Consumer complaint received 2018-10-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit 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:
Name : XXXX XXXX XXXX Address : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, MI-XXXX ( last 4 digits of my social-XXXX ) I have started a Home Depot Credit card offered at the point of purchase at Home Depot on XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX MI ( XXXX ). I have been a regular customer at this store where I made purchases that amount to several thousands, since I purchased my home. Trusting the store and happy with its services, I agreed to open the credit card ( with an XXXX, XXXX $ limit ) expecting the same competence and high-quality service and made purchases of no more than 300 $ with the card before XX/XX/2018 ( please read below why I can not tell for sure ). Unfortunately, the credit card company failed to send me the actual credit card ( so I never knew my own credit card number, refused to give me the credit card number over the phone or by mail or any other way and in so doing, disallowed me from 1. verifying my transactions online 2. paying off my balance -- both of which I requested repeatedly. The company also refused to list the itemized transactions over the phone, to the same effect. However, the company never failed to keep adding interest and late fees with every passing month though I called and reported that I didn't receive either credit card ( after an ordeal of successive and excessively long phone calls ). Not only that, I called and entered the info off the bank statement on the home depot credit card automated service in attempts to resolve the issue but the message I get that the information doesn't match any existing account. I kept calling to no avail. In the meantime, I received a statement from a collection company ( on behalf of home depot ). I call them and it is city bank. I re-tell the whole issue and ask to speak with a supervisor, the person confirms he is the supervisor. The total at that time was around 400 $ as he informed me, more than half of them were for late fees. He said he heard my concerns and empathized but he is not capable of accessing my home depot account, waiving the late fees, or even seeing what the charges are for. While receiving non-stop phone calls from this debt-collector, I am also getting statements from home depot with different balances. It said the total was XXXX. $ plus late fees. I went to my bank ( XXXX online ) and made a payment of XXXX $ though I never had access to my account, could never verify the transactions, and though this XXXX included interests and late fees. All I have sought since I made that payment was that I get the late fees and interests waived and have the account closed for good. But even that failed. Now I am harassed by Citi-bank collection company and simultaneously statements from home depot which keeps adding late fees and interests with the bills getting bigger and bigger. My excellent credit is unfortunately being affected over purchases for less than 300 $ of purchases off an XXXX $ credit card. 
How the issue started and deteriorated : I was hospitalized from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/2018 and been seriously ill for the rest of XXXX. During that month, my neighbor was collecting my mail for me. Among all the XXXX mail there was one statement from Home Depot credit card showing XXXX $ of late fees plus a balance ( no itemization ) which I could not either verify or get more info about since I hadn't received the actual credit card by that time. I called Home Depot credit card services, explained what happened, and that I never got the card. I managed to reach a representative, literally after several days of calling different XXXX-numbers to get hold of someone ( I would try for several hours every day until I was successful. The phone number on the bank statement I received, which is different from the phone number listed on the home depot credit card page on line, is consistently busy. You would be put on hold and after hours of waiting, the line would be dropped. Finally, a customer service rep. answered me and informed me that the card was to the same address at which I received the statement and raised doubts that the credit card was lost in the mail. I was extremely concerned at that point that someone got my credit card. I wanted to pay the whole amount and close the account and asked that she verify the transactions for me over the phone so I can make sure the charges are of the purchases I made. I offered to provide my social security number and driver 's license so she can be sure of my identity and I resolve the issue once and for all. she said she is not authorized to do that. I provided her with tall the information on the bank statement and asked that simply provide me with the credit card number so that I can access my home depot credit card online, which requires you to have the credit card number-which I didn't have ). The representative apologized that I didn't get the credit card and assured me I would get another one in the mail urging me to pay the minimum amount required ( XXXX $ ) so I don't accumulate interests and late fees. She waived one of the XXXX $ late fee again. Nevertheless, I didn't get another card and the same issue persisted : more bank statements with each statement with a new late fee and new interests. I called again and informed them I didn't receive a first or a second credit card, and it doesn't make any sense one gets bank statements with fees and interests but not the credit card. I receive everything else at my address ( my home mortgage statements and XXXX debit and credit cards and never had an issue with them ). I  requested for the third time in a row then to be provided with the credit card number and I offered to priovide my social security plus the info provided on my home depot credit card statements but was told the same thing : they are not authorized to do that. They also informed me that the account had been closed for non-payment. While receiving non-stop phone calls from this debt-collector, I am also getting statements from home depot with different balances. It said the total was XXXX. $ plus late fees. I my online bank ( XXXX   ) and made a payment of XXXX $ though I never had access to my account, could never verify the transactions, and though this XXXX already included interests and late fees, far more than I owed in purchases. I thought that would help me resolve the issue so that when I call the customer service representative, I simply ask them to waive the XXXX $ extra fees and get them to close to the account. But even that, the customer service refused to co-operate, though each representative could see the log history and the notes on my account, and though I had already paid a XXXX $ late fee extra on the very " first bill '' I received, and I am the one who ended up wasting much more money than my original debt was and wasted my time and breath and was seriously distressed by the issue given I was trying to recover from a serious illness and had so much work to catch up and it was extremely taxing to be on the phone every other day for hours to resolve the issue. I had thousands of dollars in medical bills and managed to always balance those and set plans etc with my limited income ( iam a XXXX XXXX  and XXXX XXXX ). I have never experienced that much stress and waste of time to resolve an issue like that. Last time I contacted home depot alone ( without an attorney ) I was bullied by a hostile male customer service representative who told me that paying my bills was my responsibility regardless of whether I got the credit cards or not and he questioned me " oh.. you don't know how much you paid? You don't know that you already made purchases with the card? Then why don't you pay what you owe? '' I was treated like I was just giving a lame excuse and that he even said he had been over patient with me and refused to transfer me to a supervisor as I sought to escalate the issue. I was treated though I were a fraud trying to run away from my responsibility or find an excuse so as not to pay what I owe. He had no response to what I said that I made purchases with the card and made returns as well and I have never had access to the card so I never got to verify my transactions are correct and that my returns were refunded etc. 
I additionally went to my local Home Depot store for help with the issue, 3 different times ans spoke with different people in charge from the front desk to supervisors. They stated they can not help with that and they can not with any credit card services though I can pay at the store whatever amount I owe. They can not show me the balance or the specific transactions. 
On the XX/XX/XXXX and out of desperation, I went to seek the help pf Attorney XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX University Legal Services Attorney. That was my second visit to Mr. XXXX regarding the issue. He called the customer service representative to resolve the issue once and for all. After ping-ponged from one person to another, then to a supervisor then to me to make sure I can verify my identity which I did by providing my social security and confirming I authorize Mr. XXXX XXXX to represent me, a total of 50 minutes on the phone, the line was dropped. No phone call though he provided my full contact and cell phone as well as his direct phone number. He called them again and after he finally reached someone and having had to start over. At the end of the farce, we found out that there are 2 account numbers for me for the same credit card, the reason why the automated service would say that the info provided isn't connected to any current account. It turns out that after reporting I didn't receive the card and showing my concern the card may have been stolen, the credit card company changed my account number but didn't send another credit card as they said they would. The fact that I couldn't reach the credit card company because the account info I had off my first bill was no longer valid was not taken into consideration and neither was the fact that I didn't receive any card. Finally comes the conclusion of my attorney 's effort : the customer service representative said the following : we can not accept the lawyer to represent you without a power of attorney being sent to them. So, after wasting all that much time, money, and the lawyer 's consultation and the waste of his time, we couldn't resolve the issue but are rather coerced to invest more time and more money in addressing what is clearly a dishonest and incompetent credit card company that denies the customer the least of his/her rights : the right to verify their transactions and/or access their accounts before making the due payments and customer service that deliberately drops the line when convenient after hours of being on the line and refusing to give you the credit card number, let alone the message you would get 60 % of the time " try another time ''. 
Before proceeding with the power of attorney and investing even more money and time on a legal front that I am not longer sure could help, I decided to seek the help of the consumers protection bureau given I have been abused and bullied throughout this process as a consumer and a person, given the disrespectful customer service representatives. I am a female with a foreign accent, which, whether may or may not have played a role in the response, shows great incompetence, unfairness, denial of responsibility, and blockage of resolution. What encouraged me further to contact you is that I found a forum made by home depot credit card customers who report the same issue I have -- getting bank statements with late fees and interests but they never got their credit cards. It makes me wonder if he fact that Home Depot is a big corporation and I, as a consumer, can not really sue them in Michigan, is what gives it immunity or inviolability when acting the way it did toward me and others. It seems there is confidence there will be no repercussions for their actions. Please help me and others from undergoing similar experiences with this store credit card company. 
I have heaps of documentations ( statement bills ) and voice mails from the collection company plus my call register off my cell phone provider 's website to show my call history. Thus, kindly let me know which documents are required for you to help me with the above case. Thank you very much.

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 monetary relief