Consumer complaint received 2026-06-24 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: NC

Complaint narrative:
I am filing this complaint against Citibank regarding two related issues : ( 1 ) their handling of a chargeback dispute and ( 2 ) the conduct of their employees when I attempted to escalate the matter. Background On XX/XX/year>, I was charged {$1700.00} by a third-party travel booking service ( XXXX XXXX ) after being misled by a deceptive search result presentation into believing I was booking directly with an airline. I submitted a cancellation request to the vendor a few hours later the same day, well within the 24-hour grace period. The vendor acknowledged receipt and directed me to make cancellations by phone or web-chat. Attempts to process the cancelation through both channels were cut off with announcements that they would only speak to customers traveling within the next 5 days ( my reservation was for XX/XX/XXXX ). The Dispute I immediately contacted Citi Bank the same day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) after being unable to process the refund. Per Citi 's instructions, I opened a dispute and filed a chargeback after the charge posted. Citi found in the vendor 's favor based on the vendor 's unverified claim that I had not followed their cancellation procedure. Following that outcome, I called Citibank and was encouraged to attempt direct resolution with the vendor before reopening the dispute. After three good-faith attempts were met with identical scripted refusals from the vendor to communicate while the dispute was open, I called Citi once again who advised me not to close the dispute but instead to reopen it with more thorough documentation, including the vendor 's own automated acknowledgment of my timely cancellation request. Despite this, Citibank has declined to find in my favor without adequate explanation, instead saying there was nothing they could do because the vendor and the vendor 's bank were " unwilling to issue a credit. '' It bears noting that the vendor refused to communicate at all while the dispute remained opened, effectively holding our reservation XXXX. This includes after I offered to close the dispute if they would just provide the airline confirmation number. I made this offer because we would need to prove return travel plans to the US from XXXX. Without that confirmation number, we risked being denied boarding by the outbound airline ( tickets purchased separately ) or denied entry into the XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX I informed Citi Bank of the vendors behavior and how it compelled us to book entirely new tickets directly with the airline, more than doubling our costs. Citi Bank refused to take this into consideration. Citibank 's Conduct XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, after our travel was complete and we could demonstrate that the booking at issue was never used, I attempted to escalate with Citi Bank. Specifically, I called early in the afternoon and requested to speak to Customer Relations, Customer Retention, or similar department that handles dissatisfied customers ( e.g., Office of the President ). Three separate Citibank employees refused to transfer me, but instead transferred the call to or insisted on keeping the call within the Dispute processing department. The final person I spoke with, XXXX, identified herself as a dispute supervisor and also denied that any such customer-retention department existed. After I explained to XXXX that I was considering whether to stop doing business with Citibank entirely, she offered to close my account. I have recordings of all calls documenting this conduct, including the names and dates of each interaction.

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