Citibank

Perhaps the friendliest Citibank staff in all of SF. Sometimes the lines are a bit long — both in the branch and at their ATM. An extra ATM is needed!

this place has a low ranking only because they literally have only two tellers ALL day in a busy intersection. I usually come later in the day so the line is short or even no line at all.
the tellers are nice and i cant complain at all. they’re really helpful and they never push you into selling something either. i wish they had more parking though

What an awful experience at this bank today! I came to deposit a check and get cash after having lunch nearby. I was dealing with the teller, and all that time a personal banker (named Shilpa Shakya, I got her card here) was talking away trying to get me interested in services. I was so distracted that I almost forgot to tell the teller how I wanted my cash given to me. She was pushy and asked for a phone number and time she can call me. Of course I do what I always do in such instances, which is give a fake number. Definitely something I did not appreciate given I was on my lunch hour and needed to return to the office after running this errand.
I seriously hope other branches are not doing the same thing all of a sudden. It would give me reason to consider changing banks. SO ANNOYING AND DISTRACTING!

Hmm. nearly every time I’ve been here there’s been a line. Not a particularly long line, in fact a few people at most. Unfortunately it’s the fact that whatever transactions that are taking place happen to be extremely slow.
Also, there seem to only be two tellers at any given time. I am a little perturbed by the fact that I am constantly being up-​sold to. even before I was a customer!
Anyways, once you get past the pushy demeanor and long, seemingly unnecessary lines, the people here are generally good hearted. Bonus points for coffee/​water station at every Citibank.

Good people, using the bank for over one year, never had any problems. Will continue doing business with this bank.

I’ve been banking with Citibank for a few years now, we moved our accounts from WaMu after getting fed up with their end of the day accounting style (enter debits THEN credits) which for the most part seemed ok.
For the most part everything was fine with most of our banking being done online or at ATM’s, that is until about a month ago when my wife went to the ATM to deposit a check and for the first time there was a hold on the funds. It was such an odd thing to see we actually had to take a double check.
We made the deposit on a Friday afternoon (around 3pm) but decided to wait it out until Tuesday just to see if the hold would come off in a reasonable time.
It didn’t.
Tuesday, lunch time, I go into the branch and speak with the teller, she tells me the hold has already come off, I figured there isn’t much more to pursue so I head back to work but the following morning my wife takes a look at the accounts online and tells me that the hold is still on, this is sucking since rent is coming due.
Back to the branch I go during my lunch break, the same girl is now on the floor greeting people, I’m not gonna rip into her because I don’t see the point. Instead I head for the teller, explain the hold, let him know this is a first, it’s not making sense, blah blah blah.
He tells me there’s nothing that can be done for the situation and offers to sell me a line of credit/​overdraft protection plan, this isn’t the answer I’m wanting but I know his position has limits so I ask to speak to the manager. He has me wait a moment as he makes a call to another desk and explains the situation. A minute or so later I’m met by someone who I assume is someone in management who brings me over to a desk and once again, has me re-​explain the dilemma.
This time it’s explained to me that the reason why there’s a hold is that we didn’t deposit into our checking account that has direct deposit, he then goes onto to explain to me the concept of «kiting» checks. Actually, he didn’t say the word «kiting» but as he explained to me the concerns of theft prevention I responded with «you mean Kiting» and he said «yes». So I figure that’s close enough.
I attempted to explain how that shouldn’t really apply to a person like me who already has a line of credit, and connected accounts since theft would be difficult, especially the part about closing out a loan. That didn’t work for him.
We go back and forth on it for a while, he kept telling me he didn’t have the authority to lift the hold. After a while I had to just walk out, mostly because the conversation became pointless but also my lunch was ending. Towards the end of the conversation he told me the funds would be fully available on Thursday (the next day), I asked him about all my automatic payments since just like Citibank, no one likes a late payment. he gave me the comforting answer of something close to a shrug and as I walked out but he did explain to me that to avoid these holds in the future I should make ATM deposits into the account that has direct deposit, I confirmed what he explained and made my way out. As I headed out the teller who was working the floor gave me a cheery goodbye.

no line usually
haven’t encountered any flaws yet

This branch has got to be the worst for waiting in line. I started banking here when it was Cal Fed. It was great in and out within 5 minutes. Since the change over to Citibank, for every 5 minutes it took Cal Fed to process a transaction, it took this Citibank branch 15 to 20 minutes. It’s pathetic. What’s worst is when you are waiting for more than half an hour in line, the other staffers don’t seem to care. They just look at you with blank faces. Maybe, I’m the pathetic one for patronizing this location. It’s convenient for me on the way home, NOT! This branch seriously need process improvement.
This branch could learn from the Millbrae, CA branch.