Citifinacial credit card - paid off balance in full but charged $ 50.79 interest - trouble with customer service

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on July 6, 2002:

From:

RE: Citifinacial credit card - paid off balance in full but charged $ 50.79 interest - trouble with customer service Back in May 2000, I opened an account with Citifinacial through Carpet One Flooring Gallery. While it was a pleasure dealing with the people at Carpet One, dealing with Citifinancial was and still is a nightmare. In December 2000, I transferred the balance in the Citifinancial credit card to a Discover credit card and paid the balance completely according to the bill I had in front of me. To my surprise in January 2001, Citifinancial sent an invoice for $50.79 as a balance due interest.

I immediately tried to call their customer service center to explained the balance was paid in full, that the invoice was an error. In this era of technology, the complaints had to be done in writing and mailed, which I did.

After another invoice in February 2001, and no answer from their customer service, I wrote a second letter and of course there was no answer to my second letter either. I then proceeded to call the bank and finally in March 2001, got to speak to someone who explained to me I was totally wrong and had to pay the bill.

I tried to explain to the lady, the account was paid in full back in December but she continued to tell me she had a screen in front of her that showed a balance and at this time it was close to $75.00.

I requested to speak to a supervisor, and this was the worst mistake. I was put on hold for about 5 minutes and when the supervisor came to the phone he was angry and told me he was aware of the situation and I had a balance to pay. Obviously, no one wanted to listen or explain anything to me other that the account had a balance due. While one department is disputing with me, I got one of those marketing calls one evening from Citibank and of course I gave the lady who was calling me an earful of why I would never do any business with Citifinancial. This lady said she will forward my account information to her supervisor but couldn't promise anything. The next month, my Citifinancial statement balance was $108.79 but no payment was due because they had put all charges on dispute. After six months this was Citifinacial's first step in Customer Service. Slow but they got there... Since last year the bills kept coming in with the amount in dispute of $108.79 and $0.00 payment due with a remark next to the amounts "Amount in Dispute". After a year in June 2002 I got the Citifinancial statement with a remark next to the amount "Dispute resolved by negotiation". With whom they negotiated your guess is as good as mine. You won't be surprised to know they are back billing the interest in the $108.79 for one year and the bill is due now for $150.52. Customer service for Citifinancial is unknown. Their treatment to consumers and the way they communicate with the consumer is the worst I have ever encountered.

I will work again with Carpet One Flooring as they were responsible and did a great job, however, I will never deal again with Citifinancial and would advice anyone I know of my experience with them. Sincerely, Maria de L. Droz