Consumer complaint received 2023-09-11
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX and I am a former citi XXXX. My XXXX XXXX is XXXX Ive worked at the XXXX for a little less than 3 years and during my last week of employment on XX/XX/XXXX, exactly {$8500.00} was stolen from my account. 
$ XXXX in the form of a wire transfer {$25.00} for the fee And 3 ACH transactions totaling {$1400.00}. 

I was working in the XXXX the day that it happened and the only reason I even found out was because it was pay day and I usually tend to move money around and pay bills. I immediately ran to my manager and called the employee service line in order to have them block all my accounts and block all further transactions as well as try to recover the funds. The representative was able to block the accounts to prevent any further debit transactions and we filed a dispute or so I thought. I filled out an affidavit to attest that I had nothing to do with the stolen funds and that I gain nothing from the stolen funds. 
All the necessary documents were uploaded and I was instructed to call another number in order to talk to a different department who was in charge of wire fraud and they would process a different dispute on their end. 

Citi banks customer service, weather it be for a customer or an employee is absolutely horrendous and they will have you waiting on hold for close to 30 min in order to get outsourced to the XXXX for a level 1 agent. I have nothing against the call centers or representatives in the XXXX but it is very common for calls to drop and there is often miscommunication between the 2 parties. 

After finally getting ahold of someone who was able to put my fraud case in, the only thing left to do was wait. The representative told me the investigation would take up to 60 days in order to get any of the funds back. 

I was also told that I would have to wait on a phone call from the investigator handling my case in order to move forward. 
At this point Im basically at the mercy of the investigator and nothing happens for weeks. I call every week in order to get updates only to get the run around and for each representative to tell me to keep waiting and that as long as I had the affidavit signed and uploaded, everything should be okay. 

Eventually the investigator calls many weeks later and pretty much interrogates me to see if I was somehow involved As a former XXXX I saw people coming in because they were scammed every single day and it was basically programmed into me not to click on any links or pick up any random phone calls. 

I kept telling the investigator that I had nothing to do with it and that I just want my funds returned to me but she kept insisting on whether or not I clicked a link or answered a text or call, ( which I did not do ). And the reason they keep insisting is because Citi believes that the second you say yes to any of those questions, you are liable for the losses. 
After the call was over I got no updates whatsoever and would continue to call citi begging for some sort of answer or resolution but the representatives would tell me that I needed to wait the 60 days to get an answer and I did. On the 60 th day I called and to no ones surprise, I needed to keep waiting because they still didnt have an answer. 
On the 64 th day I was finally able to get my answer and Citi denied my claim for failure to safeguard my account and because they thought I was a victim of a scam. 

After 64 days of losing all the money I had to my name, the XXXX that I started my career with and XXXX nearly 3 years for, the XXXX that my parents started with and have had for 35 years since they immigrated to America, the XXXX that I was once so proud to call my own denied me and told me there was nothing they could do. 

And just to clarify in case you were wondering, I wasnt fired or let go either, I had resigned in order to move forward with a greater opportunity with more potential and after this experience it has been the best decision of my life. 

After sending an email I received a phone call from the executive fraud department of citi telling me to rest assured and that they would re open the investigation and that they would be in contact with me to further review my case. 

When in fact the only thing they did after wards was assign it to another investigator who asked me the same set of questions as the previous investigator attempting to get me to falsely agree that this was a scam and I was the one to be blamed. 

A couple of weeks later I called in again for an update and found out that I was rejected again for the same reason as before and that I was to blame.

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