Consumer complaint received 2024-11-19
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Sued you in a state where you do not live or did not sign for the debt
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (TX)

I have complaint which includes two parts, and each has several " deceptive practices '' associated with it. 

Part I. The first has to do with suing me without providing sufficient evidence ( no document signed by either party was ever presented yet the judge initiated a lawsuit ).

Case Summary : I submitted this to the state bar of Texas but my lawsuit has still been moved to a pre-trial hearing on XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX. A lawsuit was filed on me on XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and I received the paperwork on or around XXXX XXXX. The plaintiff was XXXX XXXX XXXX and the suit was filed in XXXX XXXX XXXX of the Peace XXXX. The judge is named XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX suit is about the purchase of a laptop from Best Buy, with financing being provided by Citibank. The debt was sold by Citibank to XXXX XXXX XXXX. The paperwork filed included only an invoice which was for an amount far greater than the original purchase price and cited an interest rate of 30 %. There was no copy of a contract included in the paperwork, nor was anything signed by either party included in the paperwork. Based upon this, I have grave concerns that literally anyone could walk into a court, produce a phony invoice, and be granted a lawsuit against me ( or anyone else for that matter ). This lawsuit, XXXX, is based on insufficient evidence ( no signed contract or supporting documentation ). 

XXXX. Because of this lawsuit, the door was opened to many attorneys for further actions. And despite the lack of evidence, multiple attorneys ( at least ten ) solicited me via threatening letters. Indeed, had I accepted a deal offered me by XXXX XXXX XXXX, I would have paid close to twice the original purchase price without any essential evidence of wrongdoing ever having been presented because of this attempted intimidation. 

XXXX. Allegations : o Coercive Solicitation : Attorneys threatened liens, garnishment, and severe financial consequences to induce me to hire them. 

o Unreasonable Fees : One attorney demanded {$750.00} and claimed they could " negotiate '' the case down, without ever having even talked with XXXX XXXX XXXX. Not only did this firm presume my guilt without ever asking me whether I wished to plead innocent, the amount projected would have still resulted in me losing over twice the original amount of the dispute. Most of the money would have been paid to the two lawyers involved, and I suspect collusion, perhaps even based upon previous experience, is possible. 

o Potential Collusion : The presiding judge granted the lawsuit despite insufficient evidence. I suspect possible collusion between the attorneys and the plaintiff or judge, given the swift approval and subsequent solicitations. I have written my own motion to dismiss I am not a lawyer - but I fear submitting it to this precinct for I do not believe that I can get a fair hearing from this judge given the above. 

5. Supporting Evidence : o I submitted copies of 2 threatening solicitation letters.

o I also submitted the paperwork I received via the law suit. No signed coument, by either party, was included in the paperwork.

6. Relief Requested : o Investigate the attorneys conduct for potential violations of professional ethics.

o Determine if these attorneys have a history of filing baseless lawsuits or engaging in coercive practices. 
o Investigate whether these practices, taken together, constitute extortion.

Part II. The actual transaction.

a. ) The use of credit in this transaction is absolutely inappropriate for me and should never have occurred. I have purchased several laptops previously through Best Buy and paid them all off, but never once was any transaction accompanied by a credit card. Furthermore, I had enough money in my bank account to purchase this item several times over, without any payments. Citibank provided the financing, and at an egregiously high ( 30 % ) rate according to the legal filing. 

In addition, I do not even own a credit card! I make all of my purchases for my auto, my residence, my insurance, etc. literally everything that I purchase - through my checking account and one debit card. I think I may have one experience in my life with a credit card - a Macys card which, upon finding a disgustingly high rate of interest I was to be charged, I cut up and destroyed. In sum, I question why this abrupt change in the terms of a transaction was ever appropriate for me. 

b. ) Even if there is a contract regarding this transaction, it can not capture all of the conditions present at the time the transaction took place. Again, I will suggest that several deceptive practices were in place. 

b1. As mentioned above, having never experienced a credit transaction with this firm, I had no reason to expect that credit was being offered. It was a deceptive practice to offer one under these circumstances.

b2. The explanation at the time of sale was also inadequate and I never had knowledge that a credit transaction was being offered. As I recall, the salesman at Best Buy conducting this transaction offered me a credit card as a perquisite perhaps as a reward to a repeat buyer. In fact, the way I remember it being presented to me was that it was a reward for my continued purchase of laptops at Best Buy and, therefore, could have been applied to any future purchases. Had I known that the transaction in question was to be subject to additional interest charges based upon some credit extension, I would never have agreed to this purchase. 

b3. My subsequent behaviors are very consistent with this state of knowledge. I distinctly remember leaving Best But that day in XX/XX/XXXX thinking that I had just made a purchase for which monthly payments of about {$35.00} would be assessed. And, as I understood the transaction, interest was to be recovered in that consistent monthly payment. Subsequently, I earnestly made 17 months of {$35.00} payments. I made them for 17 months on time and without fail. 

