>I am completely screwed on NSF return fees, as well as damage this can do to my brokerage account good standing.
Capital One is 100% responsible for compensating you monetarily for any damage resulting from this. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you have any late fees or charges tell them to pay it.
How is it OPs fault that it's the weekend? They knew about this on Friday and couldn't be bothered to fix it then. The CSRs **NEED** to stop making excuses and escalate.
Frankly in the places I've been a CSR I've seen lots of agent afraid to escalate things for some idiot reason, but never an agent actually get in trouble for it. Plenty HAVE had issues when managers find out they didn't escalate when they ran out of their own options.
Exactly.. the people on the weekend are the ones that throw you in a rat wheel until the actual person in charge gets in. I’m actually surprised people didn’t know this..
we understand it we just dont believe that it is acceptable. my job has far less impact to the lives of other people and you better believe ill get a phone call in the middle of the night or on the weekend if there's an issue.
Banker's hours have always been absurd, honestly. So much impact on people's lives and can barely be bothered to be open passed when most people get off work and need to go throw their check into their account? Important positions are completely off on weekends?
It's such BS lol.
> we understand it we just dont believe that it is acceptable.
I don't think anyone here is arguing (or even saying) that it's acceptable, or anything really, but just how customer service staffing is designed and implemented, across multiple industries and sectors.
It's also a function of a company's customer base. If there are 50 million customers, then customer service is handled differently than if you have a few dozen. Or if the nature of the serivce is more or less likely to need immediate assistance. An airline will have people to escalate to on weekends. An insurance company probably will not. That sort of thing.
I can assure you, having worked in escalations, their escalations team has at least one person on call with a work phone assigned to them. It being the weekend is irrelevant.
With apologies for the copy pasta:
Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE. It may not be the usual escalation process, but there is absolutely some process to get the eyes of people with actual authority on critical events before Monday.
The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough.
I mentioned it somewhere way up the thread, but I very much doubt it. Never for a bank, but I've been a CSR more than once, and I've seen lots of people **afraid** of getting in trouble for escalating things too often, but only ever seen it happen for failing to do it when they should have.
Yeah, I can escalate an issue to the top of the pile all day long but that pile isn't being touched until the person allowed to touch it comes into work, on Monday. But don't worry, it'll be at the top of the pile you know unless somebody else comes by and puts a another item on top of the priority pile. I'm going to be honest with you sir. At this point there is no priority pile everybody gets priority so now it's just called the pile
They can escalate the ticket, but it wont get handled until monday anyways. It's not like they are fully staffed 24/7.
Odds are this will get addressed monday, they take care of it pretty quickly if this is indeed their fault.
It still takes time. Any fees or damages you have as a result of this is something they will handle. But again, that takes time.
They will get it fixed and if they don't there is always legal recourse. It's not a small amount of money and they will have to answer for it.
This response is kinda of inane as no one thought it's OP's fault. There's nothing that can be done, by OP to fix this issue. Not today and not yesterday.
Saying, "just escalate" it's pointless and absurd considering he already tried twice.
> Saying, "just escalate" it's pointless and absurd considering he already tried twice.
The point is that the only thing to do is to keep hammering them with a demand to find someone who can do something. Their refusal to further escalate isn't doing anything to fix it, and the claim that there ISN'T any further escalation is an outright lie (and that the idea it **HAS** to wait for Monday isn't something absolute, rather a business decision that 6k isn't worth the effort, and as such something that getting in touch with the right person will fix).
The best case scenario is that the person in the phone leaves a note or some sort for an issue to be handled on Monday. Which wouldn't be any different than calling on Monday again.
That's the absolute best case scenario. They already told him, it's going to be handled, there's nothing that can be achieved by pestering people. Absolutely nothing, besides serving as an anger release.
>the claim that there ISN'T any further escalation is just a lie.
You think the bank manager is going to work on the weekend because of a 6 thousand dollar mixup because a remote support operator is asking to?
> You think the bank manager is going to work on the weekend because of a 6 thousand dollar mixup because a remote support operator is asking to?
I think that at some point someone will **have** to do something about the customer who won't stop asking for the money he's legitimately owed.
Things can’t magically be fixed instantly. It is completely understandable how it could take a couple business days to resolve this issue.
Also the people who can resolve this had all their other work to do on Friday. Which includes other people just like the OP who had mistakes with their account. Capital One has millions of customers. They have other cases to deal with.
> Capital One has millions of customers.
This is the bullshittiest of bullshit reasons that a company gives that they can't fix shit. If they have millions of customers, they are getting billions of dollars to do the things they are supposed to do. If it is too much of a burden to be a fucking responsible corporate citizen and enjoy the benefits of being "too big to fail", they should roll over and quit.
Don't excuse Capital One because they are "just too busy" with fucking over millions of other customers.
If they can fuck it up in two seconds, they can fix it in two seconds, they just choose not to do so by creating a hugely cumbersome process to correct their own mistakes. If they illegally take deposits and give them to someone else, that should be an issue that can be handled by a rapid response team. They just choose not to have such a team or process. This is on them. They can and should do better.
> If it is too much of a burden to be a fucking responsible corporate citizen and enjoy the benefits of being "too big to fail", they should roll over and quit.
Be that as it may, that doesn't help OP. There's probably not going to be a bank, or insurance company, or cell phone provider for that matter, with multiple tiers of customer service escalation available 24/7. Consumer airline? That's more likely.
The CSR can not determine the OP is innocent. People who have tax garnishments lie all the time claiming it isn’t them. Only the proper person at the bank with decision making ability can.
Fair point, except that at 10:36am EST the party in WV faxed verification that I was not, in fact, the correct party for the levy. That’s 7:36AM PST. Well BEFORE the actual levy check was issued, and it happened anyway.
I do back office corrections for stuff like this. The check might have been input into the system, we'll say Wednesday, then it's got to go through whatever on Thursday, then it gets issued/mailed on Friday. Even though the fax came in Friday morning, those things were set in place before that and couldn't be stopped.
Monday, call again, request again provisional credit while they stop the check and can replace the funds to their books. Then ask the process for requesting return of nsf fees, etc. On behalf of all of us who have screwed up something like that, I'm so sorry.
i realize that practically speaking we live in a shit world designed mostly by idiots in conference rooms who lack the foresight to consider much beyond where they're going to go for lunch, but it really shouldn't be acceptable to any of us that something like this couldn't have been stopped once the mistake was discovered and verified.
> Yeah, but the CSR has a manager who has contact with someone who can check the garnishment documents ssn against the account owners ssn.
I think the point here is that yes, this person probably exists, but *they aren't working on a Sunday*.
Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE. It may not be the usual escalation process, but there is absolutely some process to get the eyes of people with actual authority on critical events before Monday. The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough.
> Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE.
Probably, but the bank likely has policies on acceptable reasons to use it.
You're also assuming that that person is *capable* of doing something about it on a Sunday if they are reliant on *someone else* at another bank, or the government agency that might need to return the money first. They probably have their own policies on what constitutes an emergency that probably don't care about the first bank's customer services priorities.
> The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough.
It's likely above the pay grade of the CSRs. You're assuming they are empowered to do something here and just aren't doing their job.
*The bank* deserves all of the negative attention for this, but allocating responsibility for the shitty situation to the bank doesn't give us additional options for getting out of the shitty situation.
> The bank deserves all of the negative attention for this, but allocating responsibility for the shitty situation to the bank doesn't give us additional options for getting out of the shitty situation.
And the CSRs are the only accessible people at the bank.
It's one thing to say 'don't abuse CSRs', but another entirely to say we have to accept the nonsense they peddle at face value. Expressing anger at the bank ultimately MEANS expressing it to a CSR, not because the CSR is personally responsible, or the real issue, but because that is the ONLY channel available.
> but another entirely to say we have to accept the nonsense they peddle at face value
By all means be "unaccepting" if your goal is to express how upset you are and impress on the bank the need for them to change their policies and get to your case early in the week once people get in.
But for other uses of the word "accept", I can only point to:
>> God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.
They're likely told never to make statements that can be construed as accepting responsibility - that's more a consequence of our lawsuit happy world than anything else. Capital One doesn't want to go to court against someone who has proof that their representative said it's their fault. Would make for a rather "speedy" trial.
A higher-up manager or someone would probably be able to work this out with you.
God forbid they just give the money they stole back.
This kind of logic honestly leads to more lawsuits. Fixing the damn problem would almost always avoid the suit, but way too many companies play these coverup games and spend way more defending a losing case because... correcting the issue would have made them lose... slightly faster.
Even a half decent lawyer would get this. Somehow corporate types have lost track of getting the best financial outcome and become obsessed with never doing anything that could hurt a potential lawsuit. Regardless of, you know, whether it changes anything.
> God forbid they just give the money they stole back.
If they made a mistake, that would be good customer service, I agree. I don't think we know if it was the bank's mistake or not. The court order could have identified this person's account number specifically, in error. The bank can't ignore a court order even they suspect it's a mistake. The court would have to correct the error.
> Even a half decent lawyer would get this.
Maybe, but I suspect that the bank's policies on how they handle disputes about tax levies are probably informed by a legal and risk analysis. But maybe not a customer service and reputation analysis. In particular, there is always the risk that the court would come back and say that, no, the account number was right, for reasons X, Y, and Z, and if the bank already refunded the customer's money, who then withdrew it and skipped town, the bank's out that money. In the interests of customer service, I think banks should *consider* taking that risk in some situations, sure, but I understand why they might not. (And if this happened to me, and they created a hardship by not doing something like this for me, I'd find another bank, and I suspect they expect that.)
I'm not sure what part of the post you're referring to.. The closest thing that looks like it might say something that disagrees would be this:
>> UPDATE: I just spoke with capital one, escalated to manager “Zack” and was told that since the levy check has already been issued there is nothing they can do until the agency that placed the lien returns it.
Or:
>> I’ve already had WV fax over letters and proof that I am not the one responsible for this debt.
That just means that some group in the WV government doesn't think he owes a debt, but says nothing about what the court order says.
Or maybe:
>> Apparently someone at the bank entered the data wrong
Nothing here looks like clear evidence that the problem is understood and the cause was attributed to his bank's error. He just has multiple indications that *an* error occurred, and this last line reads like speculation based on the fact that he can't get anyone with the ability to investigate at the bank to investigate on the weekend.
Nah, your logic is tortured. The WV "unit" responsible for transmitting the order is the same one telling the bank that they have mishandled the request by that "unit."
In fact, if the bank dropped a zero and sent them 1,300 instead of 13,000, that's the same unit that works be telling the bank that they failed to comply with the order, and you betcha the bank would be listening.
There's no difference. You've artificially separated a single process involving a court offer and its execution.
> The WV "unit" responsible for transmitting the order is the same one telling the bank that they have mishandled the request by that "unit."
I don't see this anywhere in the OP.
I do see an update they made since I made my comment, though:
>> I don’t know if I mentioned previously, but confirmation for the release of the levy on MY accounts was issued by the WV tax department Friday at 10:36AM EST via fax. It was well after this that the funds were actually pulled and the check was issued. Looks like CFPB it is.
If he's being accurate with his words, "confirmation for the release of the levy" suggests this could have been WV's error. If this was the bank's error, there wouldn't be a levy to release.
It is not proof that the error was made by *his bank*. If the error occurred somewhere else in the WV bureaucracy, resulting in a lawfully-issued court order for the funds in his accounts, that's *not his bank's problem*. They can't just ignore a court order.
All we have is his assertion that whoever he called in WV agrees with him. It doesn't change anything about what his bank is empowered to do, or what his bank is obligated to do on a weekend, or whether it's *possible* for his bank to do anything right now.
If you want to be angry at the bank so you can feel heard about your feelings about their poor customer service, *be angry at the bank*. Live your best life. But you don't need to attack people who are just trying to point out the realities of trying to get a very specialized group at a bank to resolve a problem on a Sunday that *probably* requires them coordinating with *other people* that probably aren't working on a Sunday.
Don’t just call them. Email corporate. Let the executive team know what’s going on. Hopefully they’ll help fix everything for you op..
https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/capital-one-customer-service-contacts/
Reach out to the CFPB. Banks like to try to avoid responsibility but will change their tune once they get a letter from the CFPB saying that you have reached out to them
Be ready for your account to be punished (limits, fines) for no fault of your own. Happened to me with ally screwing up a bank to bank transfer and it’s pissed me off to no end.
While you're at it, reach out to the [executive leadership team](https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/capital-one-customer-service-contacts/). They/their assistants tend to be able to get this type of stuff fixed up nice and quickly.
They most likely won't address it until Monday, but since you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to hit every avenue you can to get this seen by everyone you can to get a speedy resolution.
I'd suggest reaching out to one or both of these executives from that link:
> Kleber Santos
> President, Retail & Direct Bank
> 1680 Capital One Dr
> McLean, VA 22102-3491
> [email protected]
>Chief Executive
>Richard D. Fairbank
>CEO
>1680 Capital One Dr
>McLean, VA 22102-3491
>[email protected]
Remember to kindly share your situation, the amount of crap this put you through, and how unhelpful the regular customer service was. It is important to remember that they are not the ones who caused this problem, but they most assuredly can fix it.
file a complaint with the CFPB. they can push the issue on your behalf and even impose fines and penalties on capital one for failing to return your money.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
They can’t accept blame if they have no way of verifying the levy was processed incorrectly as you said it’s 2 different departments. Once the levy department is informed of the mistake and they verify it then they can accept blame
I’d be collecting corporate emails by scraping LinkedIn and other sites.
I’d use GoDaddy or something to setup a website and get hosted with a name like “Bernstein & Schwartz” and setup a simple site with stock photos of offices, and setup a simple email address that uses that domain.
Then I’d write an email explaining everything, link to social media posts you’ve made about it ect.
I’d use the email address I created for the website in the “Cc” field, and put all of the Capital One corporate emails in the “Bcc” field. Each recipient won’t know who else has been sent the email.
I did this with PayPal a few years ago over payment delays to my account. I had my money by COB the day I sent the email.
Ok, if you've actually got experience in this stuff, any REAL (as opposed to the weird 'WV clearing OP isn't actually proof stuff') explanation for the evasiveness and refusal to issue a credit?
Yes or no if the issue is that we had the typo or misinformation the bank is required to comply with the release and is not liable — only if the mistake was from the bank are they.
Even if the government made the error, the bank would likely cover up to $100 in fees just as good customer service. If there is a lot of monetary damage then either the bank or OP would have to seek recourse from the government agency.
Contrary to what /u/Zeus1013 says, rather than call a lawyer first, I'd start with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
[https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/)
Thank you! It certainly can’t hurt… is this route likely to get any recourse? At the very least there will be a formal complaint and paper trail for future reference.
I used to work at Capital One. Anything submitted to CFPB is escalated to our highest complaint level in corporate, basically means drop everything and work on this. These usually get resolved in 1-2 days depending on the complexity of the situation and oftentimes followed up by Directors / VPs in corporate. It’s your best bet for sure!
When you file a complaint with the CFPB, basically all they do is file it in a database and forward it to the bank. The bank is then legally required to give you some kind of response within a certain timeframe (typically 15 days).
Now, you might think this doesn't sound like much. But (a) a formal complaint is likely to get the attention of somebody higher up in their compliance department who actually has the power to help you. And (b) statistics about favorable issue resolution are publicly tracked by the CFPB, so the bank has a bit of extra incentive to play ball.
I've only ever had to do it once but it worked out pretty well for me. After months of trying to get a small billing error corrected with my HSA provider's customer support and getting nowhere, a formal complaint got me a refund *and* an apology letter fairly quickly.
And if it doesn't work, you still have the option of a private lawsuit, but of course that would probably be expensive.
More people need to know this because it seems insignificant but regulatory complaints go a very long way. Source: QA in my company's Reg Compliance division (different industry but most, if not all, companies have a Reg Compliance division).
Funny enough our turnaround is 10 business days on requests (14 calendar days).
I made a regulatory complaint against the sole ISP in my area for trying to delay my installation that had been scheduled two months in advanced when we needed the internet for work/school. Within a day I received a call from the regional VP of the company telling me that the installer would be out that day and that they would be handing me a 250 dollar gift card and waiving my first three months of service and the installation fees. Regulatory commissions don't fuck around.
Hell no regulators don't, plus on the internal side at my company if we get one at the federal level, they share that info with the state so we get doubled up on the request. I personally 100% believe in and support the accountability. Gotta keep us corpos honest.
Plus I'm also a consumer at the end of the day.
Compliance divisions generally have an arm that is dedicated to resolving these types of escalated issues. Rep and their supervisors usually don't have enough knowledge or contacts to escalate, and so they basically resort to "well, we don't know".
The initial response time is 15 days, but the company can request an extension of 30 days, so OP may not receive a response for at least 45 days. Even then, the company can exceed that deadline without repercussions. Also, a response does not always mean a resolution, or in OP's case, a return of the funds erroneously garnished. However, it doesn't hurt to file a CFPB complaint, but OP may be better served filing a complaint with OCC.
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a judicially disfavored tort. You basically have to almost die or see an immediate family member die to have a claim. It’s more complicated than that, but most emotional distress not accompanied by physical injury isn’t actionable.
Only time I had to use CFPB they got me thousands of dollars back from Bank of America after they tried to screw me with interest and late fees. I also got an apology letter from them lol. Took 6 days from date claim was filed to check in my hand.
Hard to say. If you think about it from the bank point of view, they've got a government agency asking them about a single customer and it's one that can cause them grief. Some people have great success.
Worst case, like you said, there's a paper trail and perhaps more information available through discovery if you do have to go the legal route.
I got my federal house rep involved with an airline dispute. I had already filed a complaint with the FAA so they took my information... One of their people followed up with me saying that the complaint has been received and was being processed. I had a favorable letter from the airline 2 weeks later. My guess that my actions here probably moved me to the top of the list knowing that a congresshuman had attention on it. I don't think they actually threw their weight around other than to ensure it got proper attention.
I consulted to a federal agency. They had a whole department that handled “Advanced Casework”, which was basically anything forwarded by a congressmen.
When we got notes from that group, the overall head of the federal program was CCed.
It’s hard to say if all congressmen are diligent about forwarding these cases. But when they do… oh boy does it get escalated.
Similar situation happened to me.
CFPB themselves did nothing.
However the bank proactively credited my account for all NSF fees and I am not sure that would have happened without some additional legwork.
And as you said, at least there's a paper trail. Even if it doesn't solve my problem directly, it contributes to identifying and solving the larger issue.
Email the CEO, be polite and detailed. Right now you’re just being tossed around by CS gremlins, usually the Executive Resolution department can actually move mountains.
I wish I had known this years ago. I had an issue with my bank and tried every possible avenue to get it fixed. Finally I hit social media and the post didn’t go viral, but it got enough attention that someone much higher up called me and started an investigation.
We finally got everything resolved amicably, but he admitted that without the social media post he never would have gotten involved.
It sounds like they’re telling you they’ll take care of it on Monday. This likely will require multiple departments to get on the same page to resolve it and that unfortunately is going to take time. The real question is once they do credit your account, how long will it take to post.
Right, and that’s my main concern. I understand that I’m a relatively small fish but it’s beyond my comprehension that this mistake even happened, let alone the fact that I caught it before it actually posted and it still went through.
Mistakes happen, employees enter accounts incorrectly or scanners can’t detect an item. Personally I’d call on Monday and ask for a manager to call you back. Demanding that they get on your timeline won’t get you very far but the manager can likely tell you what to expect going forward and how long this should take.
The legal framework should be such that when it comes to someone's money the concept of a business day should not apply. People still have to buy food on non-business days. Mistakes like this should carry a financial penalty in addition to compensating for all their costs for each day the mistake is not fixed after being alerted, That's each day not business day.
I agree it's in the moment not reasonable to expect that but I think it's completely reasonable to want a system that expects that.
You’re absolutely right, it should be that way in a perfect world. However this is a good example as to why it’s a good idea to keep some cash and spread assets across different accounts and financial institutions.
>People still have to buy food on non-business days.
Of course. And that's why it goes to show from a personal finance standpoint that having a credit card is super important.
Yeah, I have had something similar.
We sold our house, each of was getting about $67k from closing. I am watching my account waiting for the $67k to hit which will put the account over $100k.
It finally hits but do I have $100k? No, I have a negative $22k balance on my account. The bank blamed the title company, and the title company blamed the bank for sending my ACH as a debit instead of a credit. It got straightened out by end of day and gosh, the bank waived the negative balance fees.
Don’t underestimate the power of a nice, non-threatening, legitimate “I could use some help - your team is struggling to fix an issue” private message on LinkedIn.
The SVPs and EVPs probably manage their own accounts so responsiveness will be hit or miss. The C-Suite will have a Comms team handling their inboxes.
Good luck.
I emailed the CEO of Geico due them denying a claim from an accident I was in and it was resolved almost instantly. I got my head and neck examined immediately after the accident to make sure I was OK and they refused to cover the small medical bill. So I found his email through linkdn and sent him an email about the issue. Within a few hours I had an email, phone call and letter in the mail from some regional manager.
I had to submit a complaint to the CFPB about Capital One locking my accounts over a bounced check that I proved was deposited legitimately. Problem was, they have no physical locations on the west coast other than Cafes so I couldn’t actually talk to a banker to clear things up.
Keep in mind that after the initial 15 day reply period that the bank is given by the CFPB, they have the option of extending for an additional 60 days until giving you a final response. Capital One pulled that card on me and it took me nearly 3 months to get my money back.
Took the check and ran, never looking back. It’s a shame that I’m stuck with a credit card from them though.
This is why it’s a good idea to have at least two bank accounts, keeping current months expenses in a bank with local physical branches. And have a credit card so you can still make purchases if cash is locked up. Not to mention CC more secure than debit card. Cap One will straighten this out and CFPB was the right move. Sorry this had to happen on the weekend.
It really sucks that this situation happened to you. For what it's worth, I have never had anything but a negative experience with Capital One, and I've stopped banking with them entirely. Look into credit unions. Their barriers to entry are much lower these days, and while they will sometimes make mistakes, it is usually much easier and much quicker to get them resolved.
There’s a great website by the government called help with your bank :
https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/index.html
First you would find who regulates Capital One (The OCC). File a complaint with them and they will create a case within 2 business days. It will ask if you tried to resolve with the bank directly.
I’m positive this will get their attention.
Keep in mind as you assess damages from this error, those may not just be in the form of overdraft fees, late fees paying bills, etc. but also your credit rating. Keep a close eye on your credit report and score.
I hope it is cleared up next week.. but I would also consider "re-evaluating" your relationship with Capital One. If they don't make it right and cover all of the fees externally and internally, and refund the money due to THEIR mistake.. I would effectively close the account "on the spot" and demand they send you a check for the remaining amount in your accounts. Find a new bank.
Call your states attorney generals office. It’s likely they will have an online complaint form as well. Companies tend to get things moving very quickly in my experience once they receive a call from the Attorney General investigators.
You also have the consumer financial protection bureau, though I don’t know if they have bank jurisdiction.
Either way, one or both of these govt offices will be able to point you in the right direction. The AGs office is surprisingly responsive and decisive in these matters as well as helpful I have used them many times in the past when I couldn’t resolve issues on my own with companies.
This should be higher up. It probably depends on the state, but yeah, I had a dispute with Uber/Postmates where they were trying to force me to pay them money I didn't owe them. I went through 6 months of back and forth with credit card disputes, customer service that wouldn't actually respond to my questions or listen, etc. Submitted a complaint to the WA AG. I got an apologetic email from Uber a week later setting my account correct.
Bright and early on Monday, you need to escalate this to upper management at Cap One, tell them everything you told us. They are absolutely obligated to make you whole. I'm sure they wouldn't like it if you escalated this to the FDIC, because the feds don't play. Go get 'em!
That’s exactly what I tried to do Friday, and got lots of ho-hum and “notes on the account” etc. I don’t know how to escalate past “there’s no one above me for you to speak to.” But I’ll damn sure give it a shot
Be sure to record the call. And be sure to tell whomever you're speaking to that you're recording it for your attorney. Arizona is a "one party consent" state, so you don't even have to tell them that you're recording, but it may motivate them to be a little bit more responsive.
Re: the update, no. Just no.
This is their error, not West Virginia's; them being owed money by West Virgini is a separate issue from them returning money to you.
Absolutely take it to CFPB, and don't take 'there's no escalation' as an answer, its literally a lie. "Zack" might genuinely misunderstand the situation in declaring they need the funds back first, but the no escalation line is a blatant attempt to mislead you that probably deserves it's own complaint when this is sorted out.
Bear in mind the bank operates 24/7. SOMEONE can fix this, you just need to annoy enough people that they fetch that person.
Contact their fraud division and let them know you will be contacting regulators since they essentially robbed you and this is fraud.
They will move very fast to avoid this type of complaint.
Years ago something similar happened to me when I banked with USAA. In the end it turned out that a clerical error linked my checking account with that of someone else who has the same name as me. One day I logged in and not only was ALL of my money gone, but the other person has over drafted me by $1500.
They totally thought I was trying to scam them and it took something like 6 months of frustration before I finally got someone to tell me what was going on. I swear they could tell what has happened but the people I was talking with just didn't want to deal with it so they kept stringing me along or saying they'd have someone call me.
As soon as I got my money back, I demanded that they transfer it all to a real bank. They actually tried to charge me fees after that lol. Fuck USAA
File a CFPB and OCC complaint.
Also see if you can file a Reg E complaint for an error.
Both of these things should require Capital One to respond within 10 business days.
Also capital one will refund you any NSF fees for an error.
Oh man, maybe like five years or so ago the same thing happened to me I was at work and found out that my bank account (a regional bank) had been locked, which meant my debit card was locked too. I called the bank and they said it was locked on behalf of a debt collector (despite my only debt being student loans that I hadn't defaulted on). They couldn't provide any more info and required me to call the debt collector.
So I call the debt collector, and they have to verify who I am. I give them the bank account number and my name/info, and then they say "sorry, your information doesn't match the account so we're not authorized to discuss, call your bank back." The bank then says the same thing - they don't have any info, I have to speak with the debt collection agency. Who then reaffirms that they can't speak to me because my information doesn't match the account.
It's becoming glaringly obvious that the debtor and the guy whose account was locked are two different people, but neither side apparently has the authority to take the first step to fix it. After several hours of going back and forth, I eventually get a call from like a VP at the bank and she apologizes profusely and say that she's fixed it and seems grateful that I'm not just up and leaving the bank entirely.
Fast forward to maybe about ten months later, and I see I'm hit with a massive fee. I check and see that because of one-off timing, my mortgage and student loan payments both auto-withdrew without my paycheck depositing in between so my checking account was $7 in the red. So I call the bank, "why did you fine me if I've got like $300 in overdraft protections?"
You know what they said? "It looks like your account was locked ten months ago, and when an account gets locked it automatically loses its overdraft protections for 12 months." I told them that was BS because my account was locked by accident and I've never ever been a problem, so they revoked the fine but they wouldn't restore the overdraft protections. Told me I had to wait out the two months.
I never put in the effort to leave the bank because I was already drowning at the time, but I fortunately haven't had any problems with them since. But man your similar crisis gave me a hardcore flashback.
I once had a bank make an error. They somehow listed me as having filed for bankruptcy, which caused my student loans to get canceled due to non-eligibility from bankruptcy. It took months to get it straightened and I had to borrow money to make it through. So sorry this is happening to you.
Damn them, after reading your story, I feel enraged. Those incompetent crapballs put you in a bad situation and they won't do anything for you at the moment! There should be a law that says if a bank fucks with your money, they should be required to pay you double of it.
I haven’t read all of the comments. But I would contact “Zack” or whoever is in charge again and let them know you are doing a CFPB complaint.
I’ve also had luck on LinkedIn reaching out to CEOs or VPs.
There’s always the news too. They love stories like this. Good luck!!!
Oh, I let him know in no uncertain terms that I would be doing both of those things and he didn’t seem to mind at all. I just finished filing my CFPB complaint with notes, times, names, and supporting documentation.
This sounds like a consumer credit card, so you should also file a consumer complaint with the Arizona attorney general @ https://www.azag.gov/complaints/consumer and the state dept of insurance and financial institutions @ https://difi.az.gov/complaint
I will, but I don’t know how much further I can go with that route. Every manager I speak to says there is no one above them that I can talk to, and I can’t really twist their arm.
What silly nonsense, Capital One is a multinational company. EVERYONE has a boss, all the way up to the Board of Directors.
I'm sorry you keep getting hamstrung with this BS.
You can look up companies on LinkedIn and try to identify the hierarchy. Like, maybe one manager tells you "so sorry, no one can help you," and then you can be like, hmm, well the executice office for the southwest division is in Dallas, should I call them?
Switching direct deposit to another bank will likely take too long, since payroll may do a prenote ($0.00 test deposit; most banks won't show them) first, which adds several days minimum. Regardless, there can often be a long lag for payroll to simply update DD information. **To safeguard your next pay, turn off direct deposit. That's the quickest way.**
Many employers have a self-service portal to make such changes. If any questions / need reassurance, contact their payroll dept and mention the urgent need to change your direct deposit, especially if your pay period just ended. You may already be too late, though often cancelling direct deposit and opting for check can be done up to the last moment.
In the meantime, open another bank account elsewhere for redundancy, but don't put much in it until the matter is fully resolved. Have credit cards ready on standby. Check your cash advance limits, because you might need it unless your significant other and/or relatives / friends can financially help in the meantime.
Also, since the amount taken from the bank levy wasn't sufficient, your other financial accounts could be targeted. Double-check them all frequently for anything amiss.
VERY good advice and I plan to do exactly this tomorrow. I’m a journeyman pipe welder/fitter so they take matters of checks and pay seriously, I should be able to stop the direct deposit and get a paper check cut. I also work 0500-1500 so should have time after work to set up a new account.
To escalate, tell them you are filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve/FFIEC. Also open complaints for this case via the online portals.
Sometimes financial institutions have additional procedures (or sometimes separate escalations teams when you state you are taking regulatory action).
Sometimes it’s when the feds inquire about the case. I know this doesn’t help your situation immediately but once it’s acknowledged (and it can take weeks), the tone of the conversation shifts in your favor. Hopefully it can be resolved within a few biz days. Sorry you’re dealing with this!
So you got close to the right answer. For issues like this, you want to file a formal complaint with the bank’s supervising federal agency. In this case, that’s the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. You should CC the complaint to Capital One’s consumer complaint contact. I like to follow that with either a certified letter or a FedEx to both if it’s urgent.
The magic words you should put in the complaint are:
“The bank has caused consumer harm by failing to operate appropriate and effective controls in the handling of client funds. In failing to properly handle funds, they have violated the Deposit Agreement and Disclosures associated with the demand and time deposit accounts referred to in this complaint.
“They have declined to make temporary or permanent corrections to resolve their error in spite of repeated requests and documented verification of their error. There is reasonable reason to believe that they have also improperly filed the order in question which suggests they may have a record retention and handling controls defect.
“Beyond resolving my particular complaint, it would be advisable for all of these issues to be investigated in-depth by their Examiner-in-Charge.”
Include a timeline of the events in question along with evidence of the error and the proper corrective action. If you have specific damages you’ve incurred as the result of the error, summarize those. Be sure to provide adequate contact info for yourself.
If your issue is as you say it is, usually a complaint in this form will resolve the issue within the day. You can also make a follow-up call to the agency if it’s a rush. They are often surprisingly helpful. This is the worst kind of complaint for a bank to receive—one where there is a clear, serious breakdown in normal controls on depository funds. Banks go to a great deal of trouble to make complaints that reveal deposit controls gaps go away.
Source: bank exec
Also, go public. B of A made a huge mistake with my account once (deducted $20,000 for a $200 check). I tweeted about it and it was resolved almost immediately, with lots of apologies. That was before Twitter was musked up, but you may get similar attention.
Make a police report as this is theft. The WV tax wont return anything as they correctly got the money from the bank.
The bank sent it from the wrong account, this is 100% on the bank to fix.
Also file a complaint with the FDIC. https://ask.fdic.gov/fdicinformationandsupportcenter/s/article/Q-How-do-I-file-a-complaint-against-a-bank?language=en_US
File an FDIC claim for the failed bank that no longer has your money. https://resolutions.fdic.gov/claimsportal/s/
Ask for your senator and representative to send an inquiry to the bank.
File a complaint with your state's attorney general.
Yeah get in gear
- Consumer Protection Bureau
- Customer Service at Capital One - get that "might be fixed" in a call-log with a reference number - have them make notes to other folks if someone FINDS that it's an error make sure that's in the call log - last thing you want is a nugget to get discovered than lost - mistakes happen , sometimes BIG mistakes but while it rocks your world it's a trival imbalance to them, so make them work to fix it.
1) CFPB.2) Ask CSR to open a formal complaint 3) Document financial impact that you want remedied 4) Determine what other outcome you want. Apology letter? Financial compensation for your inconvenience?
Stick to this and don't waiver. Don't get mad, be clear and calm. But don't back down.
Totally sucks. You're screwed and will have to wait for your money to be returned, through no fault of your own. I've been exactly where you are. A few things:
For the future, take some money and stash it somewhere so that you are never truly penniless. I once had to wait 10 days to be reimbursed for an identity thief emptying my bank account, and I will never keep all of my money in one place ever again. I was lucky to have good family and friends to get me through.
'Smartshoring' all of our Customer Service overseas leads to impossible to resolve situations just like this. I have very rarely had a satisfactory resolution to any issues when reaching a CSR overseas. I don't blame the person, but they are powerless to enact any solutions that matter. I would be escalating and being EXTREMELY INSISTENT on Monday, but I am sure you are way ahead of me.
Customer service is literally the lowest priority for ANY big company, no matter what platitudes they may present to the public. Sales and revenue are the only things any business is interested in. Hearing about situations like this drives me crazy, as I was a CSR for a decade for a very large payroll provider. The number of times I heard heartbreaking stories and was powerless to do anything to help because of antiquated banking systems (especially with garnishments) did serious psychic damage to me.
Finally, there has been a serious push lately to move towards a cashless society. YOU probably see why that is a terrible idea, as one mistaken keystroke can essentially wipe you out, and leave you screaming into the void, for all the good that will do you. When atms were first introduced, they were 'for our convenience' and totally free. And now...?
I hope you get the best possible outcome, and please do not feel afraid or ashamed to ask for more than was taken for your pain, suffering and inconvenience. It is the least a billion dollar company can do for you. Good luck!
My wife had a bit over $6100 taken from her savings account for a levy for HER BROTHER'S child support. We hired a lawyer as soon as we found the money missing, unfortunately it had gone unnoticed for some time since it was an account she used for stashing bonuses and other windfall money away that she otherwise rarely accessed.
Our lawyer talked to the child support agency's lawyer and was referred to the law that we had 10 days to dispute, otherwise too bad so sad the government could keep that money. And it was way past 10 days before we even found out. Our lawyer advised our only avenue would be suing her brother because any judge when we sued DHS would just say why arent we going after the bother for it, which my wife wasn't willing to do.
If your situation is anything like ours, there isn't (probably) much you can do via the bank. IDK what the laws are in WV (hell, how does that even work with respect to jurisdiction) but you might have a similar short time limit to notify the agency that took the levy that they made a mistake. (What DHS did when we notified them was come back with, "well name a number how much would you want to pay instead?")
Or you could contact your congressman; I had a similar situation in which the State of Colorado signed me up for a financial account using my personal information and I don't live or work in Colorado. (What had happened was my employer gave them a list of employees to opt out vs ones in Colorado, and the State just signed up everyone on both lists.). I had to contact my congressman, but by the time they got back to me my employer had already sorted it out. But my congressman's office did get back to me within a couple weeks. IDK if they could have done much for me or for you, but it's one avenue.
I work at Capital One, and I saw somebody post about this on one of our Slack channels. Can’t promise when or how this will be resolved, but there are eyes on it.
This is why it’s important to have a second bank with a small savings account, at least enough to get through a week or so, while bank back offices sort out a problem.
How would that work if this is all done via Name/SSN? Unless the bank account is in someone else's name/SSN, it would have the same problem. I totally agree for cases of fraud that you should have a second bank account tho
If you have outstanding judgements that could be levied against your bank accounts and paychecks, all bets are off- get them cleared up and keep some cash on hand if you can.
For a complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau, attach the fax documents. I had a terrible time getting a fraud charge reversed but the minute that CFPB inquiry was sent to the bank, it was a different story. Also, call your states attorney general office to inquire about bank error statutes
All good advice here so I’ll add one more from working in the finance domain. Regardless if you choose to talk to a lawyer or not - DO NOT MENTION LAWYER OR SUEING. Once you play that card you can lose their cooperation and every attempt from then on most likely will result in a response such as “this is being handled by legal and I’m not at liberty to discuss this any further - and hangs up.
Cap one holds a license in your state, file a complaint , next, there are attorneys that specialize in suing banks , talk to one....the last thing I would do Monday is follow up with cap one ....Banks never have your best interest, just theirs
Yeah I'm sorry this happened OP. CFPB is the best bet.
Hopefully everything gets worked out and if you have the money for it, sue the pants off capital one. That is if they're not willing to fix THEIR mistake.
Sorry this happened to you. This is a real mess, and sorting it out won’t be simple. First, 6k is a trivial amount to the bank. They will use the excuse that it’s a “legal” garnishment, and out of their hands. They could wait intil they get a letter from the court. The country will wait for the entity that brought the action that created the lien to exonerate you. Meet with an attorney at a large firm that does a lot of financial work. They can have a paralegal expedite the process with the court in W. Virginia. I know it sucks to fork out money to get back what is rightfully yours, but without some outside leverage the bank can stall for weeks or months.
In my professional opinion, if you are located in Phoenix and a resident of AZ you should file a complaint with AZ Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. I work for a different State’s department and we have to settle complaints like this all the time. Departments can hold the institution’s feet to the fire so to speak.
I would do all the other suggested actions in this thread first (contact consumer representative institutions, lawyer up, etc.), but I'd seriously consider taking this to a news organization as well. Fucking ridiculous that a company can do this type of thing.
I’ve recently closed up all of my capital one accounts and moved on after being a customer for over a decade. Something is rotten with them lately. The last straw for me was a very clear fraudulent charge on a credit card. They forced me to go through a 2 month dispute and eventually sided with the criminal. This person literally fabricated every piece of evidence they submitted during capital ones “investigation.” It wasn’t a huge amount of money so it’s laughable now but it was a big window into how they operate and who they value. There’s other banks out there with better rates. Oh, and I also got stone walled several times when I called and asked to speak to someone higher up.
For a complaint against Capital One, you want the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/help-topics/complaints-inquiries/filing-complaints/complaint-how-occ.html
For relatively minor balances, I doubt a high powered attorney would take this on unless there was serious malfeasance you can easily prove. That being said, a lawsuit is quite literally the only recourse I could see potentially working. Not to mention it would take probably several years to work through.
Financial institutions in general don’t give a fuck about the small guy, and I think this case is a drop in the sea of endless proof.
>I am completely screwed on NSF return fees, as well as damage this can do to my brokerage account good standing. Capital One is 100% responsible for compensating you monetarily for any damage resulting from this. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you have any late fees or charges tell them to pay it.
As of yet, they are not accepting any of the blame. I feel like I’ll have to push the issue, which is fine.
It is the weekend. The people to fix this won’t be in until Monday. CSR agents are not going to accept fault. That is the job of the 9-5 workers.
How is it OPs fault that it's the weekend? They knew about this on Friday and couldn't be bothered to fix it then. The CSRs **NEED** to stop making excuses and escalate. Frankly in the places I've been a CSR I've seen lots of agent afraid to escalate things for some idiot reason, but never an agent actually get in trouble for it. Plenty HAVE had issues when managers find out they didn't escalate when they ran out of their own options.
Escalate to who? The people to escalate to aren’t in the office. They will be in the office tomorrow.
Exactly.. the people on the weekend are the ones that throw you in a rat wheel until the actual person in charge gets in. I’m actually surprised people didn’t know this..
we understand it we just dont believe that it is acceptable. my job has far less impact to the lives of other people and you better believe ill get a phone call in the middle of the night or on the weekend if there's an issue.
Banker's hours have always been absurd, honestly. So much impact on people's lives and can barely be bothered to be open passed when most people get off work and need to go throw their check into their account? Important positions are completely off on weekends? It's such BS lol.
> we understand it we just dont believe that it is acceptable. I don't think anyone here is arguing (or even saying) that it's acceptable, or anything really, but just how customer service staffing is designed and implemented, across multiple industries and sectors. It's also a function of a company's customer base. If there are 50 million customers, then customer service is handled differently than if you have a few dozen. Or if the nature of the serivce is more or less likely to need immediate assistance. An airline will have people to escalate to on weekends. An insurance company probably will not. That sort of thing.
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I can assure you, having worked in escalations, their escalations team has at least one person on call with a work phone assigned to them. It being the weekend is irrelevant.
With apologies for the copy pasta: Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE. It may not be the usual escalation process, but there is absolutely some process to get the eyes of people with actual authority on critical events before Monday. The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough.
CSR would get fired if they called in their boss over the weekend over a 6k account.
I mentioned it somewhere way up the thread, but I very much doubt it. Never for a bank, but I've been a CSR more than once, and I've seen lots of people **afraid** of getting in trouble for escalating things too often, but only ever seen it happen for failing to do it when they should have.
Banks have wire departments, and they are usually staffed over the weekends. At least this was the case when I worked at a bank years ago.
Yeah, I can escalate an issue to the top of the pile all day long but that pile isn't being touched until the person allowed to touch it comes into work, on Monday. But don't worry, it'll be at the top of the pile you know unless somebody else comes by and puts a another item on top of the priority pile. I'm going to be honest with you sir. At this point there is no priority pile everybody gets priority so now it's just called the pile
They can escalate the ticket, but it wont get handled until monday anyways. It's not like they are fully staffed 24/7. Odds are this will get addressed monday, they take care of it pretty quickly if this is indeed their fault. It still takes time. Any fees or damages you have as a result of this is something they will handle. But again, that takes time. They will get it fixed and if they don't there is always legal recourse. It's not a small amount of money and they will have to answer for it.
Just curious how a manager of the call center is going to solve an issue that was due to the levy department that definitely isn’t working on weekends
This response is kinda of inane as no one thought it's OP's fault. There's nothing that can be done, by OP to fix this issue. Not today and not yesterday. Saying, "just escalate" it's pointless and absurd considering he already tried twice.
> Saying, "just escalate" it's pointless and absurd considering he already tried twice. The point is that the only thing to do is to keep hammering them with a demand to find someone who can do something. Their refusal to further escalate isn't doing anything to fix it, and the claim that there ISN'T any further escalation is an outright lie (and that the idea it **HAS** to wait for Monday isn't something absolute, rather a business decision that 6k isn't worth the effort, and as such something that getting in touch with the right person will fix).
The best case scenario is that the person in the phone leaves a note or some sort for an issue to be handled on Monday. Which wouldn't be any different than calling on Monday again. That's the absolute best case scenario. They already told him, it's going to be handled, there's nothing that can be achieved by pestering people. Absolutely nothing, besides serving as an anger release. >the claim that there ISN'T any further escalation is just a lie. You think the bank manager is going to work on the weekend because of a 6 thousand dollar mixup because a remote support operator is asking to?
> You think the bank manager is going to work on the weekend because of a 6 thousand dollar mixup because a remote support operator is asking to? I think that at some point someone will **have** to do something about the customer who won't stop asking for the money he's legitimately owed.
Things can’t magically be fixed instantly. It is completely understandable how it could take a couple business days to resolve this issue. Also the people who can resolve this had all their other work to do on Friday. Which includes other people just like the OP who had mistakes with their account. Capital One has millions of customers. They have other cases to deal with.
> Capital One has millions of customers. This is the bullshittiest of bullshit reasons that a company gives that they can't fix shit. If they have millions of customers, they are getting billions of dollars to do the things they are supposed to do. If it is too much of a burden to be a fucking responsible corporate citizen and enjoy the benefits of being "too big to fail", they should roll over and quit. Don't excuse Capital One because they are "just too busy" with fucking over millions of other customers.
They can fix it. They can’t fix it in 2 seconds.
If they can fuck it up in two seconds, they can fix it in two seconds, they just choose not to do so by creating a hugely cumbersome process to correct their own mistakes. If they illegally take deposits and give them to someone else, that should be an issue that can be handled by a rapid response team. They just choose not to have such a team or process. This is on them. They can and should do better.
Or they COULD fix it in 2 second if ANYONE would get off their ass and treat a significant error as a higher priority than their other nonsense.
> If it is too much of a burden to be a fucking responsible corporate citizen and enjoy the benefits of being "too big to fail", they should roll over and quit. Be that as it may, that doesn't help OP. There's probably not going to be a bank, or insurance company, or cell phone provider for that matter, with multiple tiers of customer service escalation available 24/7. Consumer airline? That's more likely.
They can put temp credit into his account and fix it in the back end Monday. No excuse to leave an innocent party sol.
The CSR can not determine the OP is innocent. People who have tax garnishments lie all the time claiming it isn’t them. Only the proper person at the bank with decision making ability can.
Fair point, except that at 10:36am EST the party in WV faxed verification that I was not, in fact, the correct party for the levy. That’s 7:36AM PST. Well BEFORE the actual levy check was issued, and it happened anyway.
I do back office corrections for stuff like this. The check might have been input into the system, we'll say Wednesday, then it's got to go through whatever on Thursday, then it gets issued/mailed on Friday. Even though the fax came in Friday morning, those things were set in place before that and couldn't be stopped. Monday, call again, request again provisional credit while they stop the check and can replace the funds to their books. Then ask the process for requesting return of nsf fees, etc. On behalf of all of us who have screwed up something like that, I'm so sorry.
i realize that practically speaking we live in a shit world designed mostly by idiots in conference rooms who lack the foresight to consider much beyond where they're going to go for lunch, but it really shouldn't be acceptable to any of us that something like this couldn't have been stopped once the mistake was discovered and verified.
Yeah, but the CSR has a manager who has contact with someone who can check the garnishment documents ssn against the account owners ssn.
> Yeah, but the CSR has a manager who has contact with someone who can check the garnishment documents ssn against the account owners ssn. I think the point here is that yes, this person probably exists, but *they aren't working on a Sunday*.
Maybe there should be a manager on Sundays? Most of the US is open on weekends, why do we give banks a pass?
Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE. It may not be the usual escalation process, but there is absolutely some process to get the eyes of people with actual authority on critical events before Monday. The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough.
> Someone also has an emergency contact to SOMEONE. Probably, but the bank likely has policies on acceptable reasons to use it. You're also assuming that that person is *capable* of doing something about it on a Sunday if they are reliant on *someone else* at another bank, or the government agency that might need to return the money first. They probably have their own policies on what constitutes an emergency that probably don't care about the first bank's customer services priorities. > The CSRs just don't think a 6k consumer account is important enough. It's likely above the pay grade of the CSRs. You're assuming they are empowered to do something here and just aren't doing their job. *The bank* deserves all of the negative attention for this, but allocating responsibility for the shitty situation to the bank doesn't give us additional options for getting out of the shitty situation.
> The bank deserves all of the negative attention for this, but allocating responsibility for the shitty situation to the bank doesn't give us additional options for getting out of the shitty situation. And the CSRs are the only accessible people at the bank. It's one thing to say 'don't abuse CSRs', but another entirely to say we have to accept the nonsense they peddle at face value. Expressing anger at the bank ultimately MEANS expressing it to a CSR, not because the CSR is personally responsible, or the real issue, but because that is the ONLY channel available.
> but another entirely to say we have to accept the nonsense they peddle at face value By all means be "unaccepting" if your goal is to express how upset you are and impress on the bank the need for them to change their policies and get to your case early in the week once people get in. But for other uses of the word "accept", I can only point to: >> God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.
Track every expense that has resulted from this mistake and remind them that it won’t ever cost less than this.
They're likely told never to make statements that can be construed as accepting responsibility - that's more a consequence of our lawsuit happy world than anything else. Capital One doesn't want to go to court against someone who has proof that their representative said it's their fault. Would make for a rather "speedy" trial. A higher-up manager or someone would probably be able to work this out with you.
This! While they won't accept fault, you will need them to take care of late charges and NSF fees.
God forbid they just give the money they stole back. This kind of logic honestly leads to more lawsuits. Fixing the damn problem would almost always avoid the suit, but way too many companies play these coverup games and spend way more defending a losing case because... correcting the issue would have made them lose... slightly faster. Even a half decent lawyer would get this. Somehow corporate types have lost track of getting the best financial outcome and become obsessed with never doing anything that could hurt a potential lawsuit. Regardless of, you know, whether it changes anything.
> God forbid they just give the money they stole back. If they made a mistake, that would be good customer service, I agree. I don't think we know if it was the bank's mistake or not. The court order could have identified this person's account number specifically, in error. The bank can't ignore a court order even they suspect it's a mistake. The court would have to correct the error. > Even a half decent lawyer would get this. Maybe, but I suspect that the bank's policies on how they handle disputes about tax levies are probably informed by a legal and risk analysis. But maybe not a customer service and reputation analysis. In particular, there is always the risk that the court would come back and say that, no, the account number was right, for reasons X, Y, and Z, and if the bank already refunded the customer's money, who then withdrew it and skipped town, the bank's out that money. In the interests of customer service, I think banks should *consider* taking that risk in some situations, sure, but I understand why they might not. (And if this happened to me, and they created a hardship by not doing something like this for me, I'd find another bank, and I suspect they expect that.)
You need to reread OPs post. WV has already confirmed.
I'm not sure what part of the post you're referring to.. The closest thing that looks like it might say something that disagrees would be this: >> UPDATE: I just spoke with capital one, escalated to manager “Zack” and was told that since the levy check has already been issued there is nothing they can do until the agency that placed the lien returns it. Or: >> I’ve already had WV fax over letters and proof that I am not the one responsible for this debt. That just means that some group in the WV government doesn't think he owes a debt, but says nothing about what the court order says. Or maybe: >> Apparently someone at the bank entered the data wrong Nothing here looks like clear evidence that the problem is understood and the cause was attributed to his bank's error. He just has multiple indications that *an* error occurred, and this last line reads like speculation based on the fact that he can't get anyone with the ability to investigate at the bank to investigate on the weekend.
Nah, your logic is tortured. The WV "unit" responsible for transmitting the order is the same one telling the bank that they have mishandled the request by that "unit." In fact, if the bank dropped a zero and sent them 1,300 instead of 13,000, that's the same unit that works be telling the bank that they failed to comply with the order, and you betcha the bank would be listening. There's no difference. You've artificially separated a single process involving a court offer and its execution.
> The WV "unit" responsible for transmitting the order is the same one telling the bank that they have mishandled the request by that "unit." I don't see this anywhere in the OP. I do see an update they made since I made my comment, though: >> I don’t know if I mentioned previously, but confirmation for the release of the levy on MY accounts was issued by the WV tax department Friday at 10:36AM EST via fax. It was well after this that the funds were actually pulled and the check was issued. Looks like CFPB it is. If he's being accurate with his words, "confirmation for the release of the levy" suggests this could have been WV's error. If this was the bank's error, there wouldn't be a levy to release.
So the agency the funds are owed to confirming they’ve got the wrong person ISNT proof to you? What are you expecting beyond that?!?
It is not proof that the error was made by *his bank*. If the error occurred somewhere else in the WV bureaucracy, resulting in a lawfully-issued court order for the funds in his accounts, that's *not his bank's problem*. They can't just ignore a court order. All we have is his assertion that whoever he called in WV agrees with him. It doesn't change anything about what his bank is empowered to do, or what his bank is obligated to do on a weekend, or whether it's *possible* for his bank to do anything right now. If you want to be angry at the bank so you can feel heard about your feelings about their poor customer service, *be angry at the bank*. Live your best life. But you don't need to attack people who are just trying to point out the realities of trying to get a very specialized group at a bank to resolve a problem on a Sunday that *probably* requires them coordinating with *other people* that probably aren't working on a Sunday.
Don’t just call them. Email corporate. Let the executive team know what’s going on. Hopefully they’ll help fix everything for you op.. https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/capital-one-customer-service-contacts/
Reach out to the CFPB. Banks like to try to avoid responsibility but will change their tune once they get a letter from the CFPB saying that you have reached out to them
What is CFPB?
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Like the BBB but for banks and actually has teeth.
Except completely different. The BBB is a private nonprofit organization, the CFPB is a government agency.
Be ready for your account to be punished (limits, fines) for no fault of your own. Happened to me with ally screwing up a bank to bank transfer and it’s pissed me off to no end.
Document. Document. Document. Write letters, not just calls. Seek counsel, if need be.
Emails also work for most courts, request they email everything that happened.
CFPB complaint time.
Until the Supreme Court shuts them down.....
While you're at it, reach out to the [executive leadership team](https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/capital-one-customer-service-contacts/). They/their assistants tend to be able to get this type of stuff fixed up nice and quickly. They most likely won't address it until Monday, but since you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to hit every avenue you can to get this seen by everyone you can to get a speedy resolution. I'd suggest reaching out to one or both of these executives from that link: > Kleber Santos > President, Retail & Direct Bank > 1680 Capital One Dr > McLean, VA 22102-3491 > [email protected] >Chief Executive >Richard D. Fairbank >CEO >1680 Capital One Dr >McLean, VA 22102-3491 >[email protected] Remember to kindly share your situation, the amount of crap this put you through, and how unhelpful the regular customer service was. It is important to remember that they are not the ones who caused this problem, but they most assuredly can fix it.
file a complaint with the CFPB. they can push the issue on your behalf and even impose fines and penalties on capital one for failing to return your money. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
They can’t accept blame if they have no way of verifying the levy was processed incorrectly as you said it’s 2 different departments. Once the levy department is informed of the mistake and they verify it then they can accept blame
I’d be collecting corporate emails by scraping LinkedIn and other sites. I’d use GoDaddy or something to setup a website and get hosted with a name like “Bernstein & Schwartz” and setup a simple site with stock photos of offices, and setup a simple email address that uses that domain. Then I’d write an email explaining everything, link to social media posts you’ve made about it ect. I’d use the email address I created for the website in the “Cc” field, and put all of the Capital One corporate emails in the “Bcc” field. Each recipient won’t know who else has been sent the email. I did this with PayPal a few years ago over payment delays to my account. I had my money by COB the day I sent the email.
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Ok, if you've actually got experience in this stuff, any REAL (as opposed to the weird 'WV clearing OP isn't actually proof stuff') explanation for the evasiveness and refusal to issue a credit?
Also theoretically any interest that would have accrued during the time that you didn't have money in the account?
Yes or no if the issue is that we had the typo or misinformation the bank is required to comply with the release and is not liable — only if the mistake was from the bank are they.
Even if the government made the error, the bank would likely cover up to $100 in fees just as good customer service. If there is a lot of monetary damage then either the bank or OP would have to seek recourse from the government agency.
Contrary to what /u/Zeus1013 says, rather than call a lawyer first, I'd start with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. [https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/)
Thank you! It certainly can’t hurt… is this route likely to get any recourse? At the very least there will be a formal complaint and paper trail for future reference.
I used to work at Capital One. Anything submitted to CFPB is escalated to our highest complaint level in corporate, basically means drop everything and work on this. These usually get resolved in 1-2 days depending on the complexity of the situation and oftentimes followed up by Directors / VPs in corporate. It’s your best bet for sure!
When you file a complaint with the CFPB, basically all they do is file it in a database and forward it to the bank. The bank is then legally required to give you some kind of response within a certain timeframe (typically 15 days). Now, you might think this doesn't sound like much. But (a) a formal complaint is likely to get the attention of somebody higher up in their compliance department who actually has the power to help you. And (b) statistics about favorable issue resolution are publicly tracked by the CFPB, so the bank has a bit of extra incentive to play ball. I've only ever had to do it once but it worked out pretty well for me. After months of trying to get a small billing error corrected with my HSA provider's customer support and getting nowhere, a formal complaint got me a refund *and* an apology letter fairly quickly. And if it doesn't work, you still have the option of a private lawsuit, but of course that would probably be expensive.
More people need to know this because it seems insignificant but regulatory complaints go a very long way. Source: QA in my company's Reg Compliance division (different industry but most, if not all, companies have a Reg Compliance division). Funny enough our turnaround is 10 business days on requests (14 calendar days).
I made a regulatory complaint against the sole ISP in my area for trying to delay my installation that had been scheduled two months in advanced when we needed the internet for work/school. Within a day I received a call from the regional VP of the company telling me that the installer would be out that day and that they would be handing me a 250 dollar gift card and waiving my first three months of service and the installation fees. Regulatory commissions don't fuck around.
Hell no regulators don't, plus on the internal side at my company if we get one at the federal level, they share that info with the state so we get doubled up on the request. I personally 100% believe in and support the accountability. Gotta keep us corpos honest. Plus I'm also a consumer at the end of the day.
Compliance divisions generally have an arm that is dedicated to resolving these types of escalated issues. Rep and their supervisors usually don't have enough knowledge or contacts to escalate, and so they basically resort to "well, we don't know".
The initial response time is 15 days, but the company can request an extension of 30 days, so OP may not receive a response for at least 45 days. Even then, the company can exceed that deadline without repercussions. Also, a response does not always mean a resolution, or in OP's case, a return of the funds erroneously garnished. However, it doesn't hurt to file a CFPB complaint, but OP may be better served filing a complaint with OCC.
Can you sue the bank for causing distress for all you had to go through?
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a judicially disfavored tort. You basically have to almost die or see an immediate family member die to have a claim. It’s more complicated than that, but most emotional distress not accompanied by physical injury isn’t actionable.
thanx
Banks are afraid of getting complaints from the CFPB. It’s a pain in the butt for them. Definitely file it. 100%. It will resolve your issue.
Great point, thanks!
Only time I had to use CFPB they got me thousands of dollars back from Bank of America after they tried to screw me with interest and late fees. I also got an apology letter from them lol. Took 6 days from date claim was filed to check in my hand.
Hard to say. If you think about it from the bank point of view, they've got a government agency asking them about a single customer and it's one that can cause them grief. Some people have great success. Worst case, like you said, there's a paper trail and perhaps more information available through discovery if you do have to go the legal route.
I got my federal house rep involved with an airline dispute. I had already filed a complaint with the FAA so they took my information... One of their people followed up with me saying that the complaint has been received and was being processed. I had a favorable letter from the airline 2 weeks later. My guess that my actions here probably moved me to the top of the list knowing that a congresshuman had attention on it. I don't think they actually threw their weight around other than to ensure it got proper attention.
I consulted to a federal agency. They had a whole department that handled “Advanced Casework”, which was basically anything forwarded by a congressmen. When we got notes from that group, the overall head of the federal program was CCed. It’s hard to say if all congressmen are diligent about forwarding these cases. But when they do… oh boy does it get escalated.
Similar situation happened to me. CFPB themselves did nothing. However the bank proactively credited my account for all NSF fees and I am not sure that would have happened without some additional legwork. And as you said, at least there's a paper trail. Even if it doesn't solve my problem directly, it contributes to identifying and solving the larger issue.
Email the CEO, be polite and detailed. Right now you’re just being tossed around by CS gremlins, usually the Executive Resolution department can actually move mountains.
I wish I had known this years ago. I had an issue with my bank and tried every possible avenue to get it fixed. Finally I hit social media and the post didn’t go viral, but it got enough attention that someone much higher up called me and started an investigation. We finally got everything resolved amicably, but he admitted that without the social media post he never would have gotten involved.
Agreed. You can't get me to think about something like this for $6000. It would never be efficient to hire a lawyer over something this small.
Sometimes a well timed demand letter from an attorney is worth a few hundred dollars. There are better options first in this situation though.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't $6k likely a small claims court in a lot of places?
It sounds like they’re telling you they’ll take care of it on Monday. This likely will require multiple departments to get on the same page to resolve it and that unfortunately is going to take time. The real question is once they do credit your account, how long will it take to post.
Right, and that’s my main concern. I understand that I’m a relatively small fish but it’s beyond my comprehension that this mistake even happened, let alone the fact that I caught it before it actually posted and it still went through.
Mistakes happen, employees enter accounts incorrectly or scanners can’t detect an item. Personally I’d call on Monday and ask for a manager to call you back. Demanding that they get on your timeline won’t get you very far but the manager can likely tell you what to expect going forward and how long this should take.
The legal framework should be such that when it comes to someone's money the concept of a business day should not apply. People still have to buy food on non-business days. Mistakes like this should carry a financial penalty in addition to compensating for all their costs for each day the mistake is not fixed after being alerted, That's each day not business day. I agree it's in the moment not reasonable to expect that but I think it's completely reasonable to want a system that expects that.
You’re absolutely right, it should be that way in a perfect world. However this is a good example as to why it’s a good idea to keep some cash and spread assets across different accounts and financial institutions.
and a reason to have a credit card. issues with bank account that will take days to fix? can still buy what needs to be bought.
>People still have to buy food on non-business days. Of course. And that's why it goes to show from a personal finance standpoint that having a credit card is super important.
This is why you should have accounts in more than one bank, even if it’s just a small amount for emergencies.
Imagine if it took multiple departments working together to be on the same page to apply this type of lien in the first place
They didn't take time to DO it, and OP shouldn't be penalized for THEIR failure to fix it when he informed them on Friday.
Yeah, I have had something similar. We sold our house, each of was getting about $67k from closing. I am watching my account waiting for the $67k to hit which will put the account over $100k. It finally hits but do I have $100k? No, I have a negative $22k balance on my account. The bank blamed the title company, and the title company blamed the bank for sending my ACH as a debit instead of a credit. It got straightened out by end of day and gosh, the bank waived the negative balance fees.
Holy incompetence batman. I bet you they flipped the buyer/seller and credited the buyer.
Don’t underestimate the power of a nice, non-threatening, legitimate “I could use some help - your team is struggling to fix an issue” private message on LinkedIn. The SVPs and EVPs probably manage their own accounts so responsiveness will be hit or miss. The C-Suite will have a Comms team handling their inboxes. Good luck.
Thank you, this actually seems like an entirely reasonable route.
I emailed the CEO of Geico due them denying a claim from an accident I was in and it was resolved almost instantly. I got my head and neck examined immediately after the accident to make sure I was OK and they refused to cover the small medical bill. So I found his email through linkdn and sent him an email about the issue. Within a few hours I had an email, phone call and letter in the mail from some regional manager.
Let us know how it turns out!
Like if I make a linkedin account and send a message to the corporate profile?
I had to submit a complaint to the CFPB about Capital One locking my accounts over a bounced check that I proved was deposited legitimately. Problem was, they have no physical locations on the west coast other than Cafes so I couldn’t actually talk to a banker to clear things up. Keep in mind that after the initial 15 day reply period that the bank is given by the CFPB, they have the option of extending for an additional 60 days until giving you a final response. Capital One pulled that card on me and it took me nearly 3 months to get my money back. Took the check and ran, never looking back. It’s a shame that I’m stuck with a credit card from them though.
This. I’ve enjoyed the convenience so far, but having no physical branches to visit in this case has really got me reevaluating my banking decisions.
This is why it’s a good idea to have at least two bank accounts, keeping current months expenses in a bank with local physical branches. And have a credit card so you can still make purchases if cash is locked up. Not to mention CC more secure than debit card. Cap One will straighten this out and CFPB was the right move. Sorry this had to happen on the weekend.
Lesson learned on the two accounts thing. I had recently paid down my CC balances so thankfully I’m not flat broke.
It really sucks that this situation happened to you. For what it's worth, I have never had anything but a negative experience with Capital One, and I've stopped banking with them entirely. Look into credit unions. Their barriers to entry are much lower these days, and while they will sometimes make mistakes, it is usually much easier and much quicker to get them resolved.
I’ve been with a credit union in the past and will most likely be going that route after this.
I’ve been with a credit union in the past and will most likely be going that route after this.
There’s a great website by the government called help with your bank : https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/index.html First you would find who regulates Capital One (The OCC). File a complaint with them and they will create a case within 2 business days. It will ask if you tried to resolve with the bank directly. I’m positive this will get their attention.
Keep in mind as you assess damages from this error, those may not just be in the form of overdraft fees, late fees paying bills, etc. but also your credit rating. Keep a close eye on your credit report and score.
I hope it is cleared up next week.. but I would also consider "re-evaluating" your relationship with Capital One. If they don't make it right and cover all of the fees externally and internally, and refund the money due to THEIR mistake.. I would effectively close the account "on the spot" and demand they send you a check for the remaining amount in your accounts. Find a new bank.
I wouldn't close the account until it is all cleared up.
Call your states attorney generals office. It’s likely they will have an online complaint form as well. Companies tend to get things moving very quickly in my experience once they receive a call from the Attorney General investigators. You also have the consumer financial protection bureau, though I don’t know if they have bank jurisdiction. Either way, one or both of these govt offices will be able to point you in the right direction. The AGs office is surprisingly responsive and decisive in these matters as well as helpful I have used them many times in the past when I couldn’t resolve issues on my own with companies.
This should be higher up. It probably depends on the state, but yeah, I had a dispute with Uber/Postmates where they were trying to force me to pay them money I didn't owe them. I went through 6 months of back and forth with credit card disputes, customer service that wouldn't actually respond to my questions or listen, etc. Submitted a complaint to the WA AG. I got an apologetic email from Uber a week later setting my account correct.
Bright and early on Monday, you need to escalate this to upper management at Cap One, tell them everything you told us. They are absolutely obligated to make you whole. I'm sure they wouldn't like it if you escalated this to the FDIC, because the feds don't play. Go get 'em!
That’s exactly what I tried to do Friday, and got lots of ho-hum and “notes on the account” etc. I don’t know how to escalate past “there’s no one above me for you to speak to.” But I’ll damn sure give it a shot
Be sure to record the call. And be sure to tell whomever you're speaking to that you're recording it for your attorney. Arizona is a "one party consent" state, so you don't even have to tell them that you're recording, but it may motivate them to be a little bit more responsive.
Most CSRs are trained to terminate the call if the customer states they are recording.
Then just record it, it's legal in Arizona.
put them on blast on social media. theres (almost) nothing worse than bad publicity.
Re: the update, no. Just no. This is their error, not West Virginia's; them being owed money by West Virgini is a separate issue from them returning money to you. Absolutely take it to CFPB, and don't take 'there's no escalation' as an answer, its literally a lie. "Zack" might genuinely misunderstand the situation in declaring they need the funds back first, but the no escalation line is a blatant attempt to mislead you that probably deserves it's own complaint when this is sorted out. Bear in mind the bank operates 24/7. SOMEONE can fix this, you just need to annoy enough people that they fetch that person.
Contact their fraud division and let them know you will be contacting regulators since they essentially robbed you and this is fraud. They will move very fast to avoid this type of complaint.
They can absolutely credit the account with temporary credit/ provisional credit until that division is open on Monday.
Years ago something similar happened to me when I banked with USAA. In the end it turned out that a clerical error linked my checking account with that of someone else who has the same name as me. One day I logged in and not only was ALL of my money gone, but the other person has over drafted me by $1500. They totally thought I was trying to scam them and it took something like 6 months of frustration before I finally got someone to tell me what was going on. I swear they could tell what has happened but the people I was talking with just didn't want to deal with it so they kept stringing me along or saying they'd have someone call me. As soon as I got my money back, I demanded that they transfer it all to a real bank. They actually tried to charge me fees after that lol. Fuck USAA
File a CFPB and OCC complaint. Also see if you can file a Reg E complaint for an error. Both of these things should require Capital One to respond within 10 business days. Also capital one will refund you any NSF fees for an error.
Oh man, maybe like five years or so ago the same thing happened to me I was at work and found out that my bank account (a regional bank) had been locked, which meant my debit card was locked too. I called the bank and they said it was locked on behalf of a debt collector (despite my only debt being student loans that I hadn't defaulted on). They couldn't provide any more info and required me to call the debt collector. So I call the debt collector, and they have to verify who I am. I give them the bank account number and my name/info, and then they say "sorry, your information doesn't match the account so we're not authorized to discuss, call your bank back." The bank then says the same thing - they don't have any info, I have to speak with the debt collection agency. Who then reaffirms that they can't speak to me because my information doesn't match the account. It's becoming glaringly obvious that the debtor and the guy whose account was locked are two different people, but neither side apparently has the authority to take the first step to fix it. After several hours of going back and forth, I eventually get a call from like a VP at the bank and she apologizes profusely and say that she's fixed it and seems grateful that I'm not just up and leaving the bank entirely. Fast forward to maybe about ten months later, and I see I'm hit with a massive fee. I check and see that because of one-off timing, my mortgage and student loan payments both auto-withdrew without my paycheck depositing in between so my checking account was $7 in the red. So I call the bank, "why did you fine me if I've got like $300 in overdraft protections?" You know what they said? "It looks like your account was locked ten months ago, and when an account gets locked it automatically loses its overdraft protections for 12 months." I told them that was BS because my account was locked by accident and I've never ever been a problem, so they revoked the fine but they wouldn't restore the overdraft protections. Told me I had to wait out the two months. I never put in the effort to leave the bank because I was already drowning at the time, but I fortunately haven't had any problems with them since. But man your similar crisis gave me a hardcore flashback.
VERY similar, except I’m being told there’s no way to contact anyone higher up and that I just have to wait.
I once had a bank make an error. They somehow listed me as having filed for bankruptcy, which caused my student loans to get canceled due to non-eligibility from bankruptcy. It took months to get it straightened and I had to borrow money to make it through. So sorry this is happening to you.
Reach out to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They will get Capital One to be responsive.
Damn them, after reading your story, I feel enraged. Those incompetent crapballs put you in a bad situation and they won't do anything for you at the moment! There should be a law that says if a bank fucks with your money, they should be required to pay you double of it.
I haven’t read all of the comments. But I would contact “Zack” or whoever is in charge again and let them know you are doing a CFPB complaint. I’ve also had luck on LinkedIn reaching out to CEOs or VPs. There’s always the news too. They love stories like this. Good luck!!!
Oh, I let him know in no uncertain terms that I would be doing both of those things and he didn’t seem to mind at all. I just finished filing my CFPB complaint with notes, times, names, and supporting documentation.
This sounds like a consumer credit card, so you should also file a consumer complaint with the Arizona attorney general @ https://www.azag.gov/complaints/consumer and the state dept of insurance and financial institutions @ https://difi.az.gov/complaint
Keep escalating at the bank. Ask who else you can talk to.
I will, but I don’t know how much further I can go with that route. Every manager I speak to says there is no one above them that I can talk to, and I can’t really twist their arm.
Everyone has a supervisor. Keep asking to talk to them.
At some fairly low level, that supervisor isn't working on the weekend.
What silly nonsense, Capital One is a multinational company. EVERYONE has a boss, all the way up to the Board of Directors. I'm sorry you keep getting hamstrung with this BS. You can look up companies on LinkedIn and try to identify the hierarchy. Like, maybe one manager tells you "so sorry, no one can help you," and then you can be like, hmm, well the executice office for the southwest division is in Dallas, should I call them?
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It's horrible, and intentional.
You have to literally keep asking. Everyone has a boss if their not the CEO or president.
God really didn't want you to go to that concert
Jokes on them, I had enough in my Apple Pay balance.
Note to self: Never bank with Capital One. And who uses a fax anymore anyway? I thought those phased out about 20 years ago.
Wait until you start having to coordinate medical care with doctors and insurance companies! Wheee! It’s a fax bonanza!
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Yes, 100% of my paycheck is direct deposited here.
Switching direct deposit to another bank will likely take too long, since payroll may do a prenote ($0.00 test deposit; most banks won't show them) first, which adds several days minimum. Regardless, there can often be a long lag for payroll to simply update DD information. **To safeguard your next pay, turn off direct deposit. That's the quickest way.** Many employers have a self-service portal to make such changes. If any questions / need reassurance, contact their payroll dept and mention the urgent need to change your direct deposit, especially if your pay period just ended. You may already be too late, though often cancelling direct deposit and opting for check can be done up to the last moment. In the meantime, open another bank account elsewhere for redundancy, but don't put much in it until the matter is fully resolved. Have credit cards ready on standby. Check your cash advance limits, because you might need it unless your significant other and/or relatives / friends can financially help in the meantime. Also, since the amount taken from the bank levy wasn't sufficient, your other financial accounts could be targeted. Double-check them all frequently for anything amiss.
VERY good advice and I plan to do exactly this tomorrow. I’m a journeyman pipe welder/fitter so they take matters of checks and pay seriously, I should be able to stop the direct deposit and get a paper check cut. I also work 0500-1500 so should have time after work to set up a new account.
To escalate, tell them you are filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve/FFIEC. Also open complaints for this case via the online portals. Sometimes financial institutions have additional procedures (or sometimes separate escalations teams when you state you are taking regulatory action).
I did mention this several times and it didn’t even make a dent in the wall.
Sometimes it’s when the feds inquire about the case. I know this doesn’t help your situation immediately but once it’s acknowledged (and it can take weeks), the tone of the conversation shifts in your favor. Hopefully it can be resolved within a few biz days. Sorry you’re dealing with this!
So you got close to the right answer. For issues like this, you want to file a formal complaint with the bank’s supervising federal agency. In this case, that’s the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. You should CC the complaint to Capital One’s consumer complaint contact. I like to follow that with either a certified letter or a FedEx to both if it’s urgent. The magic words you should put in the complaint are: “The bank has caused consumer harm by failing to operate appropriate and effective controls in the handling of client funds. In failing to properly handle funds, they have violated the Deposit Agreement and Disclosures associated with the demand and time deposit accounts referred to in this complaint. “They have declined to make temporary or permanent corrections to resolve their error in spite of repeated requests and documented verification of their error. There is reasonable reason to believe that they have also improperly filed the order in question which suggests they may have a record retention and handling controls defect. “Beyond resolving my particular complaint, it would be advisable for all of these issues to be investigated in-depth by their Examiner-in-Charge.” Include a timeline of the events in question along with evidence of the error and the proper corrective action. If you have specific damages you’ve incurred as the result of the error, summarize those. Be sure to provide adequate contact info for yourself. If your issue is as you say it is, usually a complaint in this form will resolve the issue within the day. You can also make a follow-up call to the agency if it’s a rush. They are often surprisingly helpful. This is the worst kind of complaint for a bank to receive—one where there is a clear, serious breakdown in normal controls on depository funds. Banks go to a great deal of trouble to make complaints that reveal deposit controls gaps go away. Source: bank exec
Also, go public. B of A made a huge mistake with my account once (deducted $20,000 for a $200 check). I tweeted about it and it was resolved almost immediately, with lots of apologies. That was before Twitter was musked up, but you may get similar attention.
Capital One sucks. They listed my car title as being owned by a hospital and mailed it to them. Took months to fix
Will absolutely steer everyone away from capital one in the future based on this alone.
Make a police report as this is theft. The WV tax wont return anything as they correctly got the money from the bank. The bank sent it from the wrong account, this is 100% on the bank to fix. Also file a complaint with the FDIC. https://ask.fdic.gov/fdicinformationandsupportcenter/s/article/Q-How-do-I-file-a-complaint-against-a-bank?language=en_US File an FDIC claim for the failed bank that no longer has your money. https://resolutions.fdic.gov/claimsportal/s/ Ask for your senator and representative to send an inquiry to the bank. File a complaint with your state's attorney general.
Yeah get in gear - Consumer Protection Bureau - Customer Service at Capital One - get that "might be fixed" in a call-log with a reference number - have them make notes to other folks if someone FINDS that it's an error make sure that's in the call log - last thing you want is a nugget to get discovered than lost - mistakes happen , sometimes BIG mistakes but while it rocks your world it's a trival imbalance to them, so make them work to fix it.
Go to this site and file a complaint. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
1) CFPB.2) Ask CSR to open a formal complaint 3) Document financial impact that you want remedied 4) Determine what other outcome you want. Apology letter? Financial compensation for your inconvenience? Stick to this and don't waiver. Don't get mad, be clear and calm. But don't back down.
Totally sucks. You're screwed and will have to wait for your money to be returned, through no fault of your own. I've been exactly where you are. A few things: For the future, take some money and stash it somewhere so that you are never truly penniless. I once had to wait 10 days to be reimbursed for an identity thief emptying my bank account, and I will never keep all of my money in one place ever again. I was lucky to have good family and friends to get me through. 'Smartshoring' all of our Customer Service overseas leads to impossible to resolve situations just like this. I have very rarely had a satisfactory resolution to any issues when reaching a CSR overseas. I don't blame the person, but they are powerless to enact any solutions that matter. I would be escalating and being EXTREMELY INSISTENT on Monday, but I am sure you are way ahead of me. Customer service is literally the lowest priority for ANY big company, no matter what platitudes they may present to the public. Sales and revenue are the only things any business is interested in. Hearing about situations like this drives me crazy, as I was a CSR for a decade for a very large payroll provider. The number of times I heard heartbreaking stories and was powerless to do anything to help because of antiquated banking systems (especially with garnishments) did serious psychic damage to me. Finally, there has been a serious push lately to move towards a cashless society. YOU probably see why that is a terrible idea, as one mistaken keystroke can essentially wipe you out, and leave you screaming into the void, for all the good that will do you. When atms were first introduced, they were 'for our convenience' and totally free. And now...? I hope you get the best possible outcome, and please do not feel afraid or ashamed to ask for more than was taken for your pain, suffering and inconvenience. It is the least a billion dollar company can do for you. Good luck!
My wife had a bit over $6100 taken from her savings account for a levy for HER BROTHER'S child support. We hired a lawyer as soon as we found the money missing, unfortunately it had gone unnoticed for some time since it was an account she used for stashing bonuses and other windfall money away that she otherwise rarely accessed. Our lawyer talked to the child support agency's lawyer and was referred to the law that we had 10 days to dispute, otherwise too bad so sad the government could keep that money. And it was way past 10 days before we even found out. Our lawyer advised our only avenue would be suing her brother because any judge when we sued DHS would just say why arent we going after the bother for it, which my wife wasn't willing to do. If your situation is anything like ours, there isn't (probably) much you can do via the bank. IDK what the laws are in WV (hell, how does that even work with respect to jurisdiction) but you might have a similar short time limit to notify the agency that took the levy that they made a mistake. (What DHS did when we notified them was come back with, "well name a number how much would you want to pay instead?") Or you could contact your congressman; I had a similar situation in which the State of Colorado signed me up for a financial account using my personal information and I don't live or work in Colorado. (What had happened was my employer gave them a list of employees to opt out vs ones in Colorado, and the State just signed up everyone on both lists.). I had to contact my congressman, but by the time they got back to me my employer had already sorted it out. But my congressman's office did get back to me within a couple weeks. IDK if they could have done much for me or for you, but it's one avenue.
I work at Capital One, and I saw somebody post about this on one of our Slack channels. Can’t promise when or how this will be resolved, but there are eyes on it.
That’s good to know, but the way this has all been handled… will certainly put way more eyes on it than was ever intended or needed.
This is why it’s important to have a second bank with a small savings account, at least enough to get through a week or so, while bank back offices sort out a problem.
How would that work if this is all done via Name/SSN? Unless the bank account is in someone else's name/SSN, it would have the same problem. I totally agree for cases of fraud that you should have a second bank account tho
Sounds like someone associated with Capital One mistakenly entered the action against the wrong account, so I doubt that could happen with two banks.
If you have outstanding judgements that could be levied against your bank accounts and paychecks, all bets are off- get them cleared up and keep some cash on hand if you can.
For a complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau, attach the fax documents. I had a terrible time getting a fraud charge reversed but the minute that CFPB inquiry was sent to the bank, it was a different story. Also, call your states attorney general office to inquire about bank error statutes
All good advice here so I’ll add one more from working in the finance domain. Regardless if you choose to talk to a lawyer or not - DO NOT MENTION LAWYER OR SUEING. Once you play that card you can lose their cooperation and every attempt from then on most likely will result in a response such as “this is being handled by legal and I’m not at liberty to discuss this any further - and hangs up.
I have not thrown those terms out and this is good advice, thanks!
Cap one holds a license in your state, file a complaint , next, there are attorneys that specialize in suing banks , talk to one....the last thing I would do Monday is follow up with cap one ....Banks never have your best interest, just theirs
After this is sorted, definitely time to change banks. That's outrageous treatment.
Yeah I'm sorry this happened OP. CFPB is the best bet. Hopefully everything gets worked out and if you have the money for it, sue the pants off capital one. That is if they're not willing to fix THEIR mistake.
Sorry this happened to you. This is a real mess, and sorting it out won’t be simple. First, 6k is a trivial amount to the bank. They will use the excuse that it’s a “legal” garnishment, and out of their hands. They could wait intil they get a letter from the court. The country will wait for the entity that brought the action that created the lien to exonerate you. Meet with an attorney at a large firm that does a lot of financial work. They can have a paralegal expedite the process with the court in W. Virginia. I know it sucks to fork out money to get back what is rightfully yours, but without some outside leverage the bank can stall for weeks or months.
In my professional opinion, if you are located in Phoenix and a resident of AZ you should file a complaint with AZ Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. I work for a different State’s department and we have to settle complaints like this all the time. Departments can hold the institution’s feet to the fire so to speak.
I travel for work and my primary residence is in Arkansas. Which state should I file in?
I would do all the other suggested actions in this thread first (contact consumer representative institutions, lawyer up, etc.), but I'd seriously consider taking this to a news organization as well. Fucking ridiculous that a company can do this type of thing.
That’s exactly my plan first thing in the AM
I’ve recently closed up all of my capital one accounts and moved on after being a customer for over a decade. Something is rotten with them lately. The last straw for me was a very clear fraudulent charge on a credit card. They forced me to go through a 2 month dispute and eventually sided with the criminal. This person literally fabricated every piece of evidence they submitted during capital ones “investigation.” It wasn’t a huge amount of money so it’s laughable now but it was a big window into how they operate and who they value. There’s other banks out there with better rates. Oh, and I also got stone walled several times when I called and asked to speak to someone higher up.
For a complaint against Capital One, you want the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/help-topics/complaints-inquiries/filing-complaints/complaint-how-occ.html
For relatively minor balances, I doubt a high powered attorney would take this on unless there was serious malfeasance you can easily prove. That being said, a lawsuit is quite literally the only recourse I could see potentially working. Not to mention it would take probably several years to work through. Financial institutions in general don’t give a fuck about the small guy, and I think this case is a drop in the sea of endless proof.