Consumer complaint received 2022-04-07
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CA
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:
I purchased a mattress online. The merchant ( XXXX ) included 2 free pillows in order. The free pillows are mandatory, there is no option to remove them from the cart. The words " free pillows '' is mentioned on their sales page multiple times. There is never an asterisk after the word " free '' tying it to any further conditions. None of the product pages or checkout pages have any conditions about the free pillows indicated. 

When the free pillows arrived ( which again I did not " order '' -- they just included with my order ), I gave them to a friend because I did not need them. The mattress I later returned. I was refunded for the mattress. However, I was told I either needed to return the " free '' pillows, or I would be be charged {$93.00}. I told them, I'm sorry but there was never anything mentioning that condition when you guys stuck them in my cart, so I already gave them away. Plus, I told them what they are doing is an illegal marketing practice. If there is a condition to your " free '' product, you must use an asterisk to tie it to the condition. They are not doing that, and surprising customers with charges for things they did not order. The merchant did not comment on the legality of what they are doing, they just said it's their policy. They were unwilling to refund part of what I paid for the mattress in order to cover their free gift. 

I disputed the {$93.00} charge with Capital One. I submitted 8 pages of detailed notes, screenshots, and emails of what occurred. Capital One provided a credit at that time. A couple weeks later, I saw the credit was removed on my account. I had not received any notice about that. I called Capital One, who said the merchant had responded and so they reversed the charge. I said, where is my copy of their response and notification? They basically said, oops, we didn't send it to you. Finally, I got a copy of the merchant 's response which was just 3 sentences basically saying " this is our policy, please close this dispute. '' Capital One found this a satisfactory response to my 8 pages of documentation. Then Capital One told me, well if you want to continue the dispute, you have to send in pages and pages more of detailed documentation. I told them, hey I already did that! You have 8 pages, there is nothing more to say. Everything you are requesting I already sent in. Did you even read it? They basically said, well if you want to continue your dispute, you need to resubmit all this information. I told them, I'm sorry, but I'm not doing that. Everything you are requesting, I already provided. I am not going to repeat things that are already been done. At this point, I consider their requests for more an more information without even seriously reviewing or commenting on what was already sent to be nothing short of harassment. Also, at Capital One you can never get access to the real decision makers for the dispute. The person on the phone has zero decision making authority and speaking with them is pointless. The " supervisors '' also have no decision making authority. The people who actually make the decisions are not allowed to be contacted. So, you never get a resolution, just endless back and forth with more and more unreasonable demands. All of this ends up being a giant waste of time for the consumer who has tried in good faith to cooperate. Unacceptable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation