Consumer complaint received 2017-07-27
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
Doing business with Capital One since XX/XX/XXXX. I sent a check in XX/XX/XXXX to apply to the XX/XX/XXXX statement ( as long as it got their in time ). I called the day before the due date of XX/XX/XXXX and was told the check had not been received and that I should check the next day if the credit had been issued. It had not been credited by the afternoon of XX/XX/XXXX when I checked. I was advised by their staff that I would need to make a payment on XX/XX/XXXX in order to avoid a late fee and that the mailed check would apply to the next cycle. Then to my surprise, this week I received notice that XX/XX/XXXX payment 'was n't received ' and I was 'past due '. I saw quickly that they probably made a mistake and applied both payments to XX/XX/XXXX cycle. When I called today to clarify and deal with the misunderstanding they refused to handle in an ethical or reasonable manner. 1st I asked to reallocate the 2nd payment to XX/XX/XXXX billing cycle. No, I was told. They define the due date and the bill cycle differently and the computer credited my 2nd payment to XX/XX/XXXX as a result. Yes, I understood. I explained. I had both customer service rep and her escalation manager XXXX ( emp # XXXX ) affirm they could see my intent of having the 2nd payment applied to the next cycle since they had n't credited the payment to the XX/XX/XXXX cycle. Great - we 're close to resolution. But no, they could n't reapply the payment. They would have to refund it and I would have to resubmit it. That would take days if not weeks and I wanted the 2nd payment 's credit on my account for interest accrual purposes. So I said no to that option. Instead, I offered to go ahead and make a minimum payment today to count as the XX/XX/XXXX payment as long as they reversed the 'late fee ' of {$25.00} since 2 payments had already been made and should have been applied 1 to XX/XX/XXXX and the 2nd to XX/XX/XXXX. 2nd The fee was assessed for making a payment 'too early ' NOT because one was not made. Remember, I confirmed on XX/XX/XXXX that the mailed check was not being processed or credited that day ( the last day of the XX/XX/XXXX cycle ). So it 's crazy-making when I looked on-line today they credited the 2nd payment on XX/XX/XXXX as well. But they refused to confirm that fact with me!! XXXX the escalated c.s. manager quoted, " There is not an opportunity to waive the fee. '' When I asked repeatedly why, she repeated the response with no explanation. When XXXX was asked to escalate the call she said she had no one to escalate it to. When asked to laterally transfer the call to a colleague, she said she would not. Conclusion : Capital One played games with my payments, necessitating 2 payments instead of 1. Then allocated them in a manner that they used to assess a fee, counter to what I was told would occur on XX/XX/XXXX by their own agents. When I confronted C.O. about this fact, they refused to reverse/credit {$25.00}. Their computer 's automatic actions to allocate payments in the manner it did so, and failure to notify me in a timely way on XX/XX/XXXX of the arrival of the check credit, could have easily been solved by the human component at customer service by reversing the fee, APOLOGIZING, and taking the additional minimum payment I offered today. The computer 's failed and the human beings who could have fixed the issue failed. I CAN TOLERATE MISTAKES BEING MADE BY A COMPANY IF THEY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND FIX IT. I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY CORPORATE ACTION THAT HAS ANY SCENT OF UNETHICAL OR MANIPULATIVE BEHAVIOR.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation