Consumer complaint received 2022-08-30
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from my landlords that the rent check ( {$3000.00} ) that I sent from my Citibank online paper check bill pay system had been " returned unpaid '' by their bank, and that as a result, I needed to pay both my rent amount as well as an additional {$170.00} " bad check '' fee. When I called Citi to look into the issue, the agent informed me that from their end, the check was in an " open '' status, implying that no attempt to claim the funds had been made. I contacted my landlord again and they reiterated that their bank ( XXXX XXXX ) returned the check unpaid and clawed back the funds from their account. I made a new payment through XXXX to my landlords for {$3100.00} from my savings account to square away my rent, then re-contacted Citi to try and resolve the issue. I was once again told that the check was still " open '' ; I requested that if it is still open, to stop payment on it so that I could get back the {$3000.00} funds that had been debited from my account on XX/XX/XXXX in order to create the check. I further requested that Citi reimburse the {$170.00} that I incurred since this check error was out of my hands once I submitted the payment online. 

The agent told me that she put in a request for the stop payment and that she would " note down '' the request for the {$170.00} reimbursement, and that the funds should reappear in my account after a couple of business days. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a credit in my checking account for {$3000.00}. The same day, I also received an email from my landlords, stating : " just got off the phone with XXXX XXXX Business Accounts ( for about an hour and multiple levels of support staff ) and they explained to me the issue with the check your bank had sent us. Unfortunately, it was due to the check having a bad routing number so this means that we can no longer accept your bill pay checks in the future. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citi again with my reference number to ask about the status of the {$170.00} fee, and to inform them that the original check itself had a bad routing number. The new agent that I spoke with saw no mention of the fee, and avoided talking about the routing number, and just said that they see that I had already been reimbursed {$3000.00}. They then informed me that they would put in a new request for the fee reimbursement, and that I would receive some communication in the next XXXX business days explaining their investigation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I called again, each time noting that I had not received the {$170.00} fee reimbursement, nor had I received any letters or communication from Citi to follow up on my case ( after they claimed that they had sent the correspondence ). In the XX/XX/XXXX call, I specifically requested a photocopy of the check that was sent, in hope of proof that the routing number was incorrect. 

Last night ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I received a letter in the mail from Citibank, dated on XX/XX/XXXX, that says " As you requested, on XX/XX/XXXX, a stop payment was placed on the bill payment check issued to <REDACTED>, these funds were credited back to your Checking account ending in # # # #. Therefore a photocopy of this item is not available. '' It has now been a month since the original issue ; I still have not received reimbursement for the fee, and I now have to find a new bank or method of bill pay as my landlords refuse to take the Citi billpay checks.