Consumer complaint received 2018-07-16
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: PA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that my XXXX worth of My Best Buy reward points ( which has a value of {$410.00} ) was emptied from my account. Best Buy sent an email earlier that afternoon stating that my XXXX XXXX Unlocked account exceeded their limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member on more than one occasion over the last 12 months. I sent an email to their executive relations department explaining that I did NOT exceed purchase limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member. I received a call from XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to which he confirmed that my points were removed from my account because of gross abuse of their XXXX XXXX XXXX program. He confirmed that I was very careful in that I purchased the up to 3 copies limit on most if not all of my purchases. Based on that conversation, Best Buy has confirmed that I did NOT violate the terms and conditions of their program, which again is 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member.

Best Buy 's statement in that I exceeded their limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member on more than one occasion over the last 12 months is false. " The over the last 12 months '' is a condition that was never added to their published terms and conditions nor was I ever made aware of it. I have purchased more than the limit of 3 copies of each title per platform, but they were in different years ( i.e. XXXX and XXXX ). Therefore, I did NOT exceed purchase limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member.

There was no merit in claiming that I exceeded limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member. Therefore, Best Buy claimed that there was gross abuse of their XXXX XXXX XXXX program. What is considered gross abuse of their program? There is no mention of the terms " gross abuse '' in their terms and conditions. What activities or behaviors qualify as gross abuse? Best Buy could not fault me for exceeding purchase limits so they decided to come up with this " gross abuse '' claim, which is absolutely subjective and basically allows them to cancel my membership and reward points as they see fit. 

The XXXX worth of My Best Buy reward points ( which has a value of {$410.00} ) were earned not only from using the XXXX XXXX XXXX membership to purchase games with their Best Buy credit card, but from using my Best Buy credit card to make purchases outside of Best Buy. The removal of my entire point balance is clearly theft. The points had a cash value even though the points can only be converted to reward certificates ( in {$5.00} denominations ) to be spent only at Best Buy. My points were removed from my account for reasons that can not be supported. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Best Buy decided to cancel their XXXX XXXX program and not allow any new membership signups, but allowed existing paid memberships to continue their benefits until expiration. My paid XXXX XXXX XXXX membership expires in XX/XX/XXXX. Isn't it convenient that shortly after Best Buy decided to end the program that they claimed that I was in violation of their program 's terms and conditions and therefore allows them to cancel it? I've been a member of their XXXX XXXX XXXX program since inception. I've not once violated their program terms. 

Even though I've kept track of my purchases so as to NOT exceed limits of 3 copies of each title per platform, per year, per member, why would a company of Best Buy 's size NOT have a system in place to prevent purchases over the established limits? The terms and conditions are in tiny fine print, which are NOT communicated to customers upon signup and purchase of the paid XXXX XXXX XXXX membership. There are NO warnings that remind a customer about the limits both in store and online. Both in store registers and the online system allow customers to purchase over and above the limits, which is a HUGE flaw in their efforts to ensure limits are followed by customers. I could think of a handful of ways that Best Buy could have enforced the limits from their terms and conditions systematically as opposed to placing the burden to remember on the customer and none of which were ever implemented by Best Buy.

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