Card Provider closed account to avoid chargeback

YukiT

Short version: 

I was sent an incorrect item and the company ignored my request to return, I requested a chargeback from Revolut who never sent the chargeback form/considered the chargeback. Instead they locked my account then deactivated it and are using this as an excuse not to acknowledge the chargeback. Can I goto the FOS?

Long version:

I bought something form a website with my Revolut card and the seller sent my an accessory instead of the actual item - around 1kg weight difference and £800 price difference. The shop I bought it from is based in Germany and as per their website terms said returns had to be authorised by them via email but they never responded to my emails or provided a return address. 

I still have the incorrect item and the packaging it came in - which is too small to even contain the item I actually ordered. I also have a Police crime number (Police said they couldn’t help but acknowledged it was fraud and gave the number to give to my card provider) and an ActionFraud report. In my opinion I would have easily won the chargeback.

I went on Revolut’s chat system and told them the above and requested a chargeback, the agent I spoke to said they would transfer me to a different agent who would provide me with the chargeback form. Hours later I hadn’t received any chat notifications, logged into my Revolut account to find I had been locked out. I was just greeted by a ‘chat to us’ page and couldn’t even see my balance or withdraw my funds, use the card etc. I had to provide a series of invasive (in my opinion) documents to Revolut - none of which even related to the transaction I requested to chargeback. Regardless I provided all the documents and was locked out of my account for four months. Then Revolut deactivated my account but still never acknowledged my chargeback request.

During the four months my account was locked Revolut took away all of their support and contact options. If I filed a complaint form I would receive an auto-response within 30 minutes (I have seen the same response on Reddit and Twitter), If I tried to communicate via chat no agent would answer. I made a Twitter account to try and contact them at first I was told someone would respond to me via the app but they never did and when I tweeted them about this for the third time in a two week period Revolut said they would block me from Twitter for ‘spamming’ them. After my account was deactivated they archived all my chats and took away my ability to start new chats. Revolut’s phone number never reaches a human. If I file a complaint now regarding them not acknowledging the chargeback they say they didn’t have to because my account was under review then deactivated. 

Will the FOS get involved? Can they enforce the chargeback? Revolut never sent me the chargeback form or even considered it. It has gone beyond the 120 day limit now but regardless I think Revolut should be made to reimburse me themselves. I originally requested the chargeback a month after the payment date, allowing time for delivery and for the seller to respond to my emails. Can Revolut really do this to avoid a simple chargeback? 

Sandtree

FOS can only get involved once a complaint has been made to the company and either a) a final response has been issued or b) 8 weeks has passed since the complaint was made.

Ditzy_Mitzy

You need to forget all the Twitter techno gimmickry and do things the old fashioned way.  An FCA regulated firm, which Revolut is, cannot refuse to register a complaint.  Additionally it must not make the process of registering a complaint unnecessarily difficult.  All this stuff about complaint forms is nonsense - Revolut has failed in its obligations to you as a client by not instigating the proper complaints procedure upon first contact.  
First thing to do is contact Revolut, by sending a letter of complaint, Royal Mail Registered, to this address:

Revolut Limited
7 Westferry Circus
Canary Wharf
London
E14 4HD

Ensure that your letter details all of the attempts you have made to register a complaint with Revolut and state that the complaint should have been registered from your first expression of dissatisfaction.  Provide copies of any evidence you have of contacting Revolut.  Inform the company that it is in breach of DISP rule 1.6, which requires a response to your complaint, or Ombudsman rights, to be issued within 40 working days of receipt.  More here: https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/DISP/1/6.html
Insist, in this letter, that return correspondence is by post or email.  Refuse any silliness like web chats or social media posting.
The issue here is that Revolut seems to be encouraging its clients to contact it using non-durable methods - poor practice in my opinion.  Web chats, complaint forms, Twitter and so on are easily 'lost' and prone to disappearing, as well as leaving you without an audit trail.  There's something fishy about it: proper financial services organisations insist that communications are durable as the audit trail is, or should be, king.  It's sign that either the company isn't being competently run or that it's dodgy.  
The FOS is obliged to get involved, if a report is made to it, much as Revolut is obliged to answer your complaint.  The process should be one of Revolut receiving your complaint, acknowledging it as soon as practically possible and then, further to investigation, issuing a complaint response within 40 working days of receipt.  If day 40 arrives and the company hasn't been able to respond, FOS rights should be issued.  
You may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of Ombudsman rights being given.  These come in the form of a leaflet, or a link to the document on the FOS website.  
Given all your issues thus far, I might consider speaking to the FOS in concert with writing to Revolut.  FOS does not, normally, take unsolicited referrals and usually insist upon a response being issued first, however may take a different line in cases where the offending company has failed to answer, or refused to accept, the initial complaint.  It's worth a go, anyway. 
As for the chargeback - I don't know, sorry.  Revolut is a 'fin-tech' company and appears to be a front-end service for existing banks and foreign exchanges.  It's not clear from the website how Revolut's payment systems actually work.  I assume they use third party bank accounts held by Revolut to actually make payments, as Revolut itself isn't a proper bank.  The FCA lists it as a payment services provider only.  
The angle to pursue now, and to pursue doggedly, is Revolut's failure to comply with the FCA rules regarding complaints resolution.  That's potentially a far more serious matter than the £800, and is likely to get you somewhere.  It's also got the beauty of being purely factual.  Collect evidence, write to Revolut - good luck with it! 

YukiT

Thank you for your responses. I’ve already complained to Revolut twice and received two final responses.

The first was several months ago when they locked my account, I received a ‘final’ response that didn’t even acknowledge the chargeback. It seemed to be automated/copy and pasted response because I’ve seen other people on Twitter and Reddit with exactly the same response. 

The second was last week after they deactivated my account (for no good reason) without acknowledging the chargeback request. I received a different ‘final’ response this time - that Revolut didn’t proceed with my chargeback request because my account was under review and now they can no longer offer me their services.

Also as a word of warning about Revolut, scroll through their Twitter mentions and they have an alarming amount of customers who’ve been locked out of their accounts. 

Sandtree

YukiT said:

The second was last week after they deactivated my account (for no good reason) without acknowledging the chargeback request. I received a different ‘final’ response this time - that Revolut didn’t proceed with my chargeback request because my account was under review and now they can no longer offer me their services.

So you have a final response and so can escalate the matter to the FOS if you are not happy with their response.

Ditzy_Mitzy

YukiT said:

Thank you for your responses. I’ve already complained to Revolut twice and received two final responses.

The first was several months ago when they locked my account, I received a ‘final’ response that didn’t even acknowledge the chargeback. It seemed to be automated/copy and pasted response because I’ve seen other people on Twitter and Reddit with exactly the same response. 

The second was last week after they deactivated my account (for no good reason) without acknowledging the chargeback request. I received a different ‘final’ response this time - that Revolut didn’t proceed with my chargeback request because my account was under review and now they can no longer offer me their services.

Also as a word of warning about Revolut, scroll through their Twitter mentions and they have an alarming amount of customers who’ve been locked out of their accounts. 

Did the 'final response' provide FOS rights in the form of a paragraph stating that you can report the matter to the Ombudsman, and either a FOS leaflet or a link to the FOS leaflet on the website?  If not, they don't count as complaint responses and you need to proceed as advised.  If they do, report straight to FOS and don't worry about further engagement with Revolut.