How Citibank World MasterCard Took Me For a Ride

Dear Citibank World MasterCard:

See that "World" in the title? You need to take this to heart, especially when it comes to your office hours.

I was in a teeny little village in rural Bali, in a family silversmith shop. Bali is well known for its craftwork, and silversmithing is  part of it. Trying to pay for my purchase with your CitiBank World MasterCard because it's more than I was carrying in cash, to my surprise the card was declined. When, with considerable trouble and help on the part of the shop owner, I was able to call the international collect number the operator told me that their customer systems were down for scheduled maintenance and nothing could be done for a couple of hours. It may have been late Saturday night for the States but hey! it was the middle of Sunday afternoon for me.

We'd wasted a considerable amount of time trying to connect, then being left on hold, and my last free day on Bali - very possibly for the rest of my life - was ticking away because of MasterCard service issues. Dewa Rai (my guide) and the shop people came up with the idea of getting me to a local ATM and maybe I could withdraw enough cash for it. Good idea - until I realized he wasn't going to drive me.

Instead it was the silversmith's son taking me on the back of his motorbike, one of probably 50,000 motorbikes on Bali. We're just starting to see more of these in the States with rising gas prices: less than a full-blown motorcycle, more than a moped, by all the major Asian manufacturers like Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, etc. And they all have a little handle on the back for tall foreigners to hang on to for dear life.

We went zipping down the street, no helmets or eyegear, diving into traffic, taking narrow scooter paths and side alleys, passing slower scooters laden with everything from cases of soft drinks to chickens in cages. Once I accepted the inevitable, and stopped thinking about what it would be like to be injured in a helmetless cycle crash in rural Indonesia, it was great fun! I still haven't surpassed the story of my very blond niece pushing her bicycle through mud roads in the dangerous Southern Phillippines - nor do I intend to - but it's the unexpected, off-the-schedule trips that make the travel worthwhile.

For all that, when we arrived at the ATM it wasn't on my network! So back we went to report no joy. By now the MasterCard systems were back up, but you left one last wrinkle for me. Turns out my credit card was frozen because of some real fraud on it - good for you for catching it! For me to complete my transaction I had to talk to the security office - which was closed! Bad for you! It may be late at night in the States, but it's a WORLD MasterCard, remember? It was 2:30 PM on a Sunday afternoon for me!

We gave up. I put down a deposit on the jewelry with what cash I had, and the silversmith scootered into Ubud the next morning with the goods where I paid the balance (also in cash). That morning I was able to put my four day's hotel bill on the MasterCard by talking to the security office just before they closed for Sunday night back home. If I hadn't learned the office hours from the previous day's adventures, I would probably have tried to pay, missed the office hours, and had to suddenly scrape up the cash for the bill before dashing off to the airport.

So...when I see those "anywhere in the world" Citibank commercials, I now know better. And seeing as how you just announced you're laying off 53,000 people, I don't expect that I'll be seeing any improvements in office hours soon.

Regards,

Sean

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