Consumer complaint received 2019-03-28
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
Citibank has not handled my large dollar amount disputes in good faith. I paid for some home repairs by an unscrupulous contractor with my Citibank Double Cash credit card. When he stopped working on the project and I realized that some of the modifications he made to our contracts were illegal, I canceled my contracts with him, and tried to get my deposits back. The contractor refused to return my money, and so I disputed 5 credit card charges with him, because I had paid deposits in 5 different installments. One job was for flood damage repairs, and the contractor had finished less than 25 % or this job, but I had paid him about 75 % of the total cost in deposits. I worked out that the amount he owed me was {$13000.00} ( my deposits minus the work done ) based on his contract and an insurance estimate, since he did not provide detailed pricing. This was more than the largest deposit I made, so I disputed two charges for {$11000.00} and {$2300.00} to recover my deposits on XX/XX/XXXX. These two disputes were handled completely differently. The smaller charge went to charge-back and was resolved in my favor. However, the larger charge was never sent to charge-back. The reasons for this have changed over time. First, Citibank on XX/XX/XXXX, said my dispute was denied because I didn't provide enough information on the merchandise and did not try to return it, but this dispute involved no merchandise. It seemed that Citibank had confused this dispute with some of the other disputes discussed below. Next, on XX/XX/XXXX. they said that I did not provide enough information on the amount of the dispute. But, this was not consistent with their decision on the smaller amount dispute with the same facts. That dispute was resolved on XX/XX/XXXX, after the merchant did not respond to the charge-back. After this, I sent a revised accounting of the amount of the dispute, but they have not replied to this, although I have been told by their customer service representatives that this dispute is no longer being investigated. I enclose the details that I provided to get the smaller, {$2300.00}, dispute resolved in my favor. These details also justify the {$11000.00} dispute. 

On XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, XXXX, I disputed two other charges with the same contractor for improvements to my house to prevent future flood damage. These were for {$3100.00} and {$7100.00}, respectively. These were for charges for work that I had not authorized that were taken from deposits that I made to pay for other work. The unauthorized work was for installation of a 2nd sump pump just 12 feet from the first and an unauthorized extension of a drain pipe at a ridiculous cost. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was informed by Citibank that these disputes were being denied. On XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, I discussed the reason for this denial with one of the Citibank investigators, who informed me that they required me to return anything that could be considered merchandise. This included unauthorized hardware that had been installed at my house that I was unable to return. So, this Citibank investigator indicated that I should modify the disputes with the amounts of this " merchandise '' removed. On XX/XX/XXXX, I revised these dispute amounts to {$2100.00} and {$7000.00}, and sent Citibank details on the cost of the " merchandise '' that I was unable to return. These disputes were declined without reference to this new information that I supplied in response to their request. Virtually all of Citibank 's responses seemed to confuse the different disputes that I submitted, so it seemed that the investigators were often confused. I have recently resent the details on these two disputes to try and resolve this confusion, and I enclose the details that I sent to Citibank and XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, XXXX. Note that my calculation of the amount {$7000.00} contained an inadvertent error. The correct value is {$6900.00}.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation