Latest news with #refunds
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Customs Brokers Prepare Refund Claims After Court Ruling
Customs brokers are starting to prepare refund claims for U.S. importers, after a trade court ruled Wednesday that President Trump didn't have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs. Customs brokers, who handle the paperwork to process imports and calculate duties, also handle refunds. They said they are awaiting clarity from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on what is refundable. Importers say they are crossing their fingers.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Wannasee cancelled festivals leave ticket holders frustrated
Ticket holders have spoken of their disappointment and frustration after a number of festivals were cancelled, leaving people hundreds of pounds out of pocket. Sunderland's Kubix and Monument festivals, Stone Valley North in Thornley, County Durham, and Wannasee Penrith were officially cancelled on Saturday following days of speculation over the future of the events. Organiser Wannasee Ltd said it was "not able to continue" with the events and advised people to contact ticket providers or card issuers for refunds. Ticket provider Skiddle said its "repeated requests" to organisers to release the money for refunds to be processed had gone "unheard". Skiddle is offering full refund in the form of credit for other events. A face value refund could also be requested, but it is not possible to confirm when the money would be returned. CM Tickets is asking people to contact the organisers who are "currently reviewing their plans". Wannasee Ltd said a difficult trading environment and "sudden collapse in customer confidence" had left the business "unable to recover".Among other festivals cancelled were Wannasee South, Jukebox Sunderland and Jukebox Bingley, Sign of the Times, Stone Valley South and Stone Valley Midlands. A spokesperson for Skiddle said it was not "unusual" for ticket outlets to forward funds to organisers as suppliers and artists require deposits and payments ahead of events. They added: "We have made repeat requests for the funds to be returned to us which have so far gone unheard, which means we are unable to directly return these to our customers."Skiddle said despite having security measures, getting the money back could take a long time and "may not result in the full funds returned" to the company. Wannasee Ltd has been contacted for a response. 'Banks footing the bill' Kevin Cooper was due to go to Monument Festival and had also rolled over tickets from the Stone Valley North 2024 event after it was postponed. "We're sitting waiting on £260 worth of tickets," he said."Even worse will be the suppliers of tents or people who've paid for pitches to provide food on site, or staging. Many of them will be well out of pocket."Mr Cooper, from Burnopfield, County Durham, said he was "annoyed and frustrated" with the cancellation and described it as "another hit on the music business" in the North said he had accepted Skiddle's offer for credits for alternative events and was waiting to hear back from his bank over a separate refund."I think ultimately we'll get some or all of our money back one way or another, which will probably annoy the banks because they'll end up no doubt footing the bill for it," he added. Another ticket holder from Durham, who asked not to be named, said the cancellation left her feel "terrible" after spending £700 on the festivals as part of celebrations for her 50th birthday. They were set to got to Stone Valley North and Kubix, as well as Lindisfarne Festival."You look forward to it all year round," she said."You plan it, you organise it. The festivals that we go to, we meet the same people every year, so you look forward to catching up with them all. "Your first worry is obviously money and then it's disappointment, real disappointment." She added she would try to claim a refund back from her bank. Wannasee Ltd said discussions to preserve Lindisfarne Festival and Northern Kin were under way. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
CNET
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Why Amazon Is Giving Surprise Refunds for Years-Old Purchases (And If You'll Get One)
Amazon buyers are reporting an influx of unexpected refunds from products they ordered months or even years ago, with one customer on LinkedIn saying he received a refund of $1,800 for a smart TV bought seven years ago. Others made similar comments about products bought long ago. According to Bloomberg, the new refunds are because of changes Amazon made after an internal review. That review may be related to a 2023 consumer lawsuit by a group of Amazon shoppers who claimed that Amazon had reversed their legitimate return-related refunds. A representative for Amazon told CNET that only a small number of customers would be affected. "Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued," an Amazon representative said. "There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue." In its latest earnings call, Amazon reported a one-time expense of $1 billion connected to refunds that the company had not yet sent out. These earmarked funds could be responsible for the sudden updates that shoppers are now seeing regarding purchases as far back as 2018. Read more: I've Been Tracking Tariff Price Impacts Every Day and Here's What I've Found So Far If you receive an email about a surprise refund from Amazon orders, it may be related to these changes Amazon has made behind the scenes. You may still want to confirm it's not fraud by logging into your Amazon account or making a quick service call, especially if it's a larger amount like a payment for a TV. Scammers may be taking advantage of this news, too, so be wary of any notification that asks you for financial information, which Amazon should already have.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Amazon is refunding customers for unverified returns dating back to 2018. Here's what to know
Better late than never. Amazon is set to issue refunds to U.S. customers who returned products but never got their money back, with at least one case dating back to 2018. 'Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued,' an Amazon spokesperson told The Independent on Thursday. 'There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue and made process changes to more promptly contact customers about unresolved returns going forward,' the spokesperson added. The returns come after a class-action lawsuit was filed over timely returns. Affected customers are receiving emails notifying them of the refunds, which are being processed automatically without any required action. Customers are encouraged to check their accounts for unexpected deposits, even if they never requested a return. Steven Pope, the founder of My Amazon Guy, which helps businesses grow and sell on the online retailer, claims that Amazon refunded him nearly $1,800 for a TV that he returned in November 2018. 'I'm probably not the only customer who has experienced this but isn't that crazy!? 7 years to payout a return???' Pope wrote in a LinkedIn post. Other commenters mentioned that they, or people they know, have received similar emails about long-overdue refunds. In its May 1 earnings call, Amazon reported a one-time charge of $1.1 billion, partly attributable to these historical return costs. Amazon is also facing a potential class-action lawsuit alleging it systematically failed to issue refunds to customers or reversed previously issued refunds. Filed in 2023, the lawsuit overcame a major hurdle this April when a judge denied Amazon's motion to dismiss. It is now awaiting class certification, which would allow additional Amazon customers to join the case.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Challenging Your Energy Bills
Here's everything you need to know from Harry Kind's item about challenging your energy bills! £7 million repayments:Ten suppliers — including EDF, and Octopus — are paying out £7 million after overcharging customers with a certain type of setup known as Restricted Meter Infrastructure. That's when a property has more than one electricity meter point recording energy suppliers are allowed to charge multiple standing charges in those cases — but the total amount some customers were charged ended up going over the price cap, which isn't now paying out £5.6 million in refunds and £1.4 million in goodwill payments, and the refunds are automatic — so if you're owed money, you should get it back without doing anything at all - win!If you've switched supplier since January 2019 (when this issue started), your old supplier should contact you to arrange a refund. Reasons to challenge your energy bill:If you're going to make a complaint the first thing you need to establish is why you think you're being overcharged. This can happen for a variety of reasons:You've been overcharged by your supplier:You've been sent an estimated bill:If you don't have a smart meter - or have it in smart mode - you need to send regular readings to your supplier. If you don't, you get estimated bills, which could be too high. For example, if you skip summer readings, your bill might be based on higher winter usage. So keep an eye on your usage according to previous bills and send monthly readings!There's a sudden spike in the energy you're using:Often when your energy bill jumps sharply it's because of a broken appliance in your house that's using more energy than it's supposed to be: for instance a broken heat pump or a whasher/drier that's running 24 hours per day. So always make sure you check your appliances. You've been charged for the wrong meter:This is more common than you'd think, especially in flats. You might actually be paying for your neighbour's usage or communal lighting without a quick step-by-step guide to check if your meter matches your address:Compare MPAN on meter to online: You can find out if the electricity meter on your bill is correct by comparing the Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN) on your bill with the MPAN registered to your address. The MPAN is a unique registration number for your Network Operator: First, you need to find who your electricity network operator is. This is different from your electricity supplier. Find your electricity network operator on the Power Cut 105 supplier and MPAN: When you've found your electricity network, use the 'Find my supplier' service on their website. It will also tell you the MPAN for your the MPANs don't match you should contact your electricity the MPANs match but you're still worried the bill is wrong, you can compare readings. Check the reading on your meter and compare it with the reading on the bill. If there's a big difference you should contact your been back billed:If your gas or electricity supplier believes you have not been accurately billed for energy you've used, they may send you a back bills are sometimes called 'catch up' bills, and are intended to cover a period where you've used energy but have not been charged for it – usually due to a billing if you're a bit suspicious about a lack of bills it's probably worth reaching out because it is still your legal responsibility to pay for the energy you're firms are banned from back-billing you for energy used more than 12 months before the error was detected, if it's found that it's the energy supplier's fault for not sending you your the ban doesn't apply to customers who actively prevent suppliers from taking readings. If you were at fault, they can back-bill you for up to six exception is people who are on a heat network, who can be backbilled for up to 18 you think you have a faulty meterAlthough your supplier is responsible for making sure your meter works properly, meter faults are rare, and if your bill is higher than expected, it's usually caused by something might be worth looking into getting a smart meter - it reduces mistakes, it means you don't have estimated bills, the energy companies are eager to install you call out engineers and the meter is faulty, they'll replace it and refund if it's not faulty, they could charge you up to £200, so only request a test if you're confident something's are different ways to test different meters: find out some more information here., external How to complainContact the customer service team of you energy supplier by phone, email or letter. You can find contact details on its sure you keep everything laid out clearly in writing — loads of evidence helps. That means bills, photos of your meter, and any correspondence with your go-to method for keeping everything is using a WhatsApp chat with myself. That was you can add to your collection any time, it's all backed up and you can organise it further from disputes can take up to 8 weeks to resolve, so it's worth keeping everything plenty of support available from Citizens Advice, external (or the consumer council, external if you're in Northern Ireland) for making these also recommend joining the Priority Services Register, external if you are eligible. They can help with your bills, but also if you're about to make a complaint it's worth checking your eligibility and registering ahead of time as it can make the complaints process a little bit smoother - for instance you could nominate person that can take care of correspondence for you. Contacting the OmbudsmanIf your complaint hasn't been resolved 8 weeks after it was submitted, or you recieve a letter from your energy supplier that says you've reached a deadlock, it's time to contact the Energy Ombudsmn. You have 12 months from the time you reach deadlock or get a final response to make your complaint. You can contact them by phone, email, post or their website here, is a completely free service, so don't give your money away to people who say they'll do it for you. If you require assistance, sign up to the Priority Service Register mentioned earlier and say that you'd like to nominate someone to take care of communications for you.
