Consumer complaint received 2026-01-20 00:00:00
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.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with Citis handling of my credit card dispute.

As a longtime Citi customer, I am deeply frustrated and astonished by the lack of communication, transparency, and consumer protection by Citi throughout this process which is still not resolved 8 months after I initiated the dispute. 
Overview of my case : XXXX XXXX, XXXX : I purchased XXXX front row tickets to a concert from XXXX for a total of {$6700.00}. When I attended the concert on XX/XX/XXXX, there were massive obstructions several feet in front of the front row seats that blocked the view of nearly all the stage, large screen TV, XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX, for most of the nearly XXXX concert. XXXX failed in their obligation to warn customers ( me ) of what I was buying. I tried to resolve for months with XXXX and they accepted no responsibility, but I refused to allow them to get away with not warning customers, and for ruining the experience so I disputed the charge with Citi : XX/XX/XXXX : Dispute Received. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Merchant Contacted. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Merchant Responded. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Resolved - Customer Responsible. 
Citi never contacted me to give me an opportunity to reply to XXXX response to Citi, which I later found out contained several lies. Citi closed the dispute and believed XXXX despite me submitting photos, receipts, and correspondence proving XXXX failed to warn me of major obstructions, Citi has repeatedly sided with the merchant. Ive tried for over XXXX months to resolve this issue, but XXXX has not replied to any of my 6 emails since XX/XX/XXXX, has not informed me of the merchants responses until after it closed the first dispute, and has not provided me the merchants response to the second dispute. At no point was I allowed to address the merchants claims before Citi ruled in favor of the merchant. 

Due to this lack of customer service and protection, I was forced to waste even more time and contact Citi again to reopen my case so I could respond to XXXX lies. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Dispute Reopened. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Merchant Contacted. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Merchant Responded. 
In over 2 months, I have not received any notification from Citi to allow me to respond to whatever claims XXXX made to the reopened dispute. That is not fair to XXXX customer. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citi to get an update and the rep hung up as I was politely explaining the situation. I waited a few minutes for them to call back, and when they didnt, I had to go through the process again with another agent who told me to email XXXX which I had done 4 times without any response since XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XXXX XXXX, I mailed letters to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and customer service because online customer service was not responding. That letter only accomplished a phone call on XXXX XXXX from someone with Citis executive office stating Citi is unable to issue a credit because the merchant refuses to credit. 

In XXXX, I informed XXXX of my plan to file a lawsuit using the same evidence I provided to Citi  and XXXX ( who fully refunded me the entire amount for this same issue on tickets purchased with a Chase card ). XXXX finally admitted they failed to warn me of the obstruction and issued a {$5000.00} credit to my Citi card on XXXX XXXX which I accepted because I wanted the long ordeal to be over and it was obvious Citi would do nothing to protect me as their customer, even after XXXX accepting responsibility. 

On XXXX XXXX, I called Citi to get the negative balance transferred to my bank account and was told it takes XXXX days. 

By XXXX XXXX, there was no transfer, so I called again and was told it would be done in XXXX days. 

On XXXX XXXX, I emailed Citi dispute team for the XXXX time and asked them to contact me by XXXX XXXX. I never heard from Citi via email, phone, closing of the dispute, or refund of my money. 

On XXXX XXXX, I had to call Citi to get an update and when I asked the customer service rep what Citi had done since XXXX replied on XXXX XXXX, he told me that Citi customers dont have a right to know what is going on. During the call, I received an automated email from Citi in response to my XXXX XXXX email. It was obvious no one on the dispute team opened my email between when I sent it on XXXX XXXX, and my call on XXXX XXXX. I told the first rep I wanted to speak to a supervisor. I was transferred to an account supervisor named XXXX. He asked if I wanted to submit a request to refund, and I said reps asked me that during my XXXX XXXX and XXXX calls and no progress has been made and the dispute is still mysteriously open with no one on the dispute team able to provide an update or close it so I can withdraw my negative balance after XXXX refunded {$5000.00} without any effort or action from Citi. I asked why is the dispute still open? He wouldnt answer. I said I wanted to talk to someone who has the answer why the dispute is open since XXXX XXXX with no update. He said he cant transfer to the internal team. I was transferred to his supervisor XXXX who said he would look into it and get back to me. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX called after speaking to the Refunds and Disputes departments. The refund was denied because it did not have final notation in the back system, but is now documented. The refund is in the refund departments hands waiting for approval from a supervisor and will be completed by XX/XX/XXXX. 

It is XX/XX/XXXX and the dispute still shows open on Citis site, and my card balance shows negative {$2200.00} and Citi has refused to give me over {$2000.00} of my balance for the past month. I need that money. My money. 
I dont understand how such a well-known, large company is so horrible at customer service and protection, and failure to provide a fair dispute process. Citi has caused me so much stress by : -Failing to protect their customers; -Failing to respond to my XXXX emails to the dispute team ; -Failing to keep me aware of updates of the dispute ; -Closing the first dispute without giving me an opportunity to reply to the merchant who I later learned lied in their response; -Wasting over 30 hours of my time trying to get Citi to reply and take action ; -And for a customer service agent telling me that I dont have a right to know what Citi has done since XXXX XXXX on the dispute that Citi refuses to close and give me access to my money. 

This is not acceptable to me as a customer, I dont know why it is acceptable to Citi XXXX 

My efforts included : Multiple calls, emails, and letters over 8 months to Citi and XXXX, with no meaningful response or resolution from Citi. 
Submission of a PDF with detailed evidence uploaded per Citis instructions. 
Repeated requests to reopen the dispute, met with conflicting information from Citi representatives or refusal to provide the customer with information. 
Citis denial of my claim, despite XXXX credit cards offering me a full refund for a similar charge for the same concert on a different date but with the seating area ( rows XXXX and XXXX ) and the same obstruction that wasnt disclosed prior to purchasing the extremely expensive front row tickets. Why does XXXX protect their customers, but Citi does not? I sent the XXXX reversal document to Citi as proof. 

I have wasted so much time and stress due to Citis incompetence and lack of customer service. My next step is to file a lawsuit with punitive damages, this is no way for a company to treat a longtime customer. 

Attachments : -CitiXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXX negative balance of {$2200.00} which Citi has withheld from me for over 1 month. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX Citi denial of charge reversal. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX Citi overview of first dispute. 
-Today, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, Citis website still shows my dispute with XXXX XXXX still not resolved, despite XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX, refunding partially on XXXX XXXX, and my several phone calls to Citi XXXX to resolve the refund of my money to my bank account. 
-Citi.com transaction history from XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX showing the initial charge, my XXXX dispute reversal requests, and the {$5000.00} refund initiated by XXXX ( not Citi ). 
-My XXXX emails to XXXX without a response in 5 months. 
-The case files I have already sent to Citi multiple times. 

Thank you

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 explanation