Consumer complaint received 2019-10-03
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
My family utilized the Costco Visa Card through Citibank for years. We generally put all of our annual expenses on the card which totaled large amounts of money per year. Due to personal reasons, we chose to close the card. I visited the website and it indicated that I could call a phone number or go to a branch to close the account. I tried to cancel the card, unsuccessfully on the phone so on XX/XX/19 I opted to go to the Citibank branch located at XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX. I was informed by the teller and then the Assistant Branch Manager, XXXX XXXX ( NMLS ID : XXXX ) that I was unable to close the account at the branch with an associate, but that I could sit at one of their empty cubicles and utilize their phone to close my account. I was shocked at this complete lack of customer service but I humbly sat down and tried to close my account for over 20 minutes on the phone. The phone service was a very low volume. The representative was difficult not only to hear but to understand as he spoke quite quickly in broken English and it was muffled. I kept receiving information about a {$100.00} XXXX gift card because " I was such a good customer ''. I had/have no interest in this XXXX card, I simply wanted to close my account. After 20 minutes, the representative did not give me a confirmation number or his employee number. The call was then dropped by Citibank. 
I went back to the Teller and told him that I had been unsuccessful in cancelling my card and that I needed assistance. He said, " We can have someone sit with you in the cubicle while you make the call again. '' I stated that I was not going to do that. It was absolute avoidance of allowing me to cancel the card. I stated that I may need to call the police if the institution was not going to assist me to cancel the card because I was unable to resolve the issue myself and I wanted to cancel a financial instrument. At that point, the Branch Manager, XXXX XXXX ( NMLS ID : XXXX ) brought me to his desk. After 2 minutes of tap/tap and a phone call, Mr. XXXX informed me that my card had been cancelled. He was unable to give me a confirmation number to support this claim, he was unable to email me a letter stating the account had been closed. I was simply told that I should go by his word. I took his business card and noted that he had spoken with " XXXX '' on his phone at whatever internal number he called and that he stated my account had been closed. I noted the time of XXXX. It was not until one week later that I received a letter in the mail stating that this credit card had, in fact, been closed. It is my assertion that Citibank put up very strong barriers to cancelling this credit card. Ms. XXXX XXXX shamed and humiliated me, having me sit at an empty cubicle for almost half an hour to struggle ( unsuccessfully ) to close my credit card account. She made no apologies and actually suggested that an associate sit with me to 'babysit ' me while I 'tried again ' on their phones. She stated that the website saying one could go to the Branch to cancel the card was an error. This is false advertising. Mr. XXXX accomplished in 2 minutes what I could not accomplish in 2 hours and I told him that. I also asked for Ms. XXXX 's card and I indicated that I would be filing a complaint.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation