Consumer complaint received 2024-02-16
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (MI)

I will attach the promo email that I received. I needed to activate this offer, which I did. It has already been verified a few times by customer service that I activated this offer promptly and was eligible to partake in it. I proceeded to make online purchases which is the incentive for the rewards : make {$600.00} of online purchases and receive XXXX " Shop Your Way Rewards '' points. As an aside, XXXX points = {$200.00}. 

In good faith, I fulfilled this requirement. I will attach my XX/XX/2022 statement showing all these online purchases made after the activation day of the offer and before the expiration date of this offer. I could have easily bought these items at XXXX, for example, and received at least 4 % back on my purchase, but I wanted to use the advertised offer and refused to fulfill it. 

Initially, all online purchases using this credit card during the prescribed promotional period totaled {$980.00}. These online companies are listed on the statement as XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. Unfortunately, the XXXX order was undeliverable and therefore had to be subtracted from this total. However, that left the total still well above {$600.00}. 

I contacted Citibank easily XXXX XXXX XXXX times and got no help at all. About XXXX - XXXX, I was told by Citibank customer service " There is nothing we can do ... you must contact the Shop Your Way Rewards department. They would then transfer me and I would be told by the Rewards Department that this was a Citibank promotion and that there was nothing that they could do to help me. XXXX times this happened even when I begged the Citibank customer service representative to NOT transfer me to the Rewards Department. 

XXXX  after these attempts, I insisted on speaking to a supervisor. One supervisor took down the information and said that they would get back to me but never did. Before hanging up, I asked for a reference number but he refused to provide a number stating that there was no reference number.

More phone calls were made by me because he never once sent me any communication or validation of my contact and he never called me back to follow up. Finally, I received a " dispute claim number '' which I have previously provided : Case # : XXXX. Unfortunately, there has been XXXX follow-up with this claim number and I have called multiple times since then and told nothing so far has been resolved. 

I was told by the person who provided the dispute claim number that the charge of {$59.00} was payment for a subscription to XXXX XXXX- a subscription needed for anyone to be able to make online purchases with that company. I was told that that charge was not eligible to be counted in the required {$600.00} purchase. However, there are XXXX other charges to XXXX XXXX- {$60.00} and {$53.00} - that were purchased with them online, and purely product was shipped. I will attach these invoices to this complaint as well. I offered to send them to Citibank but they were disinterested. 

Even with the subtraction of the XXXX purchase and the subscription to XXXX  purchase, I am well over the required {$600.00} target. My purchases still total {$700.00} ; yet, Citibank does nothing to reconcile this situation and pay me the points that they promised me in their promotional email that triggered these purchases. AGAIN, I would have bought them all at XXXX and easily received 4 % rebate in return if not better prices as well. 

At this point to say that I have spent XXXX hours of my day on this matter ( not including the shopping... just trying to obtain what is due to me by Citibank ) - would not be an exaggeration but rather an understatement.

Over the last several years, I have used my Shop Your Way Rewards Card
very much. However, I will no longer use it until this situation is rectified. SHAME ON THEM.