Reclaiming payments after 3 months

ukmozart

Hi please help! I purchased a mobility item from an online retailer, using my debit card. I presumed that payment had gone though normally as the payment was accepted and the item was delivered. 3 months later, I have now received a phone call from the company stating that for a 3 day period, barclays didn't do their job of capturing the payments which means that they haven't received payment for the item.
My problem with this is that this is the first I knew about it and I am now faced with paying for an item i thought I had paid for 3 months ago. I am a little upset that this has happened as it is quite a large sum of money and was wondering if anybody knows if there is anything that can protect the consumer in this situation as I am now being asked to pay for the product which has come as a bit of a shock. Thanks.

bris

You have to pay, if you are in shock about a large sum of money, then you must have known this large sum of money never left your account. You should have held onto it as it's rare that mistakes are not noticed and rectified. They have 6 years to claim the money from you.
You could argue that the mistake has put you in a difficult financial position and come to some sort of payment agreement with them. They will normaly agree to a mutual pament plan if they are a reasonable company.

browneyedbazzi

Have you checked your bank statements to check if the payment went out at the time of purchase? Don't just take their word for it that they haven't received payment, check to make sure!!

If the payment didn't go out at the time then you do need to pay it now. It is a debt like any other and they can chase it for up to six years.

You really should keep a track of what is in your account and what payments have/will be going out. If you do this (easiest by online banking because you can check it regularly) you'll spot transactions that haven't gone through and realise that although you have £xxx in the bank £xxx of that is owed so you know how much money is actually not committed and available for you to spend.

Not keeping track of your own spending/finances isn't the company's fault and can't be an excuse to get you out of paying for something you bought.