A thief swiped a traveler’s wallet at the Barcelona airport and later used her card to take out more than $1,100 in cash. Why was her fraud claim denied?
Dear Tripped Up,
Arriving at the Barcelona airport last Sept. 18, I tried to buy a transit card using my Citi business debit Mastercard, keying in my PIN on the machine. But the purchase did not go through, so I used cash. When I arrived at my accommodations, I realized my wallet was missing. So I logged on to my credit card accounts and reported those cards stolen and several recent purchases as fraudulent. That money was eventually refunded. I called Citi to cancel my debit card, alerting the representative that the thief had made two A.T.M. withdrawals of the equivalent of $586.40 each. Citi canceled the card and temporarily credited my account, but the withdrawals later reappeared. In a letter posted to my account, Citi claimed they were valid because “there was no cash discrepancy for that location on the date in question.” I called Citi multiple times to clear things up, to no avail. Can you help? Michelle, Berkeley, Calif.
Dear Michelle,
It’s pretty clear from the documentation you sent along that Citi incorrectly categorized your complaint as a cash-dispensing error rather than a stolen card.
Alas, the A.T.M. in question seemed to dispense cash perfectly for the pickpocket on Sept. 18, so your misunderstood claim was rejected.
After I got in touch with the company, Citi opened an appeal on your case and reversed its decision. You have now been reimbursed $1,172.80.
“We understand how upsetting it is to be the victim of fraud,” said Colin Wright, a Citi spokesman, in an email. “We have resolved this matter with our client and are using this experience to strengthen how we handle similar cases going forward.”
In what is an ongoing theme in 21st-century life, some human being in some call center somewhere screwed something up. And it’s quite frustrating that even after what you say were multiple calls, it took my intervention to correct the error.
