Consumer complaint received 2024-08-28
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (FL)

I am a merchant ( restaurant owner ). We have a regular customer ( a friend ) who comes in at least once a month and usually spends close to {$200.00} each time. As always, we follow all of our normal procedures for credit card transactions and for customers who start a tab. 

The credit card holder came in and opened a tab on XX/XX/year> with his Capital One XXXX. As with every customer who starts a tab, we scan the card with a {$25.00} pre-authorization. That holds the info in our point of sale system until it's time to close the tab. The {$25.00} pre-auth never has anything applied to that. It stays pending on the card holder account for a short time and then goes away since nothing was applied. When the tab is closed we charge a new total to the card. It's part of the process with our POS system. We do it thousands of times each week. Nothing different with this one. Normal procedures. 

The card holder closed out the tab at {$120.00}. The card holder added a {$40.00} tip. The card holder wrote the new total on the receipt and signed it. The new total was {$160.00} I have the receipt and the signature. 

We received a notice that the transaction was being disputed. The dispute amount was {$130.00}. 

We contacted our friend ( the card holder ) and asked why he was disputing this. He said he wasn't and was shocked to hear this. He called Capital One and asked them to please drop the dispute because he wants to pay us the total he wrote on the receipt. Capital One refused. He spent an hour on the phone trying to convince them he bought food and drink and wants to pay us that total. Capital One said that the merchant did something wrong and there was nothing they could do about it. 

I challenged the dispute through the normal and proper channels. I proved proof of the receipt. We had a video of the card holder from security cameras. Everything needed to prove this transactions was handled and conducted correctly was denied. Capital One denied our proof and rejected the XXXX, and {$130.00} was taken from our account. This money was not given back to the card holder. Capitol One kept it. 

The card holder told us if they received the money back, he would come in and just run the card again or give us cash. But he never received the money back. 

I tried contacting Capital One directly. I'm not getting very far. I've talked to XXXX reps, all telling me to do something different or something I've already done. But they never even ask about the transaction details and won't put me in touch with the person that made the decision that the merchant did something wrong and they can't explain why they took the money from the merchant but didn't give it back to the card holder. 

I have a couple names of the reps if needed. But they did give me a complaint confirmation number at Capital One to prove I tried ( Confirmation # XXXX ). 

From my own little investigation and feedback from other merchants going through the same thing, it's safe to say we think something fishy is going on here. If the merchant and the card holder say everything was legitimate, why are they keeping the money? It sounds like they are counting on the fact that neither the merchant or the card holder would spend much time fighting this. If it wasn't for us contacting the card holder, they wouldn't have even known. It sounds like somebody at Capital One is disputing random transactions and pocketing the money for themselves. 

Why did they dispute the transaction? 
Why did they dispute {$130.00} out of {$160.00} and leave {$32.00} for us? 
Why didn't they contact the card holder? 
Why didn't they give the card holder the money back? 
Why did they refuse to listen to the card holder? 

The plain and simple short version is... card holder bought food and drink with us. They consumed it. They wanted to pay for this transaction with their Capital One XXXX. We let them and followed normal procedures. Capital One said merchant did something wrong and took most of the money back... but not all. We did nothing wrong. We want our money back.