Money out of my account -who's responsible?

Greenstuff_2

Hi,
I really need some help, yesterday I made 2 online purchases, one was just over £70 to Dorothy Perkins and one was to a ticket place for just over £150.
Both times the transaction was declined and I had to phone my bank - I had plenty in there to cover it so knew it was an error.
Today my card was declined again and when I phoned the bank was told I had insufficiant funds, when I checked each of the transactions had been authorised 5 times leaving me with just a few quid in the bank.
I have phoned the bank - it's too much of a coincidence not to be them and they have basically said tough, I have to phone the companies.
The companies have said they havent had the money at all, but the money has gone out of my account, they were all approved at exactly the same time so it's an error somewhere, I'm snookered, i've virtually no money and DD's and a cheque going out, the bank is Alliance and Leicester.
What on earth can I do?

Smidda

The funds have been Earmarked and will probably just drop off within 48 hours - not ideal but you will have to wait until they do before seeing exactly what has happened.

Your bank should honour any DD's due out if you make them aware.

This is the problem when retailers try and re-process a declined transaction without following either their security procedures or asking the customer to speak to their own banks card serices dept to remove the security check on the card. ( i get this lots in the bank i work for)

:eek:

Greenstuff_2

Thanks Smidda, this is unbelievable, it's like banging my head against a brick wall.
The retailers have both said they didn't get the money - it simply wasn't approved, woman from DP was great, she sent a fax to A&L stating they were not going to claim the money (the order didn't go through at all).
A&L have said it's on hold waiting to be claimed, if not it will be back in my account with FIVE days!
They won't honour my DD's or cheque and will charge me if I go overdrawn, I have a savings account with A&L too, their high interest one and have had to get the money from that loosing the interest of course.
I really can't believe they can behave this way, it's obviously the banks fault, they are saying I must have approved them both 5 times, I have tried to explain that's impossible as once the order is approved the shopping basket empties, I am also well capable of using the internet.
They are being a bunch of (insert word) one woman actually put the phone down on me at one point, and refused to give me her name when I asked as she was being so rude.
The only thing I can do is change banks if ans when I ever get this back.

Mikeyorks

Greenstuff wrote: »

it's obviously the banks fault, they are saying I must have approved them both 5 times,

It's an odd one if 2 quite separate transactions are both authorised multiple times. But the least likely cause ..... is that it is your bank. They are simply recipients of the authorisation request - from the Merchant acquirer acting on behalf of the retailer.

And whilst the lady at DP may have appeared helpful - I'm afraid she wasn't. She should have contacted their Merchant acquirer - and asked they quash the incomplete authorisations - which would have released the money immediately. If the Banks allow the default to happen (their system to release the money because a request for it never materialises) - it will take up to 7 working days.

Won't even hazard a guess as to how this has happened - but if you discover that DP and 'the ticket place' share the same Merchant acquirer (there aren't that many) ..... you may be on the right trail. But both retailers have to go via their Merchants to get the transactions voided (faster than your Banks default will work) - as going direct to your Bank simply won't work.

Chezza71

A similar thing happened to me on my Alliance & Leicester. An amount of about £26 was left hanging on my available balance so it wouldn't have authorised if I'd gone over this amount - IYSWIM. I phoned A & L - they said it was a fireworks merchant - I hadn't bought any fireworks. This "£26" hung around for about a week and then disappeared - very weird.