CAPITAL ONE vs SANTREESE S. KNIGHTEN, CHASE BANK

I nominate Santreese S. Knighten for customer service professional of the year. From her work as a Chase Bank personal banking officer she showed what it means to take the extra step with a Capital One fraud case.

You probably make the right calls when you travel? Get the mail stopped, the paper delivery put on hold. Nothing says rob me, I’m not around, like a few weeks of newspaper piled in the driveway.

A recent trip didn’t start like that, so I didn’t make any calls.

One I should have made was to Capital One.

If you want any purchases protected, use a Capital One card. It’s what you want in your wallet just like Sam Jackson and Jennifer Garner remind us.

So I was on a roadie, bought more than usual, then got denied. My Capital One card died. The chip died, the strip died, and it was a problem. After I called the customer service number on the back it came back to life. Before croaking again.

Some stores have a three strikes rule on a credit card. Push the chip side in three times, then slide the strip. Fail, fail, fail, fail. What to do? Call again. In the meantime I used my debit card and pulled cash from an ATM, two things I didn’t want to do. This was a trip I needed to record receipts on. For convenience I wanted it all in one place.

Calling Capital One turned into a marathon.

Hours of conversation with one customer service, then their supervisor, cut off and starting over with another, then their supervisor. Turns out my card was directed into the fraud division and I was considered the culprit.

The key words are VERIFY MY IDENTITY. As a reasonable person I appreciate the heck out of the Capital One fraud protection. That’s why I’ve got the card. Now, I’m not one to live a fancy life on credit, but this time it seemed like I was for the buys I put on the card. Big. Red. Flag.

Two hours later, and feeling pretty lucky I had a good phone battery, I got no where. Giving my birthday, home address, last four digits of my social, none of it was good enough. I started wondering if I was who I thought I was.

I should have called Jennifer Garner, or Samuel L. Jackson?

Maybe ring up Alec Baldwin? Nothing else was working, why not? Frustration and low grade anger started seeping in, but not much. I kept an even temperament, which is probably what all fraud guys do instead of boiling over.

Finally I told them to talk to my wife to verify my identity. She gave them an earful for another hour and a half to no solution except she called me and gave me an earful too. Not part of the plan, and still no Capital One access.

On one hand I’m glad they take fraud so seriously. On the other it wasn’t fraud. They listed where the card worked and I told them what I bought. Not good enough.

This is where Santreese Knighten, a true knight in shining armor at Chase Bank, comes in.

The voice of my Capitol One fraud case directed me to find a bank and ask a teller to call them. What? Find a bank and ask a teller to call a credit card company? Never heard of such things.

To make sure we’re all on the same page I asked which bank would work best. They gave me a Chase Bank address. The next day I showed up, waited in line, and asked the teller to call Capital One. She looked at me, then walked to away to talk to bankers. No alarms, no sirens, it just felt like a matter of time.

She came back and said she’d never heard of this process, that no one had a call from Capital One. What I heard her say was I was SOL. I figured as much, but like a trooper I was going down fighting. At least talking, so I called the customer service on the back of the card again while sitting in a Chase lobby chair.

Maybe it was my expression, my low tone. Or maybe Santreese Knighten saw a moment to fix something. She walked by and asked if there was anything she could help me with. I’ve asked the same question at events when I was the bouncer. The wrong answer is bounce worthy.

I explained the situation and she really listened.

I’d gone to banker heaven and she was the right angel. Instead of showing me the door like she had every reason to do, she sat down beside me and talked to the fraud department. She gave them her number to call back and get this problem solved.

Then we went to her cubicle to wait for their call, which is just good back-linked fraud protection. Of course the call didn’t come through. Instead it got routed through the bank system. We waited until her next appointment came up, then I thanked her and took the lobby seat trying to reach Capital One again and start over.

During her banking appointment her phone rang. She answered, transferred the call to another cubicle phone, and motioned me to follow her. Finally, The Call.

Maybe it was a small thing, but it was gigantic to me. Santreese Knighten saved the day, the week, the month. I was who I said I was and she believed me enough to go above and beyond the usual customer service. If Chase Bank has more people like her, I’m changing banks.

If you’ve ever been stuck in a credit card fraud case, lost your wallet, or purse, and someone starts ringing up an alarming amount of purchases, you want Capital One on the case. But if it’s only you and you neglected to inform them of your plans, you need Santreese Knighten. Not someone like Santreese, just her.

Instead of coming home defeated, Santreese coached up a win. Best experience in banking I’ve ever had.

Thanks to Officer Knighten.