Consumer complaint received 2020-12-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I have been a client of Citibank NA for over 20 years. This is the first time i have had a fraud dispute, and the first time i have ever had to go through such lengths to try and get information and my case resolved. 

XX/XX/XXXX - 2 fraud charges were posted to my account originating in XXXX. One amount for {$470.00} and another for {$3200.00}. 

After reporting the Fraud, Citibank reversed the charges on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Citibank Fraud Dept recorded my statement, and asked me to send a letter, and evidence that I had regarding the unauthorized charges. 

That letter was sent XX/XX/XXXX. The following are the results : XX/XX/XXXX - Fraud Charges re-charged to my account. No notice given of outcome of dispute. 

XX/XX/XXXX - asked why was my claim denied, and told they did not receive the evidence ( even though I had sent it XXXX other than a fake receipt from the merchant I took a picture of. I was told that I need to send Letter of Appeal XX/XX/XXXX - Letter of Appeal sent XX/XX/XXXX - Spoke to XXXX at Fraud Disputes Department - acknowledged receipt of the XX/XX/XXXX Letter of Appeal - but " there was a problem with the filing because after receiving the Letter, there was a duplicate request of fraud investigation which confused the investigators '' XX/XX/XXXX - Spoke with XXXX in the Disputes Department : said they could not find the Appeal letter - even though it was confirmed by previous representative. And said to send it again ... because it was not forwarded to the investigator. So need to re-send the Appeal letter so the case will be re-opened again XX/XX/XXXX - spoke with Supervisor XXXX, after being told by representative that there was no information on file, I was then informed by the supervisor that she read the file and said she will send all the info to the DEBIT ESCALATIONS UNIT and i should have a result in 2 business days XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX : No response, or information received from Citibank XX/XX/XXXX : Spoke with XXXX in the Fraud Disputes Dept - and opened a case ( Case # XXXX ) to have someone from back office contact me by phone. 

XX/XX/XXXX : No one called, but received a secure message on my online account that the dispute had " been resolved '' ( this was the first and only correspondence i had ever received from citibank in this entire process! ) XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX : no additional correspondence, emails, notices, or calls received as I was expecting there would be an explanation of a positive outcome, and reversal of charges ( credit XXXX on my account. which did not come. 

XX/XX/XXXX - spoke with Supervisor XXXX in Client Relations Unit after 1 hour, got disconnected when i was told she would look into how to approach the case. 

XX/XX/XXXX - spoke with Supervisor XXXX in Client Relations Unit - explained what the story was of this case ... and was put on hold and got disconnected again. 

Each time I try to get information, Citibank is not forthcoming. It seems like my Fraud dispute is constantly denied for issues having nothing to do with the dispute itself : misfiling papers, double appeals at same time, investigators not getting proper information, etc ....

Each time, I am spending hours and hours speaking to one person then another then another. 
Each time, I am requesting to speak to someone in person and told that is not a possibility. 
Each time, I am requesting the information that formed the basis for the initial denial, and told " we will re-open the case '' ... or .... " we will have an investigator look at it '' ... or ... " someone from the back office will get back to you '' ... and none of those times does that happen. and I have yet to receive information for the basis of the original denial. 

I gave up and decided i need to file a consumer complaint.

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