Just Eat, be careful if paying by debit card

dasophster

Yesterday evening I decided to get our favourite Jamaican takeaway via Just Eat. We usually order it about once a month and have had no problems before. When it came to payment I tried the payment button but it came up with an error message stating that the payment had not gone through and to try again. As no nationwide verified by Visa page or pop-up came up I had no reason to believe otherwise. Also I have another card registered on JE and thought maybe I had tried to pay with that by accident. I tried three times before I had a horrible feeling that the payment may have been released by my bank but a site error at Just Eat's end meant they were not collecting the payment.

I checked my online banking and the full amount had been taken three times leaving me only £32 left in my account. I phoned Just Eat and the first girl was really dismissive said it was the bank declining my card, and it was basically just tough andshe practically hung up on me. I phoned nationwide aand they said from their side there was no problem and it was Just Eat. They said they could release the ring-fence funds sooner but would need Just Eat to send an email with some info that I had noted down. I called back Just Eat and they point blank refused to email the bank even when I offered to email them all the information and they could just forward it. The girl on the phone spoke to the manager and came back and said 'it's our policy that we don't speak to banks. It's just something we will not do, ever'. She made it sound like it would be selling their souls to the devil or something. The manager did say that because it was their error they'd give me a voucher to the value of my original order so at least I could order the takeaway, so I got free takeaway but had to temporarily cancel my broadband direct debit because it will be coming out during the time I am waiting for the funds to be returned. I will be ordering with them again but think I will stick to cash only next time