Disputed credit card charge
Discussion
Unrecognised charge on bill. Immediately raised with card provider, who after inquisition, agreed to put it into chargeback system. Been dragging their feet frankly.
Before any of the usual PH style attack the OP lot arrive, there is 100% no way this is our failure, cards never being out of our control or sight, no use on dodgy websites, all equipment used online has proper anti-malware systems installed and updated plus regularly scanned etc. Absolutely no idea how they have got our details and seemingly registered a fake PayPal account.
Anyway card issuer has really dragged their feet over procedures. Required us to sign disclaimer form, had to be reminded 5 times to send us this form. Each time, you need to return it to us within 14 days, but we take up to 10 days to send it out. At times it's seemed like they were deliberately making hurdles to trip us up.
Finally they have "temporarily" credited the money, pending an investigation by MasterCard. Not an earth shattering amount 600 odd euro, but it's definitely not our transaction.
So when is the deadline for all this to be over? Card issuer gives many different answers, 60 days from date of disputed transaction / 120 days ditto / or never, seemingly. Depends almost on who answers the call in the centre.
It's reported to police, ref number issued, off the record discussion seems to suggest now part of a much larger investigation being tracked back to Liverpool and onto Ireland.
I'm going to work on 120 days, and if heard nothing, close the account. Cards already stopped and destroyed from day 1. Depends on what happens now whether to go to proper complaint stage.
So any comments / advice from those who have been through it. First and only time experienced this, maybe it's just so commonplace for the card companies they really don't care / want anyone to make too many waves.
Before any of the usual PH style attack the OP lot arrive, there is 100% no way this is our failure, cards never being out of our control or sight, no use on dodgy websites, all equipment used online has proper anti-malware systems installed and updated plus regularly scanned etc. Absolutely no idea how they have got our details and seemingly registered a fake PayPal account.
Anyway card issuer has really dragged their feet over procedures. Required us to sign disclaimer form, had to be reminded 5 times to send us this form. Each time, you need to return it to us within 14 days, but we take up to 10 days to send it out. At times it's seemed like they were deliberately making hurdles to trip us up.
Finally they have "temporarily" credited the money, pending an investigation by MasterCard. Not an earth shattering amount 600 odd euro, but it's definitely not our transaction.
So when is the deadline for all this to be over? Card issuer gives many different answers, 60 days from date of disputed transaction / 120 days ditto / or never, seemingly. Depends almost on who answers the call in the centre.
It's reported to police, ref number issued, off the record discussion seems to suggest now part of a much larger investigation being tracked back to Liverpool and onto Ireland.
I'm going to work on 120 days, and if heard nothing, close the account. Cards already stopped and destroyed from day 1. Depends on what happens now whether to go to proper complaint stage.
So any comments / advice from those who have been through it. First and only time experienced this, maybe it's just so commonplace for the card companies they really don't care / want anyone to make too many waves.
I had to raise a dispute on a John Lewis Partnership card (bought alloy wheels on eBay, realised they were fake, perp now in jail - http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/13889652.Fra...
Mostly straightforward - had to fill in a form and write an accompanying letter supplying evidence for my claim. Funds were returned to my account within a few weeks I think.
About 3 months later I actually got a cheque from the guy in question to return the original payment, so then had to call JLP again to find out what to do - in that case, they wanted me to cash the cheque and then once cleared they would reverse the original reversal.
By and large everything was sorted out without much effort, so it does sound like your credit card company is dragging their heels a bit. I'd be wary of closing my account though, as presumably if they think you are in debit then this might impact your credit rating?
The latter is pure uneducated speculation though, so happy for someone more knowledgable to confirm or deny.
Mostly straightforward - had to fill in a form and write an accompanying letter supplying evidence for my claim. Funds were returned to my account within a few weeks I think.
About 3 months later I actually got a cheque from the guy in question to return the original payment, so then had to call JLP again to find out what to do - in that case, they wanted me to cash the cheque and then once cleared they would reverse the original reversal.
By and large everything was sorted out without much effort, so it does sound like your credit card company is dragging their heels a bit. I'd be wary of closing my account though, as presumably if they think you are in debit then this might impact your credit rating?
The latter is pure uneducated speculation though, so happy for someone more knowledgable to confirm or deny.
Closing the account having a negative effect on credit rating is a fair point, will have to think about that.
Trying to be careful about name and shame, but the reason for wanting to bin them is because of the shoddy way they have behaved. Looking in such as MoneySavingExpert it seems that the background card operator, as opposed to the front name, which is a store, has a bit of a reputation for being unhelpful.
Couple that with incompetence. On the first call to them it was agreed, and obviously recommended by them, that the cards be stopped and destroyed pending replacement. We were ahead of them there and had already decided we wanted to do that. Ten days later when we rang up to ask why we hadn't been phoned within a week on progress, as promised by the fraud investigations unit, and also had not received the forms it turned out that, contrary to the agreement, they hadn't even stopped the cards and not even contacted anyone! Fortunately nothing else had been charged, but it just seemed to be an organisation that didn't give a stuff, wasted best part of a month, hence decision long term to kick into touch. If someone said that in reality it was being run by Capita wouldn't be surprised, it's not btw.
Trying to be careful about name and shame, but the reason for wanting to bin them is because of the shoddy way they have behaved. Looking in such as MoneySavingExpert it seems that the background card operator, as opposed to the front name, which is a store, has a bit of a reputation for being unhelpful.
Couple that with incompetence. On the first call to them it was agreed, and obviously recommended by them, that the cards be stopped and destroyed pending replacement. We were ahead of them there and had already decided we wanted to do that. Ten days later when we rang up to ask why we hadn't been phoned within a week on progress, as promised by the fraud investigations unit, and also had not received the forms it turned out that, contrary to the agreement, they hadn't even stopped the cards and not even contacted anyone! Fortunately nothing else had been charged, but it just seemed to be an organisation that didn't give a stuff, wasted best part of a month, hence decision long term to kick into touch. If someone said that in reality it was being run by Capita wouldn't be surprised, it's not btw.
bad company said:
I had a similar situation with Lloyds bank credit card and fraudulent transactions last week. All sorted out on the phone and issued a replacement card. No problems really.
I would love to know how the ‘bar stewards’ got hold of my card details tho.
I've had 3 credit cards with two different non connected banks arrive pre-scammed by someone at their end, assumed by me as the fraud was immediate on issue of the new cards - but confirmed as the most recent the card was still in the envelope! I would love to know how the ‘bar stewards’ got hold of my card details tho.
Having the money refunded was pretty quick and painless as i recall, think it was them that alerted me on all occasions.
Thought this was worth an update. Spoiler alert, disappointing end.
So we'd filled out all the forms, made the necessary declarations, sent off the info, reported it on Action Fraud. Didn't hear anything for a long while.
Then card company came back that PayPal had reported that as far as they were concerned this was a valid transaction as an order had been placed by AN Other (not us) from email account (not ours) registered to PayPal account (again not ours) with a partial address in a town a couple of hours drive away but paid for credit card my name, billing address etc. The goods, concert e-tickets, had been delivered to that email address, downloaded 10 minutes later, so as far as PayPal concerned a valid transaction had been completed. Had we got any comments?
Statements then made to the effect that we did not know person, address, not been to this town, not been to concert, did not know of this concert in a foreign country until this information supplied. All went quiet again. Action Fraud updated.
Later on we initiated a discussion with the credit card company who suggested we should speak to PayPal as to why they had allowed an account to be generated in the name of AN Other but using card to my name and billing address. This done, PayPal reviewed our account, confirmed they were now convinced that this transaction was nothing to do with us, however in the conversation a bit of information slipped out that started me on a little investigation.
In short, found the full name, full address, occupation of this person, and social media information that they were in the country in question around the date of the concert tickets bought. Police updated with this information.
Result of police 'investigation' is that they have nothing worthy of passing onto the local force, not even worthy of a knock on the door apparently. No explanation why.
No explanation from anyone why an account can be raised and presumably checked on the basis of payment by a card in a completely different name and billing address.
Still we haven't been charged, though in a way we all are through fees and charges one way or another.
Disappointing.
So we'd filled out all the forms, made the necessary declarations, sent off the info, reported it on Action Fraud. Didn't hear anything for a long while.
Then card company came back that PayPal had reported that as far as they were concerned this was a valid transaction as an order had been placed by AN Other (not us) from email account (not ours) registered to PayPal account (again not ours) with a partial address in a town a couple of hours drive away but paid for credit card my name, billing address etc. The goods, concert e-tickets, had been delivered to that email address, downloaded 10 minutes later, so as far as PayPal concerned a valid transaction had been completed. Had we got any comments?
Statements then made to the effect that we did not know person, address, not been to this town, not been to concert, did not know of this concert in a foreign country until this information supplied. All went quiet again. Action Fraud updated.
Later on we initiated a discussion with the credit card company who suggested we should speak to PayPal as to why they had allowed an account to be generated in the name of AN Other but using card to my name and billing address. This done, PayPal reviewed our account, confirmed they were now convinced that this transaction was nothing to do with us, however in the conversation a bit of information slipped out that started me on a little investigation.
In short, found the full name, full address, occupation of this person, and social media information that they were in the country in question around the date of the concert tickets bought. Police updated with this information.
Result of police 'investigation' is that they have nothing worthy of passing onto the local force, not even worthy of a knock on the door apparently. No explanation why.
No explanation from anyone why an account can be raised and presumably checked on the basis of payment by a card in a completely different name and billing address.
Still we haven't been charged, though in a way we all are through fees and charges one way or another.
Disappointing.
Spidersleg said:
Cost too much to bring justice. Easier and cheaper to sweep under the carpet
Guy I work with had someone buy plane tickets using his credit card. He reported this to the police and told them the name of the person who booked the tickets and the airport and time of the flight. Too much effort to investigate apparently.I had my card stopped as someone tried to buy a £1000 push bike on my card, luckily the retailer realised it was dodgy and alerted the bank. I only found out when my card was refused and I phoned the bank to find out why. I was promised someone from the fraud department would call me, 8 years later I am still waiting for the call. I am also 99% sure I know where my card was cloned but again too much hassle.
Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff