down’.
She had that tone most of the conversation and seemed uninterested in helping in any fashion. She explained $5 is the minum payment for EFT or pay-and-get-screwed-by-phone, so I’d have to mail a cheque, the only way I can pay. Of course I just moved, so I have no clue if and when my mail will get sorted and if you miss a payment you risk ending up in universal default, a backdoor method by which all credit card companies can fuck you.
She couldn’t help with the Web site, so transferred me to a lame technical support representative. I explained I just wanted to login to the silly site. He unlocked my card number and hinted my security word was apparently a pet’s name. I had no clue; I don’t really give a damn about security words. Citi’s site didn’t indicate if you are supposed to specify a security word you want or the security word you have when you add a new card. Who knows?
After that, he said I can just signup again and to not enter the word with any extra spaces and in all lower case and basically hung up on me.
Citi’s customer service never fails to disappoint and their products are simply horrible. What a shit company. There’s simply no comparison to Chase. Chase is awesome and the best card company I have ever done business with. The Web site works, everyone I have spoken with has been helpful and not overtly rude.
Next time the signup bonus comes around for a new Citi card, I think I’ll just skip it. This nonsense isn’t worth $150 in gift cards.
Online Payment Error Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Your ability to make online payments for this account is not active yet. It can take up to 6 business days from the setup date. To make a payment today, call the Customer Service number on the back of your card.
What a joke.
7 Comments
I just opened up a Citibank e Savings account and I’m very satified with the service so far. I really can’t complain. I mean here you have a bank that’s paying 4.75% interest on your Saving account balance and provides free checking as long as you have direct deposit. What does Chase pay on their Saving accounts? Zilch, nada, nie!!! Chase, may have a better website and ATM’s everyhwhere, but if that’s going to take out the cost of paying interest, It’s just not worth it. They nickel and dime you for everything else. Believe me I know I’ve been a customer of theirs for 20 years.
The only problem, I do have with Citibank is that their call centers are out in India, although, when I called today the girl I spoke with sounded American with a New Yawk accent, which fine with me because it’s still in the U.S. Besides that Citi is not a bad deal.
Meh. Why would anyone bank with a credit card company? I’m quite happy with my Wachovia accounts. I wouldn’t keep funds at either Chase or Citi, but most especially Citi. It was made amply clear that my business was not wanted.
Been quite happy with Gmac Bank’s online MM account for near-term disaster savings, though.
I recently started collecting disability. While waiting two years for disability, I unfortunately ran up my credit card bills. With no income, it doesn’t take long. I received a call from their collection agency stating “it doesn’t matter if you’re lying in bed dying of cancer, you owe this money”. They refuse to lower their interest rate from 29% so that I can pay them off. They’re rude and I don’t advise anyone to do business with them. BOA however offered me 6% to pay them off.
Citibank are nothing but money hungry bastards. They don’t give a damn about when and how you make your payments; They want it then and there. I racked up a hefty $900 and was unable to make payments for a couple of months because I was out of work. I’m in college so money is tight as some times. The calls from them were outrageous. Supposedly, they have a program that helps with individuals who are unemployed. But get this…you have to be layed off from a job and sign paper work through the unemployement office. I finally resumed making regular payments about 3 months ago. I was told after I made my regular payments of $60 for 3 months(which was debited from my checking account), I would be forgiven of the extra late charges and fees that were charged to my account. Bullshit! my account balance is over $1,000! I called the sorry pricks today and they acted as if no such arrangement had taken place. They had the nerve to tell me that this arrangement could not be made because I had missed a payment (which was last Friday). I was unaware that the payment was not debited from my account and I had to make the payments on my own. The representative asked if I would like to make a payment over the phone and I simply told them, “No, if I get charged a $14 whatever fee for doing so.” Then they simply said, “Well, ma’am your payment is past due and we need the payment immediately.” “We will have to keep calling you” What a bunch of bitches, they think I give a damn about them calling me for a measly $64?. I’ll make the payment when I’m good and ready. I’m tempted to wait until next month to make the payment, but I went ahead and paid the chumps their money online. My account with “Shity Bank” is supposedly closed, but why the hell am I still offered rebates and more credit? Ha! and they think I’m going to give them my employment information so they can call and “harass me there”.
What a bunch of losers.
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I use to work at citi cards as a crt also known as a manager and I was one of the most straight up mangers who did not sugar coat anything and did not bs the customer because I felt it was wrong to do so and now I got fired for doing so , so let me give you the info the real reason citi is cancelling all your gas cards is if your credit score is below 700 and the change in terms at higher rate is targeting customers it targets the customer citi no longer wants thats why the change is dramatic so you will reject it and they will close the account……
Well, I have to agree that their customer service SUCKS big time. I happened to miss a couple payments but promptly paid after notice(I was working 80 hours/week–mail was the last thing on my mind), and they bumped my interest rate to 27%!!! So, since they jacked it up to a ridiculously high rate, NOW I’m having trouble making payments, when I wouldn’t have otherwise! I can’t understand their customer reps on the phone, some are from India, or elsewhere and have heavy accents. So the calls take much longer, because I have to ask what the h they’re saying, and just when you think you’re done, because of course they can’t help you right away, or have to submit your request for review for 48 hours, they try to sell you their “credit protection” program. Really Really hate this company.
Like you said, you can’t even make payments you want, they have to be 5$. You can’t even make small payments if they’re not the amount they’re asking. I tried to pay 25$ once from one account, and was going to pay the rest with another, but since it was less than the amount due, they won’t let you pay! Horrible good for nothing company, they really need to rethink their business model.