Consumer complaint received 2022-03-02
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: AZ
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:
1. My wife and I put down a {$1800.00} deposit for a XXXX XXXX XXXX with XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, paid for with our Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX. The cruise was to be from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. 

2. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX Cruises emailed saying they had suspended all river cruises through XX/XX/XXXX, which included ours. They also stated the following : " XXXX will provide a full refund of cruise fare paid on affected bookings. Refunds will be processed automatically to the original form of payment so there is no further action on the guests part. '' 3. After waiting over two weeks and not hearing anything further, including our failure to reach anyone at XXXX XXXX, a Dispute was filed online with Citi on XX/XX/XXXX. 

4. Later that very same evening another email arrived from XXXX XXXX, shown below : PAYMENT CONFIRMATION CANCELLED RESERVATION NUMBER : XXXX Issued : XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 7 days on board XXXX XXXX XXXX to XXXX XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, FL, XXXX ATTN : XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX U.S. DOLLARS ) DATE AMOUNT PAYMENT TYPE TRANS TYPE CREDIT CARD NUMBER CREDIT CARD TYPE XX/XX/XXXX {$1800.00} Credit Card Refund XXXX XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX {$1800.00} Credit Card Payment XXXX XXXX  Please be advised that it may take 7 to 10 days for refunds to reflect with your credit card provider. 

XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, Florida XXXX Tel ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX 5. Based on XXXX XXXX stated " Payment Confirmation '' of the full {$1800.00} refund, the Citi dispute was lifted online the very next morning on XX/XX/XXXX. This was done to save Citi the time and effort to review the matter. 

6. It turns out XXXX XXXX Payment Confirmation was fraudulent as their refund payment never reached our XXXX  XXXX account. That being the case, we elected to re-file the dispute with XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX based on XXXX XXXX ' fraud and the non-receipt of their confirmed payment, only to be told by XXXX  that once a dispute is lifted it can not be put back on. If true, this policy should be stated clearly when someone is removing a dispute. Nowhere on the XXXX website does it say you can only dispute an item once. If XXXX  had advised such, this dispute would have never been lifted. Again, it was only done because of XXXX XXXX XXXX promised refund payment confirmation ( which turned out to be a lie ), and to save XXXX  time and effort. 

7. On XX/XX/XXXX, we asked XXXX to submit the issue to its investigation department with the intent of having the Dispute refiled. We were told this process would take 7-10 business days. 

8. Without reaching out to us for any documentation or facts that we held, XXXX  sent an email on XX/XX/XXXX declining to allow us to dispute this matter. They were then called on the phone by us to try to understand their reasoning, as they had not asked for any evidence or facts before reaching their conclusion. We were effectively told by XXXX  that once a dispute was lifted, it can not be re-established. XXXX  stated that this was XXXX 's rule. We again asked why the consumer is not made aware of this in writing prior to being allowed to remove a dispute. No meaningful reply was given by 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