Consumer rights - accidental refund

samv

Hi all,
Just wanted some advice regarding an accidental refund from a high street store. I bought an electric fire and fireplace surround in December 2017, we found that the electric fire wouldn’t fit into the fireplace surround so I went into store and received a refund for the electric fire. We fitted the fireplace surround in Jan/Feb, I got a call saying that they have also refunded me the fireplace surround and I said said no I was keeping it. In turn, they told me to contact a number to pay for it again. I have tried phoning the customer services number about 4/5 times and tweeted them to say take the money back but each time there system is down and they say someone will ring me, this has been going on since March, what do I do? Thanks

rama0927

Hi Samv

You have been doing all of the right things!

Keeping any money wrongly credited to your account could lead to you being charged with retaining wrongful credit under the Theft Act 1968.

You are only a guilty party if you know the credit has been made incorrectly and do not take steps to resolve the issue. However in your case you have taken steps to resolve the issue.

Make sure you have call record proof of phoning customer services, and if you do get through to someone then take down their name, along with the time and date of the call. However if they do have a contact form or email address, I am sure sending them a message would be a good thing to do so that there is a record. you have mentioned there is some Twitter correspondence though, so that is something too.

It's down to you how hard you wish to push it. We all know that if this is a small sum, it will all blow over and nothing will happen. If it is a larger sum then they will probably more eagerly chase it up, but it doesn't seem to be the case in this instance!! :rotfl:

If I were in the same position I would simply play the waiting game now for them to come back to you - do they want this dosh or not! This is if you can honestly can say to yourself you have made reasonable efforts.

Fosterdog

Can you not just pop back into the store and pay for it again? Yes it was their mistake originally but you also failed to notice that they had refunded the full amount until they contacted you.

its_all_over

Couldn't you just send a cheque to settle the matter?