Crappy Customer Service, Or Totally Awesome?

Few things in life are as fun as putting together a mortgage application on a Saturday morning. But there I was, working furiously to complete my application, lest the rates jump up before I could send my package to the broker (Yep, I get spooked very easily). One requirement was to provide two months of bank statements. Being the tech savvy person, I locked myself out of the Citibank website (be cautious when typing your password or other information. Three wrong attempts, and your day is pretty much ruined). After the customary call to the help center where a heavily accented guy named ‘Jay’ (Don’t snicker, guys. It could be short for Jaysuria) informed me that I needed a new PIN and my best hope was to go to a local Citibank branch. He could request a new PIN, but that would take five business days (and leave me completely hosed).



I rushed to my local Citibank branch with two forms of identification, and approached the customer rep. It turned out that my PIN was still valid, but the website had locked me out. The customer rep, a really nice elderly guy, told me I could use his computer to unlock my account and get a new password. He also called the help center for me. So I ended up sitting on his chair, talking on his phone, working on his computer, behind the customer rep desk.

As I was speaking on the phone and trying to reset my password on the computer, a person approached the customer rep desk. The Citibank customer rep took him aside to discuss his problem. As luck would have it, a snobbish couple entered the bank a few minutes later, and walked straight towards me. There I was – unshaven, wearing jeans, a wrinkled T-shirt with the words ‘INTO GETTING DIRTY?’, talking on the phone, completely ignoring them. As I made eye contact, I could tell both of them were pretty pi$$ed. The woman shot me an angry look, like she was going to burn me to ashes right there. The stare lasted only for a few seconds, the customer rep came running and took them away.



I am guessing the couple and I walked out of the bank with completely opposite views on service. For a few minutes, I felt like an actual Citibank employee. Oh well, something to talk about at the office on Monday morning.