Charged twice airport parking - chargeback?

basscadette

Hia, hope someone can help. Also posted in CC section in case anyone knows anything there.

We prebooked parking with Leeds Bradford Airport and paid by credit card. When we turned up in the early morning and inserted the card we paid with as directed, it would not accept. As there was no one around at all so we had to take a ticket. On leaving the airport, again at 2am in the morning with no one around, we inserted our card. Again, it would not accept, so we had to put the ticket in. Then the card...to get out. The barrier went up, we left and thought nothing more of it.

About a week and a half later I saw a charge for £45 from Leeds Bradford Airport, as well as the initial £28 we paid for prebooking. So we were charged twice, despite not inputting the pin in the machine when we left (which we assumed was because they recognised the card from prebooking!!!)

So the airport have taken two payments, one unauthorised. I didn't think it would be a problem and they would refund when we wrote to them, however, they are not even acknowledging the three emails I have sent. It has been 45 days now since we saw the extra charge and over two months since the incident happened. I am furious, not least because of the double charge but also because they are ignoring my complaint. You would think they were some fly-by-night cowboy outfit just plain ignoring complaints. Especially as the fault is on their side and we are paying interest on that money.

So, since we cannot get through by phone (unless we want to prebook more parking lol) and they refuse to answer any emails sent to the address they give for contact, despite the auto-responses saying they will contact us in 14 working days, I am wondering if we can request a chargeback through Virgin Mastercard? If so, does anyone know how to initiate it as, as you can imagine, this field is very vague on their website!

laurel7172

We had a double charge from the carpark at Heathrow. Niot a machine-a human being who claimed it hadn't gone through, then ran it through again. I only signed once (this was before chip and pin).

I reported it to the credit card company as a disputed transaction and it kept being carried forward on the bill each month until they sorted it out. Took several months, though. I wasn't charged any interest.

wealdroam

OP, have you written a real letter yet?

Send it recorded delivery.

Tell them exactly what you want to happen and in what timescale.

go_cat

I had the same at East Midlands airport in Jan - I had prebooked but when it came to leaving it didn't recognise my numberplate - it was late at night snowing and no-one about the only way to get out was to put credit card in machine.

I then ended up being charged again. Next day rang and explained, it took about a month after verifying my story and me sending in receipts for pre booking and the extra charge but I got my money back :j

preable

You should send a real letter via next day delivery so you have proof of delivery

basscadette

Thanks for the replies. I was interested to hear that it happened to others and that you got your money back so thanks for that.

I will send a recorded delivery letter as my last ditch attempt however I'm concerned about the timescales on charge back.

I see they don't give an address for parking complaints, surprise surprise, so will have to write to the airport CS themselves, which they will probably ignore because 'it's not their department'. Am also miffed that they can get away with just ignoring me. They were quick enough to take my money, twice, but can't respond to three emails in two months!

circuit

To be fair, on most LBA parking websites it does clearly state that you shouldn't insert your card or you will be charged twice. I fly from there quite often and this info seems to be hard to miss. Perhaps you used a site which did not make it clear. Have you tried contacting the airport?

marleyboy

To be fair to the OP, as nobody was available, it seems they had no other choice but to insert their credit card, unless they wanted to spend the night in a car park.

Fiddlestick

basscadette wrote: »

I see they don't give an address for parking complaints, surprise surprise, so will have to write to the airport CS themselves, which they will probably ignore because 'it's not their department'. Am also miffed that they can get away with just ignoring me. They were quick enough to take my money, twice, but can't respond to three emails in two months!

Call your issuer and dispute the transaction then, as I believe this must be done within a certain number of days of the transaction.

It looks like you have made a good faith attempt to contact the company and they have ignored you, so contact the issuer.