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Ah, Citi. Related to an earlier comment I posted on a different thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41316889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41316

Ah, Citi. Related to an earlier comment I posted on a different thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41316889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41316889 , I didn't name the "national bank", but I now feel perfectly comfortable outing "Citibank" as the national bank that I will no longer (personally) do business with. Corporate stuff is a different matter. As a matter of policy, they do not empower their front-line (personal) banking CSR reps, and even 1st-level escalation folks. They're basically nothing more than stenographers. After 20 days of back-and-forth with non-answers, I finally sent them a certified letter giving them 30 days to "take action" or "explain non-action" on a specific dispute amounting to ~$5k. The responded with a non-reponse bizarre marketing letter in 10 days. I called to verify the prior letter was "on-record" in my account. Given the nature of the postage, it was already verified delivered. Moving forward, that 15 year+ line-of-credit is just going sit on their books until they close the account. There is no longer a fundamental basis of forthright communication, confidence in competence, and trust to move forward.

arcanemachiner 2y ago
Couldn't hurt to keep an eye on the account to make sure those dummies don't start tacking on some "account dormancy fee" or other nonsense like that.
- 77pt77 2y ago
  Or just go down the Wells Fargo road and start opening accounts on his behalf.
  - calmbonsai 2y ago
    LOL!
ethbr1 2y ago
> As a matter of policy, they do not empower their front-line (personal) banking CSR reps This appears to be the original sin in most of these scenarios. Eventually, automation and predictive analytics will break. If you do not have a customer service org empowered and staffed to (a) investigate what went wrong & (b) make it right, then you will lose customers. And maybe you're fine with that trickle, but know that the Kafkaesque burning of a relationship means they will never do business with you again. For all its faults, Amazon is an example of a company that still remembers this and seems to empower its support folks. As a counterexample, I severed a 20 year relationship with Bank of America because they disempowered their retail staff to the point of uselessness.
- calmbonsai 2y ago
  Truth re:Amazon. I think my longest support call with them (~30min) over decades of service was with their pharmacy and the root cause turned out to be related to the Change Healthcare hacks. Even though it wasn't their fault and they could do nothing, at the time, to source the medication, I received instant credit (very expensive med) and they even talked to my insurance (with me on the line) to smooth-out the instant re-issuance of the prescription with an alternative vendor.
  - hansvm 2y ago
    My worst experience with Amazon was a rogue computer system re-flagging a refund as erroneous. It was annoying to have to go back 4 times, but every person I talked to was empowered to reverse the charge, and the last one knew how to stop it for good.
trinsic2 2y ago
> After 20 days of back-and-forth with non-answers, I finally sent them a certified letter giving them 30 days to "take action" or "explain non-action" on a specific dispute amounting to ~$5k. > The responded with a non-reponse bizarre marketing letter in 10 days. >I called to verify the prior letter was "on-record" in my account. Given the nature of the postage, it was already verified delivered. What was the purpose of the certified letter? you can use that in court but did you take any further action?
- calmbonsai 2y ago
  To verify they received it, signed for it, and to, essentially, guarantee that it would also be logged into my account. Emails are supported in court, but a certified letter or courier service has, essentially, zero grounds for evidentiary hearing challenges. The purpose was to layout an explicit log of prior communications and the terms of any/all communications moving forward (only physical mail), actions they needed to take if they wanted the account to remain active, and a time frame under which they needed to take those actions. Franky, just bog-standard financial dispute stuff.

arcanemachiner 2y ago

Couldn't hurt to keep an eye on the account to make sure those dummies don't start tacking on some "account dormancy fee" or other nonsense like that.

77pt77 2y ago
Or just go down the Wells Fargo road and start opening accounts on his behalf.
- calmbonsai 2y ago
  LOL!

ethbr1 2y ago

> As a matter of policy, they do not empower their front-line (personal) banking CSR reps This appears to be the original sin in most of these scenarios. Eventually, automation and predictive analytics will break. If you do not have a customer service org empowered and staffed to (a) investigate what went wrong & (b) make it right, then you will lose customers. And maybe you're fine with that trickle, but know that the Kafkaesque burning of a relationship means they will never do business with you again. For all its faults, Amazon is an example of a company that still remembers this and seems to empower its support folks. As a counterexample, I severed a 20 year relationship with Bank of America because they disempowered their retail staff to the point of uselessness.

calmbonsai 2y ago
Truth re:Amazon. I think my longest support call with them (~30min) over decades of service was with their pharmacy and the root cause turned out to be related to the Change Healthcare hacks. Even though it wasn't their fault and they could do nothing, at the time, to source the medication, I received instant credit (very expensive med) and they even talked to my insurance (with me on the line) to smooth-out the instant re-issuance of the prescription with an alternative vendor.
- hansvm 2y ago
  My worst experience with Amazon was a rogue computer system re-flagging a refund as erroneous. It was annoying to have to go back 4 times, but every person I talked to was empowered to reverse the charge, and the last one knew how to stop it for good.

trinsic2 2y ago

> After 20 days of back-and-forth with non-answers, I finally sent them a certified letter giving them 30 days to "take action" or "explain non-action" on a specific dispute amounting to ~$5k. > The responded with a non-reponse bizarre marketing letter in 10 days. >I called to verify the prior letter was "on-record" in my account. Given the nature of the postage, it was already verified delivered. What was the purpose of the certified letter? you can use that in court but did you take any further action?

calmbonsai 2y ago
To verify they received it, signed for it, and to, essentially, guarantee that it would also be logged into my account. Emails are supported in court, but a certified letter or courier service has, essentially, zero grounds for evidentiary hearing challenges. The purpose was to layout an explicit log of prior communications and the terms of any/all communications moving forward (only physical mail), actions they needed to take if they wanted the account to remain active, and a time frame under which they needed to take those actions. Franky, just bog-standard financial dispute stuff.