Consumer complaint received 2020-12-30
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: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
CIti Card recently responded with. poorly worded response that shows no sympathy for me as a consumer. I will invalidate the points made with substantial evidence I presented to Citi previously regarding the transaction Im disputing. 

On XX/XX/XXXX a purchase was made and shown through XXXX XXXX website ( XXXX ) for a flight, with a single layover, one in XXXX and no layovers on the return flight. Upon purchase of the flight I was provided a Booking Request Acknowledgement ( Booking Request Acknowledgement.pdf ) from XXXX via email. NOTE : This is not a ticket, just a confirmation the flight request was purchased and made. Exactly 39 minutes later I received an E-ticket ( XXXX  ) via email showing that my flight was not the one agreed. It was instead a double layover, one in XXXX and one in XXXX, including one layover for the return flight. This is obviously not the flight agreed and therefore I am not obligated to purchase this flight as any reasonable person would not want to subject to an insane amount of layovers that were not agreed upon. Not only that, the terms and conditions explicitly state, " Reasons that XXXX may be unable to confirm your tickets include, but are not limited to, changes in the fare amount or the availability of the flights you have requested, an airline 's failure to confirm the booking request, incomplete or inaccurate payment information, rejection of a method of payment, concerns that the booking request was unauthorized or fraudulent, or other issues that may prohibit fulfillment of your request for a particular Travel Product. XXXX will notify you if it is unable to process your request. If XXXX is unable to process your request, XXXX may suggest an alternative Travel Product for you. You are, however, under no obligation to purchase any such alternative. '' ( XXXX ) So considering my flight originally purchased was not fulfilled, nor was I obligated to purchase it in the first place officially bars me from holding responsibility from obligation to the purchase. Although a lot of this falls on the company XXXX, considering CITI was the credit grantor of the purchase and gives its consumers fraudulent transaction protection. CITI was aware of the facts of the purchase, and was therefore aware that the purchase was not valid. I did not approve the purchase, nor was I responsible for the purchase. 

Citi also states in its response that, " Because we did not receive the required information to continue the dispute within the allowed time frame, we were unable to assist further through the dispute process.. ''. This is false, I sent the email within a valid time frame. I corresponded with their information request by submitting the required documents to their document submission portal for their dispute. On XX/XX/XXXX, the date which the letter is marked, I was mailed a letter which arrived on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX requesting information sent via email or fax with the requested information by XXXX, XXXX XXXX. The information was submitted to the provided email, XXXX, on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX. On XXXX, XXXX, XXXX at XXXX XXXX EST, I was emailed by Citi stating the information I sent was 'illegible ' and that the information needed to be submitted by the XXXX. I was given less than 24 hours to submit the information requested. Information I already submitted. Coincidentally enough, I did not reformat the 'illegible document ', which was in PDF form. ( Signed.pdf ) The reason It was sent as a PDF is so the graphics and text in the document would be eligible on any computer system, and that PDF is the most widely used document file format. So essentially, the document was always eligible and therefore the information was submitted within the allotted timeframe. Also coincidentally, Citi reviewed that pdf successfully because they continued their investigation beyond that point and even requested more information on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX for more information on XXXX XXXX Terms and Conditions as to where XXXX voided their Terms and Conditions. This was of course after the charge was reposted to my account. 

I reviewed my own copy of the phone call and I am happy to share it with the CFPB which states my awareness of the possibility that a settlement of paid less than full would damage my credit. Hence, the reason I made it very clear to the settlement worker of CITI that I wanted either the late payments deleted from my credit report, or the account deleted as an official condition to paying the settlement. Again, I paid CITI, not including late payments and fees, more than the originally owed {$1000.00} through 3 payments throughout XXXX including the settlement payment. 

I regret not paying the original {$1000.00} at the beginning of the year but at the time I was going through financial hardship. But, I was and should not be responsible for the fraudulent transaction that has caused delinquencies to my CITI account in the first place. As a goodwill courtesy I would hope that CITI understands the significant role credit scores play in every Americans life. Including the representative who will be responding to this complaint. It was an unfortunate circumstance and I felt I have done my due diligence to respond to Citi 's requests and will remove the delinquencies from my account. Also, considering I never missed a payment on this account previous to this situation and was a loyal customer up until that point. 

Attached Documents : Your Citi Inquiry.pdf - Citi 's response to CFPB complaint Booking Request Acknowledgement.pdf - XXXX Booking request showing flights originally requested XXXXXXXX - XXXX Ticket showing tickets booked which did not correspond with the flights requested vaycom-conditions-en.pdf - copy of XXXX XXXX terms and conditions Signed.pdf - signed Letter stating I want to continue the dispute with the provided information after the signed letter signed, sent, and dated XX/XX/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 explanation