How long to wait before transactions are deemed 'invalid'

kuepper

I booked a hotel by cc via clever-hotels.com . After entering my verification details the site crashed so I was left not knowing if the transaction was completed. I was scared to re-book in case I had 2 bookings (no cancellation allowed at the price I was quoted). I emailed clever hotels - 24 hrs later I had no reply, and so I messaged them through facebook - 48 hrs later no reply. There's no phone no on the website. The hotel say they have not received a booking for me and nothing has appeared on my cc statement.

In theory clever-hotels could still be processing my booking so I'm scared to book another hotel with another site in case I end up double booked, Surely there is a time period after which I'm entitled to assume the transaction was never completed so I can book again?

jonesMUFCforever

Give them one more chance by email - telling them that you need to know by say 48 hours max.
Then book with another site!

kuepper

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Give them one more chance by email - telling them that you need to know by say 48 hours max.
Then book with another site!

yes think thats all I can do

McKneff

Could you tell you cc to not let any transaction go through from them, is that possible?

kuepper

McKneff wrote: »

Could you tell you cc to not let any transaction go through from them, is that possible?

they said it isn't possible, neither is there a time limit after which I can regard the transaction as defunct. I couldn't escalate my q today as it was too late but i'll ring them again tomorrow

chattychappy

McKneff wrote: »

Could you tell you cc to not let any transaction go through from them, is that possible?

Good thinking...

kuepper wrote: »

they said it isn't possible, neither is there a time limit after which I can regard the transaction as defunct. I couldn't escalate my q today as it was too late but i'll ring them again tomorrow

Typical CC answer. They used to say that kind of thing about stopping CPAs. But the Payment Services Directive says they must cancel a transaction at the request of the account holder if it hasn't yet gone through and finally they now accept CPA cancellations.

What they really mean is that their systems don't support it. After phoning I would try advising them in writing (eg via an online system) that you are withdrawing your authorisation for this debit and that it is your PSD right to do so.

Not saying it would work, for example the transaction might have happened and they don't know it yet, but worth a try.

DevCoder

Tel: +49 40 34993753

kuepper

[
What they really mean is that their systems don't support it. After phoning I would try advising them in writing (eg via an online system) that you are withdrawing your authorisation for this debit and that it is your PSD right to do so.

Not saying it would work, for example the transaction might have happened and they don't know it yet, but worth a try.[/QUOTE]

Thanks I'll try that. I escalated the issue yesterday and was told that under 'international law' (!) a seller has 180 days to process a payment and that all I can do is raise a dispute if that ever happens. After no reply to 3 emails each to cleverhotels and navelar and no response to my facebook message i've given up with them and booked elsewhere, zero for customer service