Should my credit card company help me after fraud?

darloscot

Hi,

I bought a TV stand for over £300 from a company call cheapofficefurniture. Very pluasbale website, but it unfortunately appears to be a scam organisation. I cancelled my order after about 6 weeks, and eventually had conformation that the order was cancelled. However, they never refunded my money and have ignored all efforts to contact them. After 5 or 6 moths I eventually contacted my credit card company, a Tesco Finest Mastercard. I assumed as I had used a credit card I would be able to claim the money back from them. However, I today received a dreadfully vague, badly photocopied, letter from Tesco attempting to wash their hands of the issue. They say something about the claim being out of time and there is nothing they can do. I have never been aware of a timeframe on claiming from a credit card and can't find anything on their site. When I phoned them intially to ask about claiming there was no mention of a timeframe, in fact the chap I sopke to made it sound very easy, just provide emails and evidence of my story and they would refund and take it up themselves.

So, should my credit card be helping me, or do I need to go down the route of a court small claims against this bunch of fraudsters? Any advice appreciated!

wealdroam

Make sure you are claiming under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and not using the card company's chargeback scheme.

Your credit card company are equally responsible, together with the retailer, for ensuring that you receive your refund.
If the worst happens, you can even take your credit card company to court for the refund.

Might be worth a read of MSE's Section 75 Refunds article, if you haven't already.
It covers both Section 75 and chargeback schemes.

arcon5

I believe the time limit is 120 days for a chargeback.

Be explicit in that you would like to make a claim under section 75 of the consumer credit act which makes them jointly liable.