Is it safe to buy? Single item claims discussion

[MSE Wendy]

This discussion relates to the Is It Safe To Buy article

In particular whether you have made a claim where single items cost less than £100.

Click reply to discuss.

[Phill 66]

Can anyone help?
I bought 3 flights in one purchase from Sterling Airline via thier website. I have been told by Virgin Credit Card that I cannot get a refund becuase I bought the flights through Sterling's website. Is this true? The total value of flights and taxes/ surcharges was £348.

[StanBowles]

I have booked 10 return flights with Sterling all in one transaction totalling just over £700 - Barclaycard are sending some forms to fill in but they seem to be indicating that they will expect to recover the costs from Sterling?

Stan

[derrick]

Virgin are wrong, you will nearly always buy from somewhere that is not Virgin, a shop, online, a catalogue etc, as you will do with any C C

It is not the total, but the individual items, i.e. each ticket would need to cost over £100.

[EdnaCloud]

Originally Posted by derrick

Virgin are wrong, you will nearly always buy from somewhere that is not Virgin, a shop, online, a catalogue etc, as you will do with any C C

It is not the total, but the individual items, i.e. each ticket would need to cost over £100.

I think this response is a little confusing, I hope you don't mind me saying this.

Wherever one uses a CC is irrelevant to one's rights (unless one has been reckless and shown no due diligence in ensurings one's CC security), and what I think Derrick is saying is that no transactions on a Virgin CC will be directly with Virgin (with some exceptions that may include Virgin stores for example) and therefore Virgin's response is inappropriate to say the least.

With regard to the purchase price/total cost issue I do recommend looking at:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...your-purchases

and if you excuse the repetition I quote a small bit here:

This can get more complicated though. If the company links the transaction together, for example by giving a special offer if two flights are purchased together, then you should be covered. This hasn’t been tested yet
This information is based on conversations with eminent legal brains and Trading Standards yet this part of the law doesn't have any case law behind it.
Therefore, if in doubt it's always worth contacting your credit card company to make a claim and if you consider it to be a ‘single item’ do ensure that’s how you phrase it to the card company. Please report your experiences in the single item claims thread to help others in a similar boat.

I consider the purchase of a number of tickets to be one purchase, and although I am no expert it seems a little loophole hase been sneaked in by the CC cos when drafting section 75 which would be much fairer if 'single item' was more clearly defined as 'single puchase'

More grist to the mill
Best of luck

[derrick]

Originally Posted by EdnaCloud

I consider the purchase of a number of tickets to be one purchase, and although I am no expert it seems a little loophole hase been sneaked in by the CC cos when drafting section 75 which would be much fairer if 'single item' was more clearly defined as 'single puchase'

More grist to the mill
Best of luck

The C.C. Co's did not draft Section 75,( part of the Consumer Credit ACT), this is legislation on the statute books put into law by Parliament.

[spurspants]

I've just been looking at some Easyjet flights. Total comes to nearly £400 for me, my wife and (annoyingly JUST turned 2) daughter. However that's 6 individual flights, none of which is over £100. Would Section 75 cover it?

[MLFAN]

I have just put down £500 cash on 4 items of secondhand furniture from a local shop. A balance of £500 is still to pay on delivery i.e. a total of £1,000. I am not able to take delivery of the items for another 4-5 weeks and the shop have offered to store the 4 items for me provided that I pay the balance due.

Understandably, I am a little nervous about this given the current economic climate and the risk that a small business such as this could "go under" and take my furniture with them. Reading Martin's guide on Section 75 Protection, I seems to me that I could pay part of the balance due on my credit card and in doing so obtain protection for the entire amount.

My question is: will one credit card transaction be sufficient to protect me for all 4 items (each in excess of £100) or would it be necessary to make 4 separate credit card transactions - one for each item of furniture?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[lewt]

hi i recently put a claim in for section 75 from llyods and they have sent this respnse. the claim was to dell who have not been prepared to fix my wifes laptop saying it was a software issue and not theirs. can they do this and say they dont have to pay becuase dell have not responsed? what can i reply to this letter saying? is small claims an option?

I feel it is important to advise you that, despite numerous attempts, we have been unsuccessful in resolving your dispute, as Dell has not responded to any of our communications. Having reviewed your case, I cannot find any documentary evidence of breach of contract or misrepresentation and regrettably, I must advise your that Lloyds is not in a position to settle your claim on this occasion.
I am sorry that I cannot offer you a more favourable response and can only suggest that should you wish to pursue the matter, you seek independent legal advice on the way forward.

[lewt]

anyone?.....

[oweri02]

Hello MSE, I had an awful holiday with Thomas Cook - they basically dismissed ALL my claims, the worst of which was the flight went from LGW-MAN-Jamaica, and Jamaica -MAN-LGW on the return - however at MANcheser, they removed the Manchester passengers, refuelled and after an hour wait, told us they were terminating our flight. They assured us we would get another plane to LGW, but they needed THIS one to take a load of people to some-other-holiday, as their plane had been grounded - twice and 24+ hours delay.

We all got off, not happy, but got off. When we finally made it to "airside" in MAN, Thomas Cook desk tell us "no plane, we're putting you on busses", so a 5.5 hour drive from MAN to LGW.

TC say "tough, we got you back to where you started from"

I engage Tesco Credit Card under section 75 and they state;

Where, as in your case, the retailer denies liability or disputes the amount claimed [oweri02 says, I didn't ask a specific amount, I just want them to offer something], I regret to infom you that we are unable to sit in judgement on the facts of this case and would suggest that court action may be required to decide whether you have a valid claim, and if so, what award is appropriate.

They go on to say how to lodge a formal complaint in the courts etc.

But this is now my confusion. If ANY retailer accepts liability, then what is the need of section 75 (In the majortiy of cases, I understand companies may go bust etc...) but in this sort of thing, the whole point of me engaging section 75 is because Thomas Cook are not playing ball.

Any thoughts on how to umm nudge Tesco into reconsidering, or do I go the legal route?

thanks

Oweri02

[oweri02]

Can anyone advise/help please?

[Wallenstein]

I recently bought 4 x flights (2 x out, 2 x return) to Italy with Ryanair on a credit card. Each flight cost £68 so the total transaction was £272.

The flights were cancelled due to the volcanic ash, and although Ryanair have offered a refund they are taking a looooong time to process it. So I thought I'd see whether my credit card company could put any pressure on and get me the money back sooner under Section 75.

I spoke with Trading Standards and unfortunately they confirmed the interpretation in the main MSE article - i.e. that although I paid over £100 in a single transaction, because each individual flight was less than £100 and was effectively bought as a separate item Section 75 does not apply.

Something I'll certainly bear in mind for future purchases as I have assumed I'd be covered under Section 75!

It's not too bad in the this case as Ryanair will (eventually) get around to sorting the refund, but does seem to leave the purchase of multiple cheap flights direct from the airline unprotected.

[Kailey]

Hello Friends..

[Andrew 897]

Stays for my yacht were not delivered / stolen.
Chandler refuses to help. (He had a key to yacht but did not put stays in boat.)
MBNA say go to County Court.
Can you help?

[leafields1]

I purchased a set of 6 dining chairs (£372), they are not available individually - the smallest quantity you can buy is a pair of chairs for £139. The company itemised the invoice (presumably for accounting purposes) and Barclaycard have used this itemisation to not agree a Section 75. The Financial Ombudsman Service initially agreed that Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act applied in this instance but upon review informed me yesterday that they have reversed this decision because of the itemisation of the invoice.

If someone purchased a 3 piece suite for £297 and the seller itemised the invoice so that the chairs were £99 each and the sofa was £99 and the suite was faulty does this mean that the consumer is not protected by Section 75? The consumer purchased a 3 piece suite not 3 individual items. It seems grossly unfair to me when it is obviously one single transaction.

How do I fight this unfair ruling?