Consumer complaint received 2023-01-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TN
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX my vehicle broke down and I had to have it towed to my home. We have XXXX XXXX for insurance but I had a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  stop to try and help and he recommended going with a local company rather than directly through them and then having the local company provide an invoice to be reimbursed. I searched for local towing companies and chose XXXX XXXX. In speaking with them, they primarily communicated through text messages and wanted my credit card number provided that way. I chose to pay an upcharge with a promise that the driver would arrive within a XXXX minute time frame. They also promised to provide a detailed receipt/invoice to provide to my insurance company. It took much longer for the driver to arrive than the XXXX minutes. It was approximately an hour to an hour and a half. When it came to providing an invoice, they would only provided a piece of paper with a smiley face on it listing the total that was paid. It did not detail what the services was for, how many miles they towed us, etc. It was a very simplistic square recent. When we approached our insurance agent about the process of being reimbursed, she said that they would need an invoice and they began trying to contact XXXX XXXX for a copy as they had promised and should provide. XXXX XXXX would not answer the phone when they called. Our insurance office tried contacting them multiple times and when we began calling and texting and trying to leave messages, they would not respond. This went on for a period of weeks. As they failed to provide the services in a timeframe that was agreed upon for the price as well as failed to provide an invoice as promised upon agreement to the services ; plus, would not be even communicate with us when we attempted to get a basic invoice and detailed receipt, we disputed the charges on our XXXX XXXX XXXX The original charges ( XXXX separate ) were {$420.00} and {$100.00} which was the amount we agreed upon the day services were provided. Citi found us responsible after investigating the dispute and reversed their credit for the original charges. We did not argue this decision and decided to continue to try to fight for an invoice to provide our insurance company. It was the last charge we ever expected to incur from XXXX XXXX and we would never use their services again. 

On XX/XX/XXXX as I was going to make a payment in the Citi app I discovered there was a new charge made to my card that listed XXXX XXXX as the merchant. This charge was for {$640.00}. I immediately called Citi and cancelled my card as we had not agreed to any services and I discovered that they had stolen my credit card number and used it in another transaction. I went through XXXX over the next couple days trying to get someone to help. Citi sent me back and forth between the fraud and billing dispute departments with neither of them wanting to take ownership. After speaking with multiple different people on different days, they decided the dispute should stay with the billing dispute department rather than the fraud department since we had used the merchant for services in the past. I felt reassured that this would be handled appropriately once the dispute was made and there was no way that we could possibly be found responsible for these new charges that totaled approximately {$120.00} more than the total that we paid for the services on XX/XX/XXXX. These charges were placed on our card right around XXXX months post them providing services to us and were totally unexpected. They truly had stolen my credit card information. This seemed easy to solve in our favor, right? Apparently not for Citi. On XX/XX/XXXX we received notice that out of nowhere, they had contacted the merchant and XXXX XXXX had magically decided to return the original charges of {$420.00} and {$100.00}. This seemed odd as these werent the charges that were straight up fraud but I thought the investigation was on the right track and Citi had discovered how big of frauds these people were. I also assumed the owners of XXXX XXXX got scared because we had also filed a police report. I felt assured that we would receive the {$640.00} back that was straight up stolen and as I said previously totaled {$120.00} above the amount that we ever agreed upon. On XX/XX/XXXX Citi sent us a letter saying they heard from the merchant and they were reversing our temporary credit of {$640.00}. I cant believe it. They attached documents that XXXX XXXX provided that include text messages from the day of the services that have been altered by the merchant. The text messages do not even include dates and the times of the screenshots are all different. They make up square receipts and provide those not signed by me and Citi is accepting the XXXX and finding us responsible. I now have the option of writing a letter to continue the dispute but I am so discouraged and astonished that I would have to take such measures! What kind of investigation did they do? Obviously the merchant responds and they just take whatever response they get and rather than trusting their loyal customers hold them accountable?! None of the totals including those from the original charges to the charges XXXX months later to the ones shown in their provided texts add up. The fraudulent charge was ran XXXX months after the date of the original services. Why did XXXX decided to give in to the original charges? This is easy to see! They stole from us! Why cant Citi stand up to protocol and their promise for their customer?!

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