Consumer complaint received 2016-02-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
I noticed an unauthorized charge of {$50.00} on my Macy 's credit card account when reviewing my XXXX billing statement online and followed the instruction on the site to dispute the charge and provided all the information asked by the dispute form. I even called customer service to confirm that the dispute has been received. I was told that I would not be liable for the charge during the investigation and no late fee and interest would accrue while this is being looked at. When my XXXX statement arrived, I noticed that the disputed charge is still on the account, plus late fee of {$27.00} and interest charge of {$1.00}. I called customer service again to find out why, and was told that they did not receive any dispute prior to this. This is already very frustrating especially when I have done the dispute online AND called. Now I am being told that they will officially open an case, close my old account and give me a new account number. My new card with a new account number arrived in a few days. When trying to call to activate the new card by calling the number on the sticker, after waiting for 5 minutes in silence no one picks up. I tried 4 more times after that and got the same treatment. I even tried to activate it online, only to receive error messages telling me to call customer service. I finally called customer service AGAIN, and got transferred directly to the collection/payments department, demanding that I make a payment immediately because my account is past due. They also told me that they can not activate my new card because they can not allow me to make new charges until my account is in good standing. This is beyond ridiculous at this point. I finally got through to another rep and explained my entire situation once again. After holding for an eternity, I got transferred to their consumer protection department, and again, had to tell my entire story over. The rep told me that my account will continue to rack up fees and interest until the investigation is complete and in the mean time, I will not be allowed to use my new card to make purchases because my account is past due. I then asked her why are you sending me a new card when I am not allowed to use it. She said it 's their job to send me a new card, but it 's the collection department that is putting a hold on it and they have no control over it. This is the most ridiculous and contradicting thing I have ever heard. How can you have such conflicting policies within the same company? Departments blaming each other instead of solving the customer 's issue. In all my experience dealing with other credit card companies, whenever a dispute of fraudulent charge is raised, a conditional credit is put on the account for that amount so it stops appearing as balance due and no late fee or interest will be charged while investigation is being done. Once investigation is complete, if the finding is in my favor, the credit becomes permanent. I would use my card as normal during the whole process. Seems like Macy 's has a policy that yields the worst possible experience for a consumer in this situation, not only will you not stop assessing fees and interest on the disputed amount, but you wo n't even allow the consume to continue using the card ( not that I am XXXX to use the card at this point given the treatment I have received ), as if dealing with a fraudulent charge situation is n't already hard enough. Now I have to worry about having a mark of " past due account '' on my credit report. This is very unfair to the consumer. I have an impeccable credit score of XXXX and I will not let this create a ding on my record.

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