Looking at the advertisements and online banking services, I decided to open account with Citibank. The online account opening web page has more than 100 bugs (No joke). The experience of online account opening is very unfriendly. I head Quality Assurance and Customer service of a software company in Houston TX. Therefore probably I was particularly disturbed by the web site who has never been through a quality assurance. (I wonder if Citibank India has anything such as quality control).
Just to give some examples:
In the account opening form, there is an Address2 field that is mandatory. In online forms, the address 2 is never mandatory. Most of the US residential addresses don?t have two line street addresses. This form is not designed for NRI’s.
On completion of the form, I have to print it and affix two photographs. The form says ? Affix one photograph for each of the account holders, with their names written behind the photograph? ? If I glue the photograph, how the hell they are going to see the name at the back of the photograph?
The NRI Service Center address in Houston in the popup window says ?Galleria Fiancial Centre, ? Notice the spelling of Financial.
When I use ’’Contact Us’’ on the website, it doesn?t accept my e-mail address.
When I requested for Chat to report these problems, the person who came online responded like a typical hourly paid employee in United States. ’’I don?t care what you say, about Citibank’’. She actually did not understand my complaint. She thought I am worried about the online banking security. So, she sent me some prepared statements. I had to explain her that right now, my concern is the ’’Quality’’ of the web page not the security. God knows if she understood or took any actions, I gave up.
I sent a separate e-mail to Citibank reporting my frustrating account opening experience, I haven?t heard from anyone (its more than a month now)
After lot of troubles I completed the application and sent it to the NRI Service center in Houston. (By the way I selected Citibank because it had NRI Service center in my town - Houston).
There was no acknowledgement or phone call about receipt of the application. Only reason I came to know is that ? the checks I sent were deposited and I could see that through my ?Bank One? account. After two days I got an e-mail saying that the account has been opened, please go to the URL:
https://citibank.co.in/rca/status.htm and enter the reference number and password. On entering the information on this link, it gives ?Page not found error?. I reported this problem to IndiaService@citicorp.com twice. No one responded to me.
I am absolutely frustrated with Citibank service. I want to close my NRE and NRO accounts that I opened and look for other options. I would appreciate if someone could recommend alternatives to Citibank in India. All what I want is a rupee account that I can track online so that I don?t have to bother my relatives in India to maintain it.