OneEyedDiva
SF VIP
- Location
- New Jersey
I’ll try to make a long story short. In September 2021 I used a Citi virtual card number set at $1.50 for a trial subscription to NorthJersey.com online newspaper, aka Bergen Record (BR). After 6 months, the charge would be $9.99 a month. The expiration date was 12/2021. In March I deactivated the number, another action that should have made the card number unusable. In the interim Citi had upgraded their virtual card system with new features. Don’t ya just love it when upgrades make things worse?!
I was charged $9.99 two months in a row after the expiration date and after I deactivated the number which was only set at $1.50! None of the 6 representatives I spoke with could tell me how Citibank allowed that to happen. That never happened with their old system.
The first rep wanted to refer me to the fraud department. I told him there was no fraud involved, it was a subscription and that it was Citi’s error for allowing the charge to go through. He said he couldn’t find the number I used and I had to tell him to look under the deactivated numbers. I asked him to just please credit my account, which he did. He was the first of several Citi reps I had trouble understanding due to their accents.
By the time my account was charged a second time, Citi had changed their phone system which now has a gazillion prompts and seems designed to keep us from getting through to a human. I finally wound up speaking with 2 reps that day, including a techie who said he would present the situation (to the powers that be, I guess) so it wouldn’t happen again. He also said he would delete the card and credit my account. After a week…that didn’t happen. So I had to call again, spoke to 3 more reps, all of whom were hard to understand. The worst was the next to last person who sounded like a shy little girl. I literally had to keep asking her What did you say? And telling her to please talk louder and slower. After a point, I said, "I’m going to end this call now."
She then referred me to someone who I, at least could understand better and was able to finally take care of it.
After 46 minutes of sheer aggravation, not to mention the hours wasted due to prior attempts to clear this up, I decided I’m done and never want to have to deal with Citibank customer service again. I wound up finding a reward card that's even better with Bank of America. I will close my account with Citi after I've gotten all my cash back rewards.
I was charged $9.99 two months in a row after the expiration date and after I deactivated the number which was only set at $1.50! None of the 6 representatives I spoke with could tell me how Citibank allowed that to happen. That never happened with their old system.
The first rep wanted to refer me to the fraud department. I told him there was no fraud involved, it was a subscription and that it was Citi’s error for allowing the charge to go through. He said he couldn’t find the number I used and I had to tell him to look under the deactivated numbers. I asked him to just please credit my account, which he did. He was the first of several Citi reps I had trouble understanding due to their accents.
By the time my account was charged a second time, Citi had changed their phone system which now has a gazillion prompts and seems designed to keep us from getting through to a human. I finally wound up speaking with 2 reps that day, including a techie who said he would present the situation (to the powers that be, I guess) so it wouldn’t happen again. He also said he would delete the card and credit my account. After a week…that didn’t happen. So I had to call again, spoke to 3 more reps, all of whom were hard to understand. The worst was the next to last person who sounded like a shy little girl. I literally had to keep asking her What did you say? And telling her to please talk louder and slower. After a point, I said, "I’m going to end this call now."
She then referred me to someone who I, at least could understand better and was able to finally take care of it. After 46 minutes of sheer aggravation, not to mention the hours wasted due to prior attempts to clear this up, I decided I’m done and never want to have to deal with Citibank customer service again. I wound up finding a reward card that's even better with Bank of America. I will close my account with Citi after I've gotten all my cash back rewards.
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I'm sorry you experienced what you did. That kind of thing is very disconcerting. I'm not crazy about AmEx either but because I found that some merchants don't accept their cards. Several years ago when my sister and I were on vacation at my timeshare, when I went to check in, the clerk told me my AmEx card was declined. I couldn't figure out why because I had a healthy credit line and hadn't used the card for anything else. Good thing I had another card with me! So my motto became "American Express...don't leave home without another card". 
Even Costco dropped them. My husband, who was a retailer, said it was probably because they took longer to pay and cost merchants more.