It may be that at some point in time after the purchase, Citibank may have attempted to contact me. I literally do not know. I had no reason to respond, even if they did attempt to contact me, as I was secure in the knowledge that I was making my {$35.00} per month payments. I did not anticipate any additional charges and would not have been seeking them out. 

After I had made 17 payments, I attempted to contact Citibank, not to find out about any interest rates, but to find out when the payments would end. My payments totalled {$590.00}, a substantial part of the original purchase price ( think about it - a relatively low end ordinary laptop! ) Though I do not have the exact numbers in front of me, I believe that those 17 payments constituted most of the initial price. However, I learned then that their interest payments had not only obviated all of my monthly payments but contributed to a rise in my account which made the balance close to the original purchase price. In other words, I had been paying for 17 months, but my balance was close to the original purchase price with which I began. Now, a year and half after that time, the additional interest charges they have tacked on certainly exceed the original purchase price. This seemed ( and still seems ) absolutely absurd to me. Therefore, I stopped payments on this purchase. 

b4. The Citibank customer service was terrible and they withheld information about what and how I was being charged from me! After 17 months, when I contacted their customer service department, I asked for access to a website where I could see the individual charges and transactions, but that was denied. They offered to send me, by mail, a copy of this evidence, but I never received it. To this day, I have not seen a detailed record of what they did or how they did it, yet they see fit to bring a lawsuit against me. I also offered to pay off the principal over the phone whatever was remaining of the original purchase price after subtracting my payments- but they refused to consider this as well. At this point, I gave up even trying to discuss this matter with Citibank. 

b5. After this contact, Citibank harassed me for two solid months every day dunning me for the payments. This harassment was conducted systematically and deliberately and was manifested as daily text messages on my phone.

b6. Rather than ever addressing the original cause of the problem, Citibank chose to sell this to another firm. In doing so, they absolve themselves from further responsibility, and without ever addressing the original problem. There are mechanisms by which Citibank and Best Buy could collect information from customers interviews, focus groups, customer service reps, etc. However, these two firms are deliberately absolving themselves of any responsibility for correcting errors in the transaction that they committed. They choose to punish rather than listen to customers! By doing so -they forego the opportunity for improvement in this aspect of transaction for a large number of transactions, -they escalate costs for everyone. Those costs not only rise is a non-linear manner, they fall most heavily on me, an individual, rather than on the deep-pocketed firms who have caused this debacle. 
-they also avoid the negative reputation that might result as some heavy-handed tactics ( e.g., the lawsuit and threats of garnishment and liens ) seemed to commence only after they sold the suit. 

b7. In retrospect, it also appears to me that these firms were attempting to run up the price of the transaction onto which they attach interest. There was a {$200.00} charge for a one-year XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on a new laptop, for which the maintenance contract should not have been necessary ) which was included in the purchase price and subject to the high interest rates as well. 

In sum, I never needed, wanted, requested or even knew of the interest that was to be charted on this purchase. I left Best Buy thinking that my monthly payments of {$35.00} included an interest rate, not that I would be subject to additional payments into which enormous interest rates were incorporated. 

Finally, I believe that it is also ridiculous that the firm XXXX XXXX is asking to be compensated for any additional charges here. Had this transaction been handled properly up front by Citibank and Best Buy, there would be no additional costs. That Citibank and Best Buy are not incurring them is even more evidence that they are avoiding the responsibility that inheres in legitimate business transactions, and I can see no reason for any additional costs to be paid by me. 

I am not guilty of whatever charges are being brought against me, and I should not be charged anything further by these firms. I would also like to remind the CFBP that it takes time and effort to formulate my own defense and to communicate it, and this case has caused me emotional distress as well. 

XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX