Dont judge a product by the skills of its salesman. : My Citi Story

When I joined a software company from pune, i had four options of banks to choose from. I had applied for ICICI but I soon realized they were too overloaded with customers. The long queues outside the branch and the ATM, the rude staff and the fact that they did not find it necessary to clarify my doubts forced me to abandon that bank.

My next bank was CitiBank. They had good banking agents. The convinced me right away that the bank was good. Even though they didnt have branches and their customer service people (phone) have know knowledge on banking and read every solution to queries from a manual, i didnt mind. I thought it followed standards. I was wrong. I was very wrong. I realized that CitiBank do not like offering people savings account. They offer salary account so that the money remains in the bank and not flow to other banks. When I left the company and came back to my home town in Goa I realized that the only ATM in the state did not accept deposits anymore. Of course they did not have any branches and the only way to deposite checks into the account and pay credit card bills is to hand it to some third party courier company. So much for security. Adding insult to injury, when I called customer service, they didnt know that there was a CitiBank ATM (housed in a +25 square meter shop with an LCD TV with cable) in Goa.

I wanted to end my banking relationship with them but guess what, no branches around. Now my account lies in some server with Rs 23 balance. Its because of such shoddy policy implementation at the grass root level by MNC banks that these banks are most vulnerable to crashes and loses with the slightest sound of alarm

Moral of my story, don't judge a product by the skills of its salesman.