Ugh. What are my rights here? (Quite urgent)

regency_man

GoCardless' failure to properly account and handle the OP's money would count as enough of a failure to trigger the DD Guarantee.

As I said above, you have to SPECIFICALLY say to your bank you want to make a claim on the Direct Debit Guarantee. Don't use any other words to describe it. You will find yourself connected to a very different and helpful department.

00ec25

regency_man wrote: »

GoCardless' failure to properly account and handle the OP's money would count as enough of a failure to trigger the DD Guarantee.

As I said above, you have to SPECIFICALLY say to your bank you want to make a claim on the Direct Debit Guarantee. Don't use any other words to describe it. You will find yourself connected to a very different and helpful department.

as a user of GC myself, when I first started reading this thread I too assumed it would be simply resolved by a DD Guarantee claim. OP however appears adamant that his bank refuses to accept such a claim as the payment has not been taken in error. The payment has been taken, but become lost.

Your experience above falls into one of the 3 specific guarantees - prior notice. OP appears to have a valid DD which was validly taken but has failed to reach the end user. Yes the middleman (GC) must be accountable, but if OP's own bank refuses to accept a DD indemnity claim because it is not a DD "error", then OP won't get anywhere easily

OP's options appear to be:

go direct to GC:
https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/dd-guarantee-in-plain-english/

https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/guarantee/

or, as suggested by GC themselves in the links above, escalate within his own bank
https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/howtoclaim.aspx

regency_man

00ec25 wrote: »

as a user of GC myself, when I first started reading this thread I too assumed it would be simply resolved by a DD Guarantee claim. OP however appears adamant that his bank refuses to accept such a claim as the payment has not been taken in error. The payment has been taken, but become lost.

Your experience above falls into one of the 3 specific guarantees - prior notice. OP appears to have a valid DD which was validly taken but has failed to reach the end user. Yes the middleman (GC) must be accountable, but if OP's own bank refuses to accept a DD indemnity claim because it is not a DD "error", then OP won't get anywhere easily

OP's options appear to be:

go direct to GC:
https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/dd-guarantee-in-plain-english/

https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/guarantee/

or, as suggested by GC themselves in the links above, escalate within his own bank
https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/howtoclaim.aspx

I would continue to pursue the DD Guarantee route, I would consider that the OP's situation falls under the 2nd clause of the DD Guarantee as written exactly on GC's website. If an error is made "by GoCardless or your bank"

GC are claiming they haven't received the payment, so either the bank made an error sending it, or GC made an error receiving it - there is no other possibility.

regency_man

From GC/Direct Debit Guarantee:

The indemnity claim process

Under the Direct Debit Guarantee, the rules around refunds are particularly strong. A customer can request a refund (known as an "indemnity claim") for any payment, and provided the bank agrees with the validity of their indemnity claim, the customer will receive an immediate refund. Further, there is no time limit on when indemnity claims can be made.

To raise an indemnity claim, a customer must notify their bank that they believe there has been an error. This "error" is defined broadly, and includes any dispute about the amount taken.

The customer's bank will generally accept the word of the payer, and if they do will immediately credit them with a full refund. They will then notify the merchant of the indemnity claim via a DDICA message with a reason code, available through Bacs. The amount refunded to the customer will be reclaimed from the merchant automatically 14 working days later.