Pledgemusic CC refund

The.Real.Me

I paid for a pledge for a product made by The Stranglers back in March 2018, the fulfilment date was September 2018, date has now been changed to April 2019, the amount was just under £60 and paid for with a Natwest Mastercard.

The band have informed every 'pledger' that no goods will be fulfilled via pledgemusic as they (the band) have not been paid, they have suggested those of us who paid by CC to contact our issuer for a full refund.

I contacted pledgemusic and they replied they were working with the band on the matter, however, the band is still insisting that we, the pledgers, will get nothing from pledgemusic, they (pledgemusic) in turn have refused to cancel and refund my pledge.

Is it worth me contacting the CC issuer or will it not be refunded by them as it is under £100?

Thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

They may process it as a chargeback.

Ask them.

Terry_Towelling

If you paid for goods/services using a MasterCard and did not receive them by the agreed-upon/contracted date, you will, in principle have a right to your money back through the Chargeback process (regardless of the amount).

There are a few issues to consider, though, and my Chargeback knowledge is a bit out of date, but you have to seek redress through the retailer first (which you have) and you need to be within 120 days of the expected receipt date (which you probably aren't if Sept 2018 is the date used to calculate the chargeback) and there is probably a maximum time limit from the original purchase date that you may just be within.

You appear to have accepted a new delivery time frame and I am not sure how that might affect your card issuer's chargeback rights. Someone with more up-to-date chargeback knowledge needs advise on that point.

You still need to contact your card issuer. You could tell them that the delivery date changed to April 2019 (which you were OK with) but you have recently become aware that delivery will never take place (you may need to provide evidence of this) and a chargeback within 120 days of you becoming aware of the issue may be a possibility.

The.Real.Me

I phoned Natwest at Lunchtime, they have sent me a link to a form which I have since filled in, the lady I spoke to told me they would then pursue a refund on my behalf, so hopefully I will get my money back.

On a side note, many of the artists as well as those that have purchased items have not been paid or refunded and it is looking like Pledgemusic will not be in business for much longer.

Terry_Towelling

The.Real.Me wrote: »

On a side note, many of the artists as well as those that have purchased items have not been paid or refunded and it is looking like Pledgemusic will not be in business for much longer.

If that is the case, you will certainly not be the only one looking for a refund. The retailer's banker's may be bracing themselves for a lump of chargeback activity and card issuers will probably be aware of a growing issue and should have a standardised approach to handling associated queries.

Ben8282

I had never heard of this company before and after a quick look at their website I still remain confused.
But what I am wondering is have you actually ordered a product or is the 'pledge' considered as some form of investment, your return on the investment being access to whatever the completed 'project' produces. If the 'project' comes to nothing, surely your investment in it is lost?

SnowTiger

Ben8282 wrote: »

I had never heard of this company before and after a quick look at their website I still remain confused.
But what I am wondering is have you actually ordered a product or is the 'pledge' considered as some form of investment, your return on the investment being access to whatever the completed 'project' produces. If the 'project' comes to nothing, surely your investment in it is lost?

PledgeMusic seems to be a Kickstarter like (crowdfunding) thing for the music industry.

I'm guessing the OP is referring to this: https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/the-stranglers-the-movie.

In this case, it does appear that a product is involved:

Become part of The Stranglers history and feature your name in the end credits and liner notes of the film.

Plus receive a signed DVD or BluRay + limited edition bonus DVD of behind the scenes material. Also receive a HD download of the film upon release.

The Movie on DVD or Bluray + HD download. Purchase does not include a listing in the movie credits.

droopsnoot

I've also signed up for this and am hoping to get a refund from Barclaycard. I phoned up, gave them the transaction details and they sent me a form. I must admit I was a bit worried when the form turned up and it talks about S75 for claims over £100, but I guess they wouldn't have sent me a form if there was no point claiming. Would they?


It is a type of Kickstarter thing, I think. Artists offer a pledge to produce a product in return for their fans buying that product - the only difference to a normal release is that, instead of the artists (or their record company or whoever) funding the product and hoping it sells, with Pledge the fans pay up front, in return for a Pledge that the artist will do their bit, produce the product, and send it out. No money is taken until the amount for the Pledge is reached, so if only three fans decide they'll do it, they don't get charged. In this case the target was reached very quickly.


In this case, I pledged for the DVD (or Blu-Ray, I forget now) and paid up, with a delivery date of April 22nd this year. The film has been (largely) produced, and shown at a premiere in a London venue. The issue is that I won't now be getting my hard copy because Pledge aren't going to release the rest of the money for that to happen. The film-maker has said they'll try other avenues to release the hard copies, but that people will have to pay for them.

eco_warrior

Chargebacks against Pledge Music have been successful, its been on-going for a few months now.

I thought at first it was a non-starter as it was kind of like crowd funding but as goods are involved and the paperwork reflects this then as long as the purchase was within 540 days then a chargeback should work fine.

On a side note, I cant believe some issuers still send out declaration forms. Pretty archaic and not required.

droopsnoot

eco_warrior wrote: »

On a side note, I cant believe some issuers still send out declaration forms. Pretty archaic and not required.

And what a form it is. Nowhere near enough room for me to write answers into it, so I've had to type their questions and my answers on a separate sheet or they'll never be able to read them. And spelling mistakes.

Terry_Towelling

droopsnoot wrote: »

And what a form it is. Nowhere near enough room for me to write answers into it, so I've had to type their questions and my answers on a separate sheet or they'll never be able to read them. And spelling mistakes.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Barclaycard has outsourced its 'back-office' to an organisation that's read the rule book but doesn't really empathise or understand how the Chargeback world works and relies on heavily-scripted processes to help them press the right Chargeback button.