Returned goods, no refund.

Greyman

New Member
Nov 6, 2008
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Help please!

I'm getting extremely frustrated by a situation I find myself in, having purchased an item from an Airhostess while travelling back from a recent holiday.
Basically I purchased an item by mistake with a debit card, moments later I notified the airhostess of the mistake and she attempted to reimburse the charge to my debit card but the machine wouldn't work. A written receipt was provided by the supervisor of the flight(I don't have the name), a Thomson headed receipt. The type that was once used with the old credit card machines, where you would place the card on the machine, then move the mechanism across and the image would be transfered to a hard copy. I was assured the financial department would take care of it.

A number of days later I noticed the money had gone from my account. I contacted the complaints department of Thomson, by letter and sent a copy of the receipt. A number of weeks passed and I received a letter from them saying that because it was a credit card transaction it might take a little longer to process, unlike debit cards processes that are almost instantaneous. Once my bill for the credit card comes in, I was to send it to them and they would look into the matter further.

At that point I phoned the person who had wrote to me, to explain I paid with a debit card, she said I had to send in my bank statement, I explained I was not willing to do this for obvious reasons, personal details on the statement and how was she going to see a transaction that didn't take place on my statement.

She explained I could take up the matter with ABTA if I was unhappy with the situation, I was rather shocked to hear the suggestion that ABTA would need to resolve a clerical error by one of its member's. At that stage she back tracked a little and explained she would contact their own financial wing(pardon the pun) to find out what had gone wrong. I was astounded to find out that had not already been done.

A number of days passed and she phoned me to explain they have recognized the error and I was to give it another few weeks then the money would be refunded. Guess what a number of weeks passed and still nothing.

I wrote to them again explaining all of the above and wanted an explanation why the refund hadn't yet taken place. I have not heard anything from them, the letter was sent about 1 1/2 weeks ago.

Is it possible for someone to give me some advice, I'm getting very annoyed with the whole situation that is taking up a lot of my time for £21.50

Thanks in advance
 
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Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
18,307
3
38
Bolton
Apologies for delay in getting back to you. This is terrible service, you should ask to make an official complaint. Most big companies will have an official complaint process and once this has started you 'might' get the problem resolved sooner.

The other route you can take is with the Debit Card company by asking them to recover the money for you. See this post:

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/forum/consumer-news/759-debit-card-refunds-your-rights.html

Good luck

Tony
 

Greyman

New Member
Nov 6, 2008
3
0
0
Tony

Thanks for the advice, I have decided on a two pronged response to Thomson, I will visit by bank next week to see if they can help with the situation, although I hate going into a branch, needs must I guess

This evening I have compiled a letter to ABTA, I looked at their code of conduct and in my opinion Thomson have contravened item 5D.

Dealing with Disputes 5D) Make every reasonable effort to reach a speedy solution in the event of a dispute with a Client. Members must also deal with a Client’s formally appointed representative in the same way.

Abta are required to respond within 7 days, so hopefully they can resolve it.
 
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Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
18,307
3
38
Bolton

GlasgowGirl

Facilitator
Jul 22, 2008
287
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That's a very useful guide and Observer article: I hadn't appreciated that this system existed as well as the protection offered by a credit card. Helpful to know this.
 

Greyman

New Member
Nov 6, 2008
3
0
0
The incompetence of Thomson and their complaints department continues, I got a letter back from them saying they had asked another department to look into the problem but up to this point they have not resolved the issue, they gave me a contact for that department so I could contact them myself.

So basically they have chose not to act upon the complaint and washed their hands of it. If I want to continue the complaint with them I will have to write to the other department and go through the whole letter sending/ phone call communication thing again.


I have put a complaint into Abta, who have sent me a letter and said they are investigating the complaint.


I have also been to the bank who were astounded by the response by Thomson, I have filled in a claims form, once I have sent the form off the money will be returned to my account within 7 days.

My bank will investigate this as a fraud investigation and even though I doubt if there was any fraud taking place it might encourage Thomson to tighten up their act a little.

I'm still can't believe the pi$$ing about I have had to do to get the money back.