Company failed to take credit card payment, now facing legal action

Rav1n

Hello,
I’m after some advice on the following please.

I made an online purchase in 2015 for approx £1900(a bike). As part of the purchase, I selected to pay by credit card & submitted my details. No money was taken at the time, with full payment supposedly taken when the bike was dispatched. This method of payment is confirmed in all subsequent invoices and payment terms.

I received the bike mid 2016 after 5 postponed delivery dates. I received no notification of payment or non-payment. I have assumed it had been paid.

It then went quiet until last week when I received a letter from the online companies solicitors requesting full payment of invoice plus interest and legal fees. Further, this to be paid in Euros and appears, when converted, to be approx £2500 in total.

Other things to note here....

- In feb 2016, I received another invoice and proposed delivery date, but on this occasion it had a new customer number, new order number and an increased invoice cost(about £20 increase). There had been no change to the order.
- These more recent references & costs are contained in the letter from the solicitors.
- This Feb date coincides with the company having a well publicised upgrade to systems and factory. This I believe led to the 5 postponed delivery dates & I’d guess led to the updated invoicing and new reference numbers. When this was re-invoiced, maybe the cost of the bike at that time was used and also the credit card details were lost.

What do we think, anybody got any advise on what I should do?

I do want to clear the debt but only the originally invoiced amount although I feel some form of compensation is warranted, although not my primary concern.

Thanks in advance.

arcon5

Phone them (the company) and tell them it's just been brought to your attention that they failed to take payment, as such you need bank details to transfer £1900 to. See what they say.

I wouldn't pay any more than that. But then I would have noticed an extra two thousand quid in my bank and unless your super rich fail to believe others would have not noticed

nyermen

If it really went quiet (are you sure - no emails etc?), and you provided your address and payment details and weren't sent any "have you forgotten to pay" or "we've lost your payment details" followups, then as arcon5 says, pay the original bill which you are liable for. They can't just send you a bill with lots of extras.

Do you have a copy of the original order from 2015 (ie. an email?) saying things like we will bill card ending XXXX when we deliver, your address, etc? Proving they had that information - and putting the ball squarely in their court.

Le_Kirk

Do check your credit card statements carefully and make sure you haven't actually paid. As said above, if you can miss £2,000 more than you should have maybe you can miss a payment for that amount that was actually taken. Don't want to pay twice!

zaax

Might be a scam, check that you haven't paid

bris

£1900 isn't something you don't notice.

pinkshoes

Go through your credit card statements, and if they have not taken £1900, phone the company that you purchased the bike from, tell them you have just realised they failed to take payment and pay.

Ignore this other company contacting you.

bris

Have you ignored demands for payment? I find it very hard to believe there has not been contact from the company many times before they got solicitors involved.