False promises.

Hey folks… am back at my computer… and theres steam coming out my ears… after having a meaningful conversation with the Citibank (CB)customer service representative. About a month and a half back CB came out with a deal that if you shop for a certain sum at the Shoppers stop then you get 5% cash back. This was the first time I actually participated in such a scheme. So I wasn’t too sure how it worked. When I paid the bill I was not given any cash back so I asked about it and found that I would have to call CB and tell them about it. So I called them…. First couple of times the telephone conversation was mysteriously cut ( I say mysteriously cos just when I got to the part where I find out how I get my cash back the phone disconnected). After a few days I felt a bit lucky so thought I should call them up again. When I did again I was directed to some one else…. And by the end of the call I still wasn’t enlightened. So I call again… I should get an award for being patient….. again this girl tells me that she’ll put my query to the proper dept. So finally I asked her if she would be kind enough to call me back when it was sorted out. She told me they cannot call back… that I should call back. This was when I lost it and generally told her that I had already made 5-6 calls…. Well I wasn’t counting… she had the gall to tell me that it was my 4th call…. I stand corrected.. I told her for me that’s 3 calls too many!
This evening I called them again as last time I had actually been given a request no. I gave my number and the answer was that “if the deal was on at the time I would get the cash back.” I mean come on. It’s a promotion by CB and if they are not aware that the promotion was on who would be! I think this requires divine intervention. Cos CB is blissfully unaware of their own promotions and they train their personnel to show others their ignorance… Amazing. This time the girl was going on about how “certainly” she would check with the other dept. to be specific about the reply… how “certainly” she would do it… but in the first place they are not “certain” about this at all…. So what is the meaning of the word “certainly” in their dictionary. Finally I told her that the amount I was spending on the phone calls would be equivalent to the 5% cash back. I think that must be the deal…. Come to think of it…. They must have a deal with MTNL ( the telephone company)…. We’ll come up with this deal and you can earn money cos these poor fools would keep calling CB to get their 5% back and would spend lots more.
So you people out there… be very careful about these deals! When it comes to them marketing their loans and draft I am supposedly an esteemed customer. They make me feel that I am a VIP for them. But when it comes to the crunch…. They don’t come through with flying colours. So much for customer service.