Consumer complaint received 2019-06-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
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:
I am submitting a complaint on my Costco Citi Bank Visa credit card. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I booked a hotel room at the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and paid for the room with my XXXX account. After being in the room over an hour they came to my room and informed me that the room had not been paid for and threaten to through me out on the street. I  had no choice but to give them my Costco Citi Bank Visa card thinking I could always disputed the charge if XXXX had not paid it. I really thought I had protect against fraudulent charges on that card. 

As soon as I was able to confirm that XXXX had paid this hotel I tried to dispute the charge on the Costco Citi Bank Visa website and it was refused claiming I could not dispute a charge while it was pending and had to wait until it was posted. When it was posted I filed an online dispute, clicking the boxes I was over XXXX and XXXX military. The website asked what was the issue and I selected duplicate charge. 

At that point my dispute was filed with no opportunity for me to provide a statement as to what happened or attach essential documentation. I knew immediately that it was designed this way so that they would not have to contact this merchant as required when you submit a dispute and only look to see if my credit card was charged twice. 

I then received the results of my dispute. I had not provided enough information to resolve the dispute and needed to contact the merchant who had committed fraud against me. The one that had informed that the room had not been paid for when it had. I decided to send them a statement of what happened as well as essential documentation and found the only way I could do this was by US mail to Citi Bank Customer Service in XXXX XXXX. This documentation consisted of the receipt from XXXX that the room was guaranteed and paid for before I arrived on the property and the response I had from my dispute of the charge from XXXX where they denied the dispute because they had paid for the room and the room was provided. Any charges after that would be an illegal double charge which the Citi website was set up to ignore. 

On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from XXXX XXXX who claimed to be from Citi Bank Customer Service. It was very obvious he was reprimanding me for my not so nice letter. Evidently I was not supposed to have found a way to provide them with the essential documentation or point out their website defrauded customers from fair treatment of their disputes. 

He now claimed that I gave up my rights from my Federally mandated fraud protection from credit card companies when I used XXXX to pay the initial charge. He told me that it only applied if I put the initial charge on my Costco Citi Bank Visa. He claimed I was required to pay this second billing on the room and take XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to small claims court. He claimed the Federally mandated fraud protection against fraudulent charges being place on this credit card did not exist! 

This is not the first time Costco has treated me like this. Two years ago I tried to use their auto purchase program. They sent me to XXXX XXXX XXXX. This dealer tried to get me to accept a trade in value on my XXXX  selling on XXXX for {$8000.00} to {$10000.00} of {$600.00} claiming the fuel injectors were bad when they weren't. They were trying to defraud me out of at least {$4000.00}. 

I reported this to Costco thinking they would care and found out it was a conspiracy. They supported this procedure and wanted to continue. I believe it is still going on. 

I received this email : Hello XXXX, This is XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Thank you for coming in and I hope Ira was thorough in his presentation. The one thing that needed to be cleared up was the issue with your Diesel.  Unfortunately, it was explained to XXXX incorrectly so we wanted to explain this better. The oil filler cap was not missing. However, when it was taken off to check for Injector quality, it puffed blue smoke, indicating injector issues. We wanted to clear that up, which is another reason for the value of the vehicle. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to speak to XXXX or myself. Have a great and safe XXXX XXXX weekend. 

This is preposterous. Taking the oil filler cap off is no way to check fuel injectors and is not in the shop manual. Besides that there was no blue smoke puffing from the oil filler hole as claimed. the vehicle ran perfectly which meant there were no injector issues. XXXX XXXX knew or should have known all this when he declared it " nothing '' because I was telling him. Over and over I wanted to take the vehicle to Costco and show them that there was no blue smoke coming out but they always refused every time. They did not dare admit that they knew this to be true. The only issue is now fraud and nothing to do with buying a vehicle. 

According to our consumer protection laws I now deserved the car he was trying to sell me free of charge for deceptive marketing. 

Costco 's XXXX XXXX claimed this message was " nothing '' and refused any explanation. Costco 's Vice President XXXX XXXX called me again to convince me that it was " nothing ''. I again ask him to look at the vehicle and observe that there was no smoke coming out of the oil filler hole and this Vice President with a college degree told me he couldn't see smoke because he wasn't a trained diesel mechanic. 

He went on to claim that it was OK to lie about the condition of the car to get a lower trade in value because not many people complained about it. He promised to get back to me on the issue and never has. It is still an open issue. 

I take cancelling the fraud protection on my credit card very serious. I take having the website set up to defraud customers of the right to dispute a charge very serious. 

People like XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX are nothing more that paid criminals hired by these companies to defraud people in my category, over XXXX and XXXX  military. They have no compassion for anyone. They are trained that when they are caught in a lie by the customer asking a question or pointing it out, all they have to do is refuse to respond or divert the conversation else where and then claim they are providing customer service. They try to intimidate and bully you in believing you are wrong. They are trained that way. 

XXXX XXXX took over for XXXX XXXX when she wouldn't claim my email " nothing ''. He claimed he was her co-worker when he was her supervisor. He refused to answer the simple question " why '' claiming that this XXXX year old XXXX military and 20 year Costco Executive Member did not deserve an answer. He then claimed he needed the Vin number to help and refused to answer why this would help. 

Then he refused to respond when provided documentation and asked him why I never received the Costco no hassle pricing. The answer is dealership was to busy trying to defraud me. 

Vice President XXXX XXXX then called to sell me another car with no hassle pricing. He admitted that I did not receive one the first time. When asked why he refused to respond. I am so low on the totem pole I do not deserve and answer. 

I had asked that the value of the car I deserved for deceptive mark be donated to XXXX charities and he claimed I did not deserve that because Costco contributes to the XXXX XXXX. He was so preoccupied with trying to cover up this deceptive marketing by refusing to look at the vehicle that a Costco Vice President with a college degree, claimed he did not know what smoke looks like because he was not a trained diesel mechanic! 

He went on to claim that deceptive marketing was OK because Costco received few complaints. He did not seem pleased when I told him that " this is the real Costco '' but promised he was going to get back to me. He realized how badly he failed to convince me that selling me a car was a solution and how bad his performance was in this phone call and never has. 

XXXX XXXX had my Citi Bank letter where I had told him that XXXX  always reveal themselves, all I have to do is wait. Then he does this : His response to the most important part of the letter, " why does the Citi Bank website not allow me to provide a statement or foreword essential documentation for a dispute '' was I was preventing him from presenting his case and threatened me with " this call is recorded '' because I had asked. I repeated the question and he again refused to respond to respond. They are never going to respond to that question. They are not going to change the website and provide fraud protection for fraudulent charges. 

He then claimed that this Costco Visa card did not provide fraud protection for fraudulent charges because I did not use the Costco Citi Bank Visa to pay for the non fraudulent first charge, I had used XXXX and that had cancelled my right to the fraud protection that Federal regulation requires for credit card companies. 

He refused to provide me the Federal agency overseeing credit card companies that I had requested. He claimed I had take the XXXX to small claims court to recover my loss. He claimed that Citi Bank had a policy against providing fraud protection, customer service or convenience and tried to bully and intimidate me into believing he had sent a letter requesting the information to house in MN where he knew from my account records I hadn't been in 5 months. Then he determined it immaterial because I had paid the correct charge with XXXX. 

Absolutely nobody deserves to be treated like I was treated in this call. He demonstrated total disregard for me, laws, doing his job correctly or any positive human points. 

I reported XXXX XXXX XXXX 's deceptive marketing practice only because I do not like knowing that people are treated like this, it is against the law. I really wanted Costco to remedy the problem and provide the honest no hassle pricing they project. I wanted them to be policing companies they send me to like they claim. Their response was I didn't know what I was talking about and to get lost and went to extreme measures to cover it up. When they could not do this they just refused to respond. They have treated me with disdain ever since I tried to report it. 

Then after carrying their credit card for 20 years, they deny me from submitting a dispute to a fraudulent double charge and claim it is because I used XXXX to pay for the original charge and no longer deserved fraud protection. That is the way the website is set up. The only way to discover this to file a dispute. Costco does not disclose to any of its members that the fraud protection does not apply to fraud charges placed on their account unless they????????????? They do not tell you that you can not dispute all fraudulent charges placed on the card, just those that are paid with their card. 

I am devastated that these companies engage in fraud in their business. I grieve for all the people that have fallen victim to them. They have both claimed they will not change their operation and I have no control over that. I now have XXXX XXXX calling me on the phone claiming they have put the XX/XX/XXXX phone call on hold and wants to speak to me about what has happened. The phone call from XXXX XXXX is what happened and says it all. There is no explanation or excuse for that phone call and it was recorded. She can now respond to this complaint. 

To be refused fraud protection twice in 2 years and to be XXXX years old and a XXXX XXXX veteran by Costco is indescribable. To have XXXX XXXX argue with me that I have to pay fraud charges because I paid with XXXX is beyond comprehension. This is the very reason the CFPB was created. I do not have time to wait for a big Federal case like against XXXX XXXX. 

I want {$40000.00} in restitution for being so screwed over by these enormous companies. 

They have recovered way more than that by successfully defrauding customers like me. 

They do not have to answer a single why question. 

They do not have to explain why these individuals are employed by these companies. 

They do not have to explain why they have treated me the way they have. 

I have to resolve that this is the way business is done in America. Our consumer protection laws do not apply to big business. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX

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