Italian post office credit card victory! ***Paid in Full***

[FTMDave]

Hi everyone,

 

this post will be of no interest to anyone apart from me, as it concerns the Italian post office - but to hell with that, I'm a in a show off mood and will go for it anyway!

 

I have a pre-paid credit card with Poste Italiane.  In May I noticed fraudulent activity on the card.  I immediately whipped out the letter that came with the card to find the fraud number to ring - only to discover it was the post office's generic customer service number and no-one was answering.  I therefore raced to the local branch, only to find it closed as the hours had been changed due to COVID.  I then tried to ring again and eventually got through and blocked the card.

 

Once I'd calmed down I read up and saw I had to formally report the fraud within 48 hours and that I would be reimbursed as long as I hadn't been negligent, which I hadn't (I'm fairly sure the card had been cloned at an automatic petrol station, that's all I use it for). 

 

The nature of the fraud is that they were nicking a very small sum from me, in US dollars, under $3, but every few minutes.

 

When I filled in Poste Italiane's form, I was asked to list all the fraudulent activity, which was impossible as transactions take a few days to appear on the statement, especially if in a non-Euro currency.  Even the local post office didn't have the statement exactly up-to-date.  However, I stated the last day I had used the card and that all the transactions after that day were fraudulent.

 

In a fit of efficiency I was reimbursed after only a few days - but only for the fraud I had been able to list, not the rest.

 

Being a patient sort of bloke, I thought there had been a genuine mistake, so I wrote to them - and got no reply.  After a fortnight I wrote again - no reply.  I then wrote again making it quite clear I wasn't giving up, and next time it would be an official complaint - no reply.  So then it was the official complaint which they have to reply to within 30 days - no reply.  The next stage is mediation between them and a consumers' association representing me, all free, which I went for. 

 

Today a lawyer from the consumers' association rang and said they have given in and want to pay me what they owe plus a small amount of compensation.  I replied "Avvocato, you're fantastic, that's a total victory, in fact more than what I asked for".  He replied "I didn't have to do anything, you'd done a great job of setting out your case".

 

They've already e-mailed me a form to accept the settlement.

 

While bringing my son up I've emphasised to him that injustices can be fought, and in fact we had a victory a few years ago against the worst travel agent in the history of humanity.  So this can be added   I'm now going to have a few drinks knowing Poste Italiane are paying for them

[FTMDave]

Well, despite it being proudly written on their site that they guarantee to respect what mediation decides within 60 days - they didn't pay me.

 

So I wrote to them again and said if they didn't pay within 30 days I would take another case to mediation where they could explain to the mediators why they don't respect the decisions of the mediators despite promising to do so.  Today I picked up my cheque in full settlement from the local post office

[AndyOrch]