Primerica Financials ripoff Bloomington Illinois
I submitted my resume online through Citigroup careers last night. This morning, I got a phonecall from Bob claiming that he's part of Citigroup and he's looking to hire people for various position because Citi Cards are expanding in Bloomington, IL. A senior at UIUC majoring in finance, I was so happy that he called and I began to ask him questions about the position. Since I have experience working at an investment bank and am very involved with investing, trading, etc, I want to know if I would fit in to one of the "various positions" that he mentioned. Oddly, he didn't ask ANY questions about my experiences and qualifications. He didn't say any type of positions aswell.
He said that he can answer my questions during the interview. I thought it's fair enough. He asked me if I wanted to come in Friday or Saturday morning and I said Saturday. He then told me the address of his office in Bloomington. Well, living 45 mins away from Bloomington, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't get lost and got there on time. So I tried to locate the address using a mapping site. Couldn't find the address, I might have mispelled it. So I went into Citigroup website, thinking I could locate the address there. The only address I found for Citigroup (Citi Financials) was totally different that what he has given me.
Thinking probably because of the "expansion" that he claimed, the address probably was not listed yet. So I called the 800 number, no one at Citigroup knew about the address, and... no one from the Citi Cards department knew anything about the Citi Cards expansion in Bloomington. Curious, I searched Citi Financials Bloomington's phone number in the website and called them. Todd, the manager, answered my phone. I told him my name and asked him about the address that Bob had mentioned. When he heard his name he said "Yes I know him. He was here with your application a while ago." or something of that nature. Then I asked him again about the address... and he said he doesn't know the address. He continued, "He is not working with us, he's our referring agent."
I was surprised but not wanting to jump into conclusions just yet, I thought probably I should just call Bob. Good thing was, I put in my cellphone number in my resume, so his number was stored automatically in my phone. I called him and asked him the address. He helped me with it joyfully. I thought probably he's some agent who refers people like me to big companies like citigroup. I don't know why he wanted to have an interview with me though. Extremely curious, after I hung up with Bob, I called Todd again. I asked him, "Bob told me that Citi Cards are expanding in Bloomington and that you are looking for various people, could you tell me more about the positions that open so I could prepare for the interview?" Todd answered, "I am not aware that there are any expansions. I am afraid there is no position open at this time in our office." Then I felt that feeling... I asked him, "But you do know Bob, right?" and he was like, "yes, he works at Primerica Financials, our affiliation. We are separate companies so he doesn't work for us."
Immediately I called Bob again, asking him about what Todd has told me. He said, with a rather strange tone of voice, that Citi Financials and Citibak (now he's claiming to be someone from Citibank) are different and that Citi Financials wouldn't know anything that's going on in Citibank. Then I asked him about the position again saying that it will better prepare me for the interview. He told me quickly, "Why don't you look that citigroup.com. You will find all the information there." "But..." I said. He cut me off and said "It's all there look it up. Ok?" i said "ok.. well... bye..." that was the end of it.
I searched his name online and got into this website (ripoffreport.com/view.asp?id=66959&view=printer). He actually tried to pull the same trick to me like he did to someone else three years ago!!! Where on earth did he get my resume from?? I thought I posted it on Citigroup career website!! Then I remembered Tod saying, "Bob was here with your application a while ago." I called Todd... asking him directly if he gave my resume to Bob. He gave me this lengthy explanation that although Primerica is totally separate than Citigroup, since they had been approved to be their affiliation, they are able to see the resumes posted online. Some other stuff couldn't remember and ended with "Honest to God I didn't give your resume to him." Well, you guess it yourself.
Primerica is using Citigroup for their own benefits. Good thing I came across this website before I spent my money and time to go there and meet him only to find a baloney.
I called Citigroup trying to file a complaint about their so-called "affiliation", but none was willing to even lend an ear. Then I realized that they were all saying the same thing: "Primerica is seperate from us. You should deal with them directly. I will give you their phone number."
After that I realized that I shouldn't buy Citigroup stocks from now... In case the fate of Enron and Worldcom repeats itself...
D.S.
Champaign, Illinois
U.S.A.
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