Consumer complaint received 2017-03-17
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NJ
Product: Credit card
Issue: Unsolicited issuance of credit card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I was misinformed by a Macy 's employee at the XXXX location that the Macy 's Credit Card was a " Rewards Card '' that was in no way a credit card. Was told that i would need to activate the Rewards Card later when i received it in the mail, which i never did receive. The employee told me if i signed up with the card i would receive a discount on the item i was looking to buy as a XXXX present, since it was initially out side of my price range. I handed this employee my debit card to pay for the item, she took the card and came back with a receipt for my signature. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from Macy 's advising my credit card balance was past due. I stated that i did not own any type of credit card, let alone a Macy 's Credit Card. I explained how i was misinformed by the employee at the store and that I had never received the card or read any disclosure about a credit card. Then the customer service representative who contacted me transferred me to the Fraud Dept, then they transferred me back to customer service and so on for almost 2hrs. Multiple representatives stated, on recorded lines, that they apologized i was misinformed and that their employee committed the error. So Macy 's has admitted on a recorded line that they made a mistake and i was misinformed. During the absurdly long phone call I had time to read the entire " Department Stores National Bank Credit Card Disclosures '' from Macy 's website. I found on the last page that i fully qualified under the section " Your Rights If You Are Dissatisfied With Your Credit Card Purchases '' to not have to pay the remaining amount due on the purchase. Below is the section I am referring too ; " If you are dissatisfied with the goods or services that you have purchased with your credit card, and you have tried in good faith to correct the problem with the merchant, you may have the right not to pay the remaining amount due on the purchase. 
To use this right, all of the following must be true : 1. The purchase must have been made in your home state or within 100 miles of your current mailing address, and the purchase price must have been more than {$50.00}. ( Note : Neither of these are necessary if your purchase was based on an advertisement we mailed to you, or if we own the company that sold you the goods or services. ) 2. You must have used your credit card for the purchase. Purchases made with cash advances from an ATM or with a check that accesses your credit card account do not qualify. 
3. You must not yet have fully paid for the purchase. 
If all of the criteria above are met and you are still dissatisfied with the purchase, contact us in writing at : Department Stores National Bank XXXX XXXX, OH XXXX '' I brought up this section of the agreement and was told by one employee that she did not know that was on there and that she thought i was the first person to ever read it ... So she transferred me to the 7th customer service rep, XXXX. XXXX stated that because the agreement was signed the balance is owed, when i brought up that section in the agreement ( since she just stated that was the one i signed ) XXXX told me that I may qualify but i need to submit this in writing and that it would take them 30-60 days, but during this time I would continue to be credit reported and even if they do reach a resolution that odds are it would not benefit the customer. She also told me i was already being credit reported. So with the mindset that Macy 's was negatively credit reporting me, I paid the {$63.00}. I then asked for XXXX supervisor because of how aggressive and mean she was. The supervisor then said i was not being credit reported yet, and that they would not credit report me if i did submit this in writing as expressed in the contract. She then said because i just paid on the phone i no longer qualify for term # 3.

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