#%#^% Sears!!! #$#$%#CITIBANK

[mom-from-missouri]

I've had an issue regarding Sears since November. They overcharged me for a repair on our icemaker. I paid the bill but took off the wrong amount--as they instructed me to do. They never credited it on their end. So, I have been billed a late fee of $29, and late fees on the late fees.... I have sent numerous letters and called numerous times. Half the time the person on the other end of the phone does not even speak english.

OK, so today, they finally credited me the correct amount (so they say) and removed the late fees...

BUT, as a result of all this, the lowered my credit limit. Anything else it would not be a big deal. But, this is what I use for my rental units, as in the town they are located, Sears is the only appliance dealer and repair place that makes house calls. They lowered my limit to $133.

I have been on the phone for over 2 hours, getting the run around. The last person claimed to be the head of the credit dept. WITH CITIBANK. Sears is now owned by CITIBANK.

My DH had similar experiences with CITIBANK 2 years ago. His card was stolen, but they kept charging him late fees for not paying the fraudulent amount, even though he paid his part and they said they would remove the rest. It all came out in court when the person who stole it was caught, and CITIBANK sent an attorney--his face turned beat red when he started going thru the card which was blown up on the overhead for all to see. 3 days later we got a call that it was being credited back-but they still hurt his credit rating and never fixed that. We finally just gave up.

What else does CITIBANK own, that I can avoid??? @$%#

[simpleyme]

he he I have been boycotting Citibank for years ;-)
they bought solomon smith barney
Shell
Texaco
home depot
Sears has been owned by Citibank for years
I always look to see who "owns" my cards as I do not use Citibankfor any reason


Sears likely accepts other cards can you just use a differant card and still have sears do your services?
one by one all my credit cards magically turned into citi accounts that is how I became a non credit user

the final straw was when they charged me 1 dollar in interest and would not give it back ,home depot double billed me then they reversed the charges ,citi declared that the double charge was a cash advance!

ETA; the credit card business of many busineses such as home depot are owned by citibank,but they did take over smith barney ,I know as i had to pay dearly to get all my money out of their clutches

[poundwise]

Point of clarification: Citibank does not own Sears. Sears' credit card business is operated by Citi, as are many other entities' credit operations.

[sounderella]

I used Sears to buy my appliances when I moved into my new house. Once I paid that off I closed it right away. I don't like citi's practices.

[herm4]

Oddly, we had a similar situation with Sears last year. Took about 10 phone calls and several months to get everyhting straighten out. I don't shop at Sears anymore.

[jodi]

I have had problems with incorrect billing in the past, though not with Sears. Each time when I got to the point of tearing my hair out, I stopped dealing with the companies and wrote to the Better Business Bureau. Guess what? Each time the complaint was resolved favorably within a week or two. Businesses seem to hate a negative BBB report, although I don't know if such a large corporation would care. It never hurts to try.

[jasanderson]

I have always had great luck with Citibank - now Capital One is not as user friendly and Orchard Bank is horrible.

The problem is it's cheaper for all these companies to pay someone in India $3.00/day to answer our calls, even though they can't speak English. If you have ever noticed they can only answer standard canned questions. If you want to speak to someone who knows English, mumble and talk really fast as they can't think fast enough to figure out what you are saying. Ususally if you ask them something to confuse them they will transfer you to someone back in the US who speaks English.

A lot of times it's good to complain online. I have had luck with that and if they tell you to call they may give you a different number that gets you to someone in the US.

[mom-from-missouri]

you wont believe this--my luck, but now we get a phone call from citibank that we didn't pay our mortgage. we did and i just had to fax to them a copy of the front and back of the cancelled check. (thank goodness us bank has this available on line).
apprently they could tell by them numbers across the back of the check that it was credited to the wrong account.
did they say they were sorry?? NO. I was told it was my fault because i didn't write the account number on my check!!! yet it was on the stub it was mailed with.
that is 2 bad dealings with citi in 1 week!!!
dh says cancel sears and he is wanting to refi to get away from citi. he never liked them. his bank sold and became a citibank bank, and he closed his accounts, but they also got the mortgage and he never changed it.

[JanH]

These banks are too big when they don't try to please the customer, but blame them for things. I don't blame you for changing banks.

[mom-from-missouri]

Now I see the had trouble last quarter and are laying off 4800 employees. Maybe they are loosing business due to poor customer service?? They do kind of go hand in hand..

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

Now I see the had trouble last quarter and are laying off 4800 employees. Maybe they are losing business due to poor customer service?? They do kind of go hand in hand..

Nope.

Citibank has been raking in huge profits for years with little or no consequence for poor customer service. (The same is true of Bank of America, Chase, etc.)

Citi's current trouble has to do with the ongoing mortgage industry woes. link

[simpleyme]

no mater how bad customer service is if you tell people about it they will declare how they have no trouble with Citibank and assume you must pay bills late and be irresponsible ,so it really does no good to warn other about bad cards and crappy service
so I just left Citibank 100 percent and no longer had a problem with them

[HNorton]

It's the death of customer service in America. Believe me its happening everywhere.

[ThriftoRama]

Citi isn't just evil when it comes to cards. They bought the mortgage on our first house from our local bank and immediately began to screw everything up-- adding things to our escrow that we paid out of pocket, telling us we needed to pay more for this and that, just because it was "their policy/" Not crediting payments correctly. Every time I called, I got sent to someone in India and was told something different.

Then to add insult to injury- during HUrricane Katrina, when all the other lenders were offering temporary forebearance on mortgage payments, Citi still made us pay. The levees were broken and we didn't even know if the house was still standing. Yet, pay up! Not even a month reprieve.

I was glad to sell the house and be rid of Citi forever. My bad experience with them, plus lessons about money from the hurricane, are the No. 1 reason I bought a less expensive house the second time-- our goal was to immediately pay it off so we didn't have to deal with another mortgage bank. Mission accomplished, and it has been great.