mattressonline co uk "Fraudulent transaction", took money refuse to refund

Chickabiddybex

Ignore HSBC saying it is "complete" they always say that. The people you get through to on the phones are under trained. The payment has been "authorised" to leave your account but the retailer will not claim the funds and the authorisation will expire. Usually on debit cards it takes around 5 working days.

The banking system is still ancient due to the fat cats preferring to pocket all profits instead of making improvements. This us a common occurrence but for the moment there is no quick way to resolve it you'll just have to wait for the refund. Don't worry about it, it happens all the time where I work too (I don't work for mattress online for the record!)

I know it sucks that her payment was considered fraudulent but you have to be careful these days. It is ultimately better to side on the edge of caution! If someone ever steals your card and tries to buy things with it you'll be glad there are these systems in place! Did they indicate why it failed their fraud check out of interest?

visidigi

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

Ignore HSBC saying it is "complete" they always say that. The people you get through to on the phones are under trained. The payment has been "authorised" to leave your account but the retailer will not claim the funds and the authorisation will expire. Usually on debit cards it takes around 5 working days.

The banking system is still ancient due to the fat cats preferring to pocket all profits instead of making improvements. This us a common occurrence but for the moment there is no quick way to resolve it you'll just have to wait for the refund. Don't worry about it, it happens all the time where I work too (I don't work for mattress online for the record!)

I know it sucks that her payment was considered fraudulent but you have to be careful these days. It is ultimately better to side on the edge of caution! If someone ever steals your card and tries to buy things with it you'll be glad there are these systems in place! Did they indicate why it failed their fraud check out of interest?

Its not just the agent who said it was taken. As per the OP's confirmation...

avaratz wrote: »

The transaction shows as completed, and HSBC confirms it is completed. The company did take the money. So they mistakenly labelled my MIL as "fraudulent", yet still took the £1000 out of her account.

With regards to pocketing interest, whether or not they make much off of it is irrelevant. It is still completely wrong. They have placed the emphasis on my MIL, an innocent party, to get HER money back, because THEIR system decided she was fraudulent - and then still took the money!

Whether they are making interest off it or using it for other reasons, its ridiculous that they are allowed to do this. And my MIL has to fork out another £1000 to another company to get her beds in the meantime.

avaratz

Thanks for the replies.

HSBC themselves have said (on the phone) that this is a common tactic by retailers near bankruptcy who use the money to fix short term cash flow issues.

I don't see how anyone can see this as "fair" or "normal" - the retailer's process was this:

1. Preauthorise the money, accept the transaction.
2. Find customer to be "fraudulent"
3. Despite this, continue to debit the money - confirmed by HSBC and the retailer
4. Refuse on the phone to refund, refuse to give any details at all as to why it was fraudulent, citing "data protection laws"

How is this fair? They can make a judgement call as to whether someone is fraudulent or not, and based on this, take their money and refuse to refund it, holding on to it for the 14 days it takes for HSBC to allow a claim?

Why did they even debit the money in the first place? The pre auth falls away if it is not claimed, this is not the case, the transaction has been completed.

And yes, this situation may not be unique, but it is hardly fair when my mother in law and her two daughters are faced with the prospect of sleeping on the floor when they move into their new house in a week. So a bit of anger/concern is warranted I feel, especially considering the company refuses to divulge any information at all.

EDIT: The retailer has now emailed saying that they have now processed a refund, after a lot of emails back and forth and a few phone calls. Their reason for completing the transaction is because they offer a "next day delivery service". At least the money should be refunded before 14 days.

Thanks for the advice.

Chickabiddybex

They're correct to not tell you any info due to data protection - if you want answers you'll need to get your MIL to ask them herself (or call up and pretend you're her) Or have I misunderstood and they won't tell her either?

wealdroam

If they suspect fraudulent activity, then they are not allowed to even tell you of their suspicion.

Not Data Protection laws in that case, I think it is Money Laundering Regulations or something like that.

Someone will correct me in a minute.

DevCoder

Wealdroam is right, if they (the bank or any other organisation that is bound by AML regulation) suspect fraudulent use or money laundering then no party will be told the full details (or even that its under investigation, such could be considered "tipping off").

AML laws trump consumer laws.

Jude_56

My husband ordered a Dunlapillo pillow at a cost of £54.95. When it arrived, I carefully removed the packaging and placed the pillow inside 2 clean pillowcases. I then rested on it for a Tortola of 20 mins, before realising this was completely unsuitable for my needs ( I have Spondylosis in my neck and require a specific type of pillow, which I thought this one might be ok). I repackaged the pillow and returned it at a cost of £10 via Royal Mail, sending an email to the company to advise them of this. An email was returned stating that they would test the pillow to see if it had been used, if so, no refund would be forthcoming.

A few days later, an email came from the company with a photograph. They stated that the pillow had clearly been used and no refund could be expected. If we wished the pillow to be returned to us, the cost would be a further £8. If not, they would destroy it.

We asked what tests they had used, to which they responded by saying that a hair was clearly visible in the picture and no tests had been carried out. The hair in the picture clearly did not belong to either my husband ( who never tested the pillow and has very short grey hair), nor myself (who has short red hair).

Whilst you can purchase clothing, shoes etc on line, try them and return without question and receive a refund,
not so with this company.

I will never use this company again, and as such would definitely not recommend it to anyone.

hollydays

avaratz wrote: »

Hello everyone,

My mother in law ordered three mattresses (total order of £1000) from this website on Saturday. Unfortunately she did not read any reviews from this website as I can see they seem to be universally disliked.

The company happily debited the card, the money reflects as being taken out of the account yesterday.

My MIL received an email from the company today stating that they have been flagged as "fraudulent" and as such the order has been completely cancelled. When they phoned, mattressonline.co.uk refused to refund the money and told my MIL to ask HSBC (her bank) to refund it.

HSBC state that she has to wait minimum 14 days before even opening up a claim to return that money, despite the fact that the company has stated that the order will not be fulfilled.

This doesn't seem fair? The company could easily be claiming people are "fraudulent" and holding on to money for 14 days, pocketing interest for free. Is there anything we can do?

Thanks for the help.

While you say they seem to. " universally disliked " on this website , the first thread I looked at about them had lots and lots of one time posters. There was someone on here to used to be a competitor of them , he was later banned, there are lots of fake stuff about them on here.

shoemaker1948

i dont know if i am in the right forum .i would like to know if i will have to make a payment because i want to cancel my aa membership.please can anyone give me some advice please

hollydays

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