Consumer complaint received 2018-08-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
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:
On XX/XX/18 I hired XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX CA to build a professional, lead-generating, state of the art website for my business. The amount paid was {$3400.00} and the website was to be delivered by XX/XX/18. The merchant never delivered the product and became completely unresponsive to my many attempts to contact him for a resolution. 

On XX/XX/2018 I submitted a dispute with 15 pages of evidence showing the merchant was unresponsive and that he never delivered the product purchased. Citi issues an temporary credit and went ton investigate. A month later on XX/XX/18, Citi resolved the dispute in the merchants favor inexplicably. They provided the merchant 's response which had a one sentence paragraph stating " Product built and delivered on XX/XX/18. In addition, the merchant provided Citi with a link for the supposed website they had built and delivered which consisted of a make-shift website that looked very similar to splash page crested on line for free. On top of the fact it was never delivered to me, the " website '' did not have my domain name, and it failed to include my name, company 's name, contact information, address, " about us '' section, basically it was missing all of the components of a business website. 

I immediately called Citi and asked them if they received proof of delivery from the merchant to which they answered " no we didn't and we don't have to ''. I asked if they had reviewd the link provided by the merchant to where they said " that's not our job ''. 

on XX/XX/18 I re-disputed the charge and this time I provided another 15 pages of supporting documents as well as a piece of indisputable evidence which I was sure would make Citi change their position. The evidence was as follows : The merchant stated the website had been built and delivered on XX/XX/18, yet the domain registration report for the creation of the website stated the domain name used and the website were registered on XX/XX/18. Meaning that, the website was created one month after it was supposedly delivered and conveniently after the merchant received the dispute. I made several attempts to contact the merchant which were all well documented and provided to Citi along with other supporting information, I provided the piece of evidence regarding the creation date of the website in question. I was feeling very good at this point, not only because I had provided evidence that the product was never delivered but also because I had proof that the merchant had lied in their response taking the level of fraud one step further. 

On XX/XX/18 Citi sent me aletter asking for additional information, except this time there was one specific request " Proof of what was expected versus what was received. '' I couldn't believe it! I asked to myself " are they messing with me? '' Regardless of how idiotic their response, I went ahead for the 3rd time and provided several pages explaining in detail that I had not received ANYTHING from the merchant. It was not a matter of the quality of the work or my satisfaction, it was a matter of blatant fraud and I had the proof which had been provided to Citi. Again, I felt pretty good about my bullet proof response. I received email confirmation that my response had been received by Citi. 

Today XX/XX/18 I received a correspondence from Citi stating the following " We previously contacted you requesting information necessary to complete this inquiry. Since we have not received the proof showing the merchant was promise to deliver the merchandise, we are unable to assist you. '' As you can see it is so poorly written that I can't even make sense of what it states other than a big XXXX XXXX to me. 

This has been an ongoing matter which has cost me a lot of stress, time and effort and all because Citi refuses to even look at the evidence I provided. I also know that this merchant has done this same scam with several people and keeps getting away with it. Also online, I have found other 's who have been in very similar situations where the merchant fails to deliver the goods or provide any proof of delivery and Citi still rules on their favor.

There has to be something we can do? Somebody, somewhere has to protect us as consumers, and I am hoping in this case it is you that can help me. I know that maybe {$3400.00} isn't a lot of money to some people but for me and for my business ' current situation this is an amount that could put me out of business.

Attached is the latest package of information provided to Citi but needless to say I have a lot more which was provided to Citi during this process. I am more than happy to provide you with any additional information you may need.

I am very hopeful since I am at the point of desperation and have nowhere to turn. 

Thank you in advanced for any help you can provide.

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