COPPEL in Leon Home Depot mall - Do NOT use a credit card!

[Jzmackenzie]

As many of you know, Tierra de Verano (Summerland) bought school uniforms for kids in the rural village of Cajones, SE og GTO, GTO. Due to the generosity of several on this site, We were able to outfit seven children.

We bought $92.77 of the clothing in Leon, Guanajuato, at Coppel, a department store near Home Depot and across from Costco. We gave the clerk, who had the floor manger at her side, a Capital One card (the one card that does NOT charge for currency exchange in Mexico). The card was declined as we had just made a large purchase at Home Depot. We were not surprised, so we handed the clerk our other card. She reported that it was also declined. The floor manger fell all over himself apologizing and we paid cash.

Back at home I called Capital One about both cards. The first was declined due to the Home Depot charge but the second one went through for $92.77 WITHOUT my signature. I explained that I had a paid receipt for over $1,230 pesos but Capital One said, "Just tell the store to stop the charge."

Jolene called Coppel and was assured by a floor manger Antonio Avalos that the charge would not be made, but it was without my signature. Now Capital One wants a letter sent from them to arrive by the 22 in the USA, back to them by September 4 or they will not dispute the charge. Jose Antonio Garcia, the nice Coppel man from the original charge, was called yesterday. Although we had been told in a second call that we HAD to drive back to the store to get a "form to fill out" Mr. Garcia has promised an email. We will let you know what occurs, but in any case the lost time and money is a hassle.

BTW. Since early 2008, we send a letter every year to every credit card company explaining that our nonprofit is located in Arizona, but our charity work is in Mexico so the charges are usually in Mexico. We pre-call before charging if we leave Mexico. Most of the time the letters never get in our files and the traveling call is ignored. I appreciate those who, like ourselves, want to think that we are lacking in trust in this process, but the fact is we have tried very hard to make this financial arrangement work for us.

We have spent $35 in phone calls as our relay phone cannot make collect calls, Capital One will not call Coppel. We have now had unauthorized charges on the first declined card, so it was cancelled. We hate the fact that now we wonder if both numbers were kept - I hate this as we want to be trusting of the store. The proof is attached so that when the GoogleGroups GTO Connect monitor asks, you can tell her that you saw the proof here.

Better to keep our credit cards in our pockets in Mexico.

[laconstance]

I am not surprised at your hassle with Capital One. While it is true that the card is convenient for foreign purchases because of no foreign transaction %. their customer service is bar none the most miserable I have ever encountered. So-called "service" is not about the customer, rather it is about protecting Capital One.

You would have better luck going back to Coppel with a copy of your downloaded statement showing the charge and your original cash receipt, proving that you paid twice. Then camping out in front of the service desk until someone who has the authority to give your card a credit for the charge appears and is able to make the transaction.

Might take all day ---

[kasugie]

I've had similar problems with Capital One. What they are actually doing is NOT declining the purchase but putting the transaction on hold while they pathetically attempt to contact you to verify the purchase. To the vendor, the transaction appears to be declined, given that it's not approved. However, when you get home an hour later, there will usually be a voice message or e-mail from Capital One to call their customer service or fraud department to discuss "recent activity on your account". When you call them back, they'll then ask for you to approve or decline these transactions. In either case, you're screwed because if you paid for the goods or services by other means, you'll be paying twice if you approve. In this case, you need to always decline. If you didn't pay, you can approve and then go back to Le?n or wherever and re-purchase they goods or services.

They way to avoid all this is to contact Capital One periodically and let them know you're spending the next two months in your "vacation home" in Mexico and will be using the card there. That will put a digital "flag" into your account not to decline these purchases.

Capital One is a hassle, but still seems to be the best credit card for ex-pats, given the no foreign-currency transaction fee and free reward miles

[The Duck]

The Duck has to give this one a Quack Quack.

CapitalOne is not the bogey man here - and in my opinion neither is Coppel. This is simply a small case of compounding circumstance and then pure OVER-REACTION. You need to simply dispute the charge if it actualy posts to your account - there just may have been a temporary 'authorization' taken on your card as it was passed through the terminal but the actual charge may never take place.

Relax - give it a day or so and see what happens. If it is on your statement when it is cut then dispute it - it will go away

from long and interesting "Wiki" on Coppel :
The records of a federal consumer agency showed fewer customer complaints against Coppel than Elektra or Famsa in 2003-04; moreover, Coppel had resolved a higher proportion of the complaints than Elektra or Famsa.

[kasugie]

I agree with Se?or Duck. Going forward, you can avoid this kind of hassle by informing Cap One on a periodic basis that you're spending an extended amount of time in your 2nd home here, and will be using the card on a frequent basis.

While Capital One customer service is poor, it's no worse than Chase or Citibank "loyalty reward" cards. With all of them, you'll get faster service by pressing "2" for espa?ol, and keeping friends in Le?n employed at call centers there as well.

[admin]

Admin Note: As a courtesy to members who may be accessing gtolist on laptops or other devices with small screens image size matters. 640x480 is really about as large as needed. The image in the first post of this thread is extremely large

[The Duck]

This is bunk: "...Capital One wants a letter sent from them to arrive by the 22 in the USA, back to them by September 4 or they will not dispute the charge. "

Take a look at CapitalOne's published Billing Rights Summary where it states: "...You must contact us within 60 days after the error appeared on your statement. You must notify us of any potential errors in writing. You may call us or notify us electronically, but if you do we are not required to investigate ....."

You do not have your STATEMENT yet just a transaction summary.

Although you actually do have to write vs. e-mail or calling them I think it would have been wiser not to spend so much on the phone but to have used the Contact Us link on their site and gotten their advice on what to do in written form instead of verbal - and for free. As you can see there really is no rush - wait for your statement to post, which depending on its cycle could be as early as today or as late as around another 28 days or so, and only then from that point the 60 day clock starts ticking.

Good luck

[mr bill]

With all the CapitalOne bashing in this thread let me relate a recent experience. About a week ago my brother-in-law called to let us know several packages began arriving at his house addressed to us [we use his US address] I checked my credit card and there was no suspicious activity. I checked my wife's card and on 8/29 and 8/30 some 30 charges totaling over $1200 for Merchandise and for "Professional Services" appeared on the card. It took two calls to CapOne on my VOIP line to clear it up. 1st call was just to advise CapOne that there was fraudulent activity. Nothing could be done as I was not the card holder. A couple of days later my wife called in, identified herself and simply said every transaction after 8/28 was fraudulent. The card had already been blocked and now it would be canceled and a new card sent [mailed to us 3 days ago] Looking at my wife's account today CapOne has posted 35 credits - guess they got a little carried away and will figure it out in time. So, I don't see what all the fuss was about in the matter that started this thread.

Weird thing is not getting bilked for "Professional Services" which makes some sense as the fraudster gets the cash and probably closes the receiving account quickly - what gets me is why would he/she buy merchandise and send it to our address? What are we going to do with around 15 X-Boxes?

[laconstance]

Mr. Bill, this is too funny. Apparently the person who used your wife's credit card was not too smart about the "best" way to buy things fraudulently!

After many, many monthlty calls to CapitalOne about a teeny $8 or $9 monthly charge to "SIMAPAG" to assure them that it is not fraud, they seem finally to have flagged my account so I don't get a fraud alert every month, even though they once told me that they had no way of flagging a recurring charge on an account.

I always do mark my calendar to renew "foreign travel" to re-set every two months to both U.S.A. and Mexico charges.