Hello!
I had a business account with CitiBank. My company had good pay master reputation in the market till Citibank ruined it. We had about Rs 5 Lacs in the account.
We used to issue self cheques to people..when they goto the bank they are asked for a identity proof if someone is unable to provide any proof the payment is rejected by CitiBank. Some of people who are very reputed went to bank themselves and they did this to them. Those people felt so embarrassed.
Even my employee was rejected because he had no ID proof related to Chandigarh. But had a driving license, Voter ID card of Himachal but they still rejected it. Anyways, I came to know about this when one of my good friend was rejected for the payment and he called me at the bank. I went to the bank and talked to the girl who was the teller. She was so stubborn that she did not listed to me at all. Even the bank and transaction manager supported her. I was so embarrassed in front of my friend.
I think they love bouncing cheques. Then after few days ... we issued a cheque to our one of the main principals of Rs 1 Lac. The account had 2.9 Lacs at that time. When the principal’s bank sent the cheque to CitiBank they returned the cheque stating that there are no funds. This was so embarrassing. Means they bounced the cheque when we had money in the account.
Anyways I wrote a complaint to their branch, their chennai branch. And then they started saying sorry and stuff. But still they did not showed the courtesy they should show. But we forgot the whole thing and everything again was on track.
After few days I sent my employee to make a DD with a self cheque. They again asked him for ID proof. The employee called me on phone and when I went to the bank they even asked me for proof. LOL how LAME can they get. Anyways I asked for bank manager but he was not available then I had to come back. At this time I decided to lodge a complaint at Consumer Forum and RBI.
I went to RBI and Consumer Forum and lodged the complaint and they both sent notices to Citibank and then they started coming to our place ..first came the girl who was on teller begging for forgiveness and then came Branch Manager with Regional Manager and Transaction Head all begging for forgiveness. They even said to me that their jobs are at stake. LOL Muhahaha <EVIL>.
I just asked them one simple question if I was at there place would they forgive me ? And I got the answer myself when they did not answer my question. So yes I did not forgive them ... a total of 4 employees were fired by Citibank. But its of no use as I had moved my account to HDFC and IDBI which is working pretty fine.
I suggest you to check other bank’s offers before opening an account. IDBI is the best till now for business accounts. As they offer a lot of free value added services. I hope you appreciate the fight I had with Citibank! Overall the Bank SUCKS!
Thanks!