River Island.com overcharges!

[Marilyn22]

I bought some items from riverisland.com which came to a total of £108.32 I recieved the items fine and the correct amount was on the bill that came with the package. However I recieved my bank statement last week and saw that I was charged £39.99, £39.99 and then the correct £108.32 by river island. So I emailed them and got a reply saying 'unfortunately we cannot help you with this matter' and they gave me a number to ring.

I rang the number and they said they cant help me and told me to email riverisland (which i had already done) anyway i managed to get a London number from them which i eventually rang. I rang the London number and they have fobbed me off with an address which they say I should write to and another email!!! Im at my wits end all I want is my £80 which THEY have overcharged me and which was THEIR mistake!!! Feel like im getting passed from pillar to post!! Where can i go from now???

[Bookworm]

Go to your bank and get a chargeback on the first 2 transactions.

[Marilyn22]

I paid by debit card though can i still do this?

[Marilyn22]

i have been to my bank and they have said that they cannot give me a charge back on the transaction?? Anyway after speaking to 4 different people and being fobbed off from one person to the next, riverisland said i need to send a copy of my bank statement etc to them. I have done this....a week ago and still i have not got my money back!!! can anyone please help me on what to do next!??

[Marilyn22]

Ok seems like im talking to myself on here... anyway this problem is STILL going on neary 7 weeks after I got these stupid over charges!

River Island did contact me and said they needed me to contact my bank and ask them where the two charges on £39.99 went. I did this and the bank said the charges left my account at the EXACT same time as the £108 total charge. The statement even says the 2 charges £39.99 went to River Island.

This is gettin absolutely ridiculous now all I know is River Island has £80 of MY money and Im still waiting for them to do something about it!! Could I contact trading standards? Also can anyone give me the email for Trading Standards? I cant seem to find it on their website!?

 

Thanks

[vanboy]

Send them a letter giving them 7 days to repay the £80,also telling them that if you don't receive a refund in that time you will take it to the County Court.It would'nt hurt to also send filled in County Court paperwork to them with this letter as well,i think you can download these from the Court services site.

[davethorp]

Or go back into the bank and tell them that the two transactions were not authorised by yourself and get them to start a fraud investigation. Failing that you can go for the approach vanboy mentioned however it is customary to give 14 days notice before filing court papers and not just 7

[Marilyn22]

Thanks for your replies!

Can I still as the bank to reverse the charges though? When I spoke to my bank they said that I wasnt covered because I didnt pay by credit card, I used my visa debit card.

[Conniff]

This is from the BBC. I saw this programme and yes you can chargeback.

 

It's common knowledge that consumers can claim from their credit card provider in the event of a problem with their purchase.

 

But less well known is an obscure Visa rule which means that debit card transactions are often covered too. Called 'chargeback', the process has been agreed to by all banks issuing Visa debit cards

 

The full article:

 

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Working Lunch | Visa debit card refunds

 

Go for it Marilyn and save the bother of being given the runaround by stores that hope if they mess you around long enough you will just go away.

 

It's also good that you have put the name of the company up as well, it will do as a warning to others thinking to purchase and maybe get those that have already purchased to have a look at their bank statements to see if the same has happened to them.

[barracad]

yes you can chargeback

 

I believe with the Visa debit card chargeback scheme the same principles apply to the credit card scheme - i.e. it is only available for transactions over £100, so they would not be able to get a chargeback on a transaction for £39.99.

 

I can't find any definitive information on this, but I seem to recall when Farepak went bust, people tried to get chargebacks from their debit cards and the ones under £100 were refused.

[Conniff]

I have clawed through all the banks and the visa operating instructions and can find no lower limit in any of them.

It would be prudent to ask at your bank but please come back and let us know the answer about any limits upper or lower please for the sake of others.

[IdaInFife]

I had a simial problem with argos , they charged me the total amount for two items and two seperate charged fro the same items. they totalled just over £50. I persuaded my bank to claim them bank but it was a case of ,after 4 weeks trying to talk to argos who were useless, demanding the bank manager doing this.

[Marilyn22]

Thank you all for your advice. I will go back to my bank and speak to them again on Tuesday and hopefully they can sort it out:)

[Marilyn22]

well i still have not seen my £80! River island are claiming that they dont have it and my bank are even more unhelpful. Customer care at river island offered to speak to my bank but the bank are saying that they cant share and info with river island because of data protection (which is understandable) does anyone have any advice? ive kinda hit a brick wall!!

[Conniff]

Send riverside a letter before action saying you will apply to the court if they do not reimburse you withing 14 days.

[Marilyn22]

I rang up and said I will go through with court action but they have said they do not have the money, so cant reimburse money they have not recieved all I know is that its gone somewhere either to river island or lloyds tsb (who my account is with) has got it!

[Conniff]

You need now to do this in the logical order Marilyn. Your bank knows where the money was deposited, they must tell you if it 'has' been deposited into riverside. If it has then you go ahead with the court reclaim.

If it has not been deposited into riverside then it is an unauthorised transaction as stated earlier and the bank must recover it and reinstate you.

 

Either way it is unauthorised and the bank should reverse it, but it could look legitimate to them as riverside has your card details.

 

I would do this by writing to the bank so that you have a paper trail.

[IdaInFife]

This should be detailed on your bank statement.

 

have you included this with your corress to riverisland?

 

 

Ida

[Conniff]

I don't think the bank statement will tell the whole truth Ida if, as has been done before, there is some impropriety. It wont be the first time or the last.

 

A declaration from the bank in black and white saying the payments were made to riverisland will be all that is required to take this further.

[IdaInFife]

Yeah but Marilyn stated on her opening post that these transactions were shown on her bank statement.

 

If that was included and some sort of invoice from riverisland to show the order it would be obvious , so to speak.

 

Conniff?? are you following me tonight

[Conniff]

Of course I am following you Ida - I can smell the fresh roast coffee and see the chocolate digestives, you will have to run faster.

 

What I was trying to say without so many words is that there have been misappropration of small amounts by some bank staff, and covered up somehow, there was one in the press not long ago, I will try to find the link to cover that.

 

It could be that riverside never in fact received it though the bank statements says so.

 

If the op gets the definitive piece of paper from the bank then she can go in with full confidence that riverisland have in fact received it.

[Conniff]

I wont post a link, just this bit. If you google 'bank clerk jailed' there are a lot.

 

A bank clerk who stole £71,000 from elderly customers to help him get on the property ladder and do up his new home has been jailed for 12 months.

 

 

Matthew Ings, 22, fleeced the accounts of two customers in their 90s and one in her 80s during his seven months of theft. The cashier at NatWest bank used the money to pay for a deposit and solicitors fees on a £210,000 house for him and his girlfriend.

[IdaInFife]

Of course,

 

I was just trying to ensure OP had done the 'obvious' things.

 

And it's Vodka and salt 'n' vingegar hula hoops you smell

[borisbeaver]

What you need to get hold of is the transaction and authorisation number from your bank. This information is recorded against every transaction.

 

Some entries on bank statements do show the transaction id.

 

Did you actually report these transactions as fraudulent?

[yellowplum]

Chargeback’s depend on what you actually say to the card issuer and who you also speak to.

 

Firstly as mentioned go back to your issuing bank and specify these are unauthorised transactions. (No need to get into detail that you ordered stuff and you have the correct charge further down, you have 3 seperate transactions and two are unauthorised - all you need to say is I have two unauthorised transactions on my statement; people always get into far to much detail here)

 

If they do not charge the claim back go higher, go to Customer Care. I can't see that you have mentioned who the issuing bank is but I presume it is someone like Halifax (morons to say the least when it comes to Visa's Regs) It is immaterial how much the transaction is for; as long as you have not participated in the transaction then you are entitled to charge the transaction back to the merchant through your card issuer.

 

Don't walk into a branch (they never know what they are doing in the first place) there is always a dedicated team that deals with chargeback’s.

 

Let us know who the issuing bank is and I may have a number for you. (Can’t promise and if you are still having issues).

 

My last case and point is CHANGE BANKS!