Consumer complaint received 2024-03-13
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (FL)

I made a reservation with my CITI Thank You Preferred card on XX/XX/XXXX. I recieved a special offer with CITI Travel ( a partner with CITI ) I made three separate reservations for XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, FL from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX under the names XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. The charges were {$570.00} x 2 for each room and {$550.00} for one room. Total charges {$1600.00}. We had a total of nine people traveling with us ( XXXX adults and XXXX children ). My sister, XXXX arrived prior to my family arriving and we gave phone authorization for her to get the keys. When we finally arrived, we were shocked that this property was not a hotel, but it was a motel that was attached to a liquor store. The pictures shown on CITI travel website were not accurate of the desription when we made the reservation. We quickly made a decision that we would not stay here due to safety and security of traveling with XXXX children. We went to the front desk to return the keys that were given to my sister. We explained to the agent that we would not be staying there since the place was not as described on their website. We did not feel safe with XXXX children in our group. We requested a refund but the agent told us since it was booked through a third party ( CITI Travel via XXXX ) we needed to contact them with any refund requests. We filed a dispute the same afternoon via chat ( see letter date ). After five days, we called our CITI credit card and explained our unfortunate circumstance. We called on XX/XX/XXXX to follow up with our claim and they told us they needed more information, then representative to call CITI travel to resolve our issue. We called the same day and they opened a ticket to request a refund on our behalf due to our experience. We received a letter on XX/XX/XXXX denying our refund request due to the property 's cancellation policy. We called CITI again on XX/XX/XXXX to continue our dispute and they told us to send an email to tell them what happened. We sent our email on XX/XX/XXXX and followed up again on XX/XX/XXXX to make sure everything was received and they told us all was received and they needed some time to conduct an investigation into this matter. We received an email on XX/XX/XXXX in regard of our billing dispute. The letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX denying all the disputes. We sent another email on XX/XX/XXXX with attached pictures of XXXX XXXX. We called CITI again and spoke with supervisor XXXX and we explained our whole situation again and he stated that the dispute was opened incorrectly, it should of been inaccurate description/services not rendered. He confirmed that he would change all disputes moving forward for all three disputes and it will take a few days. We called again on XX/XX/XXXX to follow up and spoke with supervisor XXXX and he confirmed that the information was now correctly submitted and was still in the investigation process, even though we received a letter from CITI again denying our disputes on XX/XX/XXXX, per his conversation all the disputes still under review. Then, we recieved another letter on XX/XX/XXXX with denials again. We called CITI again on XXXX and spoke with XXXX XXXX who then stated the dispute type was never changed and then told us to call CITI travel again to make a correction with them first due to them denying it because of cancellation policy. He transferred me to CITI travel without explaining the situation to the other agent, which was very maddening and unprofessional. At that time I requested to speak to a CITI travel manager/supervisor to speak with but was told they were not available and they would call me back within 15 minutes. I STILL have not received a call back as of typing this letter. Again, very unprofessional. I called CITI bank back again and requested to speak to a manager and they stated that I would receive a call within 48 hrs. Again, still no call back. I called CITI travel again on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX and I again, explained the whole situation and she was going to re submit the refund request with the correct information. On XX/XX/XXXX we received yet another denial email due to the same reason ( cancellation policy ). I called CITI bank on XX/XX/XXXX as well to explain that CITI travel was going to send another request. I spoke XXXX and she re-opened the request for these same 3 disputes with the updated dispute type ( desciption of/services not rendered instead of cancellation policy ) and she said it would take 7-10 business days for a resolution. After receiving CITI travel denial email on XX/XX/XXXX we called CITI bank on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX and she stated that they are sending my case to a " higher up '' and we would have wait another 7-10 business days. Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX we received another denial letter for all our disputes stating that our initial dispute stated that we canceled the merchandise or services, and our recent response states that not as a described, when we opened those disputes we explained what happened and CITI decided the reason was canceled services, even though we explained the reason why we didn't stay in that property, now my credit card has a total charges of {$1600.00} which those charges were now reversed to my credit card as of XX/XX/XXXX ( first dispute letter denial ) After many attempts they are still denying our dispute with the same reason ( cancellation policy ) and never changed to the correct info ( description of/services not rendered ).