Consumer complaint received 2022-04-11
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I assume after receiving the original complaint copied below Citi tried to address the issue or confirm receipt of the complaint by sending a " secure message '' through the account in question. An account that can not be accessed ; hence, the complaint. Called customer service on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX to find out what the secure message says and was told they can not see it. Logic would dictate that if the issue is an inability to log in to the account why would a message be sent to me via that account. OBVIOUSLY IT CAN'T BE ACCESSED, so the message can not be read. 

Also, worked with another customer service representative to try and reset account. Still can not access account and have, once again, been sent to the technical support supervisor.Have been on hold for 23+ minutes at this point. 

PLEASE READ THE COMPLAINT IN FULL. If you need to contact me, I suggest that you do so in a manner that does NOT involve a locked account. 

Original complaint : Opened Citibank Savings Account online in late XXXX XXXX. Account has ALWAYS been managed online. No ATM/Debit card was ever issued to the two signatories on the account to their knowledge. No ATM/Debit card has ever been used with this account. There has NEVER been a problem managing this account online until Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX tried to login into account using UserId and PW. Know both were correct as they are kept in a XXXXXXXX XXXX  and only one person manages this account. Checked the UserId and PW in the XXXX XXXX  against backup, written copy. Both were the same. Tried to reset PW online. Required an ATM/Debit card number and PIN. Account did not have a card or PIN. Only way to reset the account allowed. Called Customer Service. After lengthy vetting, representative explained that in the last month Citibank was requiring everyone to reset their PW. This was not explained on the website when the login failed. Representative explained he could not reset PW and asked me to hold while he went to find out what to do. After 9 min and 44 seconds on hold, I hung up and called Customer Service again. Second representative completed same lengthy vetting and also explained that he could not reset PW BUT he did say he could issue an ATM/Debit card and have it overnight expressed shipped to my home. He explained with the card I could setup a PIN online and then reset the account. Went through another lengthy vetting to receive ATM/Debit card. Now completely unable to access my account and, thus, my funds since there is NO Citibank branch in North Carolina which signatories reside. ATM/Debit card arrived Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. Tried to setup ATM/Debit card PIN online as explained by representative on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX. Online system did NOT recognize ATM/Debit card number. Tried to setup ATM/Debit card PIN via phone system. Phone system did NOT recognize ATM/Debit card number. Called Customer Service. Took almost 6 minutes to be connected to a Customer Service agent because phone tree wants to force all PIN issues to phone system. Explained issue to Customer Service representative who told me that I could not setup the PIN because one had not been issued originally. After another lengthy vetting, the representative was able to put me in the system to setup a PIN. PIN setup was successful and I was returned to the representative. She confirmed that the ATM/Debit card and PIN were now active and attached to the account. She said I should be able to now reset my account PW. Representative stayed on phone with me while trying to reset PW. Was able to enter the ATM/Debit card number and then was asked for the last 4 digits of signatory SSN or account number. Tried signatory # 1 's SSN... FAILED. Tried signatory # 2 's SSN ... .FAILED. Tried account number... FAILED. Representative then wanted to know what browser was being used. Answer : XXXX XXXX latest version. That should not cause a problem according to the representative. Representative wanted to try SSNs and account number again. All failed again and now locked me out of the PW reset system. Representative claimed she could not see that I had been locked out and, thus, could not reset system. She could not explain problem, so she said she had to transfer me to Technical Service. STILL CAN NOT ACCESS MY FUNDS. Waited on hold for almost 41 minutes for a Technical Services Representative. Went through the same lengthy vetting. Was told that I already had an ATM/Debit card and I had to use that one to reset the account. Explained again that no such card exists and had never existed for the signatories. Told the tech services representative this was why Customer Service had overnight, express shipped an ATM/Debit card to us the day before. Tech Service representative said that the other signatory had the ATM/Debit card. Didn't ask if the other signatory had the card; told me they had the card. That person was there and told them no card had ever existed and was NOT in our possession EVER. Explained again that we have a brand new ATM/Debit card with a new PIN for the account sent to use by Customer Service just the day before that we had received this morning. We needed to use this NEW card to reset our savings account PW. Representative then told asked the same vetting questions as before and then informed me that 1 ) my name was not on account, 2 ) the other signatory 's name was not on account, and 3 ) the account assigned to that new ATM/Debit card number was not our account. All this was baffling considering the vetting process we had just completed when the tech services rep started the call AND the vetting with the earlier Customer Service Rep. The tech service representative then told us we would have to go to a branch to solve the issue. There is NO BRANCH IN NORTH CAROLINA. I demanded to speak to the technical representative 's manager and was informed he was the manager and there was no one else to talk to and HE HUNG UP ON ME. STILL HAVE NO ACCESS TO MY FUNDS. Obviously, the account is mine given that every day between XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  EDT, I receive a text message telling me the balance in that very account and I have passed vetting for this account four different times.

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