Consumer complaint received 2023-03-21
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Can't stop withdrawals from your account

Complaint:
I am staying in a hotel related to business purposes starting XX/XX/XXXX. On checking in, through a series of completely unrelated issues, 3 different cards were placed on account. One, my debit card ending in XXXX, two an XXXX XXXX card ending in XXXX, and a third family member 's card -with authorization- that was never used. On XX/XX/XXXX, the debit card was charged for a week 's stay. This went through and was charged without difficulty. On XX/XX/XXXX, I paid the week 's charge of XXXX which, while I was standing at the desk, was presented to me as gone through. I received a notification from the bank, as I do with all my transactions on my debit card. However, following this, there were 2 more holds- one for XXXX, ( transaction # XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX, and then on XX/XX/XXXX, another hold for XXXX ( transaction # XXXX ). These were not authorized by me. The XXXX the merchant told me was a regular hold they placed per week on longer term stays. That was annoying, but acceptable. The merchant did not know where the XXXX came from. This was followed by another XXXX charge on XX/XX/XXXX, which the merchant said was the actual charge on the room to bring the room charge up to date. The outstanding " holds '' at this point totalled XXXX, with a further XXXX held on the XXXX card. I called Capital One because at this point, my checking account balance had gone well into the negative and other withdrawals- car payment, insurance, etc., were now " bouncing '' for NSF status. Capital One stated that the only way the holds would come off the account is if the merchant called and removed them. I explained this to the merchant who was very happy to call and make the removal. He did so immediately. However, Capital One refused to remove the holds from the account stating that " the merchant has to call ''. After reminding 2 separate call takers that the merchant had, in fact, already called and taken the holds off, the first one transferred me to the " customer protection department '' who then proceeded to give me the same information, but when was reminded the merchant had already called, then denied he had ever said that the holds could only be removed in this fashion, and further stated he did not know why anyone would have ever said that. I asked to be transferred to someone else, as he was obviously and purposefully gaslighting me. He did so. The next person then refused to talk to me because at that point, although they were recording me, I was not allowed to record her- regardless of the fact that in the state of Texas it is completely legal to do so. She refused to proceed further. On calling back to Capital One, I explained I needed an email or physical address to send a complaint to as the telephone assistance service had turned into a " he said/she said '' mess, and Capital One then stated they had no such address to send a complaint to. I do understand the realism and purpose of " holds '' on my account and have accepted them over the years. This, however, has fallen out of the normal course of events and risen to the point of absurdity due to Capital One 's refusal to work with the information the merchant has given them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation