Consumer complaint received 2021-03-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
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: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
In early XX/XX/2020, I contacted a company by the name of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX owned and operated by XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX to assist me with relocating from Florida to California. At that time, I was provided with an Estimate and request to put a credit card on file to secure/hold the truck, movers, and supplies for my move later in the month. The representative indicated they would place a {$500.00} temporary hold on my card. Days later, I received a call from CitiBank to inform me that my account had been charged three times in the amount of {$500.00}. I quickly contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX & XXXX to discuss the charges. XXXX, at XXXX XXXX XXXX, apologized for the duplicative transactions and assured me it was a glitch that would be reversed. He said he would reverse one of them, but the others would be reversed within a day or so since they were XXXX mismatch and were processed in error. To date, neither of those charges have been credited back to my account by XXXX XXXX. 

On the day of my move, the movers came to my home and started to load the truck. I was not provided with a receipt, inventory form, or any other documentation for the move. Over a week passed and XXXX XXXX was not returning my calls, nor were they cooperating with the status of when my belongings would arrive in California. One representative stated, We are unsure when you will obtain your items as we do not have any drivers that want to drive to California since there are so many wildfires. At that time, I became very suspicious of the company and started to look them up. After finding disturbing reviews, I quickly booked a plane ticket to Florida and notified the local police station of what was going on. Under their suggestion, I attempted to contact the company once again to let them know I would be picking up and transporting my belongings myself since they could not find drivers to travel to California. The owner was initially reluctant to give me access to my belongings or tell me where they were being held. I was finally able to get the address for the warehouse where my items were being stored ; however, the condition to pick up my belongings was that I bring with me {$570.00} in cash, as well as provide them with my ID and CitiBank credit card. I contacted the police department again and they met me at the warehouse to ensure my safety and retrieval of my belongings. I also wanted to have law enforcement as a witness during the cash transaction. The police arrived during the scheduled time at the warehouse and provided the following XXXX XXXX. XXXX. I gave them the cash in front of the police officers ; however, they did not want to release my property without taking a picture of my ID and credit card. The police officers onsite instructed me that I did not have to give them a copy of my credit card since I was paying cash and it was not necessary for them to have that information since {$570.00} cash was for the storage fee for holding my belongings in their warehouse. I requested an invoice/statement from XXXX XXXX XXXX which I have in my possession. Days later, when I arrived in California, I noticed another charge from XXXX XXXX XXXX in the amount of {$2300.00}. Immediately, I called CitiBank to file a dispute and report the issue. 

The charges by XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX are unauthorized and I disputed each of them and requested that {$2300.00}, {$500.00}, and {$500.00} for a total amount of {$3300.00} be returned to my account immediately. The police officers further suggested that I provide the XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX reviews to my credit card company, along with the Case No. they issued. The following are complaints and reviews from other consumers regarding the same conduct displayed on my account ( I also have threatening and vulgar/derogatory text messages from managers at the company ) : Better Business Bureau : XXXX : XXXX XXXX  : XXXX : XXXX XXXX : A XXXX search for XXXX  XXXX XXXX  & XXXX will also yield disturbing complaints/reviews XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX ( this review was posted recently ) The initial dispute was opened with CitiBank in XXXX of 2020. Due to delays with the USPS and no communication from CitiBank, I assumed the issue was resolved. 
In XX/XX/2020, I received a call from CitiBank 's collections department. To my surprise, I explained the situation and was told that because I didn't respond to the initial dispute, the case was closed and there was nothing they could do to help. The representative attempted to help and reopened a fraud case to have it submitted directly to an investigator. She opened 3 disputes, since there were 3 different charges and asked that I email all pertinent information to them. I forwarded a detailed email and followed up with CitiBank periodically. Again, CitiBank closed the account without any explanation or resolution. Since XXXX, I have been contacted by CitiBank numerous times and have been kept on hold by various departments ( many seem to be overseas, difficult to understand, and with poor customer service skills - with no sensitivity to the issue and seemingly very little desire to help ). I am kept on hold and/or transferred for hours where I have to reexplain the entire story, only to get transferred and start the process all over. A few times, the account has been closed and the dispute process has been reopened - however, without resolution. 

Recently, I decided to go to a local CitiBank bank branch in an attempt to resolve this matter in person. The bank representative explained that they are a different department than card member services and they couldn't do anything for me. We involved the bank manager who instructed the bank representative to call card services with me. She was on hold and transferred to various departments for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes without resolution. I did some more digging to try to get to the bottom of this situation because my account has now incurred late fees and other penalties, including being reported to the credit bureaus, and I was able to find this website. I have outstanding credit however because of this situation I am now in a negative standing with several credit agencies. 

I would appreciate your help with this matter.

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