‘My £700 garden furniture broke, but the seller won't refund an old bank card'
Dear Gary,
I recently returned some garden furniture to an online retailer. The reason I gave was poor quality, which they admitted was because of their manufacturing process.
The defective garden furniture was collected. So far, so good.
I paid on a credit card for the initial purchase. However, it was compromised in the interim and I had to cancel it. I asked the garden furniture retailer for the money to be returned to an alternative card. They are now stating they can only return the funds to the original card, which does not exist.
What can I do? The sum involved is £689.98.
– Nicholas by email
Dear Nicholas,
No one likes to be fobbed off – especially when nearly £700 is at stake. I have heard this old chestnut from retailers many times – 'we can only refund the card you used for the purchase' – and yet there are many reasons that card may no longer be available. More to the point, if the original card is not available, it should not be a barrier to you being refunded in full as soon as possible.
First, check some facts with your credit card provider. Even though your original credit card was cancelled for good reason, your original credit card account should still exist. In other words, while the original card is defunct, the account behind the card is still live.
To this end, you should contact your credit card provider and ask the question: 'If a refund is processed to my cancelled card, what happens?'
Most often, they will still accept the refund and apply it to your account. If – for some reason – your previous account has been fully closed, they may forward the funds to your new account or send a cheque to you. Or if they reject the payment and send the refund back to the garden furniture retailer, the retailer must then contact you to arrange an alternative refund method.
Once you have established how your credit card provider will deal with an attempted refund to your cancelled card, inform the garden furniture retailer of the process and ask them to initiate it.
It is a modern-day reality that scammers are out to get us. This is why retailers often insist on refunding to the original payment card in order to comply with anti-fraud and other guidelines set out by the credit card industry.
Your garden furniture retailer may be feeling caught in the middle of you rightly demanding a refund and the rules imposed on them, which they must comply with in order to have the benefit of transacting business using a credit card payment method.
All of this means that to get your refund, you should tell the garden furniture retailer that you have confirmed with your credit card provider that a refund to the original card/account will still be processed and either redirected or sent to you. On that basis, they should proceed with the refund to the original card.
This will shift responsibility to your credit card provider and also keep the retailer compliant with the rules imposed on them.
If the refund is sent but does not arrive, then your card issuer must trace it. To mitigate this risk, ask the garden furniture retailer for refund proof (the transaction ID, date and amount) and send this proof to your card issuer and ask them to track or recover the funds.
I hope this will help you understand the process of getting your money back.
If the garden furniture retailer refuses to cooperate, or you suspect delay tactics, you should send a formal complaint via email or recorded letter. In your correspondence, mention the value of the refund that the card was cancelled but the account is still traceable, and finally that you are entitled to the refund under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 because, by their own admission, the goods you purchased were 'not fit for purpose'. You should also say that you may escalate to the Financial Ombudsman or take them to small claims court action if unresolved.
If all else fails, you can contact your credit card provider again and file a Section 75 claim.
This would be on the basis that under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, all credit card users have additional protection when purchasing goods or services. If a purchase between £100 and £30,000 is faulty, undelivered, or misrepresented, the credit card provider is jointly liable with the retailer.
This legal rule means that a credit card company may be responsible for refunding the cost of the purchase, or other related expenses, if the retailer fails to do so. I hope it will not come to that, but it is good to have it in your back pocket as a last resort.
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