Stay away from Capital One!

If you've ever been enticed by the ads or mail offers for Capital One, please consider carefully before signing up with them.
Their no-hassle slogan is anything but true - from my experience.

Their customer service is horrible! False advertising and bait-and-switch methods, it seems, are visible just from scratching the surface.
I was enticed with a no-fee, no-hassle rewards card via a mail offer. After accepting the offer, I was charged a $29 annual fee. After discussing it with many a Customer Service Reps (CSR), and Supervisors and Managers, no one was able to revoke/credit this charge. After many days and unsuccessful attempts, I decided to make the best of it. I decided I would earn as much as possible in cash rewards to offset this charge.
So, I start to put charges on to the card. To keep my available line of credit high, I kept making online payments instead of waiting for the bill. This is where the fun starts! Some payments I make are allowed and clear up my available credit. However, others, especially larger payments, clear my bank, and gets posted to the account, but my available credit does not get cleared. This prompts a phone call to Customer Service - after 2-3 days and a hours of calmly trying to find the right person/dept that can resolve this, we found the FIT dept. All the while, we'd been treated to long hold times, misplaced transfers by CSR's and Supervisors telling us there's nothing they can do, and others saying you will have to wait for 5-7 business days for it to automatically clear. Apparently their computer system places a credit hold on any payments, larger than the minimum due for that month, made on accounts newer than 6 months. You would think that they can remove this automatic hold feature after receiving about a dozen cleared payments, but that would be logical!
This being our first experience with their so-called Customer Service, we were calm about the situation. From the second time they placed a hold on my available credit, I called Customer Service and asked to be transferred to the FIT dept so they can resolve the issue. Again, I was hit with requests to validate account information and then transfers to various other CSR's and Supervisors that told me it is not possible to remove this hold, etc, etc.. I stopped giving them my account information. The CSR's (most of them) are in India, it seems, and it was as if verifying my account information was needed to show they worked on an account - they are not allowed to even transfer a call without this information - no doubt this is a ploy implemented by the call center CapOne outsourced to. So, CapOne pays for every account touched by each agent - hey CapitalOne, your call center vendor is having their way with you and your customers for their financial gain. Yet, when I am able to reach a US based rep, I am transferred without even a single question! Why? Since the customer (me) has clearly explained the need and they are clearly _not_ able to help, and the obviousness of the customer experience with the presented issue and knowing which department the customer needs to talk to, there's no further questions required, provide the customer with the service s/he is looking for and move on to the next customer! WOW! What a concept, actually get some work done and not waste their time or a customers time!?!?! I hope someone at Capital One reads this, as you have a very unhappy customer - one that will _not_ be renewing the card at the end of the annual service agreement.
AND from what I see, I'm not the only one.... see here(consumeraffairs.com) for more details.
Here's another one about their bait and switch program.
There's plenty more - a google search will do wonders for your wallet and peace of mind, if this catches you before you get bit by the Capital One bug!

So far, I have made cash rewards well over $29 that they charged me. I plan on keeping this up to get as much money as possible from them. I am not a fool, I understand they make plenty of money on my transactions. However, for me, I will take pleasure in knowing that I'm getting something back for something that I already need to purchase. I plan on making sure I get my rewards until I cancel this card and will never look back.
Oh, when you're trying to do anything with CapOne, use their automated fraud system and after entering your account info press 0 for an operator. This, hopefully will get you to a US based CSR. If you bypass the automated system, you get sent to the Indian call center hell for sure.
Ask me how I know?! Wait, I already told you!

BTW- maneuvering phone trees and call centers isn't rocket science, just takes some patience and trial and error.