Rights to money back on credit card

Battenburg

I clicked on a link to a Home Information Pack provider, promising the cheapest HIPs in 48 hours. The quote was the lowest I'd seen so I paid my £217.35 through their Nochex service and got on with filling out the Property Information Questionnaire, which was my committment in the procedure. I received an automated text only minutes after having paid saying "Thank you for your order. You will receive a call from one of our domestic energy assessors shortly".

This was on Wednesday 9th December at 2pm. I was looking for guidance with the PIQ (the property information questionnaire) and I called 3 times on that day, when I was told someone would get back to me (‘probably this evening’). Asn nobody had got back to me that evening, I called again at about 9.45 am the next day and was told someone would be getting back to me soon. I called again mid-morning (noone available) and again in the later afternoon. When there was still noone to speak to me, I informed the telephone operator that I expected a refund: I had clicked on their ad as it promised a HIP in 48 hours and they hadn’t got back to me in 25 hours. I didn't want to deal with them.

Then I was called back by ‘the most senior person here’ at around 4.45 that day and we had a very long conversation in which I made my position clear that I found the service unacceptable and wanted my money back (after all, no service had been provided, it should be a simple cancelling of the Mastercard transaction). I was told ‘no’ over and over again and told I would have to send it in writing (because they have a complaints procedure). I insisted that this was just stalling and insisted she do something about it, saying the message was the same whether in writing or verbal and I encouraged her to write it all down. In the end she said she would do what she could but could promise nothing. I had no response from this.

On 11th December I sent an e-mail with a very brief attached letter referring to my concerns as expressed on the phone. Straight away I received an e-mail from ‘Chris’:

Hi,

Please confirm your reasons for the refund.

Regards
Chris

To which I responded:

I spent 35 minutes on the telephone explaining yesterday. I have nothing more to add.

Thanks

And I got the immediate response:

Hi,

We will not be authorising a refund under these circumstances. If you feel we have offered an unacceptable level of service then may I respectfully request that you put this in writing.

Regards
Chris

And I responded immediately:
I have. It is attached to the e-mail.
Also, I have received no service, so please just reverse the transaction or I will be taking it up with Nochex.

(Nochex being their provider which takes payment).

On 14th December at 18.30 I sent an e-mail:

Dear Sir/Madam

Having attached a letter to my e-mail last week I have not heard from you. I said if I hadn't had notice of a refund by today I would be submitting a support ticket to your online payments provider, Nochex. I have just telephoned my credit card provider, which has confirmed that the payment has not been returned. That you are choosing to ignore me when my original complaint was that I was being ignored is rather exasperating. It feels like you are heaping misery on my misery for no reason - I would say the relationship with this customer is irretrievable - please just return my money and accept I am not happy. I will submit the support ticket tonight if I haven't heard from you by e-mail in the coming hours.

Thanks again


And got no response. So, at 20.52 that evening (14th) I started a support ticket with Nochex, who responded on 15th December in the late afternoon:

Dear Customer,

I have emailed the seller and explained that you are still awaiting your order and we expect a resolution shortly.

Please contact us again if you do not receive your goods, a refund, or a dispatch update within the next 7 days.

Regards,

Risk Team
Nochex

And closed the ticket. I got straight back to them (via electronic form) and said I thought I had been clear that the only satisfactory resolution would be a refund. I reopened the case on their website and have heard nothing since.

The Hip company have had our money for 9 days now and have ignored us maybe 10 times? (I have rung again today twice and they have said they will get back to us. They have not).

Do forum contributors think it likely that I will be able to get a refund? I am keen to sort the HIP with a different company, but I don't want to pay if I won't get my money back from the original, irritating firm. They are members of the HIPCode/PCCB.

Apples2

No chance of letting us know who this company are by any chance???? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Battenburg

Apples2: I have PMd you: I'm not sure if it's a good idea to name and shame while the dispute is ongoing?

Or maybe I should!?

rudekid48

Battenburg wrote: »

Apples2: I have PMd you: I'm not sure if it's a good idea to name and shame while the dispute is ongoing?

Or maybe I should!?

Yes you should.

It should be a two way thing, you are asking for people to give you help to sort out your issue, so the least that you can do in return is to name the Company so that other people can be aware of their practices and not get caught in the same trap as you.

Battenburg

I take your point. It's just that at present I'm waiting for my 7 days to elapse before Nochex may do something and I don't want to prejudice anything.

The reason I posted here and not in a housing thread was because I wondered about rights when purchasing services on a credit card - if this post got me some advice on that, then it might be helpful to others in similar situations with other service providers (or non-providers).

Let's just say it's a provider which promises a HIP in 48 hours, found from a Google search.

BFG_2

Why, why, why would you use Nochex........... it's like sending cash in the post.

You have ZERO protection.

Next time, use a credit card.

No CC, no Buy.

Apples2

Absolutely name them.

Not only to warn people but there is a lot of technical knowledge on these forums.

The website business itself can be interrogated to see how long they have been trading, if they are a genuine business at all.

I agree about Nochex, hence my comment about naming them.

Battenburg

Well, plenty to think about, but I paid Nochex with a Mastercard. I've already enquired about Chargeback, which has to be done by postal application. It's my next plan of attack. The firm is real: there are numerous stories on forums for people actually doing the appraisals saying what slow payers they are...

DCFC79

Who is the firm though, i put into google home information packs and i got up a mixture of local firms and bigger providers so not naming them wont help others, was the bit about a hip in 48 hours listed in the google link as i cant see a google link with 48 hours in it

the_other_half

I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having. The main reason they won't want to give you a refund is they will have already ordered the searches for you property. I think your best bet would be stick with them as getting your property on the market sounds important to you and with xmas coming up your not going to lose much time.

Once you have the EPC and the PIQ it's ready to market anyway. Then when you have the HIP name and shame them for poor customer service.

Good luck

Battenburg

Well that may be my only option: the reason I posted here was to establish whether that was so. I don't want to give my money to these people, but if I am advised I'll never get the funds back then i may have to, unless I want to cut off my nose to spite my face (to the tune of £217) and get a HIP from them.

It seems people are wound up by the fact I haven't named and shamed, but as I hope you can understand, to do so might be burning my bridges at this stage.

My 7 days from Nochex will have elapsed tomorrow anyway, so I'll see how that goes.

My post isn't about HIPs at this stage; it's about my rights/likelihood of getting a refund (as the title says). Indeed, I can name and shame in a housing thread when it is in my interests as well as everyone else's.

Thanks anyway, everyone.