Dilemma with requesting Mastercard chargeback

[MixedCase]

I recently made an internet purchase using my M&S Mastercard using what
has proved to be a dodgy Paypal-using company that is ignoring refund requests via e-mail and webform, the only mechanisms provided for getting in touch (and the refunds page does not look "real" anyway: this allegedly London-based firm has exactly the same typos in its return instructions as a separate California based company, which may explain why their opening hours are expressed in Pacific Standard Time!)

The wrong item arrived with no delivery note. As the cost was under a hundred pounds I have applied for a Chargeback with my credit card company, and was phoned today by someone from the disputes department who said they would need to see the delivery note that proved that the wrong thing was delivered. This seems absurd (what if the delivery note described the *right* thing and the wrong thing was delivered?) and anyway, I had no delivery note.

In desperation I suggested that since they would only accept a delivery note as proof that the delivery took place at all, I would change my dispute to be one that no goods were delivered. My logic was that with no delivery note I can't prove the random item that came through my door had any association with the company that I ordered some other thing from. (Heck even if it was the right thing, it might just have been a coincidence!)

Am I on dodgy ground here? The package *was* sent "Royal Mail tracked" so, assuming I was *not* merely visited by the Free Gift Fairy, the problem company could challenge the claim by proving something was delivered to me...and *then* I would be able to show it was the wrong thing.... or would I already be in trouble by then? Can fraudulent e-merchants avoid chargeback requests just by delivering empty boxes?

The good person at M&S said she would turn a blind eye to my original claim that the wrong goods had been delivered, but I'm worried that I will be digging myself into a hole if I am obliged to continue phrasing the item sitting in front of me as "not delivered".

[Georginazn]

Have you contacted Paypal about this? Or have I misread your post? If you used Paypal, and are registered with them, it might be as well to try their claims system. The seller won't want to lose their Paypal facility, and whatever happens, the more people who lodge complaints against that company, the more likely Paypal will be to take action.

[MixedCase]

I don't have an account with PayPal: the seller does. Mastercard/M&S Money paid PayPal who paid the seller (or, I guess, left credit in their PaylPal account). Mastercard then billed me.

The first thing I checked was PayPal's policy and they only (seem to) help the buyer if they bought using a PayPal account.

The seller is hidden behind PayPal, and combined with them having sent the goods via a remailer and using an invalid "whois" entry for their web site, the only way to chase them up seems to be to follow the money. The chargeback system seems to be the right way to do this but the requirement to provide a delivery note that correctly identifies the item as being the wrong thing seems a bit harsh!

[Georginazn]

Oh I am sorry - yes Paypal does seem to only take responsibility if you have registration. The chargeback route is the one then. Have you put your problem into writing, as you do make it clear here. I have had a number of occasions where phone call complaints have been less than great because of the listener not full understanding what I am trying to convey. Would a letter be in order?

[MixedCase]

While it may not count as a delivery note, it turns out that what I thought was a mailing service is the shipping-end of an entirely different web site, and some cryptic symbols on the packet are the product code that *that* site uses to identify the *wrong* item. So I do have paperwork for the right item being ordered and the wrong one being delivered, but there's no obvious connection between the two.

It looks like the original company could not complete the order and made a separate order themselves for something that looked like it would do the job and specified me as the delivery address!

I have written to the second company, that looks a lot more reputable than the first, to see if this is what happened. I will contact the Mastercard people again to see if what I have counts as a delivery note, but it looks like my phrasing of the issue as "one company failed to deliver: in other news, the Free Gift Fairy sent me something" actually holds water. I just now know the identity of the Free Gift Fairy.

[Tony]

I think your only option is to go through the Mastercard credit card chargeback scheme, are there any details about this published on the Web.

Tony

[MixedCase]

I have sent off the paperwork to M&S Money to start the chargeback procedure. While I used the form of the claim that "nothing was received from the merchant" while including full details that some similar item did show up in the post from another merchant but there is not way for me to determine that the two events are connected. I also included a copy of an e-mail I sent to the original merchant offering them a chance to identify themselves as the sender of the item (which was ignored like all other e-mail).

[MixedCase]

I sent back the "no goods received" version of the disclaimer and it got as far M&S again before it went through the "what were we thinking" stage (or reached someone who thought differently to the first person to whom I spoke) and I will now be sent the "wrong goods received" form.

In the mean time I have phoned the company that actually sent the (wrong) goods and they confirmed that the dodgy company ordered it and that they had requested that no delivery note be supplied to disguise the fact they couldn't satisfy the orde thmselvesr.

[Tony]

Thanks for the update - can you point me in the direction of any info on the Mastercard Chargeback Scheme.

Thanks

Tony

[MixedCase]

The top google hit for "chargeback-on-credit-and-visa-debit-cards" is what i used.
I don't have enough posts to my name to post links!