Trainline double payments issue - please check your accounts!!!

Littlegreelady

Not sure if anyone else has had this issue this week but according to the email I've had from Payments team at thetrainline.com, there is a serious issue.

I made a payment of £24 on my visa electron card on Friday evening of £24. The money came out of my account on the 21st. I tried to withdraw money yesterday and my bank wouldn't let me, despite me having some money (It's two days before payday so I'm down to £11 ). When I rang the bank, I was informed there was a pending charge of £24 from the 21st August. Apart from the fact it was the same time and amount as my trainline transaction, I had made no other payments that day so I knew what it was. Although I explained this to the bank, they told me only the trainline could amend it.

I phoned the trainline and it only took 5 minutes for them to admit that yes, there had been a mistake and that the payment was taken once, and then the second transaction was pending. After half an hour, I eventually made them realise it actually had to be sorted last night (they wanted to tell me 72 hours)
I raised a complaint as I was concerned about their transaction safety. In response, I recieved an email from the payments team confirming the pending amount of £111.20 had been cleared. Now as I had only been aware of £24, obviously I was not impressed! I emailed back immediately to ask what was happening and to confirm the total amount. The response said:
"unfortunately we are dealing with this issue for multiple customers"

So, if you have purchased anything (particularly on debit card) via the trainline in the last week, please check with your bank that there are no outstanding charges or that you haven't been charged twice.


*I believe the hold on my account was for not having £24 to clear the amount, rather than it being an issue from the trainline, but best check to make sure.

HTAFC112

It's quite common, a company requests two authorisations for a single payment. The payment debits once and then the duplicate amount will pend on your account for 7 days before disappearing.

Your bank does have the facility to reverse the authorisation on the second payment, you just need to specify you want the debit card authorisations area. They will feed you the standard "if the payment does debit your account for a second time we will not be responsible for any charges" - they just mean if you paid for two services and are trying to get out of paying one.

IF the company did end up taking the money twice, your bank would refund this and recover the undue funds from the retailer.

dggar

Why does anybody use Thetrainline????????????

Jeff_Bridges_hair

dggar wrote: »

Why does anybody use Thetrainline????????????

Probably down to an effective marketing campaign.


But they shouldnt

Littlegreelady

I wasn't aware of that, but I have used trainline before and it has never happened. From the communications I got via email, it appeared it was an actual issue over the last week or so, that they were trying to resolve.

And as for why I use(d) the trainline, it has always been quick and easy to use and I have got good prices for my travel.