Consumer complaint received 2020-07-19
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
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've been a Citibank banking customer since about XXXX. 
A Citi credit card member since XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a credit card alert from Citibank. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with a customer rep who advised me of a charges made between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. 
I confirmed that these charges which were made on the following dates to the following vendors were indeed fraudulent : XX/XX/XXXX XXXX  Parking Meters, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX  ( sic on bill,  it is actually XXXX , NY ) XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX The XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX NY XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , NY XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX # XXXX XXXX, NY XXXX On the XX/XX/XXXX conversation, the rep asked me if I had my card on me. My recollection is that I did have the card and told the rep that I did have the card. I was advised to tear up that card and to get a new one. Which to my recollection I did and indeed I was given a new card. I was told the matter would be placed under investigation. 

XX/XX/XXXX was my XXXX birthday and I went with my partner to XXXX for a week to celebrate. Shortly after I came back, the global pandemic had progressed. Sometime on or about XX/XX/XXXX ( best of my recall ), I discovered an email, dated XX/XX/XXXX, that had thus far eluded my attention, asking me to contact an investigator on the case by. Having missed the email and the deadline to get in touch with the investigator, I called a customer rep, and was told that the matter had been closed against me. I explained that this resolution was not fair because I did not make these charges. I was assured the case would be reopened and an investigator would be in touch with me in, as I recall, five business days. No investigator ever reached out to me. 

I recently discovered a letter from Citibank , N.A . dated XX/XX/XXXX, saying the investigation was completed and the dispute now closed. It said that the card 's EMV chip was used in making the disputed transactions at a chip enabled card reader. As I verified that the card was in my possession at the time of transactions, Citi does not consider this fraudulent activity. Therefore, I remained responsible for these charges of XXXX. This amount apparently reflects the four retail charges made between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX but not the parking meter charge of XXXX made on XX/XX/XXXX ( which perhaps was not made using a chip ). 

I'm not sure how much more detail is required for this form. So I will try to summarize. I tried once more in - best of my recall - late XXXX or early XXXX, XXXX, to try to get this matter reopened. I was told once it would be reopened and an investigator would get in touch with me. Again no investigator did. On two more dates I was told that Citi would never remit this XXXX amount and by at least one re p " I'm so sorry, Mr. XXXX, if I were you I'd sue us, '' Citibank has never provided me any proof that these charges were in fact chip charges. I have gotten different information from various sources about the feasibility of cloning a chip card. I do not pretend to know the answer to this technological question. I only know that I did not make these disputed charges. Nor did anyone else make them with my permission and authority to do so. The only other person whom I would have conceivably given permission and authority to use my card is someone who certainly would not have done so without my express consent ; nor is he someone who would have gone on a {$2500.00} plus shopping spree between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. He certainly is not someone who would make these purchases and not tell me about them. He is absolutely not someone who would allow me to unnecessarily go through the incredible stress and time drain I have been going through for the last several month because of this matter. That is my partner of 13 years, a corporate executive in his XXXX - I btw am a XXXX year old XXXX. 

In XXXX, XXXX, I endeavored to reach out to the retail vendors by phone and requested transaction details from three of them ( getting through to XXXX XXXX by phone was nigh impossible ). I was told by XXXX XXXX, Home Depot ( who did tell me over the phone that the purchase was, at least in part, for a vanity ) and XXXX that they would send me transaction details. None ever did. 

I do, however, know, and so does Citi - as they have clearly considered the XX/XX/XXXX charge fraudulent and remitted me that XXXX - that it is very typical for fraudulent shopping sprees to begin with a " test drive '' fraudulent purchase in a minimal amount like this one. Though I have explained that several times in my many calls with Citibank, N.A., reps, apparently no one in the organization with any investigatory authority considers this a sufficiently important fact. 

On Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX. I brought a small claims court complaint against Citi for these charges, with a return date of XX/XX/XXXX. Also on that date I went to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and was given a sale receipt for the XXXX purchase of two items of hosiery for women. There is a signature on it accepting XXXX 's return policy. It is, of course, not my signature. There is no time stamp on the sale receipt, which concerned me Also on that date I went to the XXXX precinct of the XXXXPD ( believing it was my local precinct as it is certainly closest to my home, I have since found that my local precinct is another XXXX precinct slightly further from my home ). The desk sergeant said that it would be preferable for me to make the complaint in one of the XXXX XXXX XXXX precincts as that was where the first fraudulent charge occurred. ( until yesterday it had not quite dawned on me that Citi was not considering the LIC charge fraudulent and so I believed the entire fraudulent amount, XXXX, was still in dispute - in fact I mistakenly put that amount as the amount being sued for in small claims court and plan to in court clarify that the amount in suit is correspondingly reduced ). In any event, the XXXX Precinct directed me to make a complaint with one of two XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, NY precincts, either the XXXX or the XXXX. If in fact the desk sergeant was correct in that the precinct involved should be the one in which the first fraud occurred, in fact XXXX XXXX XXXX would have been the initial fraud in this spree because, as earlier stated, clearly the frauds are connected. 

On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the XXXX precinct. I was told several reasons by several officers - not all of them in mutual agreement with each other - why they could not take the complaint : that the desk sergeant at the XXXX was mistaken, that they could not process the complaint because I have a pending Small Claims complaint, and that I would need to bring the complaint in the precinct in which I first discovered the complaint. That, as I explained to the officers, would be a precinct in downtown XXXX, as my law office is located in downtown XXXX. 

I do not at this time intend to go to a downtown XXXX precinct to make this complaint. I am a XXXX year old man who has tried diligently to practice social distancing. I do not wish to go to a third precinct to potentially be told it is the wrong place to file a complaint. I am, however, bringing this complaint with your esteemed organization. 

In addition, I have also sought constituent service help from my NYS Assembly Representative, XXXX XXXX. His associate, XXXX XXXX, has been very sympathetic and is trying to find a way to help me but so far has had no success helping me resolve this matter. 

Also, on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I went to my local Citbank.. I spoke with the ( substitute ) branch manager, XXXX XXXX, who was extremely sympathetic. I thought perhaps with his support I could perhaps find some relief. However, Mr. XXXX could only connect to reps and introduce me to them ... with the result that I had the same kind of futile conversations i had previously had with reps. 

Over the course of my efforts, I have sent several emails to XXXX ( incl on XX/XX/XXXX ) and XXXX ( including on XX/XX/XXXX ). I also, at a friend 's request, sent ( after I had posted about my difficulties with Citi on XXXX in hopes that friends would provide tips on how to proceed ) several direct messages to Citi Group 's XXXX page. 

Though many of my efforts to reach out in the hopes that someone might see reason have met with initial sympathetic responses ( particularly those of front line customer reps and those responsible for answering direct messages at Citi 's XXXX page ), no one at the organization seems to care that I did not make these charges. I in fact have considered the possibility that no one at Citi actually believes that I in fact made these charges, yet no one feels it is the moral thing to do to remit me ... let alone the correct and prudent thing to do as a matter of proper customer and public relations. 

I paid the amount in question so that I would have no potential credit reporting problems and to avoid the accumulation of interest. But I continue to fight this. Because it is wrong. Because it is insulting. Because this shouldn't happen to anyone, least of all to those who are in a far less fortunate position than I am and far less able to absorb this cost. I do not seek damages for my time and stress, which I assure you are formidable I simply want to be repaid this disputed amount. I also would hope that with a favorable resolution to me, Citi will perhaps to begin to recognize how unfairly they have treated me and, hopefully, not treat others in my position like this in future. 

I would only add that I find it absurd that I have had to go through this and that a company I have had what i believed to be a relationship of trust and reliance for a quarter of a century would treat me this way. Again, if it is doing this to me, what is it doing to others less fortunate and not is as long-lasting a relationship with them? 

Thank you for your time and attention I remain hopeful that your office, one in which I and so many Americans place so much trust, can help me. I hope that I have provided enough information so that this matter my complaint can be duly initiated. 

Very truly yours ( name omitted as requested ; and with the hope that I will make the personal acquaintances of one of your staff via phone soon )

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