Deceptive Promotion
Complaint
Paul
Country: United States
My complaint is against Citibank, or more specifically, their credit card division known as Citicards. Back in the Fall they came out with a promotional flyer for the Christmas season whereby you could sign up for a program and get 10% back up to $100 at purchases made at department, discount and apparel stores between certain dates.
The first hint of trouble was that their definition of what they consider to be one of those stores was at best vague. I needed to buy a new computer so I signed up for their program. I never was credited with my $100. Why? It had nothing to do with the item I bought but where I bought it from, Circuit City.
By definition that is considered electronics store and was not eligible for the discount. The bigger problem here was this. In that promotion flyer they listed three examples of how you could save. One was a cashmere scarf for $80, you save $8. Another was a snow blower for $130, you save $13. But the other was a HDTV for $790, you save $79. Now think about this! If you were going to buy an HDTV where would you most likely go to purchase one? That’s right, an electronics store such as Best Buy or Circuit City which doesn’t qualify for the discount!
At the very least this promotional flyer was deceptive. I have cut up my Citibank card and gone with CapitalOne, a much better interest rate as well. I will make sure this costs them more than if they just would have given me my $100. The problem is, they don’t care. Just do a search on this site under Citibank and watch how many complaints come up. That in itself speaks volumes about their customer service, far more than this letter ever will.
The first hint of trouble was that their definition of what they consider to be one of those stores was at best vague. I needed to buy a new computer so I signed up for their program. I never was credited with my $100. Why? It had nothing to do with the item I bought but where I bought it from, Circuit City.
By definition that is considered electronics store and was not eligible for the discount. The bigger problem here was this. In that promotion flyer they listed three examples of how you could save. One was a cashmere scarf for $80, you save $8. Another was a snow blower for $130, you save $13. But the other was a HDTV for $790, you save $79. Now think about this! If you were going to buy an HDTV where would you most likely go to purchase one? That’s right, an electronics store such as Best Buy or Circuit City which doesn’t qualify for the discount!
At the very least this promotional flyer was deceptive. I have cut up my Citibank card and gone with CapitalOne, a much better interest rate as well. I will make sure this costs them more than if they just would have given me my $100. The problem is, they don’t care. Just do a search on this site under Citibank and watch how many complaints come up. That in itself speaks volumes about their customer service, far more than this letter ever will.
Comments
If that wasn't enough, I started getting the phone calls. At home, at work--which I quickly put a stop to, informing them that they were not allowed to call me at my place of employment under my protection in the Fair Credit Act--EARLY mornings on the weekends, the works!
I scratched up the money to pay Citicards off, and informed them by phone, the last time they decided to call and harass me that I desired the account closed immediately. I thought I paid them off in June. But I was wrong.
I got an email today about a statement, and decided to call to find out what in the world was happening. If my account's closed, and I've paid off this card, then I shouldn't still get statements, right? Yeah, right.
Long story short, after being hung up on a couple of times by the computer and one of the representatives, the balance that was listed on my statement, the one I paid from, was incorrect. I owe Citi $150 more, including finance charges.
After all the hell I've gone through with them, I am going to pay the balance off, but because of the harassment and the insanity I've been through with them, I have decided to have a "plascetomy"--get rid of all my credit cards and go straight cash. I can live without the anger that comes dealing with the so-called customer service representatives that man the phones of these credit card call centers. I also plan on writing the Attorney Generals of both South Dakota and New York as well as the one here in Texas about Citicard's bait and switch techniques as well as the harassment I've experienced with them.
Letters of complaint will also go to the Better Business Bureaus of each
city/state as well. Dealing with the people of Citicards in these past months has driven home something I've heard for many months now. "The borrower is slave to the lender."
I won't be a slave to them--or any of these shyster credit card and lending
companies--again.