Consumer complaint received 2019-10-25
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION

Complaint:
We issued a purchase order to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX totaling {$26000.00} for lighting fixtures on an XXXX grocery store. Our agreement with XXXX was that our credit card would not be charged until the items were shipped and we would be notified of the any charge to our credit card and the amount. 

We released some items in XXXX in the amount of {$360.00} which went fine. About half of the remaining items were scheduled to be released for shipment in XX/XX/XXXX and the other half in XX/XX/XXXX. For some unknown reason on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX charged our card {$3800.00} and then charged {$3600.00} six times - five times on XX/XX/XXXX and once on XX/XX/XXXX totaling {$25000.00}. We were not notified by XXXX of the charges and no items were being shipped. We contacted XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and later received an email acknowledging their mistake and assurance they would issue credits to our charge card. 

Capital One did not notify us of the repeated charges of the same amount {$3600.00} ( five on XX/XX/XXXX and one on XX/XX/XXXX ) until the last two charges went through. I called the same day I received the email informing Capital One that the charges were not authorized and spent over two hours on the phone setting up the disputes. Capital One still paid the final two charges even after I called regarding the email they sent. We contacted XXXX XXXX first, both our sales rep and their credit manager. The salesman later replied to the email acknowledging their mistake and said they would issue credits ( which they did ). The representative I spoke with at Capital One also tried to contact XXXX XXXX but was unable to talk to anyone. 

My complaint with Capital One is for the following reasons : 1. Capital One fraud detection did not notify us of the duplicate charges ( six ) until they had paid them. We are routinely notified of duplicate or suspicious charges for small amounts. I have many on file. These were obviously very suspicious charges of the same amount. Looking back at our account their system they should easily see we have not made charges to this company in this manner or any company repeatedly for such a significant amount. That should have been an easy discovery for their fraud detection.

2. Capital One paid charges in over {$5000.00} in excess of our credit limit without notifying us.

3. The representative at Capital One I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX did not complete the seven disputes. When I called the next day I was informed that the disputes were not finished and were not being processed. I got the pleasure of spending some more time with Capital One Disputes finishing the disputes and repeating information provided the previous day.

4. I spoke with a Disputes Manager and he said there was nothing he could do to free up our account. It is absurd that someone could put over {$20000.00} unauthorized charges on your credit card, have your card unusable for 2 to 10 business days and the credit card company can not do anything? That is pitiful.

5. The disputes manager told me several times that XXXX presented the right credentials for payment namely the credit card number and expiration date. That may be fine for one payment but not six of the same amount at the same time? Really? He was very nice but must think I am a moron. What normally happens on a fraudulent charge? They have your credit card number and expiration date. 

6. We were declined by Capital One for six good charges so far as a result of their error. This was embarrassing and unnecessary. 

On XX/XX/XXXX both the credits ( except one ) and disputes were showing on our account. How long would our account be tied up if I hadnt called and spent another two hours the following day?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation