Consumer complaint received 2020-09-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
I initiated a dispute with my Citi Mastercard branded credit card on XX/XX/2020 in the amount of {$1000.00}. The dispute involves a merchant ( XXXX XXXX ) who canceled flights and failed to issue a refund. The specific type of dispute I initiated is classified by Mastercard as type XXXX ( Goods or Services Not Provided ). The following information is from XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX   ) : " Reason code 4855 chargebacks must be processed within 120 calendar days from the settlement date. Or it must be processed in the latest anticipated date that the goods or services were to be provided. '' There are certain circumstances that permit adjustments to the 120 day timeline, however, none of those situations apply to this case where the merchant failed to provide the service that was purchased. You can also reference the official Mastercard chargeback guide available here : XXXX XXXX XXXX.pdf Since 172 days have passed since I initiated this dispute, Citibank is no longer in compliance with the Mastercard guidelines that they are required to follow for this type of dispute. Citibank has, over the course of numerous phone calls initiated by me to follow-up on my dispute case, continually kept saying they needed more time. I was told in XXXX and XXXX by more than one representative on separate calls that Citicards would resolve my dispute within 90 days ( of a date in XXXX when final information was re-submitted on XX/XX/XXXX ). It has now been over 90 days since that time. 

Overall, Citibank has simply mishandled this dispute. In XXXX, I was even instructed ( and followed the instructions ) to re-submit information to Citibank 's dispute center using the email address billingdisputes@citi.com. The reason I was instructed to re-submit information is apparently because the " investigation team '' did not correctly understand the documents that had already been sent, even though the dispute representative on the phone had no problem understanding the same documents. Documents submitted by me are emails from the merchant stating that they canceled the flights in my reservation and that they promised a refund to the original form of payment ( my Citibank credit card ). I also included language from the US Department of Transportation ( DOT ) that requires all airlines who cancel any portion of a customer 's itinerary to refund the customer in full for the entire trip. I opened a case with the DOT and received an email from XXXX stating that the airline was required to respond to my complaint, however, I have never received a response. 

Following today 's call when I told Citibank that their 90 days I had been promised to resolve the dispute were over, the initial representative informed me that it would take another 20 days. When I pressed on, I was transferred to a dispute supervisor ( XXXX ) who said she would submit a " referral '' back to the investigation team who should potentially resolve the dispute in another 7-10 business days. I followed up that phone call with a Citibank customer service representative to lodge a complaint, however, Citibank does not provide any kind of case number for this. 

Having made 5 to 10 separate phone calls, many of which resulted in speaking with both an initial dispute representative and then a supervisor, Citibank has failed to resolve my dispute according to the guidelines required by Mastercard and also failed to deliver on their own timelines and promises to resolve the dispute and have representatives follow-up with me. I have never received a single follow-up call or email from Citibank other than a form email generated by a computer with a subject line that reads " Thanks for the dispute details '' following my calls to that department.

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