Consumer complaint received 2018-12-19
Product: Credit card or prepaid 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. (NY)

This complaint regards the way Citicard handled the following dispute : We booked four nights at the XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for XX/XX/XXXX, 2018. We booked after speaking to the owner over the phone and inquiring as to whether there was any mold in the room we booked, as I am an XXXX  who is highly XXXX to XXXX, and I know that rooms near the ocean can often be damp and moldy. He assured us there wasn't. ( The website also stated that the rooms were XXXX free, ) We paid a deposit and upon arriving paid the balance, though the innkeeper ran our card two times as he thought there was a problem the first time he ran it through. When he took us to the room, there was an unmistakable smell of mold, which immediately led to a reaction. We spoke to him about it, but he claimed that it was not a problem/ Instead of leaving immediately, we told him that we would open the windows, take a long walk, and try to air the place out, but if that didn't solve the problem, we would not be able to stay there. Upon returning, the smell of mold had not dissipated, and we told the owner we could not stay there. We never took " possession '' of the room -- we mere ; y put luggage in the room and then, upon returning from the walk, took it out. We fully had intended to fulfill the contract we had signed, had the conditions been as they were described by the owner and on the website. When we initially spoke to Citicard, they told us they " had our back, '' and, after submitting a dispute, the charges were conditionally reversed. However, when the innkeeper wrote back, all charges were reinstituted, including the double charge that even the innkeeper indicated himself was a mistaken charge in his letter to Citicard. After numerous phone calls, we were able to get the double charge that was no longer in dispute resolved. However, we wrote another letter in response to his letter ( which was full of inaccuracies and outright mistruths ). We received a letter back from Citicard indicating our dispute had been closed and that we would have to pursue other means to get our money returned. Had we lived nearby, we would have sued in small claims court or whatever the XXXX equivalent is to that. However we live over 3,000 miles away. 

Citicard has all the documentation in relationship to this dispute, though I believe, based on their total disregard about the lack of a dispute regarding the double charge, they were going through the motions with this dispute and did not read anything very closely. Instead, they reflexively sided with the merchant and, although I documented what happened in writing and I spent a good deal of time on the phone with them, they ultimately refused to consider the validity of our complaint. After closing the case, and after asking if they could be of any financial help to us, Citicard did refund us {$20.00}  out of their dispute " slush '' fund, but this was at best an empty gesture and at worse an insult of the highest degree. It was the innkeeper, not us, who broke the contract, but we are ones who are out over {$800.00}.