Consumer complaint received 2024-03-12
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (FL)

The Shop Your Way Mastercard always has lots of promotions going at any given time. They are purposely confusing and are never displayed accurately on their website. For example, I may have activated five different promotions, and only two will appear on my account, and of those, one or both have inaccurate information about how much I have spent toward that promotion. They often read {$0.00}, even that it's higher. Usually, though, I receive the promotion credit or terms without issue. 

Customer service for this card is maybe the worst for anything I've ever experienced. They messaging customer service has become essentially useless over the last couple of years because they never actually read messages, almost never address my question, and always tell me I have to call in. When you call into the number they give, it always lands with XXXX customer service agents. They are very polite but are almost always not helpful. Either they do not have access to the information or can not address my issues. They often just read from things online that I can also see. Like, if I asked how much I've spent toward a certain promotion, they read the terms that I already have to me. 

The reason I like to start out messaging is in the hopes I can get something in writing. There have often been 0 % interest purchase promotions on this card. As of a couple of weeks ago, I had about {$15000.00} at different stages of more than one 0 % interest promotion. Some were from a past 18-month 0 % deal, some from a more recent 12-month promo. Because the website often isn't accurate, and because they said they could not help me over messaging, I called in on or around XX/XX/XXXX to ask if I had any active 0 % promotions that I signed up for. I was put on hold for a long time and then told that I was part of a promotion that would give me 12 months of 0 % interest on any purchase made outside of Sears holdings in the amount of {$390.00} or higher. This was exactly what I was looking for. I told the rep that I had an {$8000.00} purchase and that sort of promotion would be perfect. I confirmed with her that it was valid until XX/XX/XXXX with her before hanging up. 

Over the next few days, I paid down the balance on the credit card to make room for an {$8000.00} purchase. I believe I paid down roughly {$2500.00} -- most of which was still on a 0 % interest promotion from last year. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a purchase : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$7900.00} I could not see this purchase online until XX/XX/XXXX, where I noticed that it was NOT listed as being part of any promotion. I called into the same number as before, where eventually the hapless CSR agent told me that there was no 0 % interest promotion on my account. She investigated and found that there was one that expired XX/XX/XXXX. Instantly, I realized that the CSR from XXXX had made a BIG mistake. 

This new agent count not help and transferred me to another hapless XXXX supervisor. She looked for the promotion and also could not find it. I am fairly confident that they were ALSO reading the notes from the first agent and seeing that she wrote about me calling in to confirm the promotion. But when they went looking for the promotion -- they found nothing active. 

I then asked to be transferred to an account supervisor, whatever that is. This person was in the US and was perhaps the least helpful of all. She too looked for the promotion and said it wasn't there. I reaffirmed that while I was told that there was a promotion, it seems clear that the CSR made a major mistake in confirming that there was an active promotion. 

I complained that I should not have to pay for THEIR customer service agent 's major mistake. The last thing I would do is pay off 0 % interest promotions on my account to make room for a non-promo {$8000.00} purchase. But since the purchase already happened, I wanted Citibank to take some responsibility, to acknowledge their mistake, to investigate my claim, to, in the end, do what is right. They tricked me into making an awful financial move! 

The last woman would not acknowledge me AT ALL and basically said if there's no active promotion on my account, then I am in the wrong and there's nothing to be done. 

However, this situation is SO obviously unethical and unfair, that I have to take it further. I should not have to pay interest for one year on this balance. That promotion is what they said I was eligible for, and that is why I paid off much of the balance on this card. 

Even if I can repurchase this same service with another card and get a refund, that doesn't change the fact that there misinformation/mistake made me pay thousands off a 0 % interest balance unnecessarily. 

The customer service on this particular card is and has always been atrocious! It's really one of the worst experiences I've ever had. If they would just listen to the recording of my calling in approximately ten days ago, they will hear that I am in the right. If they just read that agent 's notes, they will see that they are in the wrong. When dealing with this amount of money -- the {$8000.00} + the {$2500.00} I paid down -- we're not dealing with a small amount. And if I were to pay interest for that same year on this purchase, the difference in what I would pay would likely exceed {$2000.00} if I made payments or {$3300.00} if I did not. 

This is a bad faith financial exchange, which was at best incorrect information, and, at worst, a pattern of unethical and unprofessional conduct and a complete lack of responsibility. There is surely a way for them to investigate and make some sort of concession to me. But they act like it doesn't matter what I was told, even though the basis of my XXXX XXXXXXXX moves were 100 % because of the information I received.