Consumer complaint received 2020-04-02
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TX
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:
This letter is in regards to a dispute with a local gym, for membership charges in the amount of {$70.00} for the months of XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, amounting to {$140.00} in total that were charged to my Capital One Venture Card.

I disputed these charges because I have not been a member of this gym, nor had I been charged for membership in nearly a year. I cancelled my membership in XX/XX/XXXX, and was not charged for 8 months. Suddenly, I started getting charged again in XX/XX/XXXX. Why these charges suddenly started appearing on my statement again is beyond me. I filed a dispute with Capital One explaining the situation, but they refused to credit my account for the charges, and provided me with some very thin documentation from the vendor. I reviewed the documentation provided by the merchant, and I saw nothing that shows justification of these charges. All they provided were receipts for the time that I was a member. I see no contract, or documentation that would support their claim, and no explanation of why they started charging me again almost a year after my membership was cancelled. The card they are charging is not even the same card they had on file, so Im not sure how the charges went through. The merchant has provided NO documentation that justifies the charges for the months of XX/XX/XXXX an XX/XX/XXXX and I strenuously dispute their claim. 

I noticed on the Summary in the documentation provided, that it stated The cardholder entered their card details through a secure online invoice system and authorized the Merchant to store and charge the card for this payment. This statement is false. I personally never entered my information anywhere. There was NO online system of any kind. The vendor had my credit card written down for payment. They charged my credit card as a recurring charge, which was valid as long as I was a member of that establishment. Upon my cancellation, that membership, and all recurring charges were null and void. The Summary also says CH  ( card holder ) authorized this payment for goods and services. No goods were received, and no service was rendered, and as such, no charges are valid. The merchant did not provide me any service of any kind, nor was any good received from them. There would be no monetary loss of the merchant resulting from time provided, or tangible goods provided. I cancelled my monthly membership MONTHS ago, and considered all transactions, both current, and future, final at that time. This was a MONTH to MONTH agreement which can be cancelled at any time. 

The cancellation of my membership was a verbal conversation. There was no documentation provided by the merchant, or myself. The only documented transaction between myself and the merchant, was the original contract for a monthly membership of {$35.00} for myself. Again, this was a MONTH TO MONTH agreement, not a never ending contract. When my wife started going to the gym with me, they just added her charges to my account. No written authorization was given for them to charge my account for double the amount. That alone violated our contractual agreement. I implored Capital One to seek a copy of the written contract from them. I did not notice a contract, or cancellation policy in the documentation they provided, because a contract for the amount of {$70.00} a month does not exist. To provide one would be them providing proof of a false claim. 


This is an attempt of theft by the merchant. An obvious fact in this matter is the charge periods. Ask yourself this question, why was there such a large gap between charges? Since this was a MONTH to MONTH agreement, why did charges stop, and resume months later? The answer is because I cancelled my membership, and have not set foot in that facility in over a year to date. As a valued customer of Capital One, I requested multiple times that they cancel these charges, and credit my account. I spend a great deal of money every single month with Capital One ( averaging about $ XXXX/month ),  and I received no support in this matter. I pay my bill off almost every single month. I have never been late. If this was not resolved to my satisfaction, I told Capital One that I will be forced to take my business elsewhere, but they had no regard of losing a customer. They refused to back charge the merchant, or credit my account for the bogus charges. In addition, I informed them that if this dispute is not resolved, I will be forced to take legal action against the local gym. The vendor is attempting to steal from me by unlawfully charging my credit card, and I consider that credit card fraud. I will be filing a small claims dispute with the local county justice of the peace.

For Identification purposes with Capital One : in lieu of credit card # Capital One Case # XXXX and XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief