Chargebacks - please help

uksmallbiz

Hi,

I run a corporate hospitality company and we recently took an order from a new customer (private client, not a business) who filled out one of our booking forms, signed it off and returned it to us with their credit card details.

Card was processed, tickets were dispatched. Now a month later we receive a call from a lady claiming that her card was used fraudulently and after some digging we discovered it related to this transaction. We rung our merchant service provider who said the lady had to inform her card issuer first, who would then take it up with our merchant services provider.

The thing is, if we have to immediately refund all the money taken it will literally finish me off. The tickets in question were not "in stock" as it were, we bought them from our supplier upon taking this booking, so as soon as we received payment it went straight to the supplier.

Cash flow is such that there is no way I have the money to refund the entire booking (which amounted to several thousand pounds), do you think that the merchant services provider will demand all the money back from me? Do I have any way of appealing against this?

Any advice would be gratefully received, I am in a complete panic over this. Many thanks.

Premier_2

If the card was used fraudulently, then the cardholder will want their account re-credited (wouldn't you if someone used your card fraudulently?)

Almost certainly the card company will try and recover the amount from you in full ... as you did not have the cardholders authorisation.

You can, of course, try to recover your losses. The person you need to do that is the person who conned you out of the tickets in the first place; they still owe you for them as they haven't paid you yet.
You presumably know how they are and where they live as you sent them the tickets. Now get them to pay for them.

uksmallbiz

Thanks for replying. I appreciate your advice, I am not sure I would take I upon myself to visit this person at the address they provided - after all, if someone is willing to commit this type of fraud, who knows what else they are capable of? I am a slight, young(ish!) woman and wouldn't feel safe knocking on their door. I have informed the police, both my local force and the force in the location where the fraudster lives. I have also informed the card issuer of the woman whose card was used fraudulently.

With the above in mind, how would you suggest I attempt to recover my money?

thanks

uksmallbiz

By the way, what will the bank do as I don't have funds in my account to cover the losses?

paddyrg

Hmmm Cardholder Not Present transaction - I don't think this will have a happy ending I'm sorry to say. It is not a 'victimless crime' as the thieves like to reassure themselves - they have just managed to bankrupt your company from what you say.

Can you get the tickets cancelled as they were paid for with stolen money?

For CNP transactions in the future, you may want to limit delivery only to the address on the card, which would have eliminated this problem.

Really really sorry to hear it x

Premier_2

uksmallbiz wrote: »

Thanks for replying. I appreciate your advice, I am not sure I would take I upon myself to visit this person at the address they provided - after all, if someone is willing to commit this type of fraud, who knows what else they are capable of? I am a slight, young(ish!) woman and wouldn't feel safe knocking on their door. I have informed the police, both my local force and the force in the location where the fraudster lives. I have also informed the card issuer of the woman whose card was used fraudulently.

With the above in mind, how would you suggest I attempt to recover my money?

thanks

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you take the law into your own hands.
Use the legal channels...

uksmallbiz wrote: »

By the way, what will the bank do as I don't have funds in my account to cover the losses?

... the same legal channels the bank will probably pursue you under if you don't pay them back on request.

InsideInsurance

When a charge back is presented you get the opportunity to respond to it.

If you believe that the cardholder is the person that bought the tickets then you need to present your arguement for this. If you believe that the card was used fraudulantly then you'll just have to stomach it. I have to say that in my experience it is very rare for the banks to side with the merchants rather than the cardholders but I am sure it has been achieved before.

As you are selling products worth several thousand pounds you may want to look into your fraud detection processes.

qazitory

uksmallbiz wrote: »

Hi,

I run a corporate hospitality company and we recently took an order from a new customer (private client, not a business) who filled out one of our booking forms, signed it off and returned it to us with their credit card details.

Card was processed, tickets were dispatched. Now a month later we receive a call from a lady claiming that her card was used fraudulently and after some digging we discovered it related to this transaction. We rung our merchant service provider who said the lady had to inform her card issuer first, who would then take it up with our merchant services provider.

The thing is, if we have to immediately refund all the money taken it will literally finish me off. The tickets in question were not "in stock" as it were, we bought them from our supplier upon taking this booking, so as soon as we received payment it went straight to the supplier.

Cash flow is such that there is no way I have the money to refund the entire booking (which amounted to several thousand pounds), do you think that the merchant services provider will demand all the money back from me? Do I have any way of appealing against this?

Any advice would be gratefully received, I am in a complete panic over this. Many thanks.

Can you cancel the tickets and try and get some money back this way?

nodiscount

Sorry to hear of this.

Same happened to my dad. £5000. We managed to negotiate paying it back in monthly instalments. He's still paying it back...