Advice about bank
Discussion
Bit long so please stick with me...
My wife booked flights to Iceland back in September through a travel agency website. After the payment screen it said there had been a problem and no money had been taken. There had been no bank verification screen and as far as my wife knew the payment had not gone through. She had decided that was it with the travel agency website and booked flights directly through the airline website.
She checked the bank later on and saw that the first payment had gone through even though the website said it had not. There were four payments to the airline (four people going) and another one to the travel agent. Called the bank but they said she would have to wait until Monday to log a dispute.
Cue Monday and the dispute is logged with the money refunded. They also refund the legitimate amount for the second booking which my wife had explained was ok and not to do anything with. They are told that this payment was ok and to pay it back to the airline. They take this from us again but do not pass it back to the airline. A few weeks later, they come back to us and say the travel agent website have said it's a legitimate payment and the money is taken from us again. Another call to the bank and the 4 flight costs are refunded but not the travel agency cost. Wife is on the phone for about 2 hours and they give her a goodwill gesture payment of the travel agent cost plus £100 and another few pounds to cover phone call charges. They also say if they send a dispute to the airline all the airline need to do is refuse it and the money will be paid back to them and the flights will be ok. This was around the middle of November.
Monday this week my wife gets an email from the airline saying he sent back the dispute and has heard nothing from our bank. The flights are now at risk if they don't get payment. This amount has not been refunded to us and has been kept by the bank. My wife is now going into our branch again for this as she refuses to talk to the dispute team as its an overseas call centre and they don't know their arse from their elbow!
The bank has been threatened with the FCA and the financial ombudsman and this is why they gave us the goodwill gesture and the £100. We didn't take it any further as thought it was all sorted and we had got the money back.
Can you offer any advice on dealing with a complaint like this through the FCA or the ombudsman? What would you have done differently?
TL;DR
Bank mess up big time. Help
Thanks for reading.
My wife booked flights to Iceland back in September through a travel agency website. After the payment screen it said there had been a problem and no money had been taken. There had been no bank verification screen and as far as my wife knew the payment had not gone through. She had decided that was it with the travel agency website and booked flights directly through the airline website.
She checked the bank later on and saw that the first payment had gone through even though the website said it had not. There were four payments to the airline (four people going) and another one to the travel agent. Called the bank but they said she would have to wait until Monday to log a dispute.
Cue Monday and the dispute is logged with the money refunded. They also refund the legitimate amount for the second booking which my wife had explained was ok and not to do anything with. They are told that this payment was ok and to pay it back to the airline. They take this from us again but do not pass it back to the airline. A few weeks later, they come back to us and say the travel agent website have said it's a legitimate payment and the money is taken from us again. Another call to the bank and the 4 flight costs are refunded but not the travel agency cost. Wife is on the phone for about 2 hours and they give her a goodwill gesture payment of the travel agent cost plus £100 and another few pounds to cover phone call charges. They also say if they send a dispute to the airline all the airline need to do is refuse it and the money will be paid back to them and the flights will be ok. This was around the middle of November.
Monday this week my wife gets an email from the airline saying he sent back the dispute and has heard nothing from our bank. The flights are now at risk if they don't get payment. This amount has not been refunded to us and has been kept by the bank. My wife is now going into our branch again for this as she refuses to talk to the dispute team as its an overseas call centre and they don't know their arse from their elbow!
The bank has been threatened with the FCA and the financial ombudsman and this is why they gave us the goodwill gesture and the £100. We didn't take it any further as thought it was all sorted and we had got the money back.
Can you offer any advice on dealing with a complaint like this through the FCA or the ombudsman? What would you have done differently?
TL;DR
Bank mess up big time. Help
Thanks for reading.
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