Can this person get a (partial) refund on this?

greyville

A company cold called my mother in law a few weeks ago offering her a chance to get PPI money back.

She paid them £900 up front using a Sainsbury's Mastercard credit card.

Nine days later, she wrote to them to say she had changed her mind and asked for a refund.

Two-and-a-half weeks after the original payment, the company wrote to her to say they received her letter after two weeks of the original payment and therefore the 14-day cooling off period had ended.

Shortly afterwards, they wrote to her again to say they were unable to process her PPI claim.

Has the company done anything wrong and is my mother in law entitled to a refund/partial refund because she paid with her credit card?

I'm trying to get more details from her in terms of the name of the company, etc.

meer53

Depends on what your Mother in Law agreed to. You need to speak to the company involved. I hope you've had a word with her !

bigadaj

Raise this as a dispute with sainsburys as well, as you might be able to claim as chargeback or section 75.

Gromitt

Since no service was provided, I'd definitely raise a dispute with the CC issuer ASAP.

SnowTiger

:beer:

Gromitt wrote: »

Since no service was provided, I'd definitely raise a dispute with the CC issuer ASAP.

Depends why they were unable to "process her PPI claim."

Perhaps they contacted her credit providers and were told she didn't have PPI. Therefore there is no claim to be processed. In this example the PPI claims company did provided MIL with a service: they investigated whether she was entitled to claim back PPI charges. It's not unreasonable for her to pay for that.

But £900 is a ridiculous amount to charge.

Anyway, OP, get MIL to do a chargeback via her credit card company. There's a good chance the PPI claims company won't challenge it, but bear in mind her CC company may charge her if the chargeback is successfully disputed. For £900 it's probably worth the risk.

ahxcjb

Quite frankly, let this be a lesson to your MIL. Who on EARTH pays £900 to some random company without any service being delivered?

Honestly, this is gross stupidity. I wouldn't perform a chargeback for you if i was the CC firm; your MIL took a conscious decision to pay this money without being under any duress.

tattycath

ahxcjb wrote: »

Quite frankly, let this be a lesson to your MIL. Who on EARTH pays £900 to some random company without any service being delivered?

Honestly, this is gross stupidity. I wouldn't perform a chargeback for you if i was the CC firm; your MIL took a conscious decision to pay this money without being under any duress.

...And you know she wasn't under any pressure because???
You don't know anything about her, or if she's vulnerable, felt on the spot under pressure or anything. Unless you know her psyche-that's an unfair statement to make IMHO.

ahxcjb

tattycath wrote: »

...And you know she wasn't under any pressure because???
You don't know anything about her, or if she's vulnerable, felt on the spot under pressure or anything. Unless you know her psyche-that's an unfair statement to make IMHO.

No reference was made to the MIL being put under any pressure on the phone. It's very easy to just hang up on someone if you feel remotely pressured.

However, one thing i would like answered. If the letter was sent on the 9th day, what class was it sent? If 1st, that's an expectation that it would arrive within 2 business days. That takes us up to 11 days when written service was delivered that you wished to exert your right to cancel under the DSA.

If I was the OP, i would send a "final notice before action" to the company citing the reason above, then be prepared to sue them (use money claim online - costs £25) to recover the money. I doubt the firm would contest the court action and thus either have judgement awarded by default or they would refund your money before it got before a county court judge.

greyville

meer53 wrote: »

Depends on what your Mother in Law agreed to. You need to speak to the company involved. I hope you've had a word with her !

Very much so.

What was she thinking?

greyville

bigadaj wrote: »

Raise this as a dispute with sainsburys as well, as you might be able to claim as chargeback or section 75.

That's what I advised her to do...but I wasn't sure what the terminology was, so thank you.

greyville

ahxcjb wrote: »

Quite frankly, let this be a lesson to your MIL. Who on EARTH pays £900 to some random company without any service being delivered?

Honestly, this is gross stupidity. I wouldn't perform a chargeback for you if i was the CC firm; your MIL took a conscious decision to pay this money without being under any duress.

While I agree with you, in my job as a journalist, I see other people make even more ridiculous errors of judgement when it comes to parting with their cash.

But you have to give some allowance for the vulnerability of the person.

Let's face it - cold callers wouldn't do it if there was no profit.

I'm far from saying I excuse what she did, but not everyone is as clued up as others.

To address your second point, I was thinking chargeback might be given because of the 'cooling off' period issue as opposed to anything to do with the merits of the original payment.