Consumer complaint received 2022-02-07
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
Summary : I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX scholar ; I have been struggling with Capital One for 8 months to receive a large amount of my scholarship money which was refunded to my credit cards with them. I have still not received 97 % of it. As mentioned, I am a scholarship student, living on very tight margins where every dollar and cent matters. I needed this money back in XXXX when it should have originally arrived. This struggle was happening in the midst of a very heavy class schedule and an intense recruiting season as I was preparing for high stress and life-defining interviews. I can not begin to express how much this situation has cost me. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Detail : In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a tuition reimbursement because I became a scholarship holder this year. This refund had to be sent back to the credit cards from which I had originally paid the tuition fee back in XXXX of XXXX, due to XXXX XXXX. These were both cards with Capital One. The refund hit the Capital One cards accounts in XX/XX/XXXX. This was a significant amount of money one refund of {$10000.00} and another for {$410.00}. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Capital One team to request that these be refunded to me. At that time I was able to get through to a customer service representative who said their system could not bank transfer to me and instead had to send a paper check. I am currently living in the XXXX attending the XXXX  XXXX XXXX. The only address where I could receive the check was here in the XXXX. I was very concerned about the check getting lost in international mail but the assistant assured me the check would reach me but could not provide me with any tracking information on the mail. Additionally, the capitalone system would not allow international addresses to be added. The assistant finally was able to change the system to send to a non-UK address after a great deal of time and promised me the check would arrive within XXXX weeks. 

By XX/XX/XXXX I was starting to get worried as the check had not arrived and I was moving from that address XXXX. I called but the system proceeded to do this : order of events : it wants last 4 of my card number, it wants last 4 of my social security number, it starts saying info about my account, I say " operator '' over and over, it asks me to tell it what I want, I say " you sent me a refund I did not receive '', then it asks me if this is about the coronavirus pandemic, I say " no '' many times, it says is transferring me to the next available agent, then it says it can not complete my request at this time and that I should call back later. It then disconnects. 

At the time I knew there were still a few days left in XXXX and I was busy in the midst of moving preparations and starting a new school year. All through XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX I called again, and again, and again and gotten the same order of events. I finally reached out to your XXXX team, completely exasperated as all numbers I tried ( I am calling US numbers via XXXX XXXX, so it is coming as if it is from a US number ) resulted in the same situation and there was no way to contact the team via email listed on the Capital One website. 

On top of not receiving my money, which as a student living on a very tight budget I am in desperate need of, I was additionally trying to change my address in the system since late XXXX and every time I got an error message saying " oops we've hit a snag '' - I was unable to see the address in their system for months. 

Then my account started to inform me that they were sending me a new card. I tried and tried to figure out a way to cancel it since I didnt know where it was going! I need to cancel this card immediately as I no longer have access to this address and I tried to change it over and over via this online method that has consistently brought about this error and I couldnt get in touch with a customer service representative. 

I called the XXXX customer service team which said they were unable to access my acocunt or patch me through to the US service team. They gave me an email address - I sent a description of the whole situation to this email address only to eventually receive this message back : To Our Customers : PLEASE NOTE this is a Capital One email address that is intended for internal use only. It is NOT for customer account servicing correspondence. If you require assistance regarding your account, please call our main support number XXXX or call the number on the back of your card. For additional contact numbers, please visit www.capitalone.com/contact. 

I reached out to my XXXX classmates who had worked for Capital One - they suggested I post on XXXX which I did - my post was never responded to or even approved publicly. 

Events since the above : XX/XX/XXXX - I still could not get through via phone so I arranged for a friend of mine in the USA to call in and conference call me in so I could finally get through to the customer service team. This took 3 hours of time, speaking with multiple representatives the first representative said she sent the checks but then there was no record on my account when I insisted on talking to someone about getting a phone number I could actually reach people by. When I got to that more senior person he didnt see any record of it on my account and had to send the checks again. 
At that time they said the checks would arrive by XX/XX/XXXX. They of course did not arrive. 
XX/XX/XXXX I call in AGAIN. They say the checks are on their way and the latest they should arrive is XX/XX/XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX of course the money doesnt arrive XX/XX/XXXX I call AGAIN, insisting the manager must send me a bank transfer and drop this check charade. The manager sanctions an ACH to my account and says the latest it will arrive in my account is XX/XX/XXXX. He says he will credit {$100.00} to my account in slight recompense however this doesnt even begin to make up for the time, stress, and 10 % gains I could have made by investing this money back in XXXX as I originally intended to do. Investment alone would be {$1100.00} and for my time and stress it should be even more. I am unable to access my online account to see if this is there, per the below my online account is continually plagued by unexplained IT issues and my passwords continually do not work no matter how many times I reset them. 
XX/XX/XXXX the {$410.00} arrives in my account but not the much larger and more material {$10000.00}. 
XX/XX/XXXX the {$10000.00} still has not arrived in my account. I also am still unable to access my online account. 

All of this was happening in the midst of a very intense recruiting season as I was preparing for high stress and life defining interviews in addition to balancing class and other commitments. I can not begin to express how much this has cost me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief