Consumer complaint received 2018-10-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
Dear CFPB, I was following the exact directions provided to me by a Citi Bank employee when booking a flight to get back home after an emergency when traveling ( the records of which conversation have been denied to me several times ). I very specifically asked the employee giving me directions for any documents or any other requirements for me to get these charges refunded and none were given to me. 

Citi Bank is now refusing to honor what had been offered to me initially, and have left me with the charges and the accrued interest charges that resulted from me following the EXACT directions given to me by the company. They are citing that my claim does not meet their terms and conditions, and are now amending the initial conversation saying that " there was no guarantee ''. This information should have been given to me when I called to ask about it, had that been the case I would have made other arrangements. but it was not. 

I have reached out to their " Presidential Office '' and they have once again washed their hands off their mistakes and are citing their policies as means to avoid giving me back the money they owe me. 

Here is a transcript of the letter I sent with all the details : Office of the President Citibank/Citigroup XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, SD XXXX XX/XX/2018 RE : Claim Number XXXX Acc : XXXX Formerly XXXX To the office of the president, Thank you for receiving this correspondence. I am forced to seek your support after numerous attempts at resolving this on my own with your different customer service departments. Please allow me to elaborate on the issue. 
Earlier this year I used my Citi card to book flights to a wedding in XXXX, XXXX. On our way back from the wedding or flight was scheduled to have an overnight connection in XXXX XXXX ( Sunday Monday XX/XX/XXXX ). Unfortunately, I fell violently ill as we landed in XXXX XXXX the night before, I had a doctor evaluate me and he advised that I should not fly in such conditions among other recommendations. 
Having a miserable night at the hotel in the airport I attempted to put myself together, but I was unable to make it to the very early morning flight. Feeling ill and in distress I remembered that Citi offers travel protection, so I called the number in the back of my card to inquire about it. 
The customer service representative CSR I spoke with the morning of XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX? ) was extremely helpful. After explaining the situation to her she advised that I indeed had protection for this trip. I asked her to help me verify I had purchased my tickets with my Citi card and she went back through my transaction history and confirmed it. I distinctly remember asking her if there was anything I needed to do in order to obtain the benefits, which documents I would need to obtain, etc. I even enquired about whether or not I had to look for tickets under a certain price range. She replied dont worry, just do whatever you need to do to come home. She advised that I should call back and begin the claim upon my return to the US. 
I did exactly as I was told by your customer service representative, I booked the earliest flights I could to get back home. 
After returning home, I did as I was asked to do and called back to begin my claim only to be met with an immediate refusal to even process my claim from the claims department representative ( XXXX? ). After a lot of back and forth, the representative agreed to initiate the claim. I never heard back from anyone, no temporary hold was placed on my account to prevent interest being charged, nothing. 
After many weeks of not getting anything back, I called a couple of times and I was told that my claim had been denied on XX/XX/18. Shortly after I got the denial letter in the mail. 
I called the number in the back of the card a couple of times and went through the usual struggles of having to explain my situation over and over to multiple people, got bounced around between customer service and benefits, and ended up speaking to a manager ( XXXX XXXX ) in customer service on XX/XX/XXXX. She said she would try to contact management to explain the situation and get their support in the claims department. After a few minutes hold, she transferred me to XXXX in claims. XXXX advised me that he was only told I needed help but XXXX explained nothing to him, so once again had to explain everything. XXXX walked me through the claim response letter but was surprised that I was not given the option to appeal the claim decision, so he advised me to email the documents to the claims email address. 
On XX/XX/XXXX my submission was once again rejected for the same reason. I attempted to reach out to XXXX several times afterwards, finally getting a hold of her in XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX advised that my only course of action was to file a dispute against the airline from whom I bought the replacement tickets. I explained to her that I was not going to attempt that as the airline ( XXXX ) was not at fault at all, they had just sold me the tickets I was told to buy by your CSR on XX/XX/XXXX. I explained to XXXX that I had an ethical conflict with that alternative and she told me that no further options were available to resolve this except for writing this letter. 
Almost 90 days after the incident, along with hours wasted on the phone, I am now stuck with over a hundred dollars in interest charges, and the ~ {$12000.00} worth of tickets that I can not afford. All because I was following the exact directions I received from your CSR. I had to perform a balance transfer to stop the interest charges on my account while this is resolved. 
I ask that Citi issues a credit to my account in the amount of {$1400.00} as restitution for this incident as soon as possible. 
Thank you very much in advance, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, TX XXXX XXXX

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