Consumer complaint received 2020-07-22
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: GA
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:
XX/XX/XXXX, I went into business with a merchant to began a XXXX XXXX XXXX. We signed a contract that stated after 3 months of our engagement my app   would be fully delivered and code would be transferred over to me. I paid a deposit of {$1500.00} to begin the work. After 3 months, that contract was breached, and the merchant never delivered a finished product or code. I decided to give the merchant a couple of more months due to him not being competent enough to understand my scope of work. Little progress began happening once I began threatening to cut all ties with the merchant. I made all payments, as agreed upon via the contract, on time. During the months that followed, the merchant requested that i make payments across 3 different payment platforms due to him wanting to escape fees. During the development process, XXXX XXXX ( Business - XXXX XXXX XXXX worked with a development team to actually complete the work. 

The merchant 's responsiveness began to fade. Come the end of XXXX and the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from the development team who said they were going to terminate work on my app if the merchant did not pay them from the money i was paying him ( he had a contract with them ). They advised me to wait it out for a couple of weeks and if nothing was resolved, I should move forward and try to collect my funds.So we both waited it out. 

The merchant, once again, failed to uphold his side of both of his contractural agreements. I went ahead and contacted the merchant to request a refund and end my relationship with him. In our text conversation ( as at the time the merchant was unable to take a call ), the merchant mentions that " ... I will be happy to give you a refund so you can move forward. I will be in touch ''. I asked the merchant when i'd be able to see the refund and he was unable to give me a time/date. I contacted an attorney and paid {$200.00} to receive a Demand Letter to send to the merchant. The merchant refused to respond to the demand letter. After several attempts to resolve the matter on my end, I opened disputes with each payment platform where payments were made ( this equated to {$500000.00} ). All of the payment platforms resolved the disputes in my favor ( and i have proof of that ). Citibank, however, immediately ruled in the merchant 's favor because he responded back saying " he was able to deliver the code to me ''. This is why I am writing this complaint about CitiBank. 

It would be months thereafter, where the burden of proof would lie on my lap to prove to Citibank, a financial institution i have been with well over a decade, that the merchant was a fraud and could not fulfill his response. For weeks, I monitored the status of the dispute and each time I provided proof of a demand letter, proof of other banks rulings in my favor, the text from the merchant saying he would give me a refund via text, and breached contract. All of which were insufficient by the investigators on the Citibank side. I decided to call to speak to a supervisor on XX/XX/XXXX. His name was XXXX. He advised me that if i could provide proof ( letter or email ) from the development team that they terminated my work due to XXXX XXXX not paying them, that would be sufficient in my case against the merchant. On XX/XX/XXXX, I asked the development team to send me a written form of documentation to prove my case. They sent that to me and I sent that to CitiBank. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called to confirm that my additional information for received by Citibak. I spoke to another supervisor by the name of XXXX. She confirmed that my document was recieved, thanked me for going through the lengths that I did to provide the email from the development team and ensured me, as all other had at Citi who I spoke to about this matter, that Citi would diligently work to see this in my favor ( this, of course, was a little unbelievable considering all of the hoops I had to go through as their customer to prove that the one piece of information from the merchant could not be fulfilled ), I'd like to add that the code is currently in the possession of the 3rd party Development team - who the merchant refused to pay. There was no way the merchant could deliver my code. He lied to CitiBank and they still took his side. 

I waited out a decision and on XX/XX/XXXX, I once again received the typical notice " we have ruled in the merchant 's favor ''. I was told that I needed a written statement from the merchant that said he would refund me a total of {$1500.00}. This is impossible. If i was able to receive such a document from the merchant, i probably would not have opened a dispute in the first place. In that regard, one would assume that the merchant saw the error of his ways, and I would not have had to go through such great lengths to get my funds.Citi 's request of me is unreasonable by far. I can't imagine that any merchant would provide that to a customer who they are trying to get over on. 

The other payment platforms asked for proof that the merchant could provide the code to me. This was satisfactory in my case because the merchant had to prove that he could deliver on his promise. Because he had no proof, due to him scamming the 3rd party development team, the merchant lost every single case I opened. 

CitiBank failed me completely and let a fraudulent merchant - XXXX XXXX of XXXX XXXX XXXX keep my funds. They put me through so much to prove that this merchant was fraudulent. There was zero requests from the merchant to prove that he did not XXXX me over. I provided overwhelming explanations and documentation. Because I was unable to get a civilized letter from the scammer merchant saying he'd give me a refund in the amount I was disputing - which is ridiculous at best because at that point there would be no need for me to open a claim since one would assume if I was able to get such documentation me and the merchant would have a great relationship and see eye to eye, Citibank sided with the merchant. The request from Citibank is ridiculous. 

I am Citibank 's customer and I was let down greatly. I provided an entire text thread where the merchant mentioned that he would refund me. That was insufficient for CitiBank. 

I am highly disappointed and will be seeking to close out my account with them. I have never felt so unsupported by a company in my life.

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