More money taken from account than agreed to

Leory

Hi,

I booked a flight through the internet which in total came to £234 +£3.16 card charges on a visa debit card.

I have checked my account and £238.51 has been deducted.

Is this against the law as in fraud or theft?

I have had big issues with the company after they told me the cost would go up £80 to £314 to which i asked them to cancel the booking. This was confirmed over the phone. Then i get confirmation of the flights at the slightly higher price than first agreed.

Hope you can help

opinions4u

Is this against the law as in fraud or theft?

If you believe that the Crown Prosecution Service will consider it "in the public interest" to prosecute the firm to the full extent of the law for the dramatic fraud/theft of £1.35, then I suggest you make an apppintment with your local police Chief Inspector and demand action.

Alternatively, I suggest you email the firm and ask them why it is £1.35 different. It's possible that there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

If there isn't, then never use the company again.

Leory

opinions4u wrote: »

It's possible that there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Thanks for the not so useful info.
Is any explanation reasonable enough for a company to take more money than agreed?

As I am trying to get a refund anyway, as I specifically cancelled due to a higher price being advised of, I am looking to see if they are allowed to take more than agreed.

Toe-Jam

If £1.35 is a deal breaker then you should consider the viability of this holiday. However, as you used a visa debit card it is covered under the Visa Chargeback scheme under the section about the price being not as expected. But no bank is going to waste their resources chasing £1.35.

slyracoon

Toe-Jam wrote: »

If £1.35 is a deal breaker then you should consider the viability of this holiday. However, as you used a visa debit card it is covered under the Visa Chargeback scheme under the section about the price being not as expected. But no bank is going to waste their resources chasing £1.35.

Could the change be because of the the recent increase in VAT.

Did you agree to pay £xxx incl VAT or £xxxx + VAT at the current rate?

Leory

Toe-Jam wrote: »

If £1.35 is a deal breaker then you should consider the viability of this holiday.

Again, not really related as if you read the post you will note that i asked them to cancel the booking. so £1.35 isnt the problem, it is the full cost that is the issue, as I had since purchased other tickets after they told me the booking was cancelled, they then took the money after this.

However, thanks for the info on the Visa Chargeback scheme - I wasnt aware that it included debit cards also. It may help if I have any further issues as, due to the booking being cancelled (I have a recording of the call) they still took the money plus a little extra

Leory

slyracoon wrote: »

Could the change be because of the the recent increase in VAT.

Did you agree to pay £xxx incl VAT or £xxxx + VAT at the current rate?

The money was taken on saturday which was before the VAT increase.

Jorgan_2

Have the funds actually come out of your account or are they just earmarked to come off your available balance? Earmarked funds will take a few days to show back on the available balance once the company have canceled the transaction.

dunstonh

Doing a chargeback does not remove your liability to pay the bill. Also, a chargeback is where errors and issues have occurred. Disregarding the cancellation issue for now, if the retailer can show a valid transaction then the chargeback will fail.

opinions4u

Leory wrote: »

Thanks for the not so useful info.

You're welcome. Read your post back though - you want to establish if something is "theft or fraud" - it isn't. It's a civil matter. So you can pay a fee to take them to the small claims court if there is a dispute to resolve.

Even if it was a criminal matter, what are you hoping to achieve by establishng that?

Is any explanation reasonable enough for a company to take more money than agreed?

Until you have established the reason, you don't know. Throw your weight about with quotes of law etc by all means. But asking the question first is usually a better course of action.

It may be a misunderstanding. It may be a mistake. It may be a donation to the "Save The Polar Bear From Your Holiday Flight Emissions" charity that was implicitly agreed to within the terms and conditions.

On the face of it, to me, the buyer of any product should have the cost communicated clearly beforehand. But there could be specific situations where exceptions apply.

Leory

To update you on the outcome here-

As I suspected a refund was not the easiest thing to aquire. The company had to retrieve the phone call that said the costs had gone up and that i wanted to cancel. Once they had this call they would hear the 'evidence' and give a refund.

Conveniently, for them, they couldnt find the call so as a result wouldnt give a refund.

I then asked why instead of £234 +£3.16 card charges, £238 + £6.16 had been charged to my card. They stated that this was because they were taking a loss on the total cost of the flight anyway (presumably the extra £80 they claim to not have told me about), so charged me a little more.
There were doing me a favour apparently.....but they werent as i had already booked another flight, and my !!!! isnt big enough to require two seats....on different planes!

It was only after querying whether they could take extra without my approval, and me mentioning contacting the bank to start the chargeback process did they eventually agree to refund the full amount.

Holidays eh? who needs them!