Let me preface this by saying that my family and I have been banking with Citibank, in particular with Citibank's Cedarhurst branch, for decades - personal banking, business accounts, the works. In fact, the Cedarhurst branch was where I opened my first account when I was in college nearly ten years ago. Even though I've had numerous annoying or even upsetting incidents with Citibank as a company, I've continued to bank with them due to loyalty and, quite frankly, the convenience of not having to close accounts and open new ones elsewhere.
I stopped into the branch today, 12/23/16, to deposit some cash that I had into my debit account knowing that I may need it available during the holiday weekend. I often use branch ATMs to make deposits or withdrawals because typically I do so after branches close, so I'm very experienced with the entire process. Today, however, the ATM -- which I was informed by a teller had just been serviced by a technician earlier in the day -- took my cash, did not DEPOSIT the amount into my account, and did not RETURN my cash either. A notification explaining that it wouldn't do either of those things flashed on the screen and a small receipt was printed out with information to reference while dealing with the issue. Curiously, though, the receipt didn't include the amount deposited.
I waited on line to speak to a teller, who when presented with the situation called over a woman who took one look at the receipt and told me plainly "we can't do anything about this, you'll have to call the 800 number and speak to them". Flabbergasted, I pressed her for some information as to what would be done, asking things like "well being that this is a holiday weekend and this won't be dealt with or addressed for days, how am I supposed to be okay with that?" and "but what if they DON'T offer me a provisional credit for they time being?" since she had suggested that that could be one possible outcome. By then I was beyond agitated, knowing that I deposited whatever cash I had until my following paycheck (meaning that I now have no actual money until I get payed after the holiday), so I told her that being dismissed to take this up with a customer service representative wasn't going to work for me and that I wished to speak to her supervisor. I was then told that there was no one above her at this branch, that she was the branch manager, and that that was that. Then I lost my cool entirely and stormed out of the branch, completely irate, to attempt to deal with this over the phone. I won't even get into the bs that occurred with Citibank's phone customer service since this review is just for this branch, but I did find out that the woman I had this confrontation with, Angela Meilak, in fact lied directly to my face. Firstly, she's the branch's ASSISTANT MANAGER, not its manager, which isn't how she introduced herself at all and tells me that despite what she said to me, there is in fact someone superior to her at that branch to whom she is answerable and who, presumably, has more authority than she does. Secondly, she flat out told me that she and nobody else in that branch is authorized to take money out of the ATMs, a statement which was disputed by one of the representatives with whom I spoke on the phone. Furthermore, when I went back into the branch with that representative on the phone who instructed me in exactly what I should ask Angela to do, Angela stated yet again that she had no authorization to go into an ATM, even in light of the fact that the ATM took my money and didn't deposit it where it belongs.
In a nutshell, the tellers are courteous, welcoming, gracious -- the things one would expect anyone who works in a customer service-related field to be. The assistant manager has a smug, condescending and frankly downright unpleasant demeanor even when faced with an issue that a customer, someone that she is in effect answerable to, is dealing with a distressing issue that the bank is responsible for. To be brushed aside and told "there's nothing I can do" without even a shred of apparent sympathy or apology is reprehensible, and it absolutely boggles my mind that anyone felt that this person, with her dour, pursed expression and curt delivery, should be charged with representing this particular Citibank branch on a management level. All she managed to do, in my view, was to seem both untrustworthy and ineffectual in her role -- neither of which are qualities one would want to witness in someone who is essentially responsible for holding people's money.
Suffice it to say that as soon as this entire situation is resolved, I'll be closing my accounts with Citibank in favor of one of their many equally reputable competitors. I've weighed doing so in the past and never gone through with it, but between having my money effectively STOLEN from me and dealing with an employee who will gladly lie to a customer's face, I've officially lost all trust in and patience with this bank. read more
