Consumer complaint received 2021-04-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
My credit card provider Citibank / Best Buy Credit Services filed a law suit against me last week XX/XX/2021 for failing to pay a balance which included two transactions which the merchant XXXX alleges I made last year, but which I did NOT approve or authorize. I spoke with Citibank about this, we discussed the situation and they filed a dispute with XXXX on my behalf. 

Citibank mishandled the dispute as based on my discussion with them they disputed these transactions as a failure to provide services as described, but what they later advised should have in fact been submitted as an authorized charge, this after they submited the dispute, and received XXXX 's response. They then claimed that my suggestion that XXXX was to deliver 6-12 unique and exclusive leads per month, but that I only received 4 since the services started suggested I authorized the billing when in fact I did not and I received the leads in response to my mortgage partner agreeing to and paying for the service! Citibank completely ignored this fact and the fact that XXXX was unable to provide any evidence to support their claim that I had authorized the billing of my card. Again the reason this was initially submitted as a failure to provide services was due to the fact the billing for the services which were being considered ( but had not been agreed to or approved for billing ) was to be split between myself and my mortgage partner. My mortgage partner did authorize the marketing on their end, and for their half of the billings, but did not have the authority to agree to the marketing or to authorize the billing to my credit card. XXXX preemptively began delivering the service based on my mortgage partners payment. Thus the service was approved by my mortgage partner, but not by me and this is why the claim was submitted in the manner it was. If Citibank had taken the time to discuss this in greater detail with me and performed their job in assisting me in properly filing this dispute they could have reversed these false billings. 

XXXX responded to the dispute by suggesting they provided the leads as agreed under the terms of an agreement which they falsely allege I both received and accepted. I did not. XXXX also suggested that I visited a page on their website where I approved the contract terms, inputted my credit card information and authorized the billing of my card. I have never seen this webpage nor have I ever visited it. I did not input my credit card details here nor did I authorize these charges to my card. Rather XXXX already had my card on file for other advertising I'd been doing with them for years at a cost of {$100.00} per month. A review of the BBBs website includes close to 400 complaints including a number from other Real Estate Agents and Customers who report false and fraudulent billings. https : XXXX. Here is another article on criminal actions by XXXX https : XXXX, and another discussing their settlement of a $ XXXX class action lawsuit for stealing from their own employees https : XXXX. 

Never the less, Citibank accepted XXXX 's response advising that the dispute was unsuccessful, and that as a result I would be responsible for the charges. Citibank made no additional attempts to dispute the charges on my behalf using this additional information I had shared which they would have been aware of had they put forth an effort to better understand the situation before submitting the initial dispute. They completely mishandled this situation and were negligent. I advised that this was unacceptable and that as I had advised I never agreed to the XXXX marketing, it's alleged terms, and MOST IMPORTANTLY I DID NOT AUTHORIZE THE BILLING OF MY CREDIT CARD for any additional fees. I advised them that these were fraudulent charges and that given the fact I did not authorize them and as such I would not be paying the charges. 

Citibank failed to reverse the charges and as such I made no further payments, Citibank charged off the debt, I was/am in the process of disputing these items with the credit bureaus ( yet they continue to provide false evidence to support these fraudulent charges ), and last Friday I received notice from the XXXX Municipal Court that Citibank has filed a lawsuit against me for nonpayment of account. 

Citibank allowed my card to be billed ( for what are two substantial charges that were over 53x the amount of the monthly billing I was previously doing with XXXX  ) without my authorization and without the card being present ( their fraud prevention clearly failed to catch this and had it this could have been stopped in its tracks ). Citibank then failed to effectively handle the disputes and they are now attempting to hold me accountable for their failures. If they had put an equivalent degree of effort into pursuing XXXX as they are now putting into attempting to pursue me ( their paying customer who was being charged an interest rate well north of 25 % ( I think it was 19 %! ) they could have resolved this issue on my, and their behalf!

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