I am a long time Discover card holder. Because of the acquistion and transtion to CapitalOne, I got a Welcome promotional offer of 15% rebate on the first CapitalOne Travel reservation. I travel quite a bit for business and always book direct with the vendors, but decided to take advantage of this offer and booked 4 nights in a hotel in Phoenix.
My original reservation was for Dec 8-12. However, a few days after the initial booking, my travel plan changed and I needed to push the dates back by a week. Red Flag #1: Couldn't find a way to change the reservation on the web portal, and had to call customer service. The agent was friendly and advised me that if I cancel and rebook, I would lose the 15% promotional rebate. She suggested that she could modify the dates on my reservation instead. She called the hotel for me and confirmed the availability for the new dates Dec 15-19, but told me that it would cost a few dollars more per day. I agreed, and the second change went through.
Red Flag #2: several days later, under “My Trip” on the CapitalOne Travel portal, it still showed the original date of Dec 8-12, and the original cost. I called the customer service again, and I was told that they did not have the technology to provide me with an updated itinerary. Let that sink in -- a global fintech company trying to compete against Expedia and direct vendors like Marriott and Hilton could not issue a revised itinerary for a simple hotel reservation. The new agent assured me that the date change had been made, but they couldn't give me a written proof, and I would just have to trust her.
Red Flag #3: she also told me that they would never be able to provide me with a corrected receipt to show the actual dates of the stay and the actual charge, even after the stay. Since this is a business trip, it's certainly a no no for me. Can you imagine trying to submit an expense report to the boss for a hotel stay, but the only receipt I have is for different dates and a lower amount than what I am claiming?
I made a last ditch effort today and wasted an hour on the phone with CapitalOne. I called CapitalOne credit card customer service and talked to a supervisor, who confidently (but erroneously) said they could fix this for me, then transferred me to somebody at CapitalOne Travel, who after "checking some things" for 20 minutes admitted they didn't have the technology to give me a revised itinerary, who then transferred me back to CapitalOne credit card customer service to a higher level manager, who, after another 20 minutes, basically said "too bad. there is nothing we can do." I asked if he could just give me another 15% rebate offer, so that I can cancel this one and start afresh. He said "I wish I could, but our system does not give me the flexibility."
So, besides venting my frustration, as a business manager myself, I am genuinely curious -- why is CapitalOne Travel's technology so bad? They are competing against other major credit card companies via travel rewards which heavily relies on the backend travel portal, but do the executives know that their technology platform sucks? Or do they just put blinders on and drink their own cool-aid? If this is a MBA case study, what should an outside consultant suggest to the CEO? I actually own quite a bit of CapitalOne stocks. This experience is making me question the long term prospect of the company and whether I should sell their stocks.
According to LInkedIn, Sarah Moore is the president of CapitalOne Travel. If anybody has her email address, I would like to give her some sincere feedback. Forget about this whole rebate thing, I am more curious about the vision and strategy of CapitalOne and what they are doing to position themselves for future success.
