Consumer complaint received 2025-08-15 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: OH

Complaint narrative:
I made 27 purchases on my Citi card with the merchant XXXX between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, the merchant suddenly and without warning revoked the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX I paid for access to and ceased all communication with customers. Since then, they have banned me from the site, then shut down the site entirely. I did not receive the services I paid for as described. The merchant engaged in a widely publicized exit scam, stealing all their customers ' funds in one fell swoop. 

I disputed the charges with Citi within 24 hours of the XX/XX/XXXX incident. Since then, Citi has handled my dispute cases with gross negligence and in seeming disregard for both Regulation Z ( 12 CFR 1026.13 ) and Mastercard policy.

First, I described the details of the case with an agent over the phone. The agent opened my cases as fraud disputes ( as though I didn't authorize my purchases ) instead of billing/purchase disputes. This caused me to be automatically issued a new credit card and card number and, importantly, to lose access to the card statements in the online portal that I needed to reference throughout the process. Since my case wasn't actually a fraud case, all the fraud disputes were promptly closed in the merchant 's favor. It took a month of calling and emailing Citi over and over while getting bounced between agents and departments to finally get someone to offer me a path to correctly open my disputes as purchase disputes. 

In XXXX, I was mailed a paper packet of all relevant Citi credit card statements. I used a yellow highlighter to physically mark each transaction I wanted to dispute as instructed by the Citi rep. I also attached a cover letter, a statement, and evidence to this packet and mailed it back within the same week. I confirmed by tracking and by phone that my packet was received by Citi as of XX/XX/XXXX. I proactively kept in touch with Citi for MONTHS after they received the packet, but I was never offered any sort of status or timeline of a response to my packet. Most phone reps had no clue what packet I was talking about. It was common to spend over an hour on a phone call just finding someone who knew what packet I was talking about. To my surprise, On XX/XX/XXXX ( nearly two full months since I mailed out my packet ), I got an email saying my purchase disputes were finally opened. Unfortunately, only 4 of the 27 transactions I highlighted were disputed. All 27 cases had the same circumstances and were with the same merchant. They only differed by dollar amount and purchase date. They should have been handled identically. Unfortunately, things got more confusing as 3 of the 4 disputes were promptly closed in the merchant 's favor, while one remains open to this day. Despite me emailing the supporting documents as requested by Citi, 3 remain closed against me, and one remains open in a sort of limbo where it isn't closed either way. For the month since these 4 cases were opened, I regularly contacted Citi inquire about the status of my 23 other transactions, in which I'm told to take no action and wait for them to be opened. After a month of no action or updates, I am safe to assume that Citi will not be opening these cases for me.

In summary, Citi has failed to open a dispute for nearly every transaction I have contested. The few cases that were correctly opened have been inconsistently mishandled. Citi has, through negligence or otherwise, created a nightmare consumer experience- they were disorganized, uncommunicative, and dismissive. I am writing today hoping for an outcome that involves Citi opening purchase disputes for ALL the contested transactions. Furthermore, I would like the cases to be handled consistently, with useful feedback. Finally, I want Citi to engage in clear and proactive communication with me throughout this process.

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