Consumer complaint received 2016-04-27
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NH
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
In XXXX XXXX, I posted bail through XXXX XXXX XXXX for a friend who was arrested in XXXX. I paid the bail with my citibank card.About 2 months later, her case was dropped. Due to some communication issues, several months passed without my bail money being returned to me. Because I live in XXXX, and could not reach XXXX XXXX, I was afraid I might not get the money back, so I disputed the charge through Citibank. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, they gave e a conditional credit of {$2500.00}, and pulled those funds out of XXXX XXXX ' merchant account. About the same time, I received a check from XXXX XXXX. I called Citibank and dropped the dispute, and they reversed the credit on my account on XX/XX/XXXX. About a month later, XXXX XXXX called me to tell me that he had never gotten his money back from Citibank. I called citibank, and was told the money was in his merchant account, and it was up to his merchant bank to refund it to him. I passed the information on to XXXX XXXX,. but he called a few weeks later to say that he still could not access the funds. I called citibank again and got the same response. This cycle repeated several times. Citibank said they could not talk to his merchant bank directly. I set up a 3-way call with citibank, XXXX XXXX, and myself, during which the operator gave him a reference number to give to his merchant bank, but he still could not get the money. In XXXX XXXX, I told citibank just to credit the {$2500.00} to me, and that I would pay XXXX XXXX directly. They agreed, and said it would take about 10 business days. 2 weeks later, there was no credit on my account. I called again, and was told the money would be in my account within 48 hours. It never happened. I spoke to another supervisor at citibank who said she would research what happened and get back to me. She did n't. I spoke to another supervisor who promised to research it ; she did call back, but left a message with no information on my question and no direct line to call her back. When I called again, I was unable to access the same person I had spoken to previously. The next supervisor again insisted the money was in an escrow account for XXXX XXXX to claim, said she didnt know why I was told they 'd credit the funds back to me, and promised to mail and email me a letter stating that the funds were in escrow. She checked back with me about a week later to see if I had received the letter. I had n't. I asked her to check back again, as I could n't call her. She never called back, and I never received the letter or the email. XXXX XXXX still does not have his money. 

It seems citibank has a system designed to wear the customer down until he or she just gives up. I spoke to a different person every time I called there. There was no way to reach someone to whom I 'd already spoken. Operators who were supposed to research my questions and get back to me either never called back or gave me no information when they did. They said one thing and did another, with no way for me to follow up. I have wasted hours trying to resolve this problem, and XXXX XXXX is still out {$2500.00}.

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