Chargeback claim refused... total injustice

boilingpoint

So I'm totally fuming about this and was wondering if anyone had any advice.

I bought a van using my debit card on April 5th and 3 days after I emailed the dealership to return the van for a full refund (for various reasons - paint job and seeing that i'd paid way too much for it). The dealership just started ignoring me so I initiated a chargeback via my bank (even though I'd paid by debit card). To activate my consumer rights I referred to the advert which said the van had 1 previous owner whereas in fact had been registered as having had 2...i.e. I could provided evidence that the van was misdescribed and I should have my claim accepted right? Wrong apparently.

Since then it's been a nightmare, the bank agreed to do a chargeback on condition that I return the van....I returned the van, Santander credit my account and everything's fine until...a few weeks later get a letter in the post saying the chargeback is refused, my account debited and the money is gone. I call up the bank to complain and they refuse to talk to me....Now the trader has the van and the money and my bank is stonewalling me.

The dealership had wrote a letter claiming that I was at fault because I'd 'changed my mind' which had lost them money since the van now had my name added to the ownership history and the mileage increased. They didn't provide any evidence but their claims were accepted as good enough to refuse me my money.

In terms of mileage I literally only drove the van from their dealership and back to their dealership to get a refund (i.e. delivery miles... so about 150 miles which is totally negligible right?) I also called the DVLA and asked them about the van's ownership history and my name was never even added!!! They said a total lie! I guess the dealership decided not to send off the V5 documents after I'd emailed for a refund back in early April when they were completely ignoring my emails....

So I call up my bank to tell them this and try to point out that they've made the wrong decision and I always get the same girl on the other line saying the 'visa disputes team are busy and will call you back within 5 days.' This has happened three times over the last couple of weeks and they never call back!

I emailed the dealership and threatened him with legal action if I didn't get my money refunded immediately and....nothing. No reply but then no real surprise there.

Any ideas out there as to the next step? Thanks.

HiToAll

That is a total injustice, I would be mad mad mad.

cajef

You have posted about this previously and had answers here:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5451800

agrinnall

cajef wrote: »

You have posted about this previously and had answers here:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5451800

To be fair the situation has moved on since then, although I agree that the update should have been made in the original thread.

sjbrun

The next step seems to be court action against the garage but it will be tough to get them to pay and will cost you more to enforce it.

bris

boilingpoint wrote: »

(for various reasons - paint job and seeing that i'd paid way too much for it).

So buyers remorse then, in a nutshell the rest is just smoke and mirrors.

boilingpoint

bris wrote: »

So buyers remorse then, in a nutshell the rest is just smoke and mirrors.

Well I went into it too quickly for sure...but so what? Am I legally entitled to a refund or not? If the vehicle was misdescribed, which it was, then I am. You can call that a technicality or 'smoke and mirrors' but that's what I had on my side so why ignore that?

And yes to be fair the dealer had ended up saying that they would do the refund minus £300 - but why should I pay? They lost nothing. I said I'd think about it and returned the van before activating the chargeback.

If they just took the van back they lose nothing - but of course they'd rather just keep the money. They spent a month of not replying to my emails and general stonewalling until I could even return the van to them. And it was in the *exact* same condition - it hadn't moved in my possession!

JJG

Also for the sake of argument the V5 only shows the registered keepers and not the owners.

frazell

bris wrote: »

So buyers remorse then, in a nutshell the rest is just smoke and mirrors.

I think if the number of owners is not as described then it can be construed as "not as described", this would affect the resale value once its sold on.

I think you have two courses of action, you either go to small claim and fight it out, or you demand that the garage return the vehicle to you and you sell it on.

If you can prove that the van had more than 1 owner and refer to the original advert then I think you would have good grounds. If you win in small claim then you can get your court fees back.

Judges in small claim are pretty pragmatic on the whole and they will see that you are out of pocket either way and would either enforce a refund or request that the vehicle is returned to you.

Also do you have any written evidence that the debit card company told you to return the vehicle? If so then they have some responsibility to sort this out as you followed their instruction.

boilingpoint

agrinnall wrote: »

To be fair the situation has moved on since then, although I agree that the update should have been made in the original thread.

Oh yeah - probably would have been better to do that.

Anyway someone on that thread says my reasons for the chargeback are different in that thread - but it isn't. I talk about the advert being misdescribed etc (which is true) but I'm just being more candid here about the fact that I'd already made the wrong decision to buy the van anyway... first time buying a used vehicle so yeah...

I don't see why I should lose anymore money though. The dealers are just being as difficult as possible because they know they probably won't find anyone else to buy the van at that price... so they're trying to claim the van has 'lost value', which it hasn't. It was overpriced.

frazell

boilingpoint wrote: »

......and returned the van before activating the chargeback.

It seems you might have given them back the van without agreeing either the refund or the chargeback.