Consumer complaint received 2016-08-10
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing

Complaint:
I applied for a card with Capital One in XXXX 2016, and was approved for the Platinum ( with a {$300.00} limit ), a card other than the XXXX I thought I was applying for ( the XXXX ). I was informed by email that I had been enrolled in the Credit Builder program ( an email I am no longer able to find ), the description of which states that the card does not report to the credit bureaus for the first five months, and I decided to make the best of things and keep the card, since it would have no impact for those months. The first statement did not report, but the second statement did, and due to heavy usage of the card that month, my credit scores dropped like a rock. It was at this point that I first contacted the company, on XXXX XXXX, and it took the wonderful customer service representative over an hour, and multiple times of putting me on hold, to discover that I had been moved into the Credit Steps program instead ( and, according to the representatives I spoke to today, I was placed in Credit Steps immediately and was never in Credit Builder ). The representative and I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to close the card, and dispute the existence of the account with the credit reporting bureaus, as a fraudulent account, due to the glitches encountered with respect to the account/program not being as expected or advertised. I was told it could take up to 60 days for the bureaus to update the information, and when they had not done so, I called Capital One back on XXXX XXXX and was then told it could be XXXX days. On XXXX XXXX, after 90 days had passed, and it was still on my reports, I called up XXXX and XXXX directly, and they were able to remove it with no hassle. XXXX refused to remove it, saying that Capital One was still reporting it to them, and that it would be back next month even if they removed it, but that they would send them an electronic letter requesting authorization to remove it. I received an email from XXXX and a letter in the mail from Capital One telling me that it was not removed, and that the account information was accurate. Since then, I have checked my credit reports, and despite XXXX and XXXX having agreed to remove the account, and removing it, it is back on both of those reports ; Capital One filed the disputes on my behalf, but continues to send the credit reporting bureaus information that contradicts those very disputes. 

I spoke with a Capital One online chat customer service representative this morning ( XXXX XXXX ), as I had finally given up on ever getting the account removed from my reports, and decided the best thing to do was to have it be product changed into the product that I expected that I was applying for in the first place. After going through the entire story with the representative, she told me that she could not reopen the account, because I had requested it closed, and that unfortunately she could not help me. I was told that all I could do was apply for a new card, and with Capital One querying all three credit bureaus, and refusing to remove my old account, I am certainly not going to do that ; they 've caused me enough damage. I was denied by XXXX for a card in XXXX for having XXXX too many recently opened cards ; they explicitly told me that if I had not had the Capital One card appearing on my report, that they would have approved me. 

Finally, before contacting the CFPB, I called Capital One 's executive customer service number just now, and was told that they can not do anything either. Furthermore, I was told that I could not have received an email telling me that I was enrolled in Builder, as Builder is something that customers are invited to apply for, not something that happens automatically upon card approval.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation