5 month overdue CC charge

Jolsa

daveboy - you really need to chill out a bit. If my comments get you that worked up, I'd hate to run over your cat or something.

Just to point out, I went shopping today, expected to pay for what I bought, and what do you know? - I did! :-) At no point did I expect some level of acceptance and apology over the crappy service, but then thats because the cashier took my payment there and then, rather than making me wait 5 months before completing the transaction...

Fact - the service I've received in this particular transaction has been as one poster perfectly put it - shoddy. I havent been thinking I'm getting away with the payment at any stage in the past 5 months, as I assumed what with all my comings and goings around the run up to xmas, that I had naturally been billed for the tickets.

Sure I should have kept a closer eye on things, but then I also expect companies to be swifter in their transaction dealings with customers. Unexpectedly I am now hit with the charge, and have to find an extra £70 that I hadnt accounted for this month.

A symptom of the compensation culture? Rubbish. I'm a consumer who expects a decent service, and doesnt mind complaining when the service is notably poor.
And to daveboy - if you can't understand this point, then I think its you who has no idea of business - however incase you ever decide to venture into it (lets hope not what with your people/customer relations) :-), here's a tip: if you dont provide a professional service, you will go under!

Bargain_Rzl

Jolsa wrote:

Unexpectedly I am now hit with the charge, and have to find an extra £70 that I hadnt accounted for this month.

But it's £70 you'd already authorised to be debited from your account, as other posters have already pointed out.

While I sympathise with the OP being a bit short of the readies this month, all it takes is a little bit of organisation. On the Excel spreadsheet I have set up to deal with my accounts, immediately below the bit which shows the current balance of each account (at last reconciliation) I have another section called "Uncleared Items" which, for each of my accounts, tells me how much of the balance is not really available. At the moment I know I have two items outstanding long-term on one of my credit cards - one book from Amazon which I ordered along with three other items which they sourced and billed quicker than the fourth, and one order for an item which has not yet been released for sale. Because I have them in the Uncleared Items category, there will be no surprise when they eventually come out, and should I decide to do a "sweep" of my remaining current account balance into a savings account,I would know to leave this amount in the account.

May I suggest that the OP sets up a similar system to prevent similar problems in the future? Yes, it's a bit disorganised of the company in question (though you've been earning interest on the money in the meantime, so it really is you who have the advantage) but once you authorise a transaction, it's your own responsibility to make sure it is not forgotten about.

deemy2004

The moral of the story is, if you do have a transaction that has not gone through for several months - Don't think its your money instead allow for the fact that it could be charged at any time.


Now what would happen if say the bank account were closed (assuming its a debit card transaction) ?
I have heard of 'closed' credit cards still being billed for transactions, but don't know if this is the norm.

smartsaver

I've just had a similiar incident with a friend and a cheque for £80.00. She bought some tickets and I wrote her a cheque back in Feb 05. She has just presented it to the bank. She's obviously not a money saver

I knew the money would go and left in in my account. Mentally it had gone. Although it took me by surprise every now and then when I looked up my account.

If this happens to anyone again I suggest they put the money in a high interest easily accessable account and forget it until the transaction goes through, most times it eventually will. That way at least you gain a bit of interest.

I think Daveboy is in a minority of one and we should totally ignore his posts. Who does he think he is? :rolleyes:

Jolsa

Well to attempt to tie things up, I guess I see 2 morals of the story here - 1) I should have been sharper in realising that I hadnt actually been charged for the tickets last year. This experience has certainly been a lesson, and I very much doubt I will let this happen again!

Just to put things straight, I have not been sitting here knowing that the money hadnt gone out of my account, and thinking I've got one over on the company involved - it was a charge that until the other day I had completely forgotten about and that I assumed had hit my card with all the other pre xmas transactions.

2) Even so, 5 months to get around to billing the customer is a bad service, and I am entitled to complain about this bad service. In my *personal* situation I dont see it as a positive interest free loan, maybe I would however if I had realised all along that the payment hadnt hit my cc back in November.
The customer service manager agreed with me that something had gone wrong somewhere along the line, and he is keen to get to the root of the problem.

I'll let you all know the outcome of this :-) Although if the customer service manager does end up refunding me some money, maybe the last post could be an image of the look on daveboys face when he reads that this has happened ;-)

daveboy

There wouldn't be a look on my face - if the train company wants to pay out for something which I personally think may well be the fault of the bank and the payment system then that's up to them. They'll lose the money when they've done nothing wrong.

I notice you seem intent on blaming the train company, at least in the most recent posts. I think the chances are it's not them at all.

In answer to an above post - I have a personal view and will put that view forward. Others won't agree with it and I know that. I have not broken legislation set down by the Parliament of this country under this or a previous government.

If I have send the police round to my address, obtainable by the people that run this site through my IP address after contacting my ISP.

At no point have I said others can't put their view across, and you will certainly not stop me from doing so.

Jolsa

daveboy, just take it easy - no-ones got a problem with you stating your own opinion. Just maybe re-read your initial reply and wonder why some people felt obliged to say something?!

Anyway, best of luck in beating relegation :-)

cristin

Isn't it amazing how we notice (usually) straightaway if we have been overcharged for a product, but fail to say anything when undercharged. If you had been charged too much for your tickets, I am sure you would have noticed straightaway christmas or not.

I learnt to check my bank statements and cc statements every month/week when I first left school - I had to. Don't you know that just because an amount is written down on those statements for this month it is never the whole story - it can lead to a false sense of security. Shame they don't teach people to check these statements at school. Very useful lesson that.

Just one question (maybe easy with hindsight) if you had noticed say in January of this year that you hadn't been charged for your tickets, would you honestly have said something or complained then?


PS Something else I have thought of adding: it is probably common sense to say that in the run up to christmas there are so many millions of cc transactions going through, that if you only manage to check your statements once or twice a year then the December and January are the two to check!!!!!!!!

Davidboy

Daveboy

Josla was mearly asking a question, I believe you are quite out of order in the way your comments are written, if you are going to jump down everyones throat that you do not agree with, then you should be banned from this site. You have made very angry with your attack. Freespeech or not, take it easy!!

By the way I am no relation thank god!!

smartsaver

cristin wrote:

Isn't it amazing how we notice (usually) straightaway if we have been overcharged for a product, but fail to say anything when undercharged. If you had been charged too much for your tickets, I am sure you would have noticed straightaway christmas or not.

I know what you are saying Cristin but - I was overcharged council tax twice in Dec 03 and Jan 04 on my credit card. I didn't notice straight away and I would call myself sharp with finances. At this time of year unusual expenditure and busy times do equal oversights. I think the OP will be lucky to get anything back but I do have some sympathy with him.

He could have closed the account and moved house by now. Not sure where the train company would be then. It is bad practice on thier part not to have put this through sooner.