Premier Inn refunded to a cancelled credit card, can't get my money back?!?!

dodgie

Hi,
I had a change of plans and so had to cancel a future hotel booking made with Premier Inn for later this year. I didn't realise at the time of cancellation that I had previously cancelled the Santander credit card I had used when originally making the booking pre-lockdown but the booking was cancelled, and I received a confirmation email to say that the amount had been refunded to my (cancelled) card.

A month later I'm still chasing this, Santander are adamant that the payment was rejected and returned to Premier Inn, Premier Inn are saying the payment was made, both are quoting the same ARN number but I'm going around in circles and £300+ out of pocket in the meantime. This is obviously not helped by the current situation meaning it's difficult to get hold of anyone on the phone at Santander (long waits) or Premier Inn (who have closed their phone lines entirely, with a 5 day turnaround time for each email exchange!) but I'm starting to run out of steam.

Any ideas for a way I can get this sorted once and for all? It's soul-destroying sitting waiting in a queue with Santander for an hour on the phone only to be told the same thing every time, emailing Premier Inn to chase and only getting a response a week later.

Cheers

Rich

RobM99

No branch of Santander near?

dodgie

RobM99 said:

No branch of Santander near?

Not too near, no, but willing to travel to one if that would help? Wouldn't they just tell me what they are already telling me over the phone, that the payment was returned to Premier Inn with an ARN? I was whinging that it takes forever ti get through to them when I do call, but I have managed to speak to someone a couple of times over the past few weeks but they always tell me the same thing and that I need to raise this with Premier Inn who refer me to the bank, and so on ad nauseam.

Rich