You are now in our speech enabled system. To switch back to our touch tone system, press star star at any time. Please say or enter your debit or ATM card number."
Calling Citibank as someone who doesn't have an account with a major banking corporation is a bit exhausting. This customer service line is very much geared to handle customer service problems for people who are already customers of Citibank. It took me almost five minutes to just get through to the system that I was not a customer and wanted to hear more about financing options for a personal loan. I want to do some work on my house but don't want to deal with remortgaging my home or anything like that. I just want a small personal loan to quickly get started and then quickly pay off the loan.
I'm currently shopping around to see who has the most competitive rates and who will offer me the most enticing deal. My credit is excellent, but I want to work with a banking institute that will reward me for my loan. Eventually, when I talked to an agent, they did have some programs that piqued my interest, and I made an appointment to talk to someone at a local branch, but it just took far too long to get to that point.
Instead of getting me when I first called, an automated voice message informed me, "You are now in our speech-enabled system. To press back to our touch-enabled system, press star twice at any time." It then said, "Please touchtone or say your ATM debit card, Social Security or taxpayer ID card. Say, hold on if you need some time to find your card." I will add that it was slightly odd that it used touchstone as a verb, but I went with it.
Before I could say anything, it continued to give me choices stating, "To use your bank account number instead, press 1. To report a lost card, press 3. If you are calling about your credit card, press 9." I didn't need any of those things so I tried to say, "Something else." It just repeated the three options I could choose again and so I said, "Something else" again. It didn't work again; instead, it just told me, "Sorry, we cannot continue without a valid response," and repeated the options.
I tried one more time, and this time, it finally gave me what it described as "limited options for non-account holders." It instructed me, "For credit cards, press or say 1. For branch locations, press or say 2. For interest rates or to open an account, press or say 3. To verify employment at Citi, press or say 4. If you are calling from a law enforcement agency, press or say 5."
I pressed 3 to hear about interest rates and a new account, and then it gave me new options which included, "For available interest rates, please visit Citibank.com. To speak to someone about opening an account, press 0. To open a new account or apply for credit, press 1. For questions regarding a new application, press 2. For balance inquiries, press 3." It was about six minutes into the call at this point, but finally, I got placed on hold after pressing 1. It took another ten minutes and someone picked up who answered some basic questions but told me I would need to go to a branch location for more in-depth answers.