Consumer complaint received 2021-11-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I set up this account to put my savings in. The account required a balance of {$1500.00} to waive the monthly fee, so I transferred via XXXX {$1500.00} into the account. Over the course of the next few days, I did a few transactions at XXXX XXXX and a restaurant. On XX/XX/2021 I saw that one of my other bank accounts had a higher savings interest rate so I decided to move the funds from Citi to that bank. I went online and XXXX the other account I have {$1.00} to confirm I had set it up correctly. Upon trying to send the funds to XXXX out my account, I was immediately kicked out of the site and I received an email that my account was blocked. The email provided a number to call the fraud department to assist. I called the number and after being put on hold for 25+ minutes, I hung up and called the main number. Citi uses offshore workers in their call center which I believe should be illegal for financial institutions as they safeguard such sensitive information that a foreigner could steal! 

I asked for an American call center rep and was transferred to a XXXX woman who introduced herself as a supervisor. I explained to her the issue and told her I was waiting for a long time to speak with fraud and just wanted access to my account to be able to remove the funds. She stated she had to transfer me, but would warm transfer me. I then spoke with a woman in some other country who almost immediately stated her system was down and she couldn't help me. I told her that was not acceptable and that I would stay on the phone with her until there was a resolve. I was on the phone during this call for a period of 1 hour 17 minutes and 48 seconds. During the majority of the call she kept placing me on an open hold, unmuting her line to advise she was still there. Around the 45 minute mark, she put me on a closed hold and I heard hold music which had not happened during the call up to this point. She did not advise I was being placed on hold either. After about 15 minutes the music ended and there was silence, I said " hello '' a few times and nobody responded. I waited a few more minutes and then called Citi from my XXXX whilst keeping the line on my XXXX open. 

I called Citi on my XXXX and spoke with a foreign rep, I asked for a US citizen and was transferred to XXXX. While advising XXXX of what was going on, I told him that I had the line open on my XXXX and there was silence. I explained that this woman either dumped me into an answerless queue, or she had me on mute and was ignoring me. Almost immediately after saying that, she got on the line and started talking. I hung up with XXXX and told her that I assumed she was ignoring me. She started going on a tangent about how my account was going to be closed and they would reach out to the account holder with additional information. I began asking questions at which time she was still talking over me and then she hung up. According to my phone I called at XXXX EST and was on the phone for 1 hour 19 minutes. I want the recording pulled! 

I called Citi back and again told the foreign rep I needed an American. I was transferred back to XXXX and explained what was going on. The lack of care about my issue as he responded was apparent. 

By the end of this call, I was still unable to login to the website, access funds via my debit card or get XXXX to overnight me a check of my account balance. Additionally, XXXX didn't listen to a XXXX thing I said as he kept telling me to login online to make changes.

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 non-monetary relief