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Citibank CitiNRI service BAD - Part 2
December 16, 2005
...Continued from Part 1
So even by the time I had to leave from the US for India, I did not get any welcome package/ ATM cards from Citibank NRI service. Zilch, nothing. This after countless visits (in fact I tried to count and it was about 15 time!) to the local Citibank NRI office at Santa Clara.
I reach India and try calling up CitiNRI. What they give you is a toll free numer - 1-600... and this number you cannot call from cell phones - or atleast from the BSNL cellone mobile that I had. You cannot make the call from telephone booths bcoz its a toll free call.
And since I did not yet have a land line, I had a tough time - then maybe it's my problem (?!) since I did not have a land line.
Anyway I call up the Citibank customer service and they are hardly helpful. They do not know where the welcome package is, where it has been sent if at all and when I will get it - no help, none. They acted totally irresponsible and were an utter waste of time.
I'm not saying that they were not courteous - they went out of their way to be so, but that not what you need here.
So I had no option but to contact the Citibank manager at Santa Clara branch through email. In the meantime I needed a demand draft to pay for the car that I was planning to buy (Honda City VTECH - more ont the car in another blog) but to get this DD, I wwas told that I had to go to the branch in person - since I did not have my TIN (telephone identification number). And why did I not have my TIN? well...
In the meantime I get a message from UPS (through my vonage VOIP phone) informing me that I have a package addressed to my US address - guess what it is - the welcome package from CitiNRI for my RCA account. (After all these efforts, these morons - I can't help use the word - at Citibank send the package to my US address).
So I check with UPS if they can redirect the package to my India address - no thats not possible - it would have to be sent back to sender - CitiNRI.
The saga goes on... I don't think that there's any point mentioning anymore of the incompetencies of the Citi NRI service.
Finally about 2 months after I applied, I get the ATM cards and the cheque books.
I'm not of the opinion that everyone will face these problems - but I believe that the real test for customer service is when things go bad - how good are they equipped to handle the problems and set things straight and smooth for the customer.
You may not have a problem today or tomorrow or this year, but for sure, there'll be a time when you need good customer service - and at that time, don't rely on CitiNRI customer service.
Posted by liveit at December 16, 2005 6:47 AM