oh my god help needed urgently

jaystacey

ok guys heres my dilema!!!
i purchased a wedding dress from a shop that has now shut down. i paid £845 cash deposit and £700 debit card. the shop couldnt get my dress in on time so i requested a full refund which i was given on the 9th may. the refund was made over the phone into my husbands bank account for £1300 odd. i then went happily and bought a new dress with the refund:D
now for the shoddy part!!! i checked my husbands online banking for him ob the 11th june to discover we were £500 overdrawn, knowing this wasnt right i investigated further to find that my account was wiped of £1300 odd so all our bill money e.t.c was gone and we were also £500 overdrawn. suspecting we were victims of i.d theft we wnt straight to the bank (hbos).they said the fraud team would investigate. we recieved a phone call from the fraud team on the 12th june to tell us that they suspected the wedding dress shop of taking the money but there was nothing else they could do because the transaction on our account was showing as bos investigations and they were not sure who these people were!!! they then told my husband to deal with it himself!!! i then phoned the police and financial ombudsman because the bank were refusing to give us our money back. the bank then phoned to say since we had cantacted the ombudman they would file a transaction dispute in the hope of getting our money back!!! i have contacted the owner of the closed store to be told they are not allowed to go into liquidation or administration because they are sole traders but are trying to file for bankruptcy!!!
please can someone tell me where we stand :mad::mad::mad:

Nenen

What a nightmare... so sorry to hear about this. If you have household insurance they may include free legal advice with a telephone hotline. Some unions for work also offer this... or possibly find a solicitor who will do a half hour free session for proper legal advice. Good luck.

dacouch

There is a thread on Capriskies on MSE, do a search of forums and it will come up.

Do you have wedding insurance by any chance?

jambosans

I'm sorry to hear that. Basically if the bridal shop, Capri Skies, has taken the payment from your account mistakenly then you will have to follow the debit card dispute process HBOS suggested.

The reason being, simply, it is not fraud, but rather a dispute between yourself and the retailer - in relation to goods you have not received. HBOS will follow the Visa Debit Card Chargeback process which involves raising a dispute with the retailer/ their bank. It is not necessarily a quick process and becomes slightly more complicated if the company has gone bankrupt.

In many debit card disputes your bank will refer you to the retailer (as HBOS did) before raising a dispute. However in this instance if the retailer in question is about to go bankrupt then there is no means to receive a refund direct from them, so your bank was the only option. HBOS gave you wrong advice (which is why the Ombudsman set them straight) but ultimately you will have to be patient and allow them to go through the disputes process.

Just a bit of additional information: details on Chargeback through Visa (which.co.uk).

jaystacey

keep the advice coming
i will keep you all posted with the out come

Mrs_Sweeney

The same thing has happened to capri skies staff.In order to get their wages,on the advice of the police who were in attendance on the day the shop went bust,the staff refunded their wages to their own bank accounts.Some of the staff did indeed get the wages into their bank accounts only to have bank of scotland(the camerons bank)take it back putting my daughter (ex employee)£800 overdrawn.The manager of Bank of Scotland Bishopbriggs did a bit of phoning as she had never came across this problem before but the end result is that she could not tell us why the money was put in and then 11 days later taken back out.My daughter didnt even have the money in her account for them to take back.My daughter is currently suing Mrs Cameron for her dafamatory comments on her website accusing her of stealing and my daughters lawyer is currently dealing with Bank of Scotland to get my daughters wages back.I just wonder how many other people have had this happen to them.The truth about Capri Skies will come out at the end but im sure its the innocent people who will lose out!

jaystacey

ok the bank has refunded the 700 paid by card but wont refund the other 700 paid in cash!!! this is diabolical!!! they let capri skies take my money so why cant they refund it all???????????

jambosans

jaystacey wrote: »

ok the bank has refunded the 700 paid by card but wont refund the other 700 paid in cash!!! this is diabolical!!! they let capri skies take my money so why cant they refund it all???????????

Well think about it rationally. They can easily prove the payment on your card went to Capri Skies. They can do no such audit trail on cash to prove the £700 you withdrew went direct to Capri Skies. There may not be much you can do about this, I would speak to Consumer Direct or Citizens Advice Bureau.

Update: If you read this statement on the Capri Skies Website it confirms the problems you are to face with reclaiming cash. Something very strange has went on with that business, the statement is bizarre reading. I would perhaps consult a lawyer, but again I doubt there is much you can do in claiming back the cash.