Company charged me 3 times, then the bank charged me too...

andyplymouth

I'm feeling like ranting about HSBC so thought I'd pop on here for some opinions/advice. I tried to place an order online on Monday (using a company I trust and have used many times), after the 'Verified by Visa' screen the connection timed out after a minute. Upon returning to the site it stated that the transaction hadn't gone through, so I tried again. This time it declined. I couldn't understand why but tried a different card. This also declined.

I called the company who apologised and that they were investigating problems with their website at that time and to try again in the afternoon. Later in the day I was able to transact with no problems.

On Tuesday I noticed that the available balance on my account was very low, so I called HSBC who advised that all the transactions had been authorised. I explained the situation and the adviser explained that this happened a lot, and that the outstanding authorisations would drop off after a few days. On Wednesday evening I noticed that the account had gone over my overdraft limit so called them again, at which point I discovered the transactions had left the account. The company concerned was closed, so I explained that I was keen to avoid charges and asked the adviser the total of outstanding authorised transactions that were due to leave my account before making a transfer from another account to cover the these and bring my account back within the limit. They also said to call back in the morning to raise the disputed transactions.

On Thursday morning I called the company who apologised and said they would arrange for a refund of all the erroneous transactions to be processed today. I duly called HSBC back to raise them as disputed and they said this might take a couple of weeks, and if the company was going to refund them that this was probably the best route to go down. I stressed that I wanted to avoid bank charges, although the adviser said not to worry about that.

I noticed just after midnight that my account was back over its overdraft limit again, so checked my online statement and called HSBC again, as along with the unposted transactions mentioned on Wednesday they had also taken last month's overdraft interest and my monthly service charge. I wasn't too concerned as HSBC have a 'Fair fees' policy whereby if it's their fees that take you over an overdraft limit then they don't charge you, but I wanted to confirm. The adviser put me on hold, and then told me that the fees came out before the transactions, so it was the transactions that had taken me over the limit and the charges stood. I pointed out:

a) If they had told me that the interest and charges were going to be coming out when I spoke to them on Wednesday or Thursday morning that I would have transferred more money into the account

b) I have no control over the order they apply transactions. If they knew there were payments due out as well as fees & charges that they could have chosen to take them last so I didn't incur charges, and

c) I had called them several times in order to avoid this situation.

Although technically it's the fault of the company who made multiple requests for the payment I'm really frustrated that HSBC have pretty much ignored my updates to them and despite the fact that they can see my salary hitting the account today (Friday) that they are going to hit me with unauthorised overdraft fees next month :mad:

Has anyone had similar issues and/or got any suggestions as to the best route for me to go down? I just fired off an email to the company who I will be calling in the morning, but I'm really annoyed...

Wywth

andyplymouth wrote: »

I'm feeling like ranting about HSBC so thought I'd pop on here for some opinions/advice. I tried to place an order online on Monday (using a company I trust and have used many times), after the 'Verified by Visa' screen the connection timed out after a minute. Upon returning to the site it stated that the transaction hadn't gone through, so I tried again. This time it declined. I couldn't understand why but tried a different card. This also declined.

I called the company who apologised and that they were investigating problems with their website at that time and to try again in the afternoon. Later in the day I was able to transact with no problems.

On Tuesday I noticed that the available balance on my account was very low, so I called HSBC who advised that all the transactions had been authorised. I explained the situation and the adviser explained that this happened a lot, and that the outstanding authorisations would drop off after a few days. On Wednesday evening I noticed that the account had gone over my overdraft limit so called them again, at which point I discovered the transactions had left the account. The company concerned was closed, so I explained that I was keen to avoid charges and asked the adviser the total of outstanding authorised transactions that were due to leave my account before making a transfer from another account to cover the these and bring my account back within the limit. They also said to call back in the morning to raise the disputed transactions.

On Thursday morning I called the company who apologised and said they would arrange for a refund of all the erroneous transactions to be processed today. I duly called HSBC back to raise them as disputed and they said this might take a couple of weeks, and if the company was going to refund them that this was probably the best route to go down. I stressed that I wanted to avoid bank charges, although the adviser said not to worry about that.

I noticed just after midnight that my account was back over its overdraft limit again, so checked my online statement and called HSBC again, as along with the unposted transactions mentioned on Wednesday they had also taken last month's overdraft interest and my monthly service charge. I wasn't too concerned as HSBC have a 'Fair fees' policy whereby if it's their fees that take you over an overdraft limit then they don't charge you, but I wanted to confirm. The adviser put me on hold, and then told me that the fees came out before the transactions, so it was the transactions that had taken me over the limit and the charges stood. I pointed out:

a) If they had told me that the interest and charges were going to be coming out when I spoke to them on Wednesday or Thursday morning that I would have transferred more money into the account

b) I have no control over the order they apply transactions. If they knew there were payments due out as well as fees & charges that they could have chosen to take them last so I didn't incur charges, and

c) I had called them several times in order to avoid this situation.

Although technically it's the fault of the company who made multiple requests for the payment I'm really frustrated that HSBC have pretty much ignored my updates to them and despite the fact that they can see my salary hitting the account today (Friday) that they are going to hit me with unauthorised overdraft fees next month :mad:

Has anyone had similar issues and/or got any suggestions as to the best route for me to go down? I just fired off an email to the company who I will be calling in the morning, but I'm really annoyed...

No, technically it was your fault for approving multiple transactions. The screen does warn against approving another transaction if it does not go through, but to contract the retailer.

You did eventually contact the retailer who admitted they were having technical issues, and would refund the duplicate, authorised debits.

I would suggest if you incurred bank charges as a direct result of these duplicate charges, then you also ask the retailer nicely if they will refund these too.