Charged Twice :(

pennylessstudent

I was in Wetherspoons last week having a meal and paid on my card. The card machine ran out of paper so he said he had to do it again, put new paper in and gave me the machine to put my pin number in again. I asked him if it had been voided but he didn't say anything...I should have refused to put my number in a second time. I've checked my bank statement and it has indeed been charged to my card twice.

I went back in last night and spoke to a manager who took the details of the payment and my name and number and said he needed to speak to Head Office during office hours today and he would call me back today or tomorrow. This morning I had a call from somebody else at Wetherspoons saying that Head Office have told her the policy is for me to claim it back from my bank.

I didn't think this sounded right as surely they can just do a refund to my card, give me cash, or vouchers or something. I did say to her this sounded very long winded way of doing it but she said that's what Head Office say needs to be done. So I've been into my bank, who said this isn't the normal procedure but they will start to sort it out for me but it could take a week before I hear anything back as they need to write to Wetherspoons and wait for them to write back.

Is this really the only way I can get my money back? Surely Wetherspoons should be the ones sorting out their mistake and not me and my bank sorting out their mess. I'm a student as well, I don't have loads of money sat around, and currently this money is sitting in their account waiting for my bank to claim it back...surely there is a much quicker and easier way to resolve the problem!?

bap98189

You need to ring Head Office yourself and complain. The contact details are here on their website. This is just plain wrong. It sounds to me as though the person in the pub doesn't know what to do and is fobbing you off.

All they have to do is refund one of the transactions. Then the money goes straight back onto your card. It's not a difficult thing to do and is something every business that takes cards does regularly. I can see no reason why they would not just do this as it must be very obvious there are two identical transactions a few minutes apart.

pennylessstudent

Thanks for that, I'll get in touch with them.

pendulum

Stupid. If it was me I'd just order the same thing next time I'm there and say "I've already paid for it - look!" then show the bank statement. Even!