Charged 3 times by Somerfield

Helix

Hi

I went to get a £10 Orange top up on my phone from Somerfield and paid by Maestro card. I handed over my e-top up card which was swiped and then put my debit card into the chip and pin machine and entered the PIN. I was then told my top-up card had been declined so she said she would try and put the transaction through again and I wouldn't have been charged as the top up was declined. So I went through it all again with the card and pin etc and then the top up was declined again so this time she said she would give me a voucher instead so I could top up this way so I went through the whole processes again and this time it was sucessful and printed a voucher.

This was fine until I checked my online banking and found that the available balance had gone down by £30 as I haven't purchased anything else today and didn't have any payments due out it must be Somerfield. I was assured that I hadn't been charged as the top-up was declined. I only found out once Somerfield had closed so I didnt have a chance to go down there.

Is it likely that these fund have just been reserved and will unreserve themselves and only £10 will be taken out or would they have canceled themselves when the transaction failed. I'm worried because I know that it can take 5 days for the payments to be taken and I'm off to Uni on Monday so I won't have much time to get to the store in question to sort it out.

Sorry for such a long post. I know its only £20 but its so annoying when I was assured I hadn't been charged and just wanted to know if anyone knew how these things are likely to work.

Thanks
Craig

b33r

Has 20 quid extra credit appeared on your phone? Be a good place to start! If not I guess all you can do is wait and if the transactions do appear go back to the store.

Edit: Similiar thing happened to me at a frankie and benny's, they kept saying the transaction hadn't gone through on my card and made me type my pin in 3 times, unsurprisingly it appeared 3 times on my statement, when I went back they would only refund me in cash and didn't give me a voucher or anything I haven't bothered going back, it was going downhill anyway, it was the one at teeside park if anyones interested.

Helix

b33r wrote: »

Has 20 quid extra credit appeared on your phone? Be a good place to start! If not I guess all you can do is wait and if the transactions do appear go back to the store.

I only have the £10 that was sucessful on my phone.

Homework

Did you get the £20 back? What was the explanation for the 2 declines?

chmmy

This happened to me when I topped up online, but Tesco network. It was declined twice, accepted third time. All the money came off my available balance for a few days, but in the end only the correct amount was actually debited.

Helix

I did get the £20 back after I went into the store, they just processed a refund back to my card. I don't know why the top-ups were declined but I got a new top-up card just to be on the safe side.