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The Best Frauds, Scams, and Big Company Cons in America Today |
| Aug 2005 Alert: Citibank unfairly harasses customers |
| CITICARDS ARE NOT WORTH HAVING, NOW THAT CITIBANK HAS TAKEN TO DELIBERATELY HARASSING
ITS CUSTOMERS. |
| EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Calculated Public Harassment, Inciting "Credit Card Rage". Nature of Fraud: Charging Customer's outrageous fees, racking up exorbitant charges to credit cards, then harassing customers with early morning telephone calls to incite customer rage. |
| Original Complaint Received: Here is the original complaint that came in to us: Home Depot gives out credit cards with their name on them, so I assumed Home Depot handled the credit, since only their name is on it. Only later, when you start getting harassed, do you find out that Citibank or CitiCards actually holds the credit. It is a "CitiCard", which isn't at all clear or obvious when you get one. I was ONE day late paying, and I was hit with an instant $25 late fee, which is outrageous! I tried to email Home Depot, but their website gives no contact emails for any accounts. So I emailed other addresses on the website, refusing to pay this late fee. I emailed week after week, but was ignored, while they inflated my tiny bill up over $150 with late charges and interest fees, in almost no time, none of which was warranted -- they never replied to me. Then I started getting calls from CitiCards, and I had no idea why. They said it was the Home Depot account, I said I contacted Home Depot many times about these late fees, and they ignored me, what else was I to do? Only then did they say that CitiCards handles the entire account, even though the only merchant name on the credit card is Home Depot. This was the first deception, not only devious, but confusing to customers. It is nowhere obvious on even the statements, that it is a Citibank credit account, not a Home Depot one. It is their fault for being so crafty to hide this important fact from the customer. I told them I was simply not paying these extortionary late fees, and when they got the card balance back to the original small amount I had charged, then I would pay the bill and scrap the card, as I do not like any deception in merchant accounts. CitiCards refused to give any credits whatsoever. Then they started harassment calls, every morning, always very early in the morning, so they'd wake you up. This is another one of their devious strategies -- they try to harass you first thing in the morning, to put you in a BAD MOOD for the day. You get very enraged at them, and pretty soon begin to HATE everything to do with this lousy wretched company. I told them repeatedly NOT to call me in the morning, but every time they call, it is ONLY first thing in the morning, to wake you up and give you what I call "CREDIT CARD RAGE". I told them I would only discuss this issue during the afternoon, but they ignore that, they ONLY call early in the morning to wake you up, because some asshole in Citibank thinks that this strategy is "cute" and it "works". The only thing it works at is causing Credit Card RAGE!! Right now I HATE Citibank, I hate everyone in the company, I hate Home Depot, and I would NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER get a Citibank card ever again -- they are the most despicable people on the face of the planet. I hope they go bankrupt. I am sending my complaint about their nasty, spiteful strategy of public harassment to everyone that I can think of, the FTC, the Attorney Generals of my state and theirs, to their corporate managers, and every other fraud site on the internet that I can find. The more people learn about their despicable way of harassing innocent people, and how they jack up late fees on top of late fees, and then continue to harass people until they finally "give up" just to stop getting pestered. Well, they hit the WRONG person here, so help me God, I will let the whole world know that CitiCards is the most despicable, obnoxious credit card company in the world. They need to be sued for their continual harassment. I can tell you, these jerks will now never get my money, and I will start billing them for my "morning harassment" time -- I will charge them $100 each morning harassment call. I can't find the addresses of the heads of Citibank, to write to them. The Citibank and CitiCards websites are just as devious as the people who work for this rotten company, they are too damn cowardly to even put the names and addresses of the heads of their company on their website. Thank you Citibank, you qualify as the biggest asshole company of the century! Hope you get everything that's coming to you jerks!! (P.S. if you can help me with the top executives names, I would be most appreciative). A. P. R., CA. |
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Our Action and Verification: It is not possible to talk to any credit card company about someone else's account, they simply won't do it. But we did verify that the late fee of CitiCards is $25 per month, and they keep adding it on, together with interest, every month, and they do refuse to reverse these fees. They have become extremely hard nosed about racking up your bill, and they don't consider any mitigating circumstances that we could discover. We managed to get names and addresses of some key people in the organization, from this link: http://www.banking.state.ny.us/ra.htm -- click on the June 21, 2001 action against Citigroup.
Mr. Sanford I. Weill Mr. Robert B. Willumstad There is little more we can add to the above complaint, which seems very accurate, very honest, and VERY typical of credit Card companies like CitiCards. We agree that the early morning calls qualifies as needless harassment, which is the main reason we posted this article on our site, for others to learn of these devious, punitive, and needlessly harassing strategies of this company. Conclusion: We happen to agree 100% with the person who filed this complaint. If CitiCards is going to pull this kind of nonsense on their customers, we feel they have crossed the line. It is time to start dumping their credit cards. One of our staff, on reading this person's complaint, did exactly that -- they called up Citibank and cancelled their credit card account. And guess what? They couldn't care less. However, after the card was cancelled, our staff member started to get calls from CitiCards demanding to know why their card had been dropped!! This "Citi Group" never learns, so it seems! Maybe it is indeed time for them to go out of business. Applicable Statutes: Most states define harassment as acts to needlessly annoy, pester or inconvenience a person, with a pattern of repeated calling at very inopportune times, and when requested to call at another time, they refuse to do so. Therefore, we agree that CitiCards' strategy of inciting "Credit Card Rage" indeed qualifies as harassment. Federal Government Involvement: We hope the person complaining above does send a formal complaint to the federal agencies DOJ, FTC and their Attorney Generals. Our own staff member will likely do the same thing. Core Issue: Credit Card companies should not use strategies to incite "Credit Card Rage", hatred, or treat customers in this manner. It is only a matter of time before all people learn about their disgraceful habits, and it hurts them. |
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| Innovative Solution: Until they change from their punitive strategies, if you shop Home Depot, you might consider using a different type of credit card than the one bearing Home Depot's name, but apparently held by CitiCards, with no clear indication to customers as to who they are supposed to correspond with concerning their account. |
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Last Updated August 17, 2005. |
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