Claiming back from Credit Card Company under Section 75

wallerdavid

I recently ordered an item online from a camera retailer called Bitesized deals and paid £165 for a camera with my credit card. Stupidly I only checked up on this retailer afterwards and found out that it is a US based company deceiving UK buyers into thinking it is UK based. There's also a lot of bad press about the company not delivering and not refunding and they are also under investigation by the Fed Consumer Bureau in the US.

Ofcourse, finding this out I cancelled my order by sending them an e-mail and then contacted my Aqua card credit card company to open a dispute under Section 75 as I believed the company to be bogus. They told me that I couldn't do this and had to wait for the specified delivery time to claim under goods not received.

I am worried now since as I cancelled the order, if I don't receive a refund from the company (like many haven't) am I still entitled to claim under Section 75 or will the credit card company reject my dispute because I cancelled the order?

financial_warrior

Surely if you cancelled the order, you would have read the terms of cancellation, which if they haven't dispatched it would be a refund? If they cancel the order and issue a refund, you're fine. If they cancel the order but don't credit the money back to your card, then that's the same as non-receipt of goods.

Your card company is correct in saying that you should allow the company sufficient time to deliver your goods. If you find that they do not deliver after an extended period, and they do not enter into any meaningful dialogue with you, then you are then completely within your rights to dispute the amount under Section 75.

My feeling here is that you're panicking a little too early. You've only just placed the order, and haven't yet established whether they will complete it or not. What you should understand though is that a dispute process isn't immediate, as all parties involved need to exercise due diligence to ensure that nobody is unfairly treated. Rest assured though that given the value of the purchase, if you fail to receive it, you will have a Section 75 claim.

Budner

People just don't understand Section 75, you jumped the gun