Consumer complaint received 2019-05-28
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:
Credit Card issuer : Citibank MasterCard Phone number : XXXX Dispute ID 's : XXXX for {$52.00} and Dispute ID : XXXX for {$83.00} Background : XXXX is a movie subscription service similar to XXXX which offered customers X amount of movies to watch per month depending on which plan was chosen. Unfortunately, like XXXX, XXXX began to cheat its subscribers and cancel memberships for bogus reasons without proof and without providing refunds for the unused months. They also added fees for which they never mentioned on their website prior to buying their service. And here is the kicker : they recently implemented a requirement whereby they wanted subscribers to send them a picture of them holding their Drivers License up to their face otherwise they would be banned from using their services-> services for which their customers already paid up-front for a year in advance. I discovered from reading online articles that XXXX implemented that last Draconian requirement because they were on the verge of bankruptcy and were trying to stop bleeding money. XXXX has no phone number for customer support, only email, BUT and they never send correspondence. About a few weeks ago, they went out of business and nothing on their site has mentioned anything about refunding monies back to their subscribers. I was actually quite surprised by the lack of service from my credit card company in disputing the charges I had with XXXX. In fact, it seems as if they are going out of their way to make sure that any disputes against XXXX is found in favor of XXXX and not the cardholder, even though XXXX has clearly been fraudulently canceling accounts without refunds and clocking access to their app unless photo ID 's are sent in to them. I am seeking your help to make Citibank do the right thing and enforce cardholder protections against unscrupulous companies or businesses such as XXXX. Below are details of my disputes : XX/XX/XXXX- XXXX offered a  Holiday special rate of {$83.00} for 1 year, paid upfront XX/XX/XXXX- I bought a DIGITAL ( non-physical ) gift card as a gift in the amount of {$52.00} XX/XX/XXXX- I barely used my XXXX membership ( I think I saw 2 or 3 movies prior to XX/XX/XXXX ) to go to the movies and today, when I decided to see a movie, the XXXX app BLOCKED my purchase of a ticket until I sent them 1 ) a picture of my Drivers License and 2 ) A picture of me holding the Drivers license up to my face! I come to find out that XXXX is in XXXX. There was no way I was going to submit to them such personal information as they are in a foreign country and I don't know of any existing privacy laws in XXXX. Note that when I signed up with XXXX, there was nothing about this draconian requirement and in fact, I was able to use the app prior to this with no problems. Them requiring face/Drivers license was something they recently adopted. 
-I called Citicards and to dispute both the {$83.00} and {$52.00} digital gift card. Note that I NEVER redeemed the gift card. I was not going to give it as a gift if XXXX required my friend to send to them him holding his Drivers License up to his face. I told the Citibank agent that I wanted to dispute the 2 charges because XXXX was preventing me from using their services for WHICH I PAID UPFRONT FOR nor was I going to give gift card to my friend because of this new " requirement '' they just put in place. The Citicard agent asked if I had canceled my service with them and I said I would do it right after we hung up. I went to the XXXX website and canceled my membership. Its very important to note that I received no confirmation email about the cancellation nor did it say anything on the webpage. After clicking the <cancel> button, it took me directly back to the XXXX homepage. Citicard then credited my account the 2 respective dollar amounts mentions above. 
-Unbeknownst to me, I come to find out later on that the Citicards agent put down that I canceled service with XXXX as the reason for the dispute instead of the reason I gave which was that XXXX was not providing me with a service for which I paid for.

Citicards records conversations and so it will be easy for them to go back and replay my conversation with the agent that I spoke with when I called to dispute the 2 charges. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I received Citibank correspondence ( I have to log into my Citicards account to view it ).  They wrote to inform me that XXXX responded back in regards to the {$52.00} and sent an attachment from them. The attachment was an impossible to read PDF document. the correspondence said that the case would be closed and not in my favor unless I could provide them with proof of cancellation!

XX/XX/XXXX- ( Citicard sends out emails whenever there is an email communication from them on their website. Unfortunately, the emails are 4-5 days late in coming ) I called Citicards and asked why they did not find in my favor. I told them that I could not provide proof of cancellation because I NEVER REDEEMED the digital card. I couldn't cancel something that I never used. The agent said that in the unreadable PDF from XXXX, they were contesting the charge-back because in their terms and conditions, gift card sales were final with no refunds. I told the agent that such terms were NOT listed anywhere on their site when I went to look at the gift cards nor when I was about to purchase the gift card. The fact that gift cards are non-refundable would be something very important that a legitimate company would disclose to consumers, right?? It wasn't. I told the agent I would be sending in proof of this in an email. 
-I sent to the Citicards disputes department 2 emails : 1 ) regarding XXXX as a whole with links as to their shady business practices and 2 ) proof that on their giftcard website, there is absolutely no mention of the cards being non-refundable. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I received Citibank correspondence however, my email notification of it was not sent until days later. In the correspondence, it stated that the case for {$52.00} was closed because I did not send them any proof of cancellation. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I called Citibank and told them I sent the disputes department on XX/XX/XXXX an email which he checked and said was received. I told him I wanted the dispute of the {$52.00} charge re-opened. I told him XXXX HAS CEASED OPERATIONS IN THE USA.The agent said he would send the disputes personnel a note about this and that I have sent them email correspondence. 
-THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. XXXX IS NO LONGER DOING BUSINESS IN THE USA. WHEN YOU GO TO THEIR WEBSITE, THERE IS A STATEMENT FROM THEM SAYING SO. HOWEVER, THERE IS NOTHING THERE THAT SAYS THEY WILL BE REFUNDING BACK MONIES TO PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THEIR SERVICES UPFRONT FOR 1 YEAR. Very shady of them, something a legitimate company would never do. I sent Citibank screenshots of this in a Word document. Because XXXX shut down, I thought my 2 disputes would be an open and shut case in my favor, but I thought wrong. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I received Citibank correspondence however, my email notification of it was not sent until days later. In this correspondence, Citibank asked if I had proof that XXXX agreed to credit my account the amount of {$52.00}. Here is the problem : XXXX has NO CUSTOMER SERVICE PHONE NUMBER. THEIR SUPPORT IS ONLY VIA EMAIL AND THEY NEVER RESPOND TO INQUIRIES!!! So no, I did not receive any communication from XXXX nor will I ever will as it is not in their business practice to do so. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I called Citicards Disputes and spoke with XXXX . She was very unprofessional and pretty much said that because the 2 disputes were filed as being cancelled by me for the dispute reason, and I provided no proof of cancellation, then both disputes would not be in my favor. i told her that when I originally spoke with the agent ( note that he was an OVERSEAS agent whose understanding of English may not have been up to par ) I told him I was disputing the charges due to XXXX not providing me with the service I paid for. I told her that the agent asked later on if I had cancelled my subscription with XXXX and I said that I would after we finished talking. I told XXXX that I did cancel and that they sent me no verification email. I told her this is how XXXX does business. I also told her that XXXX was no longer doing business in the USA but she said that didn't matter. What????? She said that many other Citibank customers were calling in and disputing charges from XXXX. I believe that Citibank is purposefully making it difficult for their customers to get charge-backs on their cards because they would lose money. She was not helpful at all. 
XX/XX/XXXX- I received Citibank correspondence however, my email notification of it was not sent until days later. In the correspondence, it stated that the dispute for {$83.00} was closed and NOT IN MY FAVOR because of the correspondence sent to them by XXXX. They also included said correspondence as a PDF. I looked at it and had to laugh because there was NOTHING in it that proved their case agaisnt me. It was basically the days I sued the app and a 1 page literature on the company! 
XX/XX/XXXX - I called Citibank Disputes and spoke with XXXX and asked why the {$83.00} charge was reversed back to me. She looked at XXXX 's correspondence and agreed that it provided no details. She asked if I received a cancellation notice from XXXX and I said no and that XXXX never sends email correspondence. I told her that XXXX, even though they are out of business, has hired a firm to DISPUTE ALL CHARGES!!!! She said to send in an email to the disputes department stating that I cancelled and that XXXX never sent me a response back. I asked about the status of the {$52.00} dispute and she said that I had been given a temporary credit of that amount as they are reviewing the dispute again. 
-I sent Citibank Disputes an email with a Word attachment. 

CFPB personnel, I need your assistance in this matter. It seems as if Citibank is purposefully trying to deny legitimate dispute claims against XXXX because it would cost them too much money. I have never been put through such a painful and stressful process in disputing claims before, until now. Citibank is trying everything in their power to deny any claims against XXXX. I want to point out some important notes below : 1 ) When I called to originally dispute the 2 charges of {$52.00} and {$83.00}, I told the agent that I wanted to cancel because XXXX was blocking me from using their services for which I had paid for upfront ( you buy their year-long subscription plan ) 2 ) XXXX HAS NO PHONE NUMBER. Everything is done via email and THEY NEVER GET IN CONTACT WITH YOU. NEVER. 
3 ) XXXX is no longer doing business in the USA. And as such, their subscription service and gift cards are no longer available to the people who purchased them. Therefore by his very fact, all disputes should go in favor of the customer and Citibank ( actually all credit card companies who did business with XXXX ) would refund customer 's monies back to them as provided by the credit cards protections for their cardholders. 
4 ) I did cancel my membership with XXXX BUT they never sent me a cancellation email. This is how shady XXXX is. They prevent people from canceling and you can never contact them because they have no phone number and they never write back using email 5 ) Citibank sends out Cit-correspondence which can only be read when you log into your account. They send out advisory emails that there is Citi-correspondence, however, these emails are sent out about 4 days later and NOT on the date the Citi-correspondence was sent. 
6 ) Currently, my 2 disputes are pending with both being denied and me re-opening them

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