Dear Sir...

Just sent this letter:

William R. Rhodes
President and Chief Executive Officer of Citibank
Citigroup
399 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10043
U.S.A.

[Name,
Address]

Sir,

I am writing to alert you to problems with the way that your company conducts business. These are issues that I think are serious and have ramifications for your customers, and I suspect that your Customer Service Department has not brought these issues to your attention.

Perhaps this information can be used to better inform your operation in the future.

1.] In December of last year, someone fraudulently changed my mailing address and then used my Citi issued credit card to make purchases. This was done despite the fact that I had a password on my account (as my social security number had been previously compromised.)

Your companies’ failures:
a.] An account was changed without the password attached to the account
b.] Your company made no effort to check the change of address. Sending a notice to the old address stating to the effect ‘If your address has not changed, please call us’ or even calling the old phone number on the account, would have provided some measure of security.

2.] For the past six months I have been trying to get copies of statements for the three months that the address was changed (Dec 05-Feb 06.) I have spoken to Customer Service and the Fraud Department multiple times. I paid your company the amount I was told was outstanding (minus the fraud charges) in March, yet have received no formal documentation of the charges. This has also meant that I have been unable to find out why the new account you issued in March had an opening balance.

Your companies failures:
a.] Customer Service has not been able to provide statements after multiple requests.
b.] No Supervisor is able to offer a creditable answer for why these statements are not being generated; and can do nothing, and WILL DO NOTHING to establish why they aren’t working.
I’ve heard multiple explanations (the request didn’t have a managers’ approval, the computer system changed in June, the Post Office must have lost them.) None of these seem credible; when I pointed out that no other mail was missing, and I was receiving the monthly statements the response from a Supervisor was; ‘we’re sending them out.’
When I asked if they could prove that, I was told ‘the system says so.’
When I asked if she was saying that computers never make mistakes, she had the decency to say No, but then added that ‘they are always right.’
The only other solution, I was told, was to send a letter to Billing Complaints.

3.] After months of failures at Customer Service, I sent two certified letters to your company; one to the regular mailing address (I was then told that address would not work and I would have to send a second letter.) I sent a second certified letter to Billing Complaints on August 21st.

Your companies’ failures:
a.] There is no way to contact Billing Complaints to establish if they received a complaint, what (if any) action they may take, and how long it will take them to complete their investigation (if any.)
b.] Customer Service is unable to contact Billing Complaints, or know what (if anything) they might be doing.
c.] Customer Service also does not know if the Fraud Department is taking any action on an account.

4.] During this period I have refused to pay the balance. Having paid your company $2,000 in charges that your company can’t document, why should I send you another $1,000, particularly when it seems likely now (after talking to the Fraud Department five times) that a fraudulent transaction they said would be removed, was not. Your company is now charging 30% interest, and an almost equivalent amount in a Late Fee of $39.

Your companies’ failures:
a.] After the Fraud Department said that they would remove a transaction from my account, they failed to do so, and they failed to notify me of their inaction.
b.] The Fraud Department provided no documentation of any action they took (or declined to take) after there was a fraudulent transaction on the account.
c.] Your company is currently charging the equivalent of 60% interest on my account, which is close to usury.

5.] At some point this year your company changed computer systems. This meant that, according to Customer Service, requests were being placed incorrectly. These requests still do not work. When I spoke to the Fraud Department, I was told that many of the notes from the original problem with the account were no longer available ‘because of the system change.’

Your companies’ failures:
a.] As someone that works in the computer industry, I find it inconceivable that a company such as yours would change their computer systems in such a way that Customer Service would be ineffectual, and unable to access records previously entered in the system.
b.] Your personnel seem woefully under trained in the usage of the computer systems that are supposed to assist them.

For you edification, I have included copies of the letter I sent to the Billing Complaints department.

Sincerely,




Cc: Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Complaint and Information Section
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
10 Park Plaza, Suite 5170
Boston, MA 02116

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
317 Russell Senate Building
Washington D.C. 20510