Not upheld: poor customer service and failure to respect communication preferences complaint against Capital One (Europe) plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr K complained to Capital One about receiving a letter by post despite requesting email-only correspondence, and about poor service during a subsequent call to discuss the issue, including an agent who responded inappropriately and a disconnected call. Capital One partially upheld the complaint, acknowledged the errors, apologized, and offered £50 compensation. The FOS investigator and ombudsman both found the compensation fair and reasonable, declining to uphold the complaint or require further action from Capital One.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman agreed with the investigator that Capital One had acknowledged its errors: sending correspondence by post despite Mr K's email preference and providing poor service during the call. While the agent could have responded differently and the call disconnection was unfortunate, Mr K was made aware that the supervisor wait time would be longer. The ombudsman considered FOS compensation guidelines and determined that £50 was fair and reasonable compensation for the service failures.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website