Could I ask for compensation?

cherrysftw

Hey I was shopping online on BF (black friday), on Argos and bought a game worth £15.99.
Once this was successful I tried buying another one but it did not work, giving a declined message. I tried once more and it still gave me a declined. I received 1 copy of the game as I was expected to.

When I checked my pending transactions, I found that 3 payments of £15.99 were in the process of being taken. Today, 3 days later I received one payment of mine back of £15.99 but did not get the other 1. Instead I had 2 outgoing payments of £15.99 and 1 incoming, where it should have been the opposite.

To make matters worse, I called them up regarding the issue and they only had history of 1 purchase of £15.99. The other 2 were simply not registered anywhere on their systems. The person I spoke to did not even know another 2 payments of £15.99 were taken.
No e-mails were given to me about this extra £31.98 being taken, and had I not called my bank this amount would have been taken and there would be nothing to explain why.

Normally I'd be a bit !!!!ed at not having access to £31.98 of my funds, but this error caused me to be -£31.98 on black friday which meant I had to miss out on some pretty decent deals.

So should I bother asking for compensation or should it be expected that these things happen at times of high traffic? Even so, they did nothing to help me get the funds back ASAP so I am not short of the money but w/e.

Cheers

System

You said tried three times, so were intent on spending the £31.98 you are now missing. You are going to struggle to plead hardship... Write (don't phone) and ask them to sort it out.

But compensation? :rotfl:

cherrysftw

I was charged twice £15.99, didn't receive any confirmation e-mails/purchase didn't show up on the Argos account. Called up and they had nothing regarding the purchase, so I was out £31.98.

Had I been given confirmation e-mails for 3 purchases of £15.99 it would be fine, but I didn't receive anything and the funds were taken for 3 days. And even after that, the funds were taken by Argos, instead of bouncing back as it was mentioned by Argos.

daytona0

In fairness to Argos but:

1. They have seemingly delivered an item despite having being ordered on Black Friday (which is impressively fast!)

2. It sounds like the issue was with the bank verification screen (I've got some sort of inside info on that). This would mean that Argos likely never received payment authorisation for 2x payments and thus didn't record them as orders, hence being unable to find them on their records.


If point 2 is true then you're looking at 1-5 working days for the bank to make your money available again. You are also wasting your time with a compensation request against Argos, because it would have been the bank's fault (if verification failed) or maybe even your ISP?

To what extent do you deserve compensation? Do you have provable losses incurred due to being -£31.98 for a short time? If so then by all means request it!

Also, be advised that this has probably happened to hundreds if not thousands of people. The more people it affects, the more scrutiny will be made on any compensation request as the last thing they need is to refund a customer for a 'soft' reason only for everyone to come out of the woodwork and put in similar claims. You may even have to take it all the way to court.

marliepanda

Has Argos actually taken the money? (It's only been one working day since you tried) or are they still pending?

Anyway, that's how banks work. It's taken over a week for holds to drop off for me before.

cherrysftw

Lol im not one to make things harder for others for not sure why i thought of compensation, but i would have appreciated a bit more help with getting/identifying my funds.

The 3 payments were in a pending stage for 3 days, and today 1 has gone back into my account and 2 have gone to Argos. 1 of the 2 should have come back to me. The hassle this caused me was I didn't have access to either the games or the £31.98 on BF and today I haven't received £15.99. It's worth adding that this was for click and collect, so going instore to get the items. The instore manager was clueless too lol.

Thanks anyway!

SnowTiger

Use a credit card or get more liquidity.

£31.98 is pocket money. :rotfl:

RosiPossum

You're out £15.99, not £31.98.

deanos

I would sue them for lost interest on £31.98

Piercedmrsp

Do you bank with Smile by any chance? I've had a number of problems recently with incorrect earmarks on my Smile account and since its been different retailers, with whom I have not had issues before, I have to assume it is the bank at fault. I can't speak for other banks but each time it's happened Smile have agreed to remove the earmark and release the funds with little argument, just warning me if the company does take the money I could end up getting charged if I go overdrawn, etc (I wouldn't anyway and of course the companies haven't taken money they're not owed).

Maybe have words with your bank, explain the situation and ask them to remove the erroneous earmark. They will probably tell you to go back to Argos - tell them you have and that they are satisfied that you have paid for the goods you purchased and should have no further earmarks on your account.

cherrysftw

Nope, i'm with lloyds.

I'm convinced this was a error on argos' side. Regardless I'm yet to get my remaining £15.99 but once i'll do i'll have them honour the two games which are £46.99 each now. The least they can do.