Chargeback questions.

Aggy_2

Good Evening.

I purchased an online computer training course from a firm on the 20th of May 2009 but after making payment I was informed that the course was not available for another two weeks and was offered a free course whilst I waited. After the two week period was up I contacted the firm and they did not respond to my emails or my phone calls, 6 days later I recieved and email from the firm stating that they had gone out of business and that another firm (it was the same company but with a name change) would be offering me the same course, but after checking on the website the course I had paid for was not available and since then I have not recieved any communication from them. I contacted Lloyds TSB about the chargeback option on my visa debit card and they sent me out a form which I signed and returned back to them that was on the 7th of July. But now I am being told I will have to wait until the 30th of August for my money back which I find unacceptable. I was informed that the money was to be creditted to my account on tuesday but that hasn't happened. Can you please shed some light on the following.

1. I thought that lloyds were suppose to refund my money and they reclaim it from the merchants bank not me reclaiming it from the merchants bank.
2. I thought that if the course was not available after 30 days from the original date then the merchant was at fault and a reclaim was simpler.

kind regards

Ivory_Tinkler

Maybe Lloyds can't do the chargeback immediately as they need to make their own enquiries first. If you only returned the form to them on 7th July then I would expect they'll need a few weeks to contact the company and find out why they did not deliver the course to you. I don't know any timescales but I would imagine that Lloyds would have to write to this company and give them a certain amount of time to respond or provide you with the service and then if they don't fulfil their obligations then your chargeback would be granted? This is probably why they can't refund until the end of August.

Aggy_2

Thats the thing, the original company had not fulfilled their part of the contract because they did not give me the course I paid to do and its been longer than 30 days since this new company took over and they still haven't either. How can they contact a company that does not exist any more.? And this new company isn't responding to any attempts to contact them either.