Consumer complaint received 2019-09-24
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (IL)

I live in the XXXX area. On XX/XX/19, I drove from the XXXX area to XXXX, PA. I used my Capital One card to pay for my hotel reservation, gas, meals and tolls along the way. On XX/XX/19, I departed XXXX to return to XXXX, once again using my Capital One card for hotel incidentals and tolls. Along the way, I pulled into an XXXX Turnpike service area to purchase a soda and fill my car with gas. My credit card was accepted by the vending machine for the diet XXXX, but when I pulled up to the pump, my card was declined. I received a text from Capital One saying that someone was trying to use my card at XXXX, and asking if it was me. I immediately responded to that text assuring them it was me. I received a response instructing me to try the card again now that I confirmed my identity. My card was declined. I called Capital One for assistance as I was very low on gas. A very unsympathetic representative kept going through lists of charges with me asking if they were mine ( they were all mine ). She said she cleared the hold on my account and my card would work fine now. I asked her to stay on the line while I tried it again and it was still declined. She said " well, sometimes once it is declined, the merchant just won't take it again, so you have to go to another gas station. I explained to her that I didn't think I had enough gas for that and I had 2 dogs in the car ( it was close to 90 degrees ) and it wouldn't be responsible for me to go back on the Turnpike and just hope that I made it to the next gas station. She said she couldn't do anything. The ATM was out of order, so I found another customer willing to help me buy enough gas to get to the next service area. I tried my card there and it still was being denied. I called Capital One and asked to speak with a supervisor. The fraud protection supervisor said he felt the phone attendant I spoke to initially did a really good job of helping me and didn't think he could do any more. I was yelling at him ( I am embarrassed to say ) that he had to have a way to get through to the merchant to approve my card because he sure was able to deny it in error. He then proceeded to tell me that it was MY fault that the merchant was denying my card because I ran it through twice. But I ran it through twice based on the instruction in their text message! I asked for his manager and he said " we have a manager here, but he doesn't take calls from customers. He said " you can end this call and call in again and ask for one of them but they are going to just tell you the same thing I am. '' I about exploded! The Turnpike systems in XXXX  and XXXX  only have one vendor for gas - there were no other options for me! I explained to him that all along this trip I have left electronic breadcrumbs for capital one in the form of gas purchases, meal purchases, toll charges and meal purchases. There should not have been a fraud alert in the first place! He said " I'll give that feedback to our fraud alert team ''. I was just flabbergasted that capital one would leave a customer stranded on the expressway with no way to buy gasoline when they were the ones who made the error that caused the whole thing. I told him that according to my card terms, if I were to make a late payment that I would have to pay them {$39.00}. I suggested that capital one, in turn, should have to pay the same amount to me for my stress. They don't have a mechanism ( they say ) to negate their error in denying charges with the vendor, and they don't have a mechanism to have anyone above a supervisor take a call handle a consumer emergency situation.