Disappointed With Citibank's Poor Service

On 5 Mar 2008 Sunday, I went down to AMK Hub to submit a Citibank credit card application form at their Instant Issuance Counter. The application form I was using will entitle me a $20 voucher.

2 hours later, a credit card officer from AMK Hub called to inform me the card I applied for is ready for collection. I asked if I will be getting the voucher. I was told Instant Issuance counter does not give out vouchers and so I will not be getting any. I argued that the application form I used will entitle me that voucher. He shocked me when he said he had torn my application form and the only way to get the voucher is to get another application form from the merchant and reapply. I requested my just approved card to be terminated and a similar application form to be mailed to me. I was again told they do not have the forms. Service is poor.

On the same day, I called up Citibank hoping to get an answer to what had just happened. I was determined to get them to send me the application form and get the voucher. A customer service officer (CSO) answered and told me there's no such promotion going on. She promised to get someone to call me and have my problem resolved. A day had passed but still no one get back to me.

On Monday afternoon, I decided to take lead by calling Citibank again. A different CSO answered. Again, I narrated the whole story. My 2nd call seemed not useful after she told me she's not aware of such promotion going on. She promised to get back to me later. Hours later, a different CSO called to try to resolve my enquiry. What annoyed me was the CSO was not aware of my enquiry. I repeated my story again to get a "I don't know" answer. Is this service? Why get someone to answer my enquiry when she does not even know what is happening? This just makes customers more annoyed. Again, I was told to wait for someone to call me.

I waited patiently for someone to call me but none did that. Again, I called Citibank and again I had to repeat my story. Again, the CSO did not seem to know the promotion. She even told me I should be calling the marketing department instead of the credit card promotion department. Fair enough, I made a call to the marketing department.

It's my encounter with the marketing department that made me really pissed off. Mr Kelvin was the CSO who attended me. While narrating my story to him, he rudely interrupted saying "Got incoming call" and then put me on hold without I having chance to react. Having no other options, I had to wait. After about 3 minutes of waiting, he finally returned. I had to re-narrate my story one more time to refresh the CSO's memory. Before I could finish, he put me on hold once again to answer another incoming call. I deemed this extremely rude. About 3 minutes later, another CSO answered my call. I was more than shocked that my call was actually being released to the general queue for any available CSO to attend to. I was unwilling to repeat my story and demanded to be directed only to Kelvin. At this point in time, I was pique to the max. How dare he dared to put me on hold!

After having waited for more than an hour for Kelvin to return my call which he never did, I decided to call him again. A lady answered and I straight away requested to be transferred to Kelvin which she did. The moment I was put through, I started scolding Kelvin, demanding an explanation as to why I was abruptly put on hold, not once but twice, to answer an incoming call. As far as I know, it should be a one-to-one service me and the CSO. Kelvin retorted by explaining he was merely trying to transfer my call to the relevant department. I could not accept his excuses. I remembered him saying "Got incoming call" on both occasions before putting me on hold. From his statements, do you think he meant to transfer my call to the right department? Please do not "smoke" me! Not only he was rude, he was also not knowledgeable in the ongoing promotion. I demanded to be put through to his manager.

I lodged a complaint on Kelvin's poor customer service. I verified if the more calls one pick up, the more the commission one can earn. The answer is no. According to the manager, Kelvin is new to the job. The manager apologised on his behalf and promised to ensure my problem to be resolved.

On Friday, I made a call to the sales manager. All run smoothly after the talk with the manager. All issues have been attended to. Kelvin is sent for further training.

Lesson learnt: Make sure your front line staff are well trained and familiar with their own job scope, otherwise, trouble looms.