Consumer complaint received 2020-08-13
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation — Attempted to collect wrong amount
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (PA)

I contacted Kohl 's / Capital one XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX WI XXXX - XXXX in regards to an old past due account. Speaking w the rep. I was informed that I owed XXXX and that they would take 50 % of that as a payoff - I asked several times if the account was held / owned or bought by a 3rd or 2nd party and was told several times no. The woman said that it was only held by kohls. I informed her that I was not willing to pay the 50 % payoff but would pay XXXX $ she said that she could not do that so I asked if there was someone that I could speak to in regards to that. She then gave me a XXXX number to call and said that they could help me. I asked if there was a reference number for the account and was told no. I called that number and a man by the name of XXXX XXXX answered and I asked him if the company that he worked for was a 2nd or 3rd party collection company to this he replied that they were a 3rd party collection company ( i had been informed by khols that the account was not with a 2nd or 3rd party company so this was really shocking to me. He asked for an account number and I told him that the last rep had not given me a reference number and he gathered my information and was able to pull it up by alternate means to which he then told me that I did not owe anything that the account was at a XXXX bal. I ask him if he could print off a statement for me but he couldn't I asked him don't you guys share the account be paid off with khols and he said yes so I asked him to please make sure someone hit the right button and let khols know the status of the account we stayed on the line a bit longer as he tired to solve the riddle of not being able to print out a statement in the end he said to contact kohls and he gave me and account number to give them in regards to my account with his company so I contact kohls and give them the account number given to me by the 3rd party company XXXX and they cant find it rather I have to have it pulled up by alternative information and ya bet there showing a bal. I go through the entire process of explaining how I was lied to by the last khols rep because she told me it was not held by a 3rd party only to then give me a 3rd party number for an account that the 3rd party is showing as at a XXXX  balance. So then I argued until I got a supervisor on the phone because the rep that I was talking to said that there were no supervisors that could talk. So I get the supervisor on the phone and she wasn't to collect the debt but only wants to say sorry for the misunderstanding was no misunderstanding there rep told me I owed a bal told me that it was not held w a 2 or 3rd party then gave me a 3rd party number whom I contact and they told me I did not owe anything the supervisor verify that the number I have for the 3rd party is correct and that they use a 3rd party and that the other rep I talked to was just confused or there was a misunderstanding ... No and Yes are hard to misunderstand the rep said No it is not help by another company that is pretty clearly stated it was only after I refused her offer that she then tossed me to a 3rd party ( by the way he was wonderful to talk to very helpful and polite for a 3rd party collector ) Complaint is I despise being lied to when someone is attempting to collect money from me I hate it when I clearly ask a question and am given a clear answer and then find out that I was given fraudulent information to misrepresent a company and a debt is inexcusable. 

I asked the supervisor to do an internal investigation to why I was lied to and to send me a written explanation to that and she informed me that they could not do that. Why is it that a company like kohls could not tell me why a rep would misrepresent a debt to me? 

Is kohl 's right in assuming that they have the right to provide false information when they are attempting to collect a debt? 

The 3rd party collector that they hired to collect my debt shows a XXXX bal on my debt why would kohl 's try to collect a debt when its shows up as a XXXX bal I don't feel that I owe a debt to a company that would so freely falsely represent things to a client even if I am in poor standing. I deserve to be treated with respect. As I told the last rep that I spoke w this is no longer about the money owed it is about the disrespect that the Representative of the company showed me by providing me with false information all the while trying to collect the debt. It was only after I refused her offer and she I assume realized that I would not agree to pay her the payment that she gave me the number to the 3rd party collector. Is she paid a commission on her collections? Is that why she led me to believe that only khols held the debt in an attempt to get me to pay kohls directly so that khols did not have to pay a percentage of the collected money to the 3rd party? 

I feel that she was deliberately misleading me in an attempt to collect the debt directly. I had asked her to speak to a supervisor about a lower payoff amount and it was only after I asked for that supervisor that she referred me to the 3rd party company.