There's Bad Customer Service, Then There's Capital One's Customer Service

Hi Everyone,

I've finally gotten everything resolved with Capital One after literally months of work to clear up a credit card charge, and now that I've gone through that experience I want to discuss the insane leaps and bounds I went through to get this sub-$3o0 charge off my credit card. So here's the story of how Capital One lost a customer and unveiled the horrible customer service of their company:

So Capital One reeled me in through their many commercials, and their constant stream of credit card mail offers that seemed to invade my mailbox everyday. Having used a debit card for years, I decided that I wanted to begin building credit and get some cash rewards in the process so I decided to take the plunge and get a Capital One Credit Card. For the first year or so there were absolutely no problems other than the somewhat annoying website problems that would have me find their payment system down for a day or more at a time. Despite all of this I was quite satisfied with my choice of going with Capital One until one faithful day in August.

This past August a friend and I decided to spend the weekend at Pechanga Casino, a local Indian Casino, in Temecula, CA . Having driven nearly two hours to get there we were told that we would not be able to stay there as we had booked through Orbitz and it didn't correspond with their system or their rooms. Now I had many words with nearly everyone who worked at the casino, and yet they just wouldn't put me up in a room due to being overcrowded, which was the first customer service I have ever had at a hotel. So after driving back, now taking 3 hours as the traffic started, I attempted to get Orbitz to give me a refund. At first they were quite receptive, but after numerous follow-up calls they never made good on their promise to refund my credit card for the nearly $300 room charge. At this point I sure was happy that I had used a credit card for the purchase, and envisioned getting my money back quickly and easily from Capital One with just one phone call. Boy was I wrong.

I was able to file the dispute online and had the charge taken off my account immediately. I then received a letter in the mail a few days later asking for additional information, which I gladly gave and sent back in the same day. At this point I couldn't believe how well this was going, and was happy that I had decided to go straight to my credit card company. I received some more letters stating that they had not received my letter, and resent it as well as faxed it. I even called customer support to confirm that it had gone through. While a bit perturbed that my original letter got lost in the mail or was misplaced by Capital One I still had a great impression of Capital One's service.

While on a date towards the end of October I tried to use my credit card and found that it had been declined. I figured that it was either a fluke or the waiter didn't know how to put it through so I paid with cash and pulled out my iPhone to see what was up. Nearly two months after the original dispute I find the complete charge, nearly $300, billed back to my credit card by Capital One, my own credit card company. It was nearly the end of the month so my credit card was quite full of charges so this $300 had pushed it past my limit causing overdraft fees, and my inability to use the card anymore.

At very few other times had I been so angry with a company (The only other comparable time was when I had to switch hosting companies due to them not responding for 12 hours despite promising 24/7 service). I called that night and for the next two nights after that, but was told that office was not open until Monday by outsourced call center representatives. Come to find out Monday when I finally get through to the New York office that they are indeed open 24/7 all year-long, which made me even angrier. The fact that they told me I had never sent them any of their letters back only made the fire burn stronger. They also wouldn't temporarily take the charge off either. So I had to wait for another letter to be sent out, it took 3 days, which should have been sent out before my account was charged along with a phone call notifying me of the pending charge.

After submitting the letter again nothing happened so I called another representative and confirmed the faxed letter with her. Yet still nothing is taken off my account, and I haven't been even acknowledged that they were reviewing it a week after the fact. At this point I called once again and asked for a supervisor. Well I should was in for a treat. After explaining my situation in a somewhat calm if not completely unemotional way this customer service woman began to raise her voice. This was new for me, and as she continued by yelling at me that she didn't like being told what to do or being insulted (Neither of which I had done) I told her how I really felt and hung up.

Calling another number got me to the head of the claims department who was the first person to actually help me through this whole fiasco. She apologized for the other supervisor's behavior, and promised that she would be dealt with. She then informed me that they had recieved every single one of the letters that I had either faxed or mailed, but that they had a question about one of the items of information. She informed me that their limited software only allowed them to send that one generic letter stating that they had never received the email. She quickly resolved my problem, and I was able to get all of my money back.

To give you an idea of the hassle this whole thing was I talked to literally 8-10 people with nearly half of them being outsourced call center representatives, had to mail 5 or so letters, faxed 3 or so letters, and spent hours on the phone trying to figure out what I was doing wrong when the whole thing could have been solved if the employees were educated on the computer system's generic letter limitation, and/or that more specific letters were mailed to customers.

Morals of the Story for Me:
1. Be sure that every customer service member is trained
2. Don't outsource your customer service that deals with any type of account problems, money problems, or any other situation where your customer is going to be easily irritated and is not going to appreciate having to repeat everything due to you saving a couple pennies
3. Use the phone to notify customers of problems so you can verify they have been informed
4. Don't do anything to a customer's account without informing them well beforehand

So I am looking for a new credit card company (I've heard American Express is good???), and being sure that we as a company and even more so myself personally don't make any of the mistakes that Capital One did in the future, even as we grow.

-Brad Jashinsky
CEO/CoFounder of
Reimagine Memories
http://www.ReimagineMemories.com