Consumer complaint received 2021-05-26
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
This will be my second complaint against Capitol One. Truthfully, I am quite appalled at their response to my initial complaint regarding the 30 day late payment on the walmart credit card. Its not that their response wasn't investigated diligently, its that their conclusions are based on several assumptions and there isn't proper context to what they are claiming happened. So as not to make the same mistake Capitol One made in their response to my initial complaint against them, I will give you proper context and background to the situation so you are aware of why I am getting shafted by them. 

Walmart decided to switch their credit card portfolio from XXXX XXXX  to Capitol one in XXXX. Capitol One officially took over the portfolio on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX. The following link is proof of that. XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. 
The reason that date is very important is because that is when my account became delinquent. According to Capitol One 's response, " According to your Walmart billing statement dated XX/XX/XXXX ( enclosed ), your account was reflecting past due at the time, as the minimum payment due for XX/XX/XXXX was not met. '' They later state, " You made a payment of {$60.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, which did not meet the minimum payment requirement of {$77.00} by XX/XX/XXXX. '' Finally, after several paragraphs of them attempting to explain their position which I will also address in this complaint, they say " We understand you would like us to modify the information we reported about your account. Weve confirmed that were reporting accurate information. For this reason, we are respectfully declining your request that we ask the CRAs to change the information we're reporting about this account. '' Although that data may be factual, it does not provide context and it doesn't address my concerns in the slightest. For starters, the billing statements they provided with closing dates from XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XXXX second, are from Walmart/XXXX XXXX. They are not from Walmart/Capitol One. Capitol One didn't send me a statement until the closing date of XX/XX/XXXX. And although they are able to either generate or provide me with copies, Capitol One is neither XXXX XXXX  nor are they Walmart. How do they know whether these bills were sent out or if I ever received them? This answer does not even attempt to address the fact that I complained I did not receive a statement during this transition period until AFTER the transition was completed. It also does not address the fact that the store clerks themselves would not accept my payment because their system would not ALLOW THEM TO. Is it so difficult to believe that because the transition from XXXX XXXX  to Capitol one took months to be able to get every single one of the millions of Walmart credit card customers transferred from one system to the other that there would be some hiccups along the way? Is it difficult to believe that not every single Walmart store in the nation would be able to have their new payment systems up and running for the transition at the same time therefore also causing some hiccups along the way? Is it also difficult to believe that because XXXX XXXX  was going to lose a huge part of their portfolio to Capitol One they would simply lag or attempt to cut corners in this transition and therefore affecting Walmart 's customers? I would say that not only is it not hard to believe, but that it is more likely to occur than for someone like myself who has 31 accounts on his credit reports dating from XXXX until today with a diverse range of accounts from mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and personal loans with out a single 30 late payment on ANY of them for the last 24 years besides this one 30 day late from Capitol One Walmart which occurred during a botched transition period from XXXX XXXX  to Capitol One to have actually paid 30 days late. 

The rest of their investigation and their statements are hogwash. Their statement I made a {$60.00} on XX/XX/XXXX which did not meet the minimum requirements is irrelevant when you consider I never received a statement for XXXX nor XXXX and the store clerks couldn't figure out what was going on or what I was supposed to pay. When I finally got a hold of someone who DID accept my payment they said the minimum amount was {$60.00}. I paid what I was told because I had no other choice but to trust the employee since no statements were being received during this transition period. By the way, that was the last time I was allowed to pay until the transition completed and I received a statement from Capitol One in XXXX. When they said " XX/XX/XXXX We called you to offer assistance : o You stated you would make a payment in store for an amount lesser than the minimum payment due ; therefore, our agent offered to enroll your account on the Specialty Assistance Program. This program waives past due fees for 3 billing cycles. And if your account was still past due at the end of the 3 billing cycles, you would stay enrolled in the program and we would continue to waive past due fees until your account was up to date '' Of course I was upset and was attempting to have Walmart mediate. The minimum amount Capitol One was charging me was inflated due to the penalties I was being charged for payments I was not allowed to make due to this transition. I was expecting for Walmart who I had been paying on time for the last 7 years help mediate for me with a problem they helped cause. Of course they never did, they STILL COULDN'T ACCEPT MY PAYMENT. Even Capital One 's own statement of " We waived the past due fee of {$38.00}, assessed to your account on XX/XX/XXXX ( prior to the conversion ) .No past due fees were assessed by Capital One during this period '' is total nonsense. 

So what if Capitol One didn't assess late fees during this period? XXXX XXXX  did due to their improper billing errors and Capitol One certainly attempted to collect them. Also, if they weren't assessing or attempting to collect any late fees, then why would their agent offer to enroll me in a program which waived late fees for the last three months? This kind of investigation and statement from Capitol One is complete lunacy. Furthermore, they only waived 1 month of late fees not two so their attempt to portray themselves as altruistic is not an accurate depiction of themselves. I was charged two months of late payments from XXXX XXXX  during this transition period, One on closing XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, and one from closing date XX/XX/XXXX. Both were part of this transition period and during a time I was not receiving bills or allowed to make payments at Walmart properly or in a manner which wasn't sporadically accepted.

Even their statements where they called me and left messages are irrelevant because it clearly shows I called back both times. The second time I even paid them whatever money was owed as I had no other choice but to do so and quite frankly I felt defeated at that point. I was tired of constantly getting nowhere with anybody and I do pay all my debts as agreed as is clearly shown on my credit history with 30 other creditors. In the end, all of this occurred because a conglomerate like Walmart couldn't stay married to XXXX XXXX  and decided to divorce them and remarry Capitol One. And me as their dependent am suffering because of the messy and unclean divorce. I am now so upset that I am strongly considering suing all three entities involved. I should not have to suffer and have my perfect credit ruined simply because Capitol One is standing on their high horse and won't accept the fact that I am the one who is suffering for a transition that was poorly handled and was caused due to no fault of my own. And what of their faults? What about the Fair Credit and Billings Act? Does that not mean anything to them? I am supposed to receive statements. I didn't. When I went to the store to address it, I was given incomplete information or no information or help at all. Bottom line, where does their responsibility in this lie? They took over on XX/XX/XXXX and knew they would be taking over at that time for months but they couldn't get their act together to bill all their new clients from the beginning in order to avoid these problems? We just have to suffer the consequences for their inability to do things in a timely fashion?

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief