Consumer complaint received 2025-01-23 00:00:00
Product: Credit 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
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
Last year in XXXX I received a {$650.00} dollar charge on my Capital One credit card. I had been a Capital One customer for years, but I had never had any problems or issues. This was my first interaction with their customer service and I found them unhelpful and deliberately hostile to my concerns. 

In 2022 I had been a member of XXXX XXXX and they made it incredibly difficult to quit their gym. I finally thought I had successfully quit but two years later they billed my credit card for {$700.00} for " private trainer sessions ''. As I had never given them that card, I contacted Capital One and contested the charge. I provided them with a form from XXXX XXXX showing that the signature " acknowledging the debt '' wasn't mine but an employee of XXXXXX/XX/XXXX. In order to prove this, I also had to send them a copy of my signature. 

That wasn't good enough, so they then made me send in a copy of my driver 's license to prove that the signatures were different. That should have been the end of it, but Capital One then reinstated the charge on my card and told me that I would have to deal with the gym directly. 

I spent weeks going back and forth with the gym. They kept reporting to me that they had completed everything on their end to refund my money, but that their corporate offices weren't responding or acting on their instructions. They recommended that I again contact Capital One and have Capital One speak with the directly and they would ask Capital One to remove the charges. XXXX XX/XX/XXXX provided me with forms showing they were trying to refund the money and I uploaded those to Capital One as instructed. I called Capital One and described the problem to them. 

At first Capital One demanded that they couldn't do anything unless I provided them with copies of the phone calls. This made no sense. I told them that I didn't record my phone calls, and asked them if they wanted screen shots of my phone 's log. They eventually instructed me to document my interactions with XXXX. I then provided them with a two page log of my phone calls describing dates and times of calls, the results of those conversations and the contact information for those XXXX employees so they could verify it. 

Capital One then decided that those logs weren't sufficient and asked for emails from XXXX. I then contacted XXXX and had them email me, I would then upload these emails into the Capital One system. 

Each and every time I provided documentation to Capital One I would wait a day or three for them to act on it and then call them back. Each time I followed up Capital One would revise what they wanted and ask me to gather more information. To use popular jargon, Capital One was " moving the goal posts ''XX/XX/XXXXone eventually sent me an email saying that I 1 ) I never received those services and 2 ) the money should be refunded.

Believe it or not even that wasn't good enough for Capital One. After getting their customer service representative on the phone they said, and I kid you not, " For all we know they're mailing you a refund check. '' So I had to go back to XX/XX/XXXX and have them say that the money should be refunded TO my Capital One credit card and the account number of that card. 

I got that letter from XXXX and sent it Capital One and then Capital One had the audacity to say, " Sorry you're out of time. You took too long to resolve this '' and refused to take the charges of my card. 

I want to be clear, I provided documentation to show Capital One that : 1 ) the membership form acknowledging the charges was *not* my signature, but a fraudulent signature by the former gym manager.

2 ) a transaction log of telephone conversations with current XXXX XXXX 3 ) refund forms by the gym showing that they were trying to refund the charge, 4 ) emails/letters from the gym saying that the charges should be refunded.

Capital One didn't conduct an " investigation '' they simply denied everything I sent them, changed what they asked for, and once that was provided, say it wasn't good enough and ask for something else. Once I finally provided *exactly* what they wanted, they told me I was " out of time ''. 

I was beyond furious and called Capital One and told them that 1 ) I would never pay this, and that if they didn't take the charge off my card, I would close down ALL my Capital One cards since I had other cards as well. I closed those cards and sent them letters saying as much. 

Capital One is continuing to keep that card open, charge me late fees, and ruin my credit score. My score has dropped from XXXX to XXXX because of this and even though I keep contesting this account with credit reporting bureaus Capital One is obviously contacting the credit reporting bureaus and claiming these charges are legitimate.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation