Random Musings

I am a Citibank platinum credit card holder for YEARS, with an excellent history. In fact, I hold a Diners Card and a Mastercard, and I also have an add-on card, all of Citibank, and I have had a generally decent relationship with the bank. The one experience that I had recently, and especially their response, leads me to believe that Citibank has sunk, and is currently in a desperately sorry state.

My recent communication to their service team, over email, details the story as it happened, and I quote:

———- My email to Citibank —–

Dear Mr. Prasad,
This has been one of the most frustrating and embarrassing experiences that I have had, on account of Citibank.

Here are the details, some of which you are aware:
1. Against my statement, I make the exact payment of Rs. 35,497.10 to Citibank.
2. While feeding in the entry, there is an error from your end, and you feed it in as Rs. 35,497.
3. The cheque returns due to this difference, being an ‘encoding error’.
4. When I hear about this, I check with my bank, HDFC Bank. After their checking, they inform me about this error from your side.
5. I call up Citibank immediately. While they confirm that the cheque has been returned, they do not know the exact reason. So they confirm that they will check this out, and meanwhile, in order to keep my card active, they ask me to make alternate payment immediately.
6. In fact, I am advised that for earliest credit of payment, I should make an online payment via Net Banking. They also advise me that I should put a stop-payment instruction on the original cheque.
7. I enquire about possible delayed payment charges, etc., and that this being a fault of Citibank, I should not be penalised for the same. I also convey that they should not make me call up multiple times and waste my time. So the operator assures me that HE will call me, to confirm that the charges are reversed.
8. That said, I do what he suggests. I make immediate payment by net banking, via your website. And I also put a stop-payment on that cheque.
9. As confirmed, I get a call from the Citibank operator a few days later, that the delay payment charges are reversed.
10. At this point, I am relieved that the transaction is sorted out. Little did I know that worse was yet to happen.
11. After the independent enquiry by Citibank, about this cheque, they recognize that they had keyed in the wrong amount (35,497/- instead of 35,497/10), and in all their wisdom, they now decide to represent the cheque! This is after I have already made alternate payment, and put a stop-payment instruction on that original cheque, as guided by the Citibank operator!
12. As expected, due to the stop-payment instruction, the cheque returns back!
13. Now, without giving me any intimation (at other times, for various transactions, there are all kind of messages and alerts), my card gets blocked. I have no idea about this.
14. We get a rude shock, when my wife fills up petrol in her car, and offers her add-on card to make payment. And the card is rejected, as it has been blocked.
15. As luck would have it, she was not carrying enough cash on her, she was nearly 15 km from where I was, and the only option was to rush someone with some cash.
16. During this time, she went through the most embarrassing time, waiting for the money, and which caused huge agony and frustration.
17. Once I found out that her card was rejected, I got on to the phone with Citibank, and it took nearly 30 minutes of interaction on phone, before I could figure out how much of a mess you had created for me, and how you had put me into this precarious condition. For no fault of mine!
18. In the end, the operator worked around to clear that particular transaction for me, manually, but by that time, it was too late, and we had already managed to reach some cash to my wife.
19. Very graciously, as if he was doing me a favour, the operator offered to reverse the charges for the cheque that came back a second time. A cheque that I had put a stop-payment on, as per advise of Citibank operator, and which you chose to represent of your own will, and which came back. And you are trying to seem very generous by reversing the penalty charges on that cheque for me!! Wow – you are clearly generosity personified!
20. Worse news were to follow. Even though the details of the case were pointed out, and it was clear that you had made all the wrong moves, from the very beginning, and ending with the depositing of a cheque that you had earlier asked me to stop-payment, just because the cheque HAD bounced in fact, I was supposed to make emergency payment right now. Or else my card will not be valid!! I ask you WHY? WHY should I make this urgent payment? My statement is not due yet. I have a clear credit limit that I enjoy. You have screwed the whole transaction completely, at your end. And yet, I have to make some payment, to keep my card active?? What are you talking about??

The above is the complete sequence of events. I need an urgent explanation.

Specifically, answer these questions:
1. Why did you make a stupid mistake of punching in a wrong amount in the first place? The entire saga is one of a 10 paise error!!
2. Once you advised me to pay via online banking to cover the transaction, and which I did, WHY did you represent the cheque??
3. Why did you represent the cheque which you had advised to have a stop-payment put on??
4. Now that you realize the error and that it is completely your fault, why can’t you override your system and unblock my card, without needing me to make any payment???
5. Most importantly, for YOUR mistakes ALL THROUGH THIS SAGA, I have had to spend so much time on phone, at both times, now again, as I write this email and send these details to you, and my wife was stranded on the petrol pump.. for all these pain that you have given to us, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO COMPENSATE???

I await your response.

——— End of my email to Citibank —–

By the way, to the earlier basic enquiry about this cheque payment, this is what Citibank had written back to me:

————- Message from Citibank to me ———– (my rejoinders for purpose of this post, in blue, below!)——

Citibank India has been awarded the “Best Consumer Internet Bank 2009” by Global Finance (** So isn’t this the funniest irony of this saga??!).  Log-on to http://www.online.citibank.co.in and experience the convenience today !

——— end of Citibank’s email to me ———

Now, waiting for Citibank’s response. Will share the details as the drama continues to unfold, here. Watch this space!

*** Update ***

After the above mentioned developments, I got a couple of emails from Citibank, promptly within the (internal, I presume) stipulated SLA period of 3-4 days. Each one saying that they were sorry to not resolve the matter yet, and that they needed some additional time. After two such extensions, I finally got a call from someone in the VP’s office, in Chennai. He apologized profusely for all the troubles, including what my wife had gone through, including the fact that they had made a mistake in representing my cheque even though I had paid already, and for having had our cards blocked for so many days.

I had purposely not paid till that point, as I was looking for a resolution on this matter. Without asking me to pay anything, he confirmed that my card was fine and usable right away, and that he had credited my account with 3000 reward points, which for my Platinum card, were the equivalent of Rs. 3000.

I thought this was reasonable. I thanked him for sorting this out finally.

Later, someone from the customer service team called and repeated the whole thing, and I also got the following email, from them:

—————– Latest email from Citibank —————

So it was a fair resolution after all, and I must acknowledge the same, as fairly as I had raised a ruckus, when I had got the wrong end of the stick.