Consumer complaint received 2023-07-13
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (TX)

Capital One ( 1 ) is not timely crediting and making available deposits received ; ( 2 ) falsely denied receipt of payments from my client that the client verified were received by Capital One and provided a tracing number to enable Capital One to trace and credit the funds it denies receiving ; and ( 3 ) both my client and I have been damaged by multiple false, misleading and inaccurate statements made by Capital One representatives in connection with these events. 

This is not the first time that payments deposited to my accounts are not timely available,. Usually this occurs with check deposits, where Capital One places and maintains a hold on payment even after the client bank has paid the check. Because of recurrent problems with this, our clients are urged and incentivized financially and operationally to pay electronically. 

This case involves two payments sent by a client on XXXX : a {$5000.00} payment and a {$15000.00}. These payments were supposed to be wired on XXXX as a condition of our continuing work for the client and his qualification for a retroactive timely payment credit. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding with his accounting team, the payments were sent as ACH payments rather than wire. By the time the accounting team discovered on Monday XX/XX/XXXX that the payments were supposed to be wired, rather than sent by ACH, the transmitting institution already had processed the XXXX payment directive, withdrawn the funds from the client 's account, and placed the funds in transit. 
Consequently, the client was told it was impossible to cancel that transaction so that the client could replace it with a wire, but was assured that the payment would be received by Capital One on or before Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX. 

As a result of these circumstances, the reliability of receipt and crediting of the funds to our Capital One account became critical. Under the terms of our policies, no additional work could be performed for the client 's impending deadlines and the billing credit is dependent on when the payment actually credits to our bank account. If the bank did not show the ACH payments as received by XX/XX/XXXX, the client would be required to wire a {$20000.00} replacement payment today ( XX/XX/XXXX ), Before agreeing to wait until XX/XX/XXXX for the ACH payments to be received, I visited Capital One 's XXXX XXXX XXXX Texas breach to inquire about its policies for receipt, recognition and crediting to our accounts of ACH payments. In two separate conversation with two separate tellers, I was assured that unlike checks, ACH payments are autoprocessed by Capital One and appear in the customer account immediately when the transmitting institution 's electronic ACH payment is received to the Capital One system without any delay for further processing. 

Unfortunately, as of XXXX XXXX  Capital One continued to report that it has not received any ACH remittances to our account from XXXX, the sending institution. Furthermore, when I spoke with a representative of Capital One around XXXX XXXX, he told me that had the payment been transmitted, it should be visable in the Capital One acocunt at that time. He indicated that he believed the absence of any evidence of the payment in the Capital One system reflected either that the payment wasn't sent or a " problem '' with the payment. He encouraged me to contact the client to get tracing information, which I did. 

In response to my call, the client 's accountant contacted the transmitting institution and obtained confirmation that the payment was sent and a tracing number. She then initiated to Capital One to inquire why it wasn't recognized, which I joined. During that call, Capital One continued to deny receipt of any payments and said it can't use the tracing number or do anything further to investigate. Rather, I would just have to wait to see if the money ever appears. 

Understandably, the client was displeased with the response, particularly as the Bank is denying receipt of payments that the transmitting institution has confirmed have been received by Capital One and provided a tracing number for Capital One to use to find the missing payments. 

Transfer to a supervisor produced an explanation that Capital One has no record of receipt, that it " doesn't use '' tracing numbers, that if the payment was received there is no option but to wait and see if in the next 3-5 days, the payment magically appears from where it is lost in the Capital One system. Following that approach, the failure to timely recognize the deposit clearly received as documented by the tracing number will prevent me from timely paying bills as well as put me in the untenable position of having to decide whether to punish the client for Capital One 's inappropriate procedures. Either way, Capital One already has damaged me by providing inaccurate information, defaming the client and not making funds available in a timely fashion. 

In a subsequent call back to Capital One, I was connected to XXXX Id # XXXX, Ally also looked into the system several ways but could not locate the payment. She attempted to search using the tracing number. She also confirmed that the routing number and account information used to transmit the payment were appropriate. However she couldn't find the payment. She said she would send an email to the department that handles those matters. Consistent with my experience in attempting Capital One to investigate and address multiple obvious breaches of my account data and other prior legitimate concerns with Capital One, she warned me that she didn't expect anyone would get back to her today or anytime soon. However she took my number and said she would call me back with an update. 

At this point, even if the payment eventually appears, I already have been harmed by my reliance upon misinformation provided by Capital One about its ACH procedures and the timing and availability of funds, its false claims that it has not received the ACH transmission that the client documentation establishes it has received, the injury to my client relationship created by the false representations by Capital One that the payment was not made and the lost time and concern arising from the deficiencies and misrepresentations of Capital One. 

These concerns are made even more troublesome taking into account Capital One 's long history of failing to appropriately protect my and my accounts from identity theft and hackers. Pending Capital One 's ability to locate the payment and properly credit it to my account, there remains based on prior history with Capital One a very real possibility that the payment has or will be misdirected to an identity thief or other inappropriate third party. 

I am confident the transaction in question can be easily traced should it be required by the Bank Examiner, the Department or Homeland Security or some other state or federal entity with disciplinary authority over Capital One. Unfortunately, every customer of Capital One knows that it simply can't be bothered to reliably perform the banking responsibilities for an actual customer. 

While I wait, I am left in an untenable position of wondering where the funds I need to make payroll and other bills that should be in my account by now are, knowing that Capital One will hold me accountable for any deficiencies available funds to cover any payments that may be presented to my account even where those deficiencies are as a result of its own improper conduct. I also have been required to invest more than 5 hours of my % 675 per hour time trying to troubleshoot a problem that should never occur at any legitimate banking institution in the US.