Consumer complaint received 2021-04-10
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:
I booked a group vacation with XXXX based, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and I was scheduled to travel to XXXX XXXX with them on XX/XX/XXXX ( all dates are in XXXX format to match with the emails & receipts ). 

I made two payments using my CITIBANK credit card ending XXXX : XX/XX/XXXX - USD XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - USD XXXX *Please see the attached XXXX XXXX receipts of payment with the confirmed date of trip XXXX XXXX postponed my trip via email in XXXX due to Covid travel restrictions. 

*Please see the attached email postponing my trip due to Covid-19 *Please see a follow up email on XX/XX/XXXX where XXXX XXXX gave me the option to transfer my trip to a XXXX date, when Covid would allow me to travel. I selected a new date of XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX. 

*Please see the attached email clearly showing that my trip was rearranged to XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX. 

*Please see the attached receipt with my new trip date of XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX went into administration and became bankrupt on XX/XX/XXXX. It was at this stage I became aware that I would not receive the services that I paid for. 

*Please see the attached email sent to me by the insolvency practitioners, XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, informing me of the administration. 

Under the Fair Credit Billing Act it is my right to claim a refund when the service I paid for is not received due to a company 's bankruptcy. 

I attempted to open up a chargeback dispute on XX/XX/XXXX using the Mastercard chargeback code : XXXX for credit - Merchandise services not received. 

XXXX XXXX merchant acquirer XXXX challenged my dispute with Citibank on the basis that I may have been told that I was protected by XXXX XXXX financial failure insurance on their XXXX XXXX XXXX  which is incorrect. 

*Please see the attached XXXX XXXX XXXX  that are relevant to my booking which clearly show that insurance was in place for XXXX customers only. 

I am told that the financial failure insurance was always in place for XXXX XXXX customers but from XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX were able to insure every customer globally and they changed the XXXX XXXX XXXX to reflect this on XX/XX/XXXX. As I booked before this time, I am not insured or protected by any other method. I am told that Citibank was shown incorrect evidence by XXXX which includes a screenshot of the new XXXX XXXX XXXX ( after XX/XX/XXXX ) and its from the XXXX website - not the XXXX website which I booked from. 

When the challenge was flagged by my bank, they should have given me an opportunity to show them evidence that clearly shows that I am not insured. I would have been able to submit the XXXX XXXX XXXX relevant to my booking which clearly shows that the financial failure insurance was for XXXX customers only. I would have also submitted a flowchart provided the insolvency practitioners, XXXX which was sent to all XXXX XXXX customers. XXXX informed me that this flowchart was agreed and approved by XXXX themselves. Please see the red box in the bottom-left corner clearly showing that the insurance is for XXXX customers only. 

*Please see the flowchart provided by XXXX If required I can email the financial failure insurance company, XXXX  to get a rejection letter from them but I am informed that a reply will take some time so my bank will need to keep the dispute open whilst I wait for the inevitable rejection response. 

I have been informed by the insolvency practitioners XXXX that all credit card paying customers should go to their banks for a refund ( see flowchart ). The XXXX Government backed XXXX XXXX XXXX are advising me to do the same via this letter XXXX : XXXX For your reference : The time limit for making a claim should start from the date you were expecting to receive the service/trip not from the purchase date, given you are buying something to be delivered in the future. In my case this date should be my new trip date of XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX. Alternatively, they may use the date I found out that I would not receive the trip ( XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ). 

Mastercard state that on chargebacks there is normally a 120 day limit, but this can be extended to 540 days if the services were to be provided at a future date. So, for example, a holiday.

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 monetary relief