Consumer complaint received 2019-02-19
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MD
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: Overcharged for something you did purchase with the card

Complaint:
This is the timeline of the events : 1. XX/XX/XXXX ; XXXX XXXX., charge of {$86.00} with my XXXX XXXX at a Restaurant XXXX XXXX XXXX, Washington D.C. 

2. My cycle ends day 4 of every month. Upon receiving my monthly statement in XXXX, I noticed that this charge changed to exactly twice the amount : {$170.00}. I disputed the amount online. 

3. On XX/XX/XXXX I was given a PERMANENT credit for {$86.00}. Citi case # XXXX. 

3. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received in the regular mail a letter from Citi, Dispute Department, signed by XXXX XXXX, Service Specialist, Phone XXXX, email : XXXX asking for supporting information of my dispute, and saying : " ... if we don't hear from you by XX/XX/XXXX ( 2 days upon receiving this letter ), we'll investigate with the information we have available, and the conditional credit may be reversed ''. 

4. Same date ( this was in the evening after I got home from my office ) I called customer services, explained the situation and expressed surprise for the letter and time frame given to answer the letter and provide supporting documents, considering that I already received an email confirming the permanent resolution of the dispute, and the information online, in the dispute center, indicated that the dispute has been permanently resolved. The customer service person agrees with me, that he was also looking at the same information on his screen. Nevertheless, he transferred my call to the dispute center. 

5. XXXX XXXX was not available, but the person who answered the phone said that it was strange that I got an email, that they ONLY inform about dispute resolution by regular mail. She dismissed my observation about the two days given in the letter to provide information, and said that I could scan my receipt and sent it to the email above, as well as a scanned copy of the form. I play along, and I did so, sending an email the same night at XXXX XXXX 

6. The following day, I called the restaurant, explain the situation, and they apologizes for the mistake. They offered to give me the credit on the spot, but I explained that I had already a conditional credit from citi, and to avoid confusions, it would be better to follow their process. They agree and stated that as soon as they receive the phone call from citi, they would confirm that there was an error. 

7. On XX/XX/XXXX ; XXXX XXXX, I receive an email from Citi ( reminder, the dispute center said they do not communicate by email the resolution of a dispute ( sic ) ), indicating that my dispute has been resolved. Happily, I signed on my account online ( as I did when in XX/XX/XXXX they already told me that the dispute was permanently resolved in my favor ), and to my surprise, I found an electronic letter saying that : " after reviewing the dispute and the information you provided, we're unable to resolve the dispute in you favor ... ''. I was really surprised, considering that I send them a copy of my receipt that I signed in the restaurant, and the fact that the restaurant already agrees on the mistake ( you can not refute a hard copy proof ). 

8. I immediately called customer services and explained the situation, and asked for the right instance to file a formal complaint and a resolution of the problem. The person on the phone was also surprised. He gave me a PO Box for the " Office of the President '', for XXXX in South Dakota. He also offered me a {$100.00} credit for being a " loyal customer '' ( I have a Citi AA Visa card since XXXX, which was arbitrary changed to a MC in XXXX ). I told him that I was grateful for that, but this was an issue of principles. There is a mistake and citi has to fixed and acknowledge it in writing. 

9. The next day, XX/XX/XXXX, I called the restaurant again. They were surprised by the action taken by Citi, they said that Citi NEVER called them. XXXX, in charge of accounting, gave me on the spot a credit for the amount. She entered the transaction manually in the system, and she was kind enough to send me a scanned copy of the receipts. That transaction was recognized in the system only on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX. 

10. I have copy of all documents, receipts, emails, etc., described above. After doing some research in the internet, I realized that there are many similar complaints, handled by the " Office oft the President '',  without much success. But at the same time, I " discover '' the existence of your office, and I decided to send my complaint to you instead. It is very difficult for Citi to be a fair judge of what has happened, and a third neutral party is better suited to clarify this issue, and avoid future occurrences to other consumers, by " encouraging '' Citi to improve their internal coordination, particularly in such a critical unit as the Dispute Center. 

I believe, because of negligence and wrong doing from Citi despite the evidence provided as requested, some action is needed. In the best case scenario, this is not a systemic behavior, but a problem with the staff managing disputes, which is also bad, and should be of public interest to avoid repetition of this behavior with other customers. Thanks for you kind attention to this complaint and please, let me know if I can be of any help. Best regards.

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