Consumer complaint received 2018-04-01
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
The complaint I am filing is to against CitiBanks Dispute Department. We disputed our Credit Card charge because we purchased the XXXX but never received any service. The charge on my credit card for {$1700.00} USD is listed as " XXXX XXXX XXXX NV ''. The whole thing is a scam and we are the victims. We need CitiBank to continue the dispute process and help us to get back our {$1700.00} USD. Citibank denied our dispute request only base on weve signed the purchase agreement. However, CitiBank did not see the fact that we have never received any service from the merchant at all. We are very disappointed for the XXXX credit card dispute result. I called and spoke with the dispute supervisor XXXX and XXXX XXXX from Team #  XXXX, they did not help. They refused to provide their last name either. I believe as a Citibank customer, our right should be protected. Citibank should not turn us down without even seeking our side of the fact. 

Here is our story : My husband and I got scam while we traveled in XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. We got ripped off bad by XXXX XXXX XXXX. We purchased the XXXX for {$3400.00} USD, which promised to provides access to the website XXXX and lots of benefits such as free stays, low rate 5 stars hotels, etc. The salesman, XXXX XXXX XXXX convinced us to pay 1/2 of the full payment first, which was {$1700.00} to start the tryout opportunity for using their discount rate hotel booking system online. XXXX XXXX asked us to initialized and signed the contract, did not worry about it says no refund, no cancellation. He guaranteed once we try it, no one will cancel such a great deal. He asked us to initial every items on the contract, including To make your reservation with this promotion your purchase must be paid in full. He explained this term meant that we can not book for free stay in their resort until we paid in full ; however, once we paid the {$1700.00}, we can start to access their online hotel booking system for the discount rate, such as $ XXXX/week for 5-star hotel worldwide. The deal they were offering was too good to be true, and we were not thinking straight enough to see through their scam after their affiliate sales team provided us with pina coladas and beers so nicely. The fact is, we have never received any online access, nor even a welcome email from XXXX XXXX XXXX as promised after we paid. We've been calling XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX numerous times since XX/XX/XXXX. Yet, messages left but never received a return call ; and never able to reach any live person either. They ripped off our {$1700.00} payment and did not provide any service. This is not the deal that we were promised, and we requested a full refund. I emailed to their customer services, XXXX and XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX replied as : " Hello again, this is not a scam. Your membership activates after you pay the full purchase price as written in the contract that youve initialized and signed. If you want me to give you an example, you go to a nice shoe store and want to own a nice pair of shoes. You only pay the half of the shoe and you want to wear it out the store. Would you call that a scam? ~Mac AKKAN ''. At this point, they don't earn our trust, and we don't want to activate our membership with this company. The whole thing is a scam. We need CitiBank to help us to get back our money. First dispute filed on XX/XX/XXXX. Second dispute filed on XX/XX/XXXX. CitiBank denied our requests.

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