Monzo bank - chargeback/mislead

dakotadveils

Good afternoon all,

I’m after a bit of advise as currently I am set to loose £3k.
I purchased a 2nd hand car at the start of the year, all checked over and test driven etc
The car was then delivered to my house a couple of days later after completing the purchase and paying via bank transfer (thinking I’d be covered more than cash using bank transfer).
To keep it short from day 2 the car started developing various faults and was basically an intermittent runner etc and I requested a refund from the seller on day 3 due to being unhappy
with the purchasing and the growing list problems. The responded for the first couple of days, then just disappeared shall we say.
After many attempts to contact the seller to no avail, I instructed my bank to request a chargeback due to the goods not being as advertised (provided all the proof and a garage report on the problems with their view of how the problems could have been hidden enough to fail in a short period of use).
I constantly chased my bank “Monzo” and was repeatedly told they are contacting the other bank, or they are waiting a reply, or it was being escalated etc etc(all documented). This has gone on for 4 months and It was only when I launched an official complaint did I get a reply from them stating they have made an error and I should have been told from day 1 that you cannot recall ‘faster payments’. I did not know this, and its 100% not in their T’c and c’s – but it is actually true (hindsight eh). I escalated this to the ombudsman who came back to me last week, whilst they sympathised with my situation and despite the bank clearly misleading me, if Monzo had they told me at the time of chargeback request that they cannot do this I still would not have got my money back (due to it being a faster payment service) even though they completely mislead me for 4 months! And its still not on their website or in their t's and c's.
I really don’t know what to do next, yes the faster payments website states bank cannot recall these unless its fraudulent transaction – but I have been completely mislead by the bank for 4 months which is unacceptable. The seller is now long gone , clearly blocked my number or changed his and I have lost £3k on a car expecting the bank to instigate a chargeback until they decided to tell me you can’t do that on a bank transfer. Not only that I had to insure and tax an unusable car as there was nowhere I could store it and there may have been other options if I new at the start. To make it worse, its was my redundancy money spent on a car:(


Any advice much appreciated of what I could do next, just gobsmacked at being mislead completely by the bank. Thank you for any advise in advance

Kind regards
Mark

PS; the car has now been sold for spares or repair

Neil_Jones

Unfortunately "fraudulent" only applies if the money was taken through no fault of your own or if your details were stolen and then used maliciously.

If you make a bank payment of your own to an account then you are doing that under your own will - and you would I suppose absorb the bank of responsibility.

Presumably this was a 2nd hand car through a private seller and the payment was to a private account? The fact the car breaks down the day after is sod's law but second hand cars from private sellers are almost always sold as is. Unfortunately car insurance law dictates that your motors have to be taxed/SORNed and insured.

I suspect you may be out of luck now the ombudsman has become involved. Small Claims could be an option but whether you'd get anywhere with it I can't be sure (doubt it though). You may just have to chalk it up to experience.

eskbanker

dakotadveils wrote: »

I instructed my bank to request a chargeback due to the goods not being as advertised

[...]

I have lost £3k on a car expecting the bank to instigate a chargeback until they decided to tell me you can’t do that on a bank transfer.

I wonder if there's been some confusion if you were specifically referring to 'chargeback', which is a defined process relating to credit or debit card payments, when what you actually wanted to do was to recall a faster payment transaction?

Anyway, as above, your £3K is gone unless you can trace the seller, but if you can evidence financial losses directly resulting from poor advice by Monzo then you could try taking them to court.

Or you could have a go at escalating to an ombudsman within FOS if your case has only been reviewed by a more junior adjudicator thus far, as per https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm:

Your case handler will let you know the outcome based on what they think is fair and reasonable. If either you or the business disagree with this, you can ask for a final decision from an ombudsman.

Either way, I suspect you'd be doing well to get anything more than a token goodwill gesture, so chances are you'll need to just move on....

dakotadveils

Ok thanks for the advice 'eskbanker',

I'm glad Neil, you think you can chalk it up to experience when you loose £3k Maybe you could send me £3k and 'chalk it up' as goodwill gesture

Ref Monzo I asked for a charge back , not knowing I wan't protected - and the bank should have told me that when I requested that. Its all documented. This kind of thing should, without question be in their T'c and C's when you sign up(yes i read them) Bank transfers like this are a fundamental part of everyday banking nowadays .

Jakg

dakotadveils wrote: »

Ref Monzo I asked for a charge back , not knowing I wan't protected - and the bank should have told me that when I requested that. Its all documented. This kind of thing should, without question be in their T'c and C's when you sign up(yes i read them) Bank transfers like this are a fundamental part of everyday banking nowadays .

The terms and conditions give them a framework to work in. It's not reasonable for them to cover everything you *can't* do with an account - the list would be infinite.

Neil_Jones

dakotadveils wrote: »

I'm glad Neil, you think you can chalk it up to experience when you loose £3k Maybe you could send me £3k and 'chalk it up' as goodwill gesture

Well next time you need to buy a car it may be worth going to a dealer because you will then have stronger protections before, during and after regardless of how you pay.

Unfortunately (and this isn't a dig at you specifically) people seem to have to lose money somehow before they actually learn anything, ie not to do it again. If you go through the Small Claims court and they tell you the issue was your own fault you're still going to be £3k out of pocket. I'm sorry you lost the money but I don't think anybody has a solution for how to magic £3k out of thin air and plonk it in your lap.

Ref Monzo I asked for a charge back , not knowing I wan't protected - and the bank should have told me that when I requested that. Its all documented. This kind of thing should, without question be in their T'c and C's when you sign up(yes i read them) Bank transfers like this are a fundamental part of everyday banking nowadays .

Bank transfers have never been protected, there are no end of stories about people who make payments this way for whatever reason, they get one digit wrong in the account number, it goes to an entirely different account and if the money's been withdrawn, the bank cannot help and the money is effectively lost.

If the bank put in its T&Cs everything you cannot do with an account you'd have a document the size of War & Peace.

colsten

There's nothing anyone here can do to help you getting the £3K back, I'm afraid. It's a very annoying and expensive experience and there's no way you get your money unless you can trace the seller, take them to court, and hope the decision goes your way.

It is bad that Monzo led you to believe a recall of the money would be possible. However, if they had not made that error, you'd be in exactly the same situation as you are now, i.e. you wouldn't have got your money back.

Kentish_Dave

If you posted them the money in an envelope would you expect the post office to compensate you? It is exactly the same situation here. What possible reason do you have to think that the bank should pay for your mistake?

Ben8282

You cannot do a chargeback on a faster payment and it almost defies belief that the bank would have told you that you could.
A faster payment cannot be recalled either and once again it almost defies belief that the bank said it could or attempted it under these circumstances.
Your only possible recourse here is to start legal action against the seller. Good luck.

Terry_Towelling

How do you know the seller's long gone? Presumably the previous owner's details are on the V5 registration document (they always used to be) so you should be able to trace them that way - as long as the seller was the previous owner! Have you tried calling them from a different phone to see if you get through? Try withholding your number when you call.

Do you have any idea what is wrong with the vehicle? It could be something cheap and simple to repair. Does it have a service history? Have you contacted the garages that serviced it for any information on the vehicle?

Chargebacks apply to credit and debit card transactions only. It's hard to understand why Monzo didn't spot that immediately but, as others have said, it wouldn't have made much difference, you'd still have been £3K down. In my view you shouldn't really be approaching your bank with a specific request for a Chargeback unless you fully understand what it is you're asking. You should approach them and say what's happened and let them decide on the remedy (if there is one).

It's perhaps a bit silly to think the T&Cs should say you can't request a Chargeback for a Faster Payment. I presume you know that you can't do a Chargeback of a cheque payment either - but I doubt that's mentioned in the T&Cs. I suspect there's nothing in the T&Cs saying your next-door neighbour isn't required to repay you either, so would you approach them for the money? Sorry if that sounds facetious but it's just another way of illustrating that the T&Cs can't be expected to make reference to every thing that isn't possible.

Find out what's wrong with the car before going any further.

colsten

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Find out what's wrong with the car before going any further.

This might now prove difficult to do

dakotadveils wrote: »

PS; the car has now been sold for spares or repair

It will also render any court case a pointless exercise. There's most likely no way now for any independent assessor to examine the car, so it would be word against word and the judge could not possibly uphold any claim.