KingLou Drops Science 2.0

So last Friday Jodi was taking some money out of her bank account and she noticed in passing that there were some weird withdrawals on her account. So she investigated and sure enough someone was using her debit card in Miami to buy groceries and sexy sexy lingerie. So rightly annoyed Jodi called citibank and set the wheels in motion to have her debit card cancelled and so on. She talked to a representative who said they'd flagged the activity as suspicious. So after some annoying bureaucratic steps Jodi got transfered to someone in India. Thats where things started to fall apart. The guy there was saying stuff that wasn't making sense to Jodi. She kept trying to clarify things with him but it wasn't clear. The guy ended by telling her that a new card was being issued to her and that she'd have it in 7-10 days. And that there was nothing that could be done about speeding it up. I know from personal experience that this is 100% bullshit. The last time I lost my debit card I was told the same thing by a worthless citibank indian phone-rep guy. It wasn't until I called back and spoke to someone in the US who got a new debit card overnighted to the branch by my job. So I don't trust those foreign phone bank dudes at all. Jodi resigned herself to waiting the week to get it back.

Saturday Jodi took Ace shopping in Manhattan. When she went to pay for something with her Citibank Upromise card and guess what? It was cancelled. Huh? What? Yeah the guy in India somehow cancelled her Citibank Credit Card AND her Debit Card. When she called they swore up and down that they can't do that from the debit card system and all this other stuff but sure enough that guy in India miracle'd up a way to cancel both her Citibank card for fraud even though she only called about one card with a totally different #. So Sunday before we were going to Ikea we stopped to get gas I tried to pay for it with my Citibank it was declined. So not only did the cancel her accounts they cancelled mine. No way to change it. Or so they say. So I called this morning to make sure that the card was really dead and sure enough they say it is. I spoke to someone in the US who ensured it was dead so I gave them a piece of my mind but there really isn't anything I can do except to escalate the annoyance to a place I am just not willing to take it to. So I hang and then 10 minutes later Jodi calls me to tell me that she just got off the phone with citibank and now they are saying that the upromise cards were never effected and should be fine. So which one is it?

I just confirmed that it was indeed cancelled. The guy she talked to was referencing the new cards that we haven't gotten yet.

My boss just told me a story that happened to his girlfriend. She had her wallet stolen and someone racked up a ton of money on her debit card right away. She cancelled the card as soon as she could. The person who stole the card went into a Citibank branch and said "Hey I just had my wallet stolen and had the card cancelled could I get a temp card and pin. I really need the card." And they gave it to the crook who then went and took $600 out of the account in cash. Way to go Citibank. You suck.