Citibank vs. Sonja Boles: guess who wins?

Unfortunately, I can’t say that the contest between Citibank and Sonja Boles, landlord-bitch-from-hell, was actually a head-to-head duel.

But, I just wanted to reflect for a moment on what excellent customer service looks like.

Last summer, I began the process of consolidating my student loans, and my account was sold to Citibank (for those unaware, the selling of student loans happens with dizzing regularity). Because this all takes some time to process, it wasn’t until last December that I received a letter from Citibank saying one of my loans being consolidated was on an in-school deferrment (since, you know, I AM in school) and that it couldn’t be paid off until I had the in-school deferrment removed. It gave a deadline for doing this, and I am a little embarassed to say I didn’t move with the appropriate speed on the letter.

In fact, it wasn’t until the first week of January or so (at least 2 weeks past the deadline) that I called the originator of the loan in question, and it wasn’t until today — Jan. 24 — that I called Citibank back to let them know they could pay it off now.

I have had the letter on my desk for nearly two months, and been putting off calling Citibank for at least 2-3 weeks, because I expected them to give me flack for being so tardy. I mean, I’ll even admit I *deserved* to be given flack.

Instead, the lovely woman to whom I spoke was a vision of good customer service. She got it all taken care of in record time, promised confirmation by mail within a couple of weeks, and ended by saying, “You are such a lovely young woman, I hope you have a wonderful year!”

I talked to this woman for less than 10 minutes, so she was clearly talking out of her ass, but did it work? You betcha. I just left what could have been an annoying phone conversation aglow with warm feelings about Citibank.

And that’s no small feat, really, considering how much of a living hell they could make my life.

I would encourage other, customer-service-challenged individuals (read: Sonja Boles and KW Property Management) to take note. It doesn’t take much to make people happy.

(PS: For those clueless, you can look in the archives for why I’ve made it my personal mission to Google spam Sonja Boles and KW Property Management with negative reviews and posts.)