Hostel charged me £500 after leaving

Mr_JE121

Hello everyone,
It's quite simple - I booked to stay in a cheap hostel (Smart Beach Brighton) for 1 night only (£7.00) a few days later I found that my card had been charged £500! After emailing the hostel 3 times asking them to refund my money and threatening them with legal proceedings they have chose to simply ignore my messages and keep the money. The bank has said they will begin a 'chargeback reclaim'. But I am furious as to how this hostel thinks they can take my money and then just ignore me. I wouldn't be surprised if they have done this with other customers as well! Trading Standards? Local Authority? Police maybe?

planteria

is the card you used a credit card? or debit card?

agrinnall

Report it to Action Fraud.

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

[Deleted User]

Is it any of these?

Baggies Backpackers, 33 Oriental Place, 01273 733740
Friese Green, 20 Middle Street, 01273 747551
Walkabout Backpackers, 79-81 West Street, 01273 770232
Brighton Backpackers, 75 Middle Street, 01273 777717
St. Christophers Inn, 020 7407 1856
Seadragon Backpackers, 01273 711854
Brighton Royal, 01273 604182

(I'll put a warning on my independent hostel list if so.)

Voyager2002

jack_pott wrote: »

Is it any of these?

Baggies Backpackers, 33 Oriental Place, 01273 733740
Friese Green, 20 Middle Street, 01273 747551
Walkabout Backpackers, 79-81 West Street, 01273 770232
Brighton Backpackers, 75 Middle Street, 01273 777717
St. Christophers Inn, 020 7407 1856
Seadragon Backpackers, 01273 711854
Brighton Royal, 01273 604182

(I'll put a warning on my independent hostel list if so.)

The post is from a Newbie, and the problem is fairly unusual. Perhaps the OP owns a rival hostel in Brighton, or has some other grudge against this particular hostel?

[Deleted User]

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The post is from a Newbie, and the problem is fairly unusual. Perhaps the OP owns a rival hostel in Brighton, or has some other grudge against this particular hostel?

Indeed, but if I make a note I can pay by cash instead of using a card.

nivea

Mr_JE121 wrote: »

Hello everyone,
It's quite simple - I booked to stay in a cheap hostel (Smart Beach Brighton) for 1 night only (£7.00) a few days later I found that my card had been charged £500! After emailing the hostel 3 times asking them to refund my money and threatening them with legal proceedings they have chose to simply ignore my messages and keep the money. The bank has said they will begin a 'chargeback reclaim'. But I am furious as to how this hostel thinks they can take my money and then just ignore me. I wouldn't be surprised if they have done this with other customers as well! Trading Standards? Local Authority? Police maybe?

It can quite often be the case that as soon as you threaten legal action against a business, that business willl no longer converse with you directly, but will hand the matter to their legal advisers.

The legal advisers will now be waiting the legal action you have threatened before responding to the court who will send you a copy.

Lesson learned here should be not to go around making threats you are not prepared to carry out. You know what you need to do.

Keep us posted, especially regarding the date, time and location of any hearing. I might just pop along...:D

nivea

jack_pott wrote: »

Is it any of these?

Baggies Backpackers, 33 Oriental Place, 01273 733740
Friese Green, 20 Middle Street, 01273 747551
Walkabout Backpackers, 79-81 West Street, 01273 770232
Brighton Backpackers, 75 Middle Street, 01273 777717
St. Christophers Inn, 020 7407 1856
Seadragon Backpackers, 01273 711854
Brighton Royal, 01273 604182

(I'll put a warning on my independent hostel list if so.)

I'd suggest you stick a warning about all of them on your site if I were you.

You can't be too careful these days... :cool:

Mr_JE121

planteria wrote: »

is the card you used a credit card? or debit card?

I made the booking using a debit card through a well known online agent who I have no problem with. The charge on the bank statement shows it was from the hostel not the agent.

Mr_JE121

There is no reason for my card to be unlawfully charged £500 without my permission. I suspect it may be company fraud, maybe an employee gained access to my card details and charged it. After all my card details should be safeguarded and protected.

bsms1147

Off topic here but for many, putting everything on a credit card, even a transaction consisting solely of an 18p banana from Tesco, is the most sensible way to manage money.