Court Action threat following Charge Back on a holiday!

Jbren

I was unable to go on my fully paid for holiday in July due to shielding (Clinically Extremely Vulnerable)  I contact the company to request a refund, they said no, I contacted my Insurance Co, they said try the bank first and if they refuse come back to us.  The bank paid out (chargeback) now the holiday company are threatening to take me to court????? Can they do this?

Voyager2002

Anyone can take anyone else to court: the interesting question is what a court would rule in your situation. Was the holiday actually available for you? (Did the flights travel, was the hotel open...?) And what the T & Cs of your contract with the holiday company say? Depending on the answers to these questions, it may well be that the holiday company is entitled to be paid.

A separate set of questions would determine whether or not your insurance covered your particular situation. If so, it was wrong of them to tell you to make a charge-back, and a formal complaint would be justified.

eskbanker

The holiday company should have challenged at chargeback stage if they wanted to dispute this, but failure to do so doesn't actually prevent them from taking you to court for the debt if they weren't obliged to refund you under the terms of the booking - whether or not they'd succeed is another story....  If they did succeed in getting a court to find against you, you could presumably then claim on your insurance if they covered you for cancelling in such circumstances?

epm-84

Did you provide the bank