Consumer complaint received 2022-12-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: TX
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:
To whom it may concern, I would like to share a situation that my husband and I experienced and are currently still experiencing with Citibank Credit Card and a fraudulent company.We have two credit cards from Citibank that we use for different purposes. One card we spend anywhere from {$60000.00} to {$100000.00} per month and the other about {$2000.00} to {$5000.00} monthly.We have had no problems over the years of having these cards until XXXX of 2022 when a charge was processed without our consent and we made our first ever dispute.My family of XXXX goes to XXXX for a week to 10 days each year for vacation. Last summer marked the 11th time weve visited. We rent a car each time to roam around the island and enjoy its beauty and sites. We choose the XXXX company to rent from because it feels safe. Its a reputable company and we bookit through the XXXX website and use it on a regular basis in the United States. Each year we decline the extra insurance and in all the years it hasnt been any problem.We land in XXXX as scheduled and after going through customs and getting our bags, we go to the XXXX counter to get the vehicle. When we checked in at the XXXX counter, they informed us that they did not have the vehicle we selected because it hasnt been turned in yet from the previous renter. They gave us a different car and told us that its not a problembecause it would be turned in at noon and they would bring it toour hotel. After signing the paperwork, they keep the paper and then we were escorted to the temporary car. They have a paper and you do a walk-around the car and point out any scratches, dents and any other visual imperfections. They note it on the paper and you drive away.At XXXX, they bring the originally rented car to the hotel as promised. We again do a visual inspection of both cars and everything is noted, they sign and keep the paper. We didn'tdrive the new car until the evening when we went south to feedthe racoons with our kids. Thats when we realized that the air conditioner didnt work. We called them the next morning and they brought another car. Again, we do a visual walk-around of the vehicle with the broken air conditioner and also the car that they are replacing it with. They sign the paper and keep it. We drive the 4th vehicle for the remainder of the week without issue. When its time to come back home to Texas, we drive to the airport to return the car to XXXX. They come out and they do a visual inspection of the car, they sign the paper and keep it and we fly back to the states. 
A few days after arriving back home, we notice a {$14000.00} charge on our Citibank Credit card from XXXX. We were shocked but figured it had to be a mistake. We called XXXX in XXXX and they told us that there was a problem with the car that we had for 24 hours. They said that the alignment was off. Id liketo point out that these cars are not in immaculate condition to begin with. People are constantly renting and returning them. This is also the car that they brought to us at XXXX after it had been returned at XXXX. Its also the same car that didnt have a working air conditioner that they obviously didnt catch in the visual walk-around that they did with the previous renterbefore bringing it to our hotel. Alignment is a wear-and-tear maintenance that is normal in all cars, especially with 30,000+ miles on it.We dispute the Citibank credit card charge in XXXX. The credit card company tells us that we lost the dispute because the merchant never responded after 30 days. This seems very backwards to us because we have a small business and have had people dispute against us and the burden of proof is on the merchant, not the customer. We hired an attorney to help us navigate this situation. She called Citibank and spoke with themfiguring that there was a mistake in all of this. She has Citibank on recording saying that the merchant never responded. Citibank reopened the dispute and took the charge off of our account. Weeks went by and Citibank then told us thatwe lost the dispute again because the merchant responded! At this time it has been well over 90 days.It turns out that XXXX in the USA is NOT connected to the XXXX in XXXX, XXXX. XXXX in XXXX is a fraudulent company using the XXXX name to gain the trust of their unsuspecting UScustomers. The XXXX name is, in fact, the reason we chose to rent from them because we rent from XXXX almost monthly in the US. They kept all the papers, they can easily create whatever invoices are asked of them. This is not a reputable company. They didnt have the time to thoroughly inspect the car given tous that we had for merely 24 hours. How can they know who did what to the car? But either way, alignment is regular maintenance and certainly doesnt cost {$14000.00}. Yet Citibank is choosing to side with a fraudulent company rather than their owncustomer of years.Put yourself in this situation for a moment. You go to a vacation with your children and rent a car for {$600.00}, but then get charged {$14000.00} when you get back home.

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