Consumer complaint received 2024-07-19
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NY)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I booked a stay at the XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. The terms of this reservation included free cancellation until XXXX on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 

On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I canceled that reservation through XXXX. This was done within the allotted time frame to receive a full refund. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed some incorrect details on my credit card transactions ; this included a missing refund for the aforementioned XXXX XXXX booking. That day, I reached out to the booking.com customer service team via email for more information. That was the start of several points of contact I made with the merchant. On Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed their customer service team two more times. 

On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to the XXXX customer service team via phone call. I explained how I had not yet received my refund and asked for their help resolving the situation. The agent replied that their records indicated that XXXX had already sent out my refund and that I should contact my bank to resolve the situation. 

That same day, XX/XX/XXXX, I called the Capital One support team. After explaining my situation, the representative opened up the dispute and assured me that the situation would be resolved and that the documentation I possessed would be sufficient. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an update that XXXX replied to my dispute case. XXXX claimed that not only did I never cancel this reservation, but also that this reservation was non-refundable. XXXX stated this information in a typed-out summary with no actual proof that those were the terms that I clicked on and agreed to ( which they were not ). The portion of the response that appeared to be a screenshot did not have any information in it to prove that it was connected to the actual reservation in question. The summary also stated that no deposit was made on the reservation. This was obviously untrue since my credit card transaction records prove that I paid at the time of booking, and since this entire situation is about the refund of the deposit ( the entire cost of the stay ) that I made at the time of booking. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I replied to XXXX 's dispute response by providing documentation of all the emails from the reservation/cancelation processes, which clearly outlined the cancelation policy of my reservation and proved that I canceled within the permitted time frame to receive a full refund. These documents also proved that XXXX had stated I would be refunded. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received notice that the information I provided was insufficient. Confused, I called the Capital One customer service team. I explained my situation, asked for clarification, and asked what the next steps were. She first suggested that I provide forms of documentation that I had already submitted. When I pointed out how Capital One has those things already, she told me that the same information ( which she had just suggested would be enough ) was insufficient because it was only a proof of refund, not of cancelation. When I pointed out that the subject line of the cancelation email stated Your booking was canceled at no cost, she replied, We dont have proof that you requested the cancelation. She told me that I must provide proof that I requested this cancelation from the merchant, via an email request, for example. I explained that XXXX, like many third-party travel websites ( including Capital One 's own travel portal ), does not handle cancelations via direct communication. Each reservation, while active, has a button on it that says Cancel your booking. When clicked and confirmed, that initiates an automated, no-reply email entitled ( for refundable reservations like mine ) Your booking was canceled at no cost. When I explained that I initiated the cancelation via the cancel button on their website and that there is no record of a conversation I had with the Booking team asking to cancel because thats simply not how their system works, she replied, I understand that there is no way that you can provide that. She then requested that I provide a copy of the Booking.com Terms and Conditions showing their cancelation policy. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted another response outlining my entire case, including a XXXX of the requested Booking.coms terms and conditions outlining the cancelation policy which stated that the refund depends on the service providers policy ( which was shown in the documentation I previously provided ). I also provided XXXX FAQ Section, in which it says that my reservations refund policy can be found in my confirmation email, which I had already provided multiple times. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an update from the dispute team ( less than 12 hours after I had submitted a response, and barely 1-2 hours after their workday began, asserting that the evidence outlined in my response was still insufficient. I immediately called their customer service again. This person again suggested I provide forms of documentation that I had already submitted. She then stated in a way that sounded like a random guess, that actually I probably needed to provide some other form of documentation that I hadn't previously been told about. The conversation ended basically with this Capital One Representative telling me basically that there's nothing I can do. 

On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXX 's customer service team again about the missing refund in question. They stated directly that I am owed a refund for this reservation and that they had already issued it. I filmed this entire interaction ( I live in New York, which is a one-party consent state ) and sent it to Capital One, along with a reiterated outline of my proof. I also specifically requested that their response to me include the name of the customer service representative whom I spoke with in that video, along with another specific word, in order to prove that they actually looked at my documentation. I did this because at that point in the process, I was convinced that not only was nobody actually reading any of the evidence I was providing, but they also had proactively made up their mind that I would lose this case no matter what I do. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an update from Capital One, again asserting that my documentation wasn't sufficient enough to settle the dispute in my favor. There was no mention of either detail I requested to prove they looked at the information I provided. 

Each time I sought advice on what I can provide that would be sufficient evidence, it was then rejected and I was told that actually I need to provide something else. Then when I provided that thing, I was rejected again, and the agent told me of a new rule that I hadnt followed or heard of until then. The cycle repeats.