Consumer complaint received 2024-01-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit 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:
Re : Account Number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Home Depot Is Attempting To Defraud Me Background I buy many large purchases from XXXXome Depot so that I can get 0 % interest. When I do buy anything from Home Depot where I get 0 % interest, I immediately go into my online banking and set up monthly payments for each month until the balance is paid in the allotted time. I do not pay any interest. 

I set these payments up so that each payment has a memo showing which of my purchases that payment should be credited to. 

What Happened Over the last XXXX years, I made XXXX different purchases at 0 % interest. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I made the final payment on all purchases from Home Depot. My balance is XXXX. However, I continue to get statements with a balance of {$470.00} which I do not owe. 

Problems started in XX/XX/XXXX when Home Depot began a pervasive pattern of not correctly crediting my payments to my account. It could have started earlier. I have not checked that. 

Over the time from XX/XX/XXXX until now, Home Depot failed to credit XXXX  of my payments. I have not received a correct statement from Home Depot since that time ( perhaps even earlier ). 

It took me a while to catch on that there was a problem. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I began to work on getting the problem corrected. To date, I have probably spent XXXX hours attempting to get Home DepoXXXX to correct the problem they caused. 

Finally, late in XX/XX/XXXX, they acknowledged their mistake and correctly credited the payments. ( Attachment XXXX -- Home Depot Credits My Account ) However, they continued to send me statements with a balance that I do not owe. 

I have been working closely with XXXX XXXX, the Store XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX Home Depot. The best answer he could give me is that I owe money because a store associate made a mistake and gave me 12 months of 0 % interest rather than a shorter term. In some vague way, that supposedly caused me to owe them {$470.00}. ( See Attachment XXXX -- XXXX XXXX Email Explaining ). I have never received a written explanation. 

I have spent countless hours and many attempts calling XXXXome Depot Customer Service attempting to resolve the problem. I havent documented all those calls. They were very lengthy and all basically fruitless with ridiculous response. To be fair, it seems that Home Depot has made their Customer Service jobs a nightmare by not adequately equipping them to solve problems.

Because I havent received a correct statement over such a long period, its impossible for me to even be able to get to certainty. I do know that Customer Service told me that a {$29.00} late fee was reversed but it ( also ) never showed up on a statementso its hard to trust their numbers. In fact, I believe that I have overpaid them ( See the notes at the bottom of the chart in Attachment XXXX -- XXXX To Home Depot ). Until I get corrected statements, I can not be sure. 

What You Think Would Be A Fair Resolution There is only one fair resolution. My balance is XXXX. I have paid every XXXX of what I owe to Home Depot ( and some extra to boot ; See notes at bottom of chart in Attachment XXXX -- XXXXLetter To Home Depot ). I owe nothing. The only fair resolution is : I get a statement from Home Depot showing a XXXX balance. 

I get corrected statements from Home Depot for all the months that they sent me incorrect statements. Note that I still need to be able to go back and see if they have pulled any other financial shenanigans.

I receive a written apology for the shabby treatment theyve given me ( Ive easily spent well over XXXX  figures at Home Depot renovating a series of homes ). 

If they really want to make this right, theyd give me a free gift card of {$500.00} for all the pain, suffering, grief, and worry they have unnecessarily caused me. 

What XXXX Tried To Do To Resolve The Issue I am attaching documentation of most of my attempts to solve the problem ( Its extensive. ). 


These Are The Attachments Im Sending Attachment XXXX -- XXXX Letter My first attempt to contact Home Depot Customer service and get resolution. 

Attachment 2 -- Home Depot Response I received a letter ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) from Home Depot in response. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I did as they recommended and called Customer Service. ( I have included my notes from that call in Attachment 2.

This ended up being a 3-hour call.

Essentially what they told me is that they do not have access to records older than 12 months and that I would need to tell them the specific payments that were not credited. 
She also told me that all payments had been credited. This was clearly untrue as the amount of the balance did not match what it should have been. 

Attachment XXXX -- Emails With XXXX XXXX These are the multiple emails back and forth betweek XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX CA XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and me. 
He was working with the credit card company directly as he said that that was typically a better and faster solution than working with Customer Service. 
Only during this long back and forth was it revealed to me that Home Depot has a XXXX XXXX section of customer service with a different address that specializes in solving bigger problems. 

Attachment XXXX -- XXXXLetter To Home Depot Time was getting closer and closer to when the deferred interest penalty would kick in. 
I spent massive amounts of time ( an entire weekend ) on getting this information together. 
It includes a cover letter explaining more of my efforts to get resolution. 
It includes a chart showing all the payments that were made and the payments that were not credited ( XXXX boxes on the chart ). 
It also explains how I have actually paid more than I owed ( never being credited for a reversal of interest charge for instance etc. See notes at bottom of chart. ). 
It includes proof from XXXX bank that those payments were made. 
There was only XXXX problem ( caused again by Home Depot ). The XX/XX/XXXX payment shown on my chart was a mistake. I was missing the statement for XX/XX/XXXX and Home Depot SENT ME THE WRONG YEAR when they sent a replacement statement. I did not check the year on the statement assuming they had sent me the correct replacement statement. Otherwise all the XXXX box payments were not credited to my account. 

Attachment XXXX -- XXXX XXXX Email Explaining This is a short sequence of emails between me and XXXX XXXX. I have encircled his explanation of why I owe money when I have already paid all payments on time. 

Attachment XXXX -- Another Attempt To Get Resolution I am documenting another attempt to get resolution. When I called Customer Service again, I was finally given a direct line to the credit card company. I describe that experience. 

Attachment XXXX -- Deferred Interest On XXXX balance XXXX went to the effort of getting me deferred interest on money I dont owe. 

Attachment 8 -- Home Depot Credits My Account Confirmation from Home Depot that they have finally credited my account for all the payments they failed to credit me with. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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