Consumer complaint received 2018-07-11
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX Upon reviewing my XX/XX/XXXX statement for my Capital One Journey credit card ( ending in XXXX ), I noticed a large amount of CASH ADVANCE FEES that were included. These fees were applied incorrectly on the transactions they were affiliated with as they should have been considered TRANSACTIONAL and not CASH ADVANCE. This exact error has also happened with a different Capital One Card that I had ( XXXX ) in XX/XX/XXXX, with which I called and had resolved immediately. With this issue arising again with my current card, I attempted to get all of them refunded, but was not able to work out a solution with Capital One. I was met with inconsistent policy, deflection, long delay/telephone holds and excessive instances of a fabricated status of this issue. I submit the following information, credit card statements and timeline for review in this matter : XX/XX/XXXX - Called customer service and spoke to XXXX ( Employee ID XXXX ). 
- Explained the issue and informed him that this had happened before with my other card. 
- Explained that of the 12 Cash Advance Fees present, only 2 were valid ( as I had taken 2 actual cash advances from an ATM ). The other 10 were incurred on NON CASH IN HAND purchases of funding a pre-paid card from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
- XXXX and I looked over the issue, and we saw that 2 of the cash advance fees were already automatically refunded ( although only half of one of them for some reason ). Also, there were two additional CASH ADVANCE FEES after the statement date as well, but had already been refunded - XXXX was perplexed why the others were not refunded and put in an order to resolve the issue. He told me the correction should show up in 2 to 3 business days. 

XX/XX/XXXX - No action had been taken for refunding the cash advance fees yet, so I again called Capital One to inquire about my issue. I spoke this time with representative XXXX ( Employee ID XXXX ) - I again explained everything about this issue, just as I had done on the XXXX/XXXX/XXXX call. 
- XXXX said that he saw that the transactions incurring the fees needed to be re-categorized as TRANSACTIONAL as they were currently categorized as CASH ADVANCE.

- At the end of the call he said that they were working on it and that I should see the situation resolved and refunds issued within 2-3 business days. 

XX/XX/XXXX - Once again, not a single refund for the disputed cash advance fees had been made by this date, so I called Capital One. For this call, I had to explain the entire situation 3 separate times as I was transferred to someone else who would be able to help me. My final contact was a supervisory representative named XXXX ( Employee ID XXXX ). 
- - After explaining again the situation to XXXX she said that she didnt know why any of the previous representatives would have told me that I would be getting refunds or that they had people working on the situation. She said that they dont refund cash advance fees basically because she cant. ( FALSE ) The following represents an unethical and fabricated web of lies that ensued in my conversation with XXXX. PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE INABILITY TO PROVIDE ANY CONSISTENT POLICY : ME : Why was I refunded for some and cant be for the others? 
XXXX : We can only refund fees once per year. ( FALSE ) ME : But I have had 4 refunded already this year, and had 3 refunded in XX/XX/XXXX. 
XXXX : Well, I meant issuing refunds on one day per year. ( FALSE ) ME : They were divided between two completely different date this year.

- As I repeatedly challenged the illegitimacy of her statements with hard-evidence that completely contradicted them, she became agitated and said the only thing she could do is to schedule a Manager Callback. I asked her to do that, and she set it up on her end. For some reason this process took at least 10 minutes of silence from her, except for the loud background of people near her yelling, laughing, etc. 
- Finally, she took verified my call back number ( I gave me cell phone number ). She said that I would have to wait until Monday for the callback because a manager isnt available until after the weekend. She then said that I would be contacted at some point before XXXX on Monday. I then ended the 60+ Minute call and waited for the manager callback on Monday. 

XX/XX/XXXX - As of XXXX, a Manager Callback return call was NOT made to my cell phone as promised. I decided once again to call Capital One and did not attempt to explain my issue for the 6th time to anyone who would have to transfer me further up the chain of command, so I insisted on speaking with the highest level in management that I could. Eventually I was speaking with a Customer Service Manager named XXXX ( No Employee ID # given ). 
- I explained everything about the issue and the past events of prior customer service calls. 
- After being placed on hold for approximately 20-25 minutes ( with a few checks to make sure I was still there and thanking me for being patient ). 
- Eventually, after arguing a bit about the inconsistent matter of some fees being returned, while others were not and the error in categorizing the items as CASH ADVANCE and not TRANSACTIONAL XX/XX/XXXX stated that the merchant would be the one that had to return the cash advance fees because they categorized it as a cash transaction. I questioned this obviously because I knew the merchant would not refund a fee that they did not impose on me. Even as ridiculous as this statement was, XXXX then said that I should call the merchant and see if I could get them to do it or have them change the categorization from a cash transaction on their side to a simple transaction. At this point, I was not going to have to call Capital One again on this and said I think that Capital One should be doing this for me. Her response was to start a conference call between us. I agreed. 
- A representative from XXXX XXXX customer service named XXXX was brought into the conversation with XXXX & I. XXXX explained that these were not cash advances in a technical term, but in order for the purchase to comply with banking regulations and to be approved they had to be produced to Capital One as such. NOTE : As the online casino business is very new, the exact transactional categorization hasnt been created yet. Its a prepaid card that I am paying for and funding it ; it is a product. Capital one does not incur CASH ADVANCE FEES for purchasing or funding a cash gift card like a VISA Gift card. My XXXX XXXX Prepaid Card is the same ( XXXX Issuer ). 

- After this the conversation with XXXX from XXXX XXXX ended I returned to a call with just XXXX. XXXX seemed to turn toward she did not understand what had been said or wasnt interested in moving this forward any more with me. I alerted her that I would be filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Please refer to the capital one statements I have included. Two of the statements are from the account regarding the issue, and another is from the account that has refunds for the issue from before. I have made identifying marks and comments to focus your attention to the issue pertaining to this complaint. 

I look forward in a prompt response to this issue. I have provided all contact information I would expect to see this from. Thank you. 

XXXX XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation