Citibank incompetence

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