This problem was never resolved. The corporate office told BBB thaty this problem was resolved. It was not.
The problem is hiring a manger like Sherif Basalious giving the customers wrong information that causes them to lose money and then say, "you are responsible for your account and not me". Then you need to say nothing if you are not sure, but if you give an advice, you are respossible for it and you can't say I aCITI bank is not accredtied by BBB:
Business Profile
Banking Services
Citi
Headquarters
This business is NOT BBB Accredited.
WHY?
BBB Rating
D-
Reasons for rating:
75 complaint(s) filed against business that were not resolved
Failure to respond to 4 complaint(s) filed against business
Two employees in the bank made my experience so bad that I am closing all my accounts and going somewhere else.
My CD was about to mature and I needed to close it and re-open a new one before it rolled over. I thought that if I made a mistake about my accounts, I would be responsible for that action. But if an advisor in the WEALTH MANAGEMENT TEAM or GOLD CITI or BUSINESS ACCOUNT RELATIONS made a mistake by either giving me wrong information or misleading me in any way, he or she will be responsible for that action and not me, the client.
This person told me that I can leave the CD open and not only that, take cash out until Monday, 2 days after the CD matured. Well, he was wrong right there!! I took money out and left the CD open. He said on Friday, "come back on Monday and close the CD and open a new one if you want". I believed him. I came back on Monday to find out that the CD had rolled over with a penalty for taking cash out before I closed it!! This person was not there and I was told that he had a baby so he is on leave.
Sharif was there. He said, this guy is a DONKEY. " He said, this guy is "Homar" in Arabic! I said, "I need this situation resolved and the penalty removed". He called Lena, who said, "we will talk to the boss". A week later, I spoke to Lena and sent an email about this situation and she told me that "Sharif"did not tell her anything and that she can't help either. So one of them created the problem and they would have nothing to do with fixing it.
The three of them are useless. I had to figure out this mess by myself and spend hours on the phone till I was able to reach the president of Citi Bank in New York, who took care of this, reversed the fee and closed the account so I can go back to the branch and get my money back.
Again, on October 21st, I opened a Saving Business account for my company, a Money Market account. Sharif told me at that time that this is a six month money market account that pays 4.35% interest. I said, "this will be until the end of April, counting from October 21st to April 21st, he said that is correct. Up to this point, I am relying on the information that I am getting from a financial advisor, and not a teller.
At the end of March, I went to the office and spoke to Sharif again, and asked him if I should close this account and open a new Money Market. He replied, "No, don't. You should wait until the end of April because the interest you are getting now is more than the interest that you are going to get from the new account. I said, "are you sure?", he replied, "yes, I am". Come back at the end of April and open a new account.
I came back on April 15th, and asked him again, and he said, "wait", he looked at his computer and said, "come back on the 27th and speak to Raoul, he will help you and open the account for you". I waited and met Raoul who opened the new account. I asked him about the interest from the old account, and he said that it will be moved to the new one. I looked at the new account and found no interest paid for April! I called the Executive Response Team and filed a complaint and I was told that the interest was paid up to March 31st only.
I called Lena from CitiBank on Lexington street and left a message with her to ask Sharif to call me, but he did not. Next day, I went to see him and he was unprofessional and acting like this is his dad's bank. He said, I was busy so I did not call you. And your case that you filed was closed and you lost that case.
He stood up and said, "you are responsible for your account and you should read on line about the conditions". He is unprofessional and condescending, acting like this just because he was wrong. I said, "but you told me twice that I should not close it so I can get the interest for the month of April." He replied, "I don't remember saying that". The Executive Response Team sent a letter saying that the interest was paid for the right time and the correct months and that there was no discrimination at all. I called and spoke to Zandra who told me the same. read more