Charged for an item we did not buy

hubballi

My wife visited a garden center on Sunday and bought a few small items. On returning home she discovered that she had been charged £14.99 for a fictitious butter dish that she did not buy. As it was too late to contact the store, we phoned them yesterday as well as emailed (answered) She remembers the young lad on the till was having banter with his mate while processing the order. After speaking on the phone they seemed reluctant to believe us and didn't appear helpful. They said they would get back to us as once we have left the store we cannot prove anything. We have since not heard anything.

If they are not willing to help us can we take it up with our credit card company that she made the purchase with ?

fwor

The problem that you face here is that it's generally impossible to prove that you did not receive something after the event.

Even if the shop has a CCTV system that would be capable of showing what you did and did not take away, I don't think there is any realistic way that you could force them to examine the footage - it's just your word against theirs.

There seems to be no substitute for the rule "check your change and receipt before leaving the shop" to cover this situation.

If it's any consolation, it was probably just an error rather than a scam.

willo65

If you only bought "Small items" how did you not realise the total payable was £14.99 more than you expected??

Pollycat

willo65 wrote: »

If you only bought "Small items" how did you not realise the total payable was £14.99 more than you expected??

I wondered about that too.

Also, exactly how did this 'ficticious butter dish' end up on the receipt?
Did the SA scan the barcodes of the items you actually purchased?