Consumer complaint received 2020-11-22
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
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:
This is a transaction dispute between myself, CITI Bank, and the merchant is XXXX. 

This is the case we presented to CITI Bank : " CITIBANK Transaction Dispute Claim Merchant : XXXX Date XX/XX/2020 Amount : {$1500.00} Dear CitiBank Customer Service team, Please find attached a copy of the conversation with the XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

SUMMARY : My partner and I were meant to travel to XXXX, XXXX at the end of XXXX and decided to rent at XXXX for a month. This is the summary of events as they occurred : On XX/XX/2020 at XXXX MT, I reached out to the XXXX XXXX inquiring about monthly discounts for a long term stay. There was no response. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX MT I decided to request to book from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX in the hopes of gaining more information and a response from the host. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX MT, XXXX  accepted the booking request. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX MT, XXXX sends a message : Thank you for the reservation. Please send me your passport copies so I can prepare a contract for your stay. What time are you planning to arrive? 

At this point, I had just woken up and wanted to call the host to inquire about him needing passports and this separate contract, especially in light of COVID restrictions. He did not answer the calls and there was no voicemail system set up. I looked into this passport request on my own and found nothing on XXXX policies regarding hosts asking for passports or a separate contract outside of XXXX. He did not follow up about either. I then reached out to the XXXX XXXX in XXXX, to confirm access into the country and any laws detailing landlords requiring passports for international tenants. They let me know that entry restrictions to the Country had changed and I was no longer able to enter as American citizen and that they didn't know anything about housing laws requiring passports. 
Now at XXXX XXXX MT on XX/XX/XXXX, I messaged XXXX letting him know about entry restrictions changing and that I wouldn't be able to make my reservation. I also asked for a full refund since I physically would not be able to be there. This was only 9 hours after he accepted our booking request. At this point we were suspicious that he had accepted our reservation and charged us for the full amount before us signing any contract that he mentioned or answering our questions. I immediately called Citibank on XX/XX/2020 after our reservation was accepted to stop this payment. I was told there was nothing I could do until the charge went through. I kept calling Citibank and in accordance with the protocol mentioned until the charge was posted and followed the steps required for a dispute. 
On XX/XX/2020 XXXX MT I message XXXX again asking him to confirm receiving our previous message and to please respond. I do not hear back from him. At this point this was incredibly alarming so we decided to officially cancel the reservation on XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX MT. Additionally, I sent him a message letting him know I have been trying to get a hold of him via phone throughout the course of the day and he was not picking up, and I asked that he get back to us. A full three days afterward, XX/XX/2020 at XXXX MT I finally received a message from him back saying : sorry you could not make it. I will have to consult our main office regarding refund. 

This response was very misleading because we thought we were dealing with a single XXXX host rather than an entire management company, nowhere on his profile did it mention he was a broker/agent/employee for a larger entity. We have not been able to speak directly with this management company. There was no way to directly contact the actual Merchant who took the money. There was no contact information or naming of this management company, so there was no way to speak to anyone else there. This withholding of information increased our suspicions of this being a scam in addition to his delayed responses to our messages. At XXXX MT XX/XX/XXXX, I wrote back in XXXX ( thinking Id have better luck at getting a faster response ) saying the following By the way I speak XXXX so feel free to answer me in XXXX, thats not a problem. Thanks for the update. Please keep me up to date with the progress of the refund. XXXX writes back at XXXX MT XX/XX/XXXX saying that : he spoke with management and they would like to keep up with XXXX cancellation policy and that they would offer us a discount should we want to book with them in the future. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX and spoke with one of their representatives asking about a refund in COVID-19 times. They said that : Reservations are fully refundable for 48 hours after the booking is confirmed, as long as the cancellation occurs at least 28 days before check-in ( XXXX XXXX in the destinations local time if not specified ) More than 48 hours after booking, guests can cancel before check-in and get a full refund, minus the first 30 days and the service fee. 
However, they also mentioned that it was up to the hosts discretion whether or they wanted to refund us for the money. 
The reason I am requesting a refund is that I believe I was subject to a fraudulent charge. The host instructed us to send copies of our passports and to sign a contract that was never discussed or given to us to look over and sign. He charged us before we were able to do so and refused to refund us or answer our inquiries via a phone call or messages we sent him. As we never agreed to the aforementioned contract, we are not bound by any documents and require a refund. '' The transaction dispute continued over the next several months and CITI bank hardly reached out to us to discuss the progress. They concluded the case in favor of the merchant despite our evidence and we had them open up the case subsequently after for another look. 

We called CITI bank 40+ times from XXXX 2020. They were suppose to be advocating for us and they did not. 

Moreover, they continued to charge us interest and revoke conditional credit even while the dispute was ongoing until we cited that they legally had to per Fair Credit Reporting Act ( FCRA ). They changed their tune and we slightly more helpful. 

Ultimately, despite our overwhelming evidence against the merchant, the bank decided to rule in favor of them and charged us the transaction amount of {$1500.00} and interest.

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