Consumer complaint received 2023-04-24
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
1. We were charged for a hotel booking in XXXX, Florida on XXXX XXXX XXXX and contested the charge on XX/XX/XXXX. 
2. After Capital One inexplicably allowed the charge to go through, and after multiple calls with Capital One customer service representatives, in accordance with Capital One 's policies we sent the requested statement and supporting documents to the fax number Capital One provided on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX 
3. Capital One then sat on the complaint for two months ostensibly while " investigating ''.

4. After my husband called them on XX/XX/XXXX, they immediately sent out a form rejection letter asserting we had not sent the requested information. 
5. When my husband called to ask how they could make that statement they agreed to reopen the investigation on XX/XX/XXXX and had my husband resend the documentation previously sent on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX 
6. Shortly after my husband sent the documents, we received a second form letter rejecting our claim on the grounds that we had not filed the claim with Capital One within 60 days -- a blatant and easily disproved statement. 

Below is a cut paste of the Capital One letter from XX/XX/XXXX in which they acknowledge we have immediately contested the charge : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, VA XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Case Number : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT XXXX Dear XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 's an update on your dispute with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2900.00}. 

We credited your account for {$2900.00}, the amount you are disputing. If you were charged any fees or interest related to that amount, we also credited your account for those. In addition, if we reported anything to the credit bureaus about this transaction, we sent them updated information. 

We've asked the merchant to respond to your claim. If they provide a response, we will review it. We'll let you know if we need you to provide additional information to resolve your claim, and while we wait for your response, the charges will be placed back on your account. Please keep all documentation on hand for at least 90 days. Unless we hear back from the merchant, we consider your case closed. 

If you have any questions, please give us a call at XXXX. We're available from XXXX XXXX. to XXXX XXXX. XXXX, seven days a week. 

Sincerely, Capital One Transaction Support Center Thereafter, on XX/XX/XXXX, Capital One ruled that the reservation was ours, reinstated the charge, but invited us to contest further. That letter is cut and pasted below : XX/XX/XXXX Case Number : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT XXXX Dear XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 's an update on your dispute with XXXX XXXX billed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2900.00}. 

When you contacted us about this, we credited your account for {$2900.00} the amount you are disputing. Since then, the merchant provided the following information to support the transaction : Confirmation showing no cancellation per policy was received So for now, we are reapplying the charge to your account, and it will appear on your next one to two billing statements. At this time, we consider your case closed. 

If you still want to continue with this dispute, please send us a signed and dated letter that includes your case number, the merchant 's name, the date of the transaction, and the disputed amount by XXXX. Please also provide the following information in your letter : Your response to the documentation sent in by the merchant, as well as : A copy of your sales invoice or purchase agreement and the date and proof of cancellation and / or return. The cancellation / return policy of the merchant, if available, and whether you were advised of the policy at the time of the sale. A description of how you tried to resolve the dispute with the merchant. A refund voucher from the merchant. 

Please fax the requested information to XXXX, and allow 10 business days for us to respond. If you're unable to respond by fax, please send us the requested information to XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT XXXX, and allow 15 business days for us to respond. 

If you have any questions, please give us a call at XXXX. We're available from XXXX XXXX  to XXXX XXXX XXXX, seven days a week. 

Sincerely, Capital One Transaction Support Center XXXX Capital One. Capital One is a federally registered service mark. XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX I was on an hour and half long call with a Capital One representative and a representative from XXXX. During that call, it was established that the reservation had not been made through my XXXX account, that the email associated with the reservation was not the email associated with my account, and that it was likely a phantom or fraudulent booking. The Capital One representative informed us that the call was being taped and assigned the XXXX XXXX. XXXX to the matter. The XXXX representative promised to resolve the issue within 48 hours, but thereafter, XXXX ignored all additional attempts to contact them. We were then told by the Capital One representative to submit a letter stating the results of the call and attaching the documents that established the reservation did not come from my XXXX account and demonstrating the spoof email ( XXXX ). 
The email that linked to the portal is cut and pasted below : Re : XXXX XXXX XXXX, To finish processing your recent request, we need some supporting documents : Additional Information Form Any additional information related to your dispute You can upload and submit your documents by using our secure link. Dont reply to this email. 

Youll need digital copies of your documents on your computer or device before you can submit them to us. If you have paper documents, you can scan them or take pictures and save them to your computer or device. 

This link will be valid for 14 days. After that, you can contact us if you need assistance at XXXX, anytime, 7 days a week. 

Please submit these documents as soon as you can, since we cant continue working on your request without them. 

Thanks for choosing Capital One. 
Submit Your Documents About this message The site may be unavailable during normal maintenance or due to unforeseen circumstances. 

Important information from Capital One Contact us | Privacy | Help prevent fraud To ensure delivery, add XXXX to your address book. 

This email was sent to XXXX and contains information directly related to your account with us, other services to which you have subscribed, and/or any application you may have submitted. 

Capital One does not provide, endorse or guarantee any third-party product, service, information or recommendation listed above. The third parties listed are not affiliated with Capital One and are solely responsible for their products and services. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

Please do not reply to this message, as this email inbox is not monitored. To contact us, visit XXXX. 

Products and services are offered by Capital One, XXXX. 

XXXX Capital One. Capital One is a federally registered service mark. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX Thereafter, we attempted to submit a letter and supporting documents into the portal. The portal did not apparently work and we received an email from Capital One the next day informing us that we had not submitted the documents requested and that they were going to close the investigation. After we called to follow up on this message, the Capital One representative re-opened the investigation and advised us to fax the document to their attention : A copy of the email reopening the portal and investigation on XXXX XXXX XXXX is cut and pasted below : Re : XXXX XXXX XXXX, To finish processing your recent request, we need some supporting documents : Additional Information Form You can upload and submit your documents by using our secure link. Dont reply to this email. 

Youll need digital copies of your documents on your computer or device before you can submit them to us. If you have paper documents, you can scan them or take pictures and save them to your computer or device. 

This link will be valid for 14 days. After that, you can contact us if you need assistance at XXXX, anytime, 7 days a week. 

Please submit these documents as soon as you can, since we cant continue working on your request without them. 

Thanks for choosing Capital One. 
Submit Your Documents About this message The site may be unavailable during normal maintenance or due to unforeseen circumstances. 

gImportant information from Capital One Contact us | Privacy | Help prevent fraud To ensure delivery, add XXXX to your address book. 

This email was sent to XXXX and contains information directly related to your account with us, other services to which you have subscribed, and/or any application you may have submitted. 

Capital One does not provide, endorse or guarantee any third-party product, service, information or recommendation listed above. The third parties listed are not affiliated with Capital One and are solely responsible for their products and services. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

Please do not reply to this message, as this email inbox is not monitored. To contact us, visit XXXX. 

Products and services are offered by Capital One, N.A. 

XXXX Capital One. Capital One is a federally registered service mark. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX In accordance with these instructions we then faxed the document and exhibits to the number provided by Capital One. Included is the confirmation sheet showing the fax went through : Case Number XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX and a Capital One representative spoke at length with a XXXX representative. This call established the following : The hotel registration in dispute appears nowhere in XXXX XXXX booking history or profile on XXXX. I have downloaded a screen grab to the Capital One site provided by your representative that demonstrates this fact. In addition, the booking reference number and pin for that booking do not appear in her booking history/profile. 
The documents that XXXX provided to Capital One in response to our initial dispute prove that the reservation at issue was booked under an email ( XXXX ) that does not belong to XXXX XXXX and is not associated with her account at XXXX Accordingly, either someone other than XXXX XXXX created a nearly identical account and booked the hotel and XXXX is now illegally and fraudulently attempted to charge this to XXXX XXXX account or XXXX had a systems failure and somehow created another account for XXXX XXXX with a different email address and then booked a hotel in the same city ( XXXX, Florida ) where XXXX XXXX had initially booked a different hotel and subsequently cancelled. XXXX does not dispute that the one reservation associated with XXXX XXXX account was successfully and correctly cancelled. 
It can no longer be disputed that XXXX XXXX did not book the reservation for which XXXX is attempting to charge her. The only question now is whether XXXX engaged in willful fraud or charged her for this booking through gross negligence and errors in their system. 
At the end of the call yesterday with XXXX, the XXXX representative stated they would work quickly to correct the situation, at present we have heard nothing further from XXXX. 

I have submitted a screen shot of XXXX XXXX account profile/history into your download system and refer to the dispute letter Capital One emailed to me on XX/XX/XXXX that proves all of the above-asserted facts. Your prompt attention to this matter is appreciated. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX Virginia XXXX XXXX. XXXX The Exhibits that were faxed with this correspondence are below. The receipt page is the last of the attached exhibits : After making this submission and being informed by a Capital One representative that the portal would be held open and the investigation would not likely begin until a couple of weeks after the documents were faxed on XX/XX/XXXX, we made an additional submission providing Capital One on XX/XX/XXXX with additional information -- specifically, that the hotel where the reservation was made had confirmed to us that they had only charged for the first day of the reservation which meant that XXXX had pocketed the balance. That correspondence, submitted into the Capital One Portal on XX/XX/XXXX is pasted below : Case Number XXXX Further to our previous submission, faxed to and received by Capital One on XX/XX/XXXX, and pursuant to subsequent conversations with various Capital One representatives from the XXXX Department, we submit this brief in further support of our dispute with XXXX. 

The crux of this dispute is as follows : In XXXX of XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX booked a hotel room at the XXXX House on XXXX XXXX in XXXX, Florida for the dates of XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. She subsequently cancelled that reservation a few days later and received confirmation of the same. Thereafter, either through fraud or an error in the XXXX system, another reservation was made under the name of cardholder XXXX XXXX for another hotel, the XXXX on XXXX in XXXX, Florida. However, the reservation was made under a different profile and utilized a different email address than the reservation made by XXXX XXXX at the XXXX House. As a result, XXXX XXXX never received notice that a reservation had been made and the reservation at the Inn on XXXX never appeared in XXXX XXXX XXXX  profile and she never received notice that such a reservation had been made in her name. 
Thereafter, in or around XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX was contacted by CapitalOne about a charge made by XXXX in the amount of XXXX for a hotel reservation in XXXX. Unaware of the fraudulent reservation made in her name, but not under her profile, XXXX XXXX assumed it was for the XXXX House reservation and disputed the charge. 
On or around XX/XX/XXXX, cardholder XXXX XXXX received an email from Capital One stating that XXXX had demonstrated a valid charge and that Capital One was reinstating this fraudulent charge against the XXXX. At the same time, the XXXX became aware of a second fraudulent charge from XXXX made on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$130.00}. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX called Capital One and spoke to a Capital One representative from the XXXX Department. After going over the situation with the Capital One representative and discovering the fraudulent charge made by XXXX for the reservation at the Inn of XXXX, XXXX XXXX and the Capital One representative called and spoke at length with a XXXX representative. According to the Capital One representative, the call which took place around XXXX XXXX and lasted over an hour, the call was recorded and the recording is inn the possession of Capital One. The call established the following facts which are not in dispute : The hotel registration in dispute appears nowhere in XXXX XXXX booking history or profile on XXXX. A downloaded screen grab of XXXX Rittingers XXXX profile that demonstrates this fact has been downloaded to the Capital One site provided by your representative. In addition, the booking reference number and pin for that booking do not appear in her booking history/profile. 
The documents that XXXX provided to Capital One in response to our initial dispute prove that the reservation at issue was booked under an email ( XXXX ) that does not belong to XXXX XXXX and is not associated with her account at XXXX Accordingly, either someone other than XXXX XXXX created a nearly identical account and booked the hotel and XXXX is now illegally and fraudulently attempted to charge this to XXXX XXXX account or XXXX had a systems failure and somehow created another account for XXXX XXXX with a different email address and then booked a hotel in the same city ( XXXX, Florida ) where XXXX XXXX had initially booked a different hotel and subsequently cancelled. XXXX does not dispute that the one reservation associated with XXXX XXXX account was successfully and correctly cancelled. 
When confronted with this avalanche of evidence demonstrating the fraudulent nature of this charge, the XXXX representative, on this call recorded by Capital One, promised that XXXX would get back to the cardholders within 48 hours and would rectify the situation. To date, the XXXX have not received the promised response. 
5. Thereafter, the Rittingers contacted the Inn at 5th to gather more background on the fraudulent charge. During a call with an Inn manager the XXXX learned that the Inn had only charged the XXXX card for the first night of the fraudulent reservation and were shocked that XXXX had tried to enrich itself by charging the full reservation amount. Accordingly, even if the reservation had been legitimatewhich it clearly was not XXXX should only have charged the Rittingers the sum of around {$750.00}. Further evidence that booking.com was engaged in deliberate fraud against the Rittingers. 

Based on the undisputed factual narrative set forth above, coupled with ( a ) the screen grab of XXXX XXXX XXXX profile and ( b ) the documents submitted to Capital One by XXXX ( which Capital One forwarded to XXXX XXXX in the two pieces of correspondence it sent to him and is already in Capital Ones possession ), along with ( c ) the recording of the conversation between XXXX XXXX, the Capital One representative from the XXXX Department, and the representative from XXXX, it is clear that the two charges XXXX made against the Rittingers were at best made in error and at worst were fraudulent in nature. As such, Capital One should reverse the charge in the amount of XXXX originally made on XX/XX/XXXX, and the charge for {$130.00} made on XX/XX/XXXX for a total amount of {$3000.00}. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX Virginia XXXX XXXX. XXXX After making this submission, we waited. As the Capital One representative had informed us that they wouldn't likely begin to review the submitted documents until the end of XXXX and the investigation could take four to six weeks, we waited patiently for a response. Having not received a response by XX/XX/XXXX, we contacted Capital One and spoke with a customer service representative. The representative was completely clueless and informed us that the claim was denied pursuant to the terms of an international agreement that she could neither cite nor provide a copy of said agreement. Shortly after the call we received the following form letter which stated we had not provided Capital One with any of the documents they had requested -- an obvious and blatant lie. That letter is pasted below : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT XXXX Dear XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 's an update on your dispute with XXXX XXXX billed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2900.00}. 

At that time we began an investigation into your dispute and requested information from you. While we have received your response to this request, it lacks all of the previously requested information needed to validate your dispute. Unfortunately, based on the information we have, we are unable to assist with your claim. 

If you still want to dispute the charge, please contact the merchant and work directly with them. At this time, we consider your case closed. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please give us a call at XXXX. We're available from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, seven days a week. 

Sincerely, Capital One Transaction Support Center XXXX Capital One. Capital One is a federally registered service mark. XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Case Number : XXXX XXXX Capital One. Capital One is a federally registered service mark. XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX : XXXX XXXX After making this submission, we waited. As the Capital One representative had informed us that they wouldn't likely begin to review the submitted documents until the end of XXXX and the investigation could take four to six weeks, we waited patiently for a response. Having not received a response by XX/XX/XXXX, we contacted Capital One and spoke with a customer service representative. The representative was completely clueless and informed us that the claim was denied pursuant to the terms of an international agreement that she could neither cite nor provide a copy of said agreement. Shortly after the call we received a form letter which stated we had not provided Capital One with any of the documents they had requested -- an obvious and blatant lie. 
As this excuse for denying the claim was clearly false, we called Capital One Customer Service shortly after receiving it, informed them that the statement in the letter was incorrect on it's face and that we were considering our legal options but that we would prefer to reach an amicable settlement. A few hours later, we were called by a Capital One representative who identified himself as XXXX with ID # XXXX. He asked that we provide him a copy of the reservation that we had made with a different hotel in XXXX, FL ( not the one we were charged for ) and the email indicating that we had cancelled that particular reservation. We sent him the correspondence. 
We sent the following correspondence : Date : XXXX XXXX From : XXXX XXXX To : XXXX ( ID # XXXX ) Case Number : XXXX XXXX : Per our telephone call today and per your request, in addition to this note I am submitting the following requested documents into the portal : A Screen Shot of the original XXXX reservation at the XXXX XXXX in XXXX, Florida from my wifes account page. 

A screen shot of my wifes XXXX account page noting that the reservation at the XXXX XXXX was cancelled. 

A PDF in two parts of an email dated XX/XX/XXXX, to my wife from XXXX confirming the reservation at the XXXX XXXX was cancelled. 

Please let me know if you need any other documents. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX We attached the XXXX exhibits as requested pasted below : -- -- -- -- -- Forwarded message -- -- -- -- - From : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Date : Fri, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX PM Subject : Booking canceled for XXXX House XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Your booking has been canceled free of charge. 

Dear XXXX XXXX, Your reservation at XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is now canceled. You dont need to do anything else, but if you have questions for the property, feel free to contact them at XXXX XXXX. The property is responsible for payment and will handle any refunds ( if applicable ) automatically. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX House XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX South, XXXX, FL XXXX, United States of America XXXX : XXXX XXXX Email property You booked for Check-in Check-out CANCELED XXXX XXXX adults Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX Monday, XX/XX/XXXX Check-in Check-out Booking number PIN Code Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX Monday, XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Free Cancellation XXXX {$0.00} You might have already XXXX charged for all or part of your stay by XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX this is XXXX XXXX XXXX 
You should receive your money back shortly, but you can also contact the property for more info : XXXX House XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Reply You might still receive notifications about this booking while our system is updating, but your booking is definitely canceled. 

XXXX Having now sent every exhibit Capital One had requested of us going back to the time we had first contested the charge, we expected a quick resolution in our favor. Instead, we received the following correspondence stating -- incredibly -- that we had not filed the claim within 60 days of the charge being made. That letter is pasted below : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT XXXX Dear XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Here 's an update on your dispute with XXXX XXXX billed on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2900.00}. 

We have a limited amount of time to reverse a charge on our customer 's accounts. Unfortunately, that timeframe has expired for this particular charge. If you want to dispute a charge in the future, please let us know within 60 days of receiving the statement that shows the disputed charge. 

If you still want to dispute the charge, please contact the merchant and work directly with them. At this time, we consider your case closed. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please give us a call at XXXX. We're available from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX, seven days a week. 

Sincerely, Capital One Transaction Support Center We are fairly certain that based on the false statements made in the XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX letters from Capital One that we could prevail if we elect to sue them in the XXXX XXXX Virginia Small Claims Court, but would prefer to resolve this without going down the litigation route, The problem is that Capital One makes it impossible to get in touch with a human being with the capacity and authority to discuss this matter. The customer service reps simply repeat a script over and over again and it is exceedingly difficult to reach a manager with any authority. Based on the factual narrative and the amount of documentation we have and the tapes we could obtain with a discovery demand from Capital One after filing a lawsuit, I would think Capital One would want to settle before having to pay lawyers to defend. The problem is that we can't find anyone at Capital One to have that discussion. Any assistance you can provide in that regard would be greatly appreciated. 

Sincerely, XXXX and XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief