Dispute Claim - Rejected after 5 months

Littlenatt89

Hi all, 
Firstly a little bit of background: My friends and I booked festival tickets and accommodation for May 2020 in Ibiza with Chic Festivals, this was all booked in June 2019 and paid for in December 2019. Pandemic hits, and the the festival leave it until 19th April to advise that the festival (starting 5th May) was "Postponed". Despite their clever wording, the festival was not postponed, the 2020 festival was cancelled. This is an annual festival, that the company were already accepting bookings for in February. I have emails from early April, before they postponed, offering us to move to next year's festival, so in my opinion the 2021 festival was already planned so 2020 wasnt postponed, it was cancelled. No refunds were offered, we were advised that we could transfer to next year, accept credit with the company for another festival in the UK or "just claim through travel insurance". I don't believe that a weekend at a festival in Leeds, or Sheffield (where we live) equates to a week in Ibiza, and we can't make the 2021 dates. I should also mention that at this point, they had removed the original terms and conditions from their website which were available at the time of booking and updated them to include a section on Covid-19, the original T&Cs are no longer available. 

Anyway, to my current issue. I submitted a dispute form with HSBC on 19th April, when we were advised the festival was not going to go ahead. I contacted the bank on 4th May to chase and they advised to contact again on 6th May to confirm the holiday had definitely been cancelled. I did this and the money was refunded on the basis that the company had 30 days to respond. The 30 days passed on 8th June. Today (31st October) I receive a letter in the post from HSBC advising that my claim had been rejected and they are taking the money back on Monday 2nd November. 
I'm looking for some advice as to where I stand with this, it is well past the 30 day time frame that I was advised, I even waited 30 working days, just in case, before sending the money back to the rest of my party. I'm trying to contact HSBC but helpfully their card dispute team doesn't work Monday, and the person in the online chat just keeps sending me the dispute form. 

[Deleted User]

The bank did a chargeback not a section 75 (depends if you paid by CC or debit) - if you have a credit card you need to check and explore the S75 angle

Littlenatt89

Deleted_User said:

The bank did a chargeback not a section 75 (depends if you paid by CC or debit) - if you have a credit card you need to check and explore the S75 angle

Thanks, the balance was paid by Debit card so can't claim S75. Does that mean that we have no leg to stand on here? The thing that's annoyed me most is that they said the merchant had 30 days to respond, then 5 months later we get a rejection. 

jonesMUFCforever

IMO  a retailer has only 45 days to challenge a chargeback.
I would start a formal complaint stating this and see how you get on.

GrumpyDil

Also you say the balance was paid.
Was any of the booking paid on a credit card as if so you may have the S75 route open to you. 

[Deleted User]

Littlenatt89 said:

Deleted_User said:

The bank did a chargeback not a section 75 (depends if you paid by CC or debit) - if you have a credit card you need to check and explore the S75 angle

Thanks, the balance was paid by Debit card so can't claim S75. Does that mean that we have no leg to stand on here? The thing that's annoyed me most is that they said the merchant had 30 days to respond, then 5 months later we get a rejection. 

Vendor can dispute a chargeback yes, it's not an automatic right for refund. You need to go back to the bank and explain as well as escalating it further with the provider

jonesMUFCforever

Deleted_User said:

Littlenatt89 said:

Deleted_User said:

The bank did a chargeback not a section 75 (depends if you paid by CC or debit) - if you have a credit card you need to check and explore the S75 angle

Thanks, the balance was paid by Debit card so can't claim S75. Does that mean that we have no leg to stand on here? The thing that's annoyed me most is that they said the merchant had 30 days to respond, then 5 months later we get a rejection. 

Vendor can dispute a chargeback yes, it's not an automatic right for refund. You need to go back to the bank and explain as well as escalating it further with the provider

They can dispute the chargebacks but only have 45 days to do so.
In this case it seems to have been several months.

Littlenatt89

Thanks all, I paid by debit card so don't believe I can go down the S75 route. The time lapsed since i raised the dispute has been 173 days, very much outside the 30 day time frame set out by the bank. 

I've been on hold with the bank for nearly 2 hours at this point, so I will be raising a complaint regardless. 

Thanks for the help 

jonesMUFCforever

Littlenatt89 said:

Thanks all, I paid by debit card so don't believe I can go down the S75 route. The time lapsed since i raised the dispute has been 173 days, very much outside the 30 day time frame set out by the bank. 

I've been on hold with the bank for nearly 2 hours at this point, so I will be raising a complaint regardless. 

Thanks for the help 

Let us know how you get on.

Littlenatt89

jonesMUFCforever said:

Littlenatt89 said:

Thanks all, I paid by debit card so don't believe I can go down the S75 route. The time lapsed since i raised the dispute has been 173 days, very much outside the 30 day time frame set out by the bank. 

I've been on hold with the bank for nearly 2 hours at this point, so I will be raising a complaint regardless. 

Thanks for the help 

Let us know how you get on.

If I ever get to speak to someone, I will..... currently 4hrs 11mins in the queue and counting.