Citibank incompetence

On Nov. 1, 1999, I went to my Citibank branch in Pondok Indah Plaza to transfer US$500 to a relative in Khartoum, Sudan. I handed the teller the money in cash, filled out the necessary transfer order and paid an extra Rp 50,000 for the telex transfer cost. The teller confirmed to me that the transfer would take two or three days.

By mid-November, I was surprised to learn from my relative back home that the money had still not arrived. Since the Citibank head office in Jakarta is close to my office, I contacted them to ask for a copy of the telex transfer. A lady in the customer service department promised to forward me the copy I needed after contacting and checking with those concerned in the branch office. I was told to wait for another three or four days. Early December, (although I had contacted both the Citibank head and branch offices a second time) there was still no information available from Citibank regarding the copy of the telex transfer.

Finally, on Dec. 27, I contacted my Citibank branch office once again and was informed by the customer service department that they would definitely check on this matter and would give me a phone call in a few days time. However, when the customer service staff saw my visibly growing anger, they quickly disappeared, to reappear shortly with an apparently more senior staff member who calmly informed me that my money transfer on Nov. 1 had apparently never been made. She explained that since Citibank was an American bank, they could not transfer money to Sudan because of American sanctions against the country. She also added that the money had already been credited to my account on Nov. 2 (since I had not yet received my bank statement, I could not have known this information).

She could offer me no explanation as to why I was not informed that the transfer had not been made or why both my Citibank branch and its head office were not able to access such information or data (which I presume is saved on their computers) when I earlier contacted them to find out what had happened to my money transfer.

I can find no words for such incompetence which caused my relatives back home and myself much frustration, stress and most of all the loss of valuable time.

MAHA BODEMAR

Jakarta