Consumer complaint received 2015-08-27
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MI
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
On XXXX/XXXX/15 I bought a plane ticket through XXXX. They immediately sold my order to a company called XXXX. XXXX booked my ticket with XXXX XXXX. The company that charged my Capital One credit card was XXXX. 

I booked the ticket to conduct XXXX in XXXX and XXXX. The ticket was a multi-city roundtrip ticket. The outbound flight was XXXX to XXXX ( XXXX ). The return flight was XXXX ( XXXX ) back to XXXX. 

On XXXX/XXXX/15, I received a phone call from informing me that a Memorial Service had been scheduled for my Great Uncle, who had died previous to me purchasing the ticket ( his kids had n't scheduled the service until then ). The Memorial was to be held in XXXX XXXX, XXXX right before I was to leave for XXXX. 

I called XXXX to switch my outgoing departure airport from XXXX to any XXXX airport so that I could attend the Service. They told me this would n't be a problem. But they said I had to work through XXXX to process the bereavement waiver. 

I contacted XXXX and worked with them for several weeks, sending emails and making countless phone calls. They eventually forwarded the death certificate and relevant documents to XXXX. I spoke to several XXXX agents who told me that they had granted the exchange/refund waiver according to their bereavement policy. But they needed XXXX to call their Online Travel Company Waiver Department to retrieve my waiver code. 

XXXX told me that they were unable to make outgoing phone calls and that XXXX needed to call them. So I called XXXX back and explained the situation. XXXX 's waiver department was also unable to make outgoing phone calls. So even though they had granted the waiver, these XXXX giant corporations refused to call each other in order to process the waiver. 

I was stuck in the middle of this. I even offered to facilitate a conference call to put these XXXX companies ' waiver processing departments on the phone at the same time. But XXXX insisted the phone call must be placed by XXXX directly. 

I called Capital One to challenge this charge, as XXXX was unable to process the waiver that they agreed to grant do to their inability to make an outgoing phone call. 

Capital One facilitated a 3-way call with XXXX. XXXX said they were willing to grant the waiver, but asked if I could resend the death certificate and supporting documents. I faxed it to them, and have a fax receipt to prove it. But they still did n't issue a refund. 

I called Capital One again to formally contest the charge. Capital One granted me an immediate credit of the full amount of the ticket - {$1300.00}. 

On XXXX XXXX, Capital One contacted me to say that XXXX had responded to the complaint. According to Capital One, XXXX claimed that my XXXX ticket was non-refundable. 

This is false. I originally booked my ticket through XXXX, not XXXX. I never agreed to buy a non-refundable ticket through XXXX. But most importantly, XXXX had already agreed to grant me a bereavement waiver. The problem was that they could n't make an outgoing phone call to XXXX. 

Capital One asked me to send them documentation of this. I uploaded my documentation to their website prior to the deadline. 

On XXXX XXXX, I received a phone call from Capital One supervisor XXXX ( Employee ID : XXXX ). He said they could do nothing because XXXX had claimed the ticket was nonrefundable. 

I reminded XXXX that XXXX had granted a refund. XXXX looked into it and called me back that same day. He said they had run out of time to forward the refund request to XXXX. Since Capital One had n't forwarded this request by the deadline. If they had processed the documentation sooner, I would have been fine. But they failed to meet their own deadlines. I can not be held responsible for their failure to forward this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation