Consumer complaint received 2023-09-30
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: WI
Product: Credit 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:
To Capital One Dispute Resolution Team I am writing this letter to refute and challenge the farcical misrepresentation that the merchant XXXX XXXX XXXX ( going forward I shall refer to the entity as XXXX  ) has made in order to contest my legitimate dispute. 

To start with, I had contacted XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX in response to their text message as I needed to hire a mover to help with my move from XXXXXXXX XXXX  to XXXX, Wisconsin. I had absolutely no prior experience with hiring a mover and XXXX ( who goes my XXXX XXXX, a customer service representative at XXXX reached out to me via text message ( screenshot attached in Exhibit A ) stating that they had a client cancel the week that I was planning to move, and they would be able to offer me a discounted rate. I called her back in response to the text message and during our initial conversation XXXX told me " we have some trucks going along your route from Maryland to Wisconsin and since a client had cancelled we would are able to give you a discounted rate, but we would need you to pay an upfront XXXX deposit '', I was quite pleased with how pleasant and helpful she was and going off of the initial positive impression I thought this firm would be a good fit for me. Hence, I gave her a detailed description of my household items that needed to be transported, following which she provided me with an intial binding estimate which was {$1900.00}. 
This estimate prominently featured XXXX 's branding at the top page and nowhere was it prominently mentioned that they are acting as a broker until the middle of the multi page contract and this was not highlighted so at the time since I did not read it carefully I was totally unware that this business was in fact not an actual moving company. 

However, I did explicitly ask XXXX whether they were a moving company or a broker to which she emphatically responded " We are a moving company based out of XXXX XXXX, FL '' and she also said something to the effect that it is a family business, etc. Since I already felt like I had a good rapport with XXXX I did not conduct further due diligence and took her words at face value, which I later came to realize was a grave lack of judgement on my part, but I did not know at the time that I was dealing with such a deceitful operation. Following the verbal confirmation from her, and being reassured that they are an actual moving company I spoke with someone on their finance team and provided this person with my Capital One Savor Credit Card information and authorized a one-time charge for the deposit that will go toward my actual move. 

Now, it is of critical importance to understand that at no point so far in this discusssion had XXXX identified themseleves as acting in a broker capacity other than in a section of the moving estimate and then too it was not highlighted so I would only become aware of it much later. I had entirely relied on the word of their representative who had told me the exact opposite. Therefore in my mind the deposit I paid was for a part of my move as explained to me by XXXX and not some sort of broker or finder 's fee as XXXX has alleged. 

XXXX 's entire argument rests on the dubious assertion that they were acting as a broker which was something that they kept providing me conflicting information on until right before they subcontracted my move to a disreputable mover. Additionally, absolutely no service at all was rendered as of the invoice date i.e. XX/XX/XXXX, so even if XXXX were to ignore all mistatements and falsehoods from XXXX 's XXXX XXXX, XXXX did not disclose the name of the actual moving company they ultimately ended up subcontracting my move to on the day that I paid the {$620.00}. This is of paramount importance because they seem to claim that services were rended at this time in the credit card authorization that I signed with little understading that I was being defrauded. 
Furthermore, the name of the actual mover was only disclosed on XX/XX/XXXX almost XXXX weeks after I paid the {$620.00} when XXXX from their office emailed me a link to the bill of lading ( screenshot of email can be found in Exhibit A ). 

After paying the so called deposit, I did contact XXXX a few times over the subsequent week to make updates to my list of goods. During these phone conversations XXXX had never mentioned XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX at all nor explicitly told me that they were acting as a broker. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX another XXXX representative provided with a bill of lading which had XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX as the mover now replacing XXXX  branding from the initial binding estimate, I signed it not knowing that XXXX XXXX is a totally different entity. It is critical to note here that my wife pointed out the difference in name and after some online research I became aware that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX has a very poor reputation and is often accused of misplacing and breaking items during their moves. 

After thoroughly reviewing the bill of lading from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I realized that my items could be held in storage for XXXX business days which was totally shocking to me because on my first phone call with XXXX I was told it would take no more than a week after pick up to receive all my items. I immediately relaized that I had been defrauded and decided to cancel my move on XX/XX/XXXX, even if it meant forfeiting the deposit because I did not want my items to get lost, misplaced or damaged. Following the cancellation notice that I sent via email XXXX called me and voluntarily offered me 20 % of my deposit back if I were to sign a carefully crafted non-disclosure agreement which waives my right to a dispute among other things, I understand they have provided a copy of it along with their response to the dispute. Any neutral reader of that document would find it problematic and a tacit admission that they were in the wrong, I refused to sign the document even as they kept sending me several reminder. I instead initiated a dispute resolution with Capital One where I gave the fraud specilaist a very detailed description of what happened how they lured me in by pretending to be an actual moving company and then subcontracting my move to a third party firm. 

At this point I had no doubt in my mind that XXXX was not a trustworthy business and I decided to do further research online and found out that multiple complainants on XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  ) had alleged XXXX  of pulling the same type of fraud they did on me. In fact the business had an F rating for XXXX  and they were not registered with XXXX  ( I've attached several pages of XXXX  complaints where XXXX has pretended to be the mover and then subcontracted the job to a different firm ). XXXX 's cancellation ploicy is also a total farce as they allow you XXXX hours after you pay the upfront fee to cancel however they DO NOT dislcose the name of the actual movers within that timeframe, and only disclose it 3 days before the move at which point if you don't feel comfortable with hirirng their actual subcontracted mover you have absolutely no choice but to forfeit your deposit which they get to keep. This is the duplicitous set up that XXXX has come up with to defraud clients. I work in investment management and this sort of malpractice would lead to serious regulatory action if not criminal charges. I have always found Capital One to be a trusted partner for my financial and banking needs so I am not at all pleased that the statement I made to the fraud speciliast were not even taken into consideration while reviewing this case. Now with this written response and the plethora of evidence and testimonials establishing XXXX as a deceitful and fraudulent entity I hope your team reconsiders my dispute case and reverses the transacation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation