Consumer complaint received 2024-12-18 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I purchased XXXX XXXX XXXX from Best Buy. When I went to pay for the products, the sales associate informed me about the Best Buy credit card. There was a considerable push by more that one of the sales associates to open an account, stressing the advantages of the program, one key one being the ability to earn Best Buy rewards on the purchase. As it was a significant purchase, the rewards were roughly {$200.00}. So I agreed to open an account. 

Several issues that were concerning to me arose during/after the transaction which I wanted to bring to your attention : 1 ) At the time of application, I was told I could use the rewards immediately. I wanted to add a protection plan to the XXXX and apply the Best Buy rewards to that purchase. After the credit card application was submitted and approved, I was then told that I could not use the rewards immediately toward that purchase today. I told the sales associates that was not what they just told me and they said that they were sorry for the miscommunication. 

2 ) Around XX/XX/XXXX, I was concerned that I did not receive the Best Buy credit card in the mail. I called Best Buy customer service and learned that the card was mailed to the wrong address. Upon investigation, the sales associate at the store put in the wrong address on the credit card application unbeknown to me at the time. Needless to say I was greatly concerned about potential fraud if the card got lost in the mail and someone stole my identity. The fraud unit at Best Buy did place a protection hold on the card so that I had time to retrieve the card from the incorrect address it was sent to. I was ultimately able to locate the card, and then had the protection hold removed. But the mistake never should have occurred in the first place. 

3 ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I went into a Best Buy store ( not the original one where I purchased the TV ) to make a purchase and to utilize my Reward certificates. The product purchase was for a XXXX player at {$74.00} ( plus tax ). When I went to utilize the certificate, the manager at the store told be that since the cost of the XXXX player was less than the Rewards certificate, they would not honor the rewards certificate. ( By way of background, when the original purchase was made, two {$100.00} rewards certificates were issued. ) I asked the manager if he could break the certificate into {$50.00} components so I could at least use part of the reward toward the purchase ( and I would pay the balance in cash ) and I was told that he ( the manager ) had no authority at the store level to do that and that would require me to call Best Buy directly and make the request. He also advised it could take up to an hour to make that happen. As I did not want to wait that long, I did not call Best Buy. Instead, I added some small purchase items to force the total to exceed {$100.00} so I could use the reward. This wasn't the solution I was looking for.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief