Consumer complaint received 2020-02-23
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: KS
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:
I am writing regarding the problems I am having with Citibank. They are failing to send me dispute documentation with the merchant 's response. They have issued permanent credits with no additional documentation required, but then have paid merchants on certain transactions as well. Then, they have coded certain disputes as misrepresented. They have failed to send me a proper list of the disputes they claim were misrepresented, so this is leaving me no other choice than to start filing reports with the CFPB on individual disputes, although I am attempting to combine certain ones that have a specific merchant in common are brevities sake. 

This is regarding three disputes with XXXX XXXX XXXX that range from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX : XXXX purchase date, dispute date XXXX, disputed amount {$8.00} XXXX : XXXX purchase date, XXXX dispute date, disputed amount {$8.00} XXXX : XXXX purchase date, XXXX dispute date, disputed amount {$6.00} I dont have the exact details at this point what was purchased, but I can give you two choices : it was either a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit combo with hash browns and an orange juice ( most likely for XXXX ) or a chicken sandwich combo ( number 1 ) with waffle fries and an iced tea ( most likely large-sized ). 

Back in XXXX, I filed a XXXX  report against XXXX XXXX XXXX for failing to properly replace menu items when they were made incorrectly or utterly rotten and their failure to issue proper refunds. For example, on the XXXX transaction, the sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit was hard as a rock and was dried out. The hash browns were either overcooked or undercooked. They should have issued a full refund or should have replaced the menu items pound per pound, but they didnt. They sent a free coupon for either a plain breakfast sandwich ( no  sausage or cheese ) or a really cheap chicken sandwich and didnt replace the hash browns. I complained to the owners wife, XXXX and their area marketing manager. They both gave the excuse that they were on digital coupons and couldnt process the returns nor could they replace the actual meal that was purchased. I told XXXX and the area marketing manager that failure to replace the items equated to false advertising, and a customer shouldnt have to pay for the food if it isnt made correctly or if it isnt properly replaced. XXXX stated she agreed but she had no control over how refunds were processed or how gift vouchers were sent to customers, because their corporate office was in control of it. I told XXXX I planned on disputing purchases that were not made correctly due to how they were handling the transactions, and XXXX said she would address the disputes when they came in, meaning refunds would be processed this way. I also swore off their store for awhile and purchased their products where I worked : a college campus. 

To date, I have not heard back from Citibank regarding how these disputes were processed. I have asked for all the dispute paperwork as well as the merchants response to the disputes. I was issued permanent credits with no additional documentation required. Citibank never followed up with me if a merchant stated they disagreed with the dispute. I was told by Citibank 's executive office, specifically XXXX, that Citibank had been issuing me credits, but Citibank was also paying the merchants on some transactions. Then, they stated they were just charging off the amount on their P & L sheets and then marking the dispute ( s ) as  misrepresented. Apparently this is some proprietary practice of Citibanks which is utterly laughable ( response to CFPB complaint ) and categorically lazy. And, to date, Citibank has failed to elucidate all the disputes that were coded this way. I have attempted to obtain clarification from Citibank 's billing disputes department over the phone, and different reps give different answers. One recently, XXXX, insisted Citibank would never pay out twice. I asked to speak to her supervisor. She placed me on hold for nearly 30 minutes. I finally terminated the call and wrote another complaint to the CFPB. I have a recording of the call on my smart phone. I would suggest Citibank pull the call records for my account for XXXX around XXXX XXXX. I called from my home phone. It is listed in one of the attachments. I am tired of wasting my time over the phone. In my opinion, Citibank is deliberately wasting my time and refusing to cooperate to resolve these matters. 

Recently, I filed another XXXX  against XXXX XXXX XXXX. A manager, from the store recently got back with me. She told me XXXX XXXX XXXX only recently changed their policy on refunds. I only know this because I had another recent problem that they had to refund. So, between the problems with Citibank and XXXX XXXX XXXX again, I was able to kill two birds with one stone. XXXX further said the digitized coupons caused such a problem ( read all their XXXX  complaints, please ) that corporate office has been working on making vouchers to replace the specific meals, but they still havent gotten them all out yet. I explained to her the problems I have had over the last two years, needing to file disputes due to their lack of in-store refunds and because of failing to award proper gift certificates to replace meals. I also told her I had spoke to XXXX ( the owner 's wife ) in the past, told her I planned on disputing items due to how they were handling the complaints, and that XXXX had stated she would handle the disputes when they came in to the store, meaning refunds would be processed this way. I also told her I had filed a prior XXXX  report, but all of this is in the attached report except for their recent response ; they plan on giving a written explanation in the next few days. I'll happily provide their response to the XXXX  as well if Citibank needs it for their records. 

But, Citibank can verify with the store that these should have been properly refunded through the dispute process. Citibank can verify through the XXXX  report page that I filed a complaint back in XXXX. I am attaching the recent XXXX  report, the original XXXX  report, and screen prints of the dispute summary on all three disputes. The merchant better not have been paid on these transactions and these better not have been coded as misrepresented. If they were, it is going to earn XXXX XXXX XXXX an attorneys general report for false advertising and failure to issue proper refunds. The fur will fly... 

I have attached the following documents : Both XXXX   complaints, the e-mail recently sent to billing disputes with the executive office cc 'd, and screen prints of the dispute summaries.

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