Just got a call from my wife and she is angry. Fortunately not at me or the kids! She tried to use her credit card last night and it was denied. Hmm. She called the credit card company today and was told her account was delinquent and had been suspended. This is the account she personally has held for 22 years. She maintained it when we got married to maintain her credit rating and she has never missed a payment. The balance is a few thousand dollars.

She immediately went to her check book and was able to quote the check number, amount and date written to the “customer service” rep but was told that didn’t matter as the payment hadn’t arrived. At this point we are about ten days late on this payment. Clearly the check is lost in the mail somewhere but it appears that doesn’t matter. She requested to talk to someone else, as we have been trained to do in the US, and the supervisor told her there was nothing she would do. She then said, “Don’t be surprised if you get called by a collection agency.” A collection agency! 22 years without a missed payment and she goes into collection! Needless to say, my wife is not happy with this “service.” Clearly the Citi is wide awake as it takes moves to alienate loyal, and profitable, customers.

The Citi website tells us they are reorganizing to create a better future. A better future only possible with minimizing the toxic debt it recklessly created in the past few years. The better future will probably not include my wife. She takes 22 years of loyal service seriously, Citi doesn’t. Let’s face it Citi doesn’t even care about us. They want people who don’t pay their bills so Citi can charge interest and fees – as they are to us right now. They will not miss us. Such is big business in America these days.

With shares trading at a 52 week low of $2.49 down from a 52 week high of $27.35 one can see why Citi feels the need to strong arm good customers.

In these tight times are you treating your customers better than ever or has downsizing and belt-tightening created poor customer service?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 4:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.