Consumer help - Zooplus problem!

trinity_p

Hi, I hope someone can advise on a problem I have. (Apologies for the long post)

For 4 years I have been purchasing cat food from a company called Zooplus with no problems (based in Germany I believe), I buy online, pay, they deliver. However, the last purchase I made I input the incorrect security code on my visa card and the payment didnt go through so I phoned straight away and made a payment over the phone, order completed and all was well. This must have flagged something up on their computer and the next day I receive an email from them:

Dear Mrs,
Thank you for your message and your interest in zooplus.
Kindly be informed, according to our financial department your Zooplus account got dis-balanced with 71,88 GBP, as the mentioned amount had been charged back for the order 14060058, placed on January 28th, 2011.

In order to avoid the unclarities, could you please check details with the bank and transfer the mentioned amount (71,88 GBP) for the balance of order 14060058.

Firstly, I never sent them a message so no idea what they are referring to there. I checked my account with them and the order looked the same as previous, seemed to be paid etc (they don't ship without cleared payment) I tried to call them but no answer, so emailed them asking for details and to confirm they were chasing me for money for an order as far as I was concerned I had paid - 2 years ago!!! I did try and check with my online banking but I cant get statements back as far as 2 years without paying which I'm not prepared to do. I asked Zooplus to call me back.

They never did and I receieved this email:
Dear Mrs. ,
Thank you for taking time to contact us.
Kindly be advised that you are welcome to give us a call on the following number in case you wish to get the data over the phone:
01234 430366 (Available Mon-Fri from 8am to 5pm)
Please note that the order number 14060058 was charged back with 71,88 GBP on 29.03.2011.
We thank you for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon.

To which I have replied asking them to kindly call me as this seems to be their mistake not mine.

Bizarrely, as I was writing this they called and said that apparently I paid in Jan 2011 and then my bank requested the money back from them in March 2011 - Is this even possible???
She said she will speak to her finance team and call me back on Monday (I have a feeling they are going to offer to pay my bank charges to get the required statements but cant be sure).

Can anyone advise how I stand legally on this? I don't want debt collectors and credit rating issues involved, I cannot understand how an order is paid for in January 2011 and then is charged back to my bank (apparently) in March 2011 2 months later. I keep a pretty close eye on finances as we don't have a lot of money so I am sure I would have noticed being £71 richer one month with an addhock payment going in!
£71.88 doesn't seem like a huge amount of money to some but we are tight financially, have a young child and one on the way in the next 3 weeks, I could really do without having to pay this or having the stress its causing me worrying about it.

Can anyone help?
Thanks
T
PS They have lost my custom now that's for sure.

arbroath_lass

Why don't you go into/call your bank and ask if they can check it happened? That would seem the obvious place to start.

IF it has I'm not sure why you would blame Zooplus? I mus admit I've always found their customer services to be excellent.

trinity_p

arbroath_lass wrote: »

Why don't you go into/call your bank and ask if they can check it happened? That would seem the obvious place to start.

IF it has I'm not sure why you would blame Zooplus? I mus admit I've always found their customer services to be excellent.

Not exactly the most helpful response I was after if you don't mind me saying. I was asking about the legal side not a comment on why would i blame them. Although I will answer that one, I blame zooplus for taking 2 years to bring this (if it has happened) to my attention, also the way in which they brought it to my attention, the lack of contacting me by phone despite me contacting them more than once and requesting calls back. I am certainly not at fault here and obviously haven't 'recalled' any payment I may have made 2 months after I've made it, I didn't even think that was possible. I have tried to get older statements from my bank before and have been told I have to pay a small fee for them.

If anyone else has any advice on where I would stand legally if it turns out that this has not be paid for at the fault of Zooplus refunding for no reason (the only thing I can think of that could have happened at the moment)? I'm not after judgement nor comments on how great Zooplus is...

pulliptears

trinity_p wrote: »

Not exactly the most helpful response I was after if you don't mind me saying. I was asking about the legal side not a comment on why would i blame them.

Quite rude if you don't mind me saying so. Arbroath's advice was sound.

Although I will answer that one, I blame zooplus for taking 2 years to bring this (if it has happened) to my attention

They have SIX years to contact you for outstanding debt.,

also the way in which they brought it to my attention, the lack of contacting me by phone despite me contacting them more than once and requesting calls back. I am certainly not at fault here and obviously haven't 'recalled' any payment I may have made 2 months after I've made it, I didn't even think that was possible. I have tried to get older statements from my bank before and have been told I have to pay a small fee for them.

That might be correct, but a small fee to prove you don't owe £72 is surely better than paying £72?

If anyone else has any advice on where I would stand legally if it turns out that this has not be paid for at the fault of Zooplus refunding for no reason (the only thing I can think of that could have happened at the moment)? I'm not after judgement nor comments on how great Zooplus is...

Legally you have the goods, zooplus need paying and can legally come back at you up to six years after the event.
However, instead of trying to find out your legal position you might be better doing as arbroath suggests and actually ascertaining what happened with your banking in the first place.

trinity_p

Thank you, that was the legal advice I wanted to know. So basically their error aside, I am still liable to pay for this even this length of time later (although I need to check first). I wasn't being rude: asking me why I would blame Zooplus is not sound 'advice' to me.

pulliptears

trinity_p wrote: »

Thank you, that was the legal advice I wanted to know. So basically their error aside, I am still liable to pay for this even this length of time later (although I need to check first). I wasn't being rude: asking me why I would blame Zooplus is not sound 'advice' to me.

If it's a !!!! up from your bank then you are wrong to blame zooplus, after all they have done nothing wrong in that scenario and are only chasing payment for the goods they have supplied you.

You have to check with your bank and establish exactly what happened before you can apportion blame.

WTFH

trinity_p wrote: »

Thank you, that was the legal advice I wanted to know. So basically their error aside, I am still liable to pay for this even this length of time later (although I need to check first). I wasn't being rude: asking me why I would blame Zooplus is not sound 'advice' to me.

No, the first piece of advice was to contact your bank, then depending on what the bank says, you might not want to blame Zooplus.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

But if you didn't read the first sentence, then yes, the second sentence on its own might not seem helpful.

OlliesDad

trinity_p wrote: »

Thank you, that was the legal advice I wanted to know. So basically their error aside, I am still liable to pay for this even this length of time later (although I need to check first). I wasn't being rude: asking me why I would blame Zooplus is not sound 'advice' to me.

That wasn't the full message that Arbroath posted though..

The sound advice was giving the bank a call to check out the story.

trinity_p

My goodness I think I will remove this post now! I didn't come on here to be judged and had a go at, I thought Id made it clear in my original post that my bank would charge me for statements that far back thus making it obvious I have already contacted them.
Please please please dont respond I will sort this out without the help of this forum, gosh talk about ganged up on!

trinity_p

My goodness I think I will remove this post now! I didn't come on here to be judged and had a go at, I thought Id made it clear in my original post that my bank would charge me for statements that far back thus making it obvious I have already contacted them.
Please please please dont respond I will sort this out without the help of this forum, gosh talk about ganged up on!

WTFH

You should be able to see your bank statements online, or if you don't use online banking, then find the copies that will have been posted to you.

If a bank is charging you for statements, it's time you changed bank!