Capital One $5,000 Credit Card Customer Bailout Is Just A Typo
What's in Lori's wallet? Not $5,000. She received a letter from Capital One, telling her that since it was her anniversary date with the card company, she had earned a $5,000 bonus, to be credited to her account. Really? It must be true. Capital One wouldn't send a letter like that out by mistake, now would they?
She logged in to her account online, and didn't see $5,000 credited to her account, so she called Capital One to find out what was going on.
I called and was promptly informed those were incorrect and should be $50, not $5,000. You think with the bail out money given these people, they could afford proof-readers?I called up and the rep seemed to be tired of her spiel..."sorry, it was a mistake. They put the period in the wrong place" (more like they didn't use one)
I want my $5,000!!!!
This, kids, is why decimal points are important. The letter's invitation to use the reward for "a night on the town" should have been a clue, since five grand could pay for one heck of a night on the town. I can understand assuming that the letter is a scam, but not assuming that thousands of customers received the same letter in error.
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Sad to say, I don't think I could spend $5K on a night on the town. I'd sure as hell try, though!
I'm sure the letter should have said "$50". There's no way they would use "$50.00", that would look strange. So more than a typo.
A typo... twice... Replacing a period with a comma... And moving it... Twice...
How odd...
Um yeah, this isn't a matter of the "period in the wrong place". I wouldn't be surprised if they get sued for false advertisement or something.
If that document actually read "$50.00", it would be rediculous---
"As our way of saying thanks, your account has been credited with a bonus of $50.00.
You can use your cashback bonus for a night on the town or something you've wanted for a while. So go ahead and splurge on something special!"
Still, I wouldn't mind having $50 extra in my account!
I was half expecting this to be one of those "Here's $5,000 on us" with a tiny asterisk next to it (or a cross or whatever the hell they use now) and then reading the 4 pt font print on the back about how it's a cash advance for 35% APR.
And not just once. They put in the typo TWICE!
$5,000 would be a hell-of-a-night though, complete with hookers, blow and farm animals, power tools and vaseline.
Lawsuit from someone who spent $5k anyway in 3..2..1..
Maybe it was a database issue? Someone put in 5000 and the letter software didn't interpret it right.
They probably just filled in "5000" when they entered it into their software that plugged the number into the flyer, rather than "50.00". The software probably converted the 5000 into $5,000. Then it placed it in the appropriate places throughout the document.
Maybe Capital One wanted to be like Zecco and give people a bunch of money that they really didn't have so they spend it so they can apologize but not reverse things since people spent money that they really should not have in the process.
Conspiracies happen....y'know.
This is really just a difference of opinion.
"since five grand could pay for one heck of a night on the town"
The girlfriend experience ain't cheap!
5,000 would be a heckuva tipjar.
"sorry, it was a mistake. They put the period in the wrong place". Where is the correct place when there is a comma?
I'm guessing the computerized process which prints out these mailers was just doing its job of placing a comma in the correct place, after the 5 and before the three 0's, because a period was never there to tell the computer otherwise. Also, the rep's detailed apology doesn't take into account that 5,000 was printed twice. Once followed by an exclamation point and once followed by a period.
What if Lori immediately used her bonus for a night on the town? If they're telling her to "go ahead and splurge on something special!" is that a typo also?
This is a yearly reward?
$50 is still a pretty good.
No, the mistake was that this letter was intended to go out AFTER the revaluation of the dollar.
@acrobatic rabbit_R.O.A.C.H.: It would end up in arbitration, and a default ruling in favor of the company, leaving the consumer on the hook for $4,950.00 plus inflated arbitration costs.
As I was reading this, I was expecting it to say this was a $5,000 increase in their credit limit when in fact they were decreasing it my $5,000.
Not a period; it's a decimal point. Big difference.
@Danj3ris: "Also, the rep's detailed apology doesn't take into account that 5,000 was printed twice."
Eh, it was probably some kind of mail merge.
@TheUncleBob: Well, it was probably some sort of mail merge thing, so they likely only typed it in once.
@edebaby: We had an enormous problem with a customer a few weeks ago because he was using commas as the decimal separator and it was causing all sorts of confusion.
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: I'll best most Capital One execs have no problem spending 5k on a night on the town all the time.
The letter mentions "Cash Back Bonus." It seems like a lot of those programs refund you around 1% of your spending. So I think the gist of the program was supposed to be "We're going to act like you charged $5000, which entitles you to $50 in cash back bonus!"
@Danj3ris: I know the computer puts the names in but the price if it is different per person would be by computer also but if it was $50 for everyone then that is done by the marketing/designer people that put the flyer together.
$5000? that's enough for four front-row tickets at yankee stadium!
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: $5,000 would give you a 2% downpayment on your $241,000 bacchanal at Scores.
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: I've done $2,000 in an hour and a half at the mall (with the assistance of a friend). How hard could it be?
@acrobatic rabbit_R.O.A.C.H.: She should quickly go put a small down payment on a $5,000 something, then when she doesn't get the $5,000 and can't afford to pay for the item, the item gets repo'd, and then she can sue Capital One for the embarrassment of having repo people out in front of her house.
@ManiacDan: Lots of places around the world do that. Kind of like the metric system. We're the exception, not the rule, I believe, with the decimals instead of commas.
I'm wondering if I should start reading my junk mail from all the banks. Maybe I'm throwing perfectly good money. . . . nah!
Class action anyone?! I'm in lol
@Danj3ris:
The explanation can easily be accurate. If you use a program like Excel, when doing currency, if you type 5000 and put the period on the end, it is 5,000. If you put it in the middle it would be 50.
Hell of a typo repeadtedly with a comma right after the five.