Capital One - A bad deal.
| Roy Fellows |
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Capital One - A bad deal. |
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I have used my Credit Card from Capital One for years as a satisfied customer. A while ago I got a letter asking me to phone a number as there was a suspected fraud, there was not and the situation was amicably resolved. That was years ago, it seems now the goalposts have moved. In case of credit card fraud the first person to know about it will be the perpetrator, the second the victim, the third the credit card company when the victim contacts them. This simple logic has been replaced by automated second guessing and Asian call centres.
What follows is a catalogue of error which I hope serves as a warning to others.
My advice is if you only want convenience and don't need credit, get a Debit Card from your own bank. If you must have a credit card, forget Capital One.
Having a credit card transaction declined reflects very badly on the integrity of the credit card holder so my annoyance is justifiable.
Attempting an on-line transaction on a Sunday evening with Premier Farnell and RS Components, both companies I can recommend I find the payments blocked by my credit card company for no good reason at all. First indication of issues is an email from RS on Monday morning indicating that their transaction has been declined. I logged onto the cards companies website and sent a secure email ordering them to unblock the transactions or I will settle any balance and close my account forthwith. I received a reply stating that the transactions have been blocked by their fraud team. Assuming that its been sorted I get on to RS and attempt to get the transaction paid, no good. I phone Capital Ones fraud dept as indicated on their email response and advise my intention to close my account because that is exactly what I said I would do and have no other option under my honour code. I advise my social position and advise that if its not sorted I will ensure that they will loose a lot of other customers. I am assured that the matter is sorted. I phone Farnell, deal with extremely helpful gentleman who attempts to put transaction through again, still no good. He offers me a trade account which will ensure prompt dispatch of goods and I pay after when all sorted. Very helpful. I log onto Capital One again and find by account blocked, they up the ante and take the piss.. I go on line to my bank and transfer full outstanding balance of Capital One account to settle, pending destruction of my credit card. I then contact NatWest and apply for a debit card to replace the Capital One credit card which I will cut into pieces and send to them with an 'appropriate covering letter'. By now its a game of wits with me doing the second guessing of what they are likely to do next. I see another phone call coming up and work out my strategy. If this is the way they treat customers I am surprised they have any. About a week later I get a call from their "Fraud Team". The caller asks me some personal questions which I decline to answer. "Its you that called me and I am not going to jump though hoops for you" He acknowledges previous correspondence and yet still talks about fraud! Welcome to the planet Zod. |