Consumer complaint received 2020-03-16
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY
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:
Anyone with a Capital One credit card should be aware they can not count on having consumer protection against merchants who dont deliver services paid for with the card. I need help to get Capital One to pursue a disputed charge with an internet-based company with a major profile that went out of business without warning. 

The disputed item on my Captial One Venture account is with XXXX XXXX, a well-known internet-based home renovation and design firm. What was to be the first of a series of payments to them was billed XX/XX/XXXX with a total amount of {$8700.00}. I am only disputing the amount of {$3800.00}. Thats because I did receive a portion of the services I paid for before the company went out of business. 

XXXX went out of business without notifying customers, including me. I found out about it in the news in XXXX, and tried to get a refund directly from the company. But no one was answering the phones, or responding to email, and even the website was on some kind of lock down, with documents including many related to my account removed from it. 

So I put in a disputed charge with Capital One, and they initially credited my account back with the full amount ( more than I am disputing ) in XXXX. But then they reversed that credit a few weeks later. Anyway, we had long since paid the amount as we always pay off our bills in full each month. When they reversed the credit, Capital One asked me for more information, which I sent. By way of response, they then asked for more information, which I sent. And then they asked for more informationand we have been going around and around like this for months. Most recently I called to ask about the status of my dispute and eventually spoke to a supervisor who told me they had sent me a letter in XXXX. I have not received it. They also claimed yet another letter was mailed in XXXX, which I also have yet to receive. 

I have no evidence Capital One ever reached out to XXXX about this at all. I asked directly on the phone if they had reached out to XXXX and could not get any answer. I also have no evidence anyone even reviewed any of the information I have been sending in, including a second opinion letter and itemized lists of services not received ( both as requested, and both more than once and in more than one format ). In fact, they told me two different times that I had NOT sent in requested information and blamed their lack of response on that. ( They later found the info in their files. ) Capital One changed the case number on my file somewhere in the middle of all this, so that my responses were hidden under the old case number and not visible to anyone looking up the case by the new case number they included in their letters to me. 

After literally hours on the phone in my most recent call on XX/XX/XXXX, months into this process, Capital One finally told me they would not pursue my claim. In fact, they claimed they were not allowed to. With no explanation as to why, then, they had been asking me for all this additional information. They also claimed they had no procedure in place for dealing with a bankrupt merchant, and no lawyers who help the company pursue such cases. They suggested I report XXXX  to the XXXX XXXX XXXX, although they had no information on how or why to do that.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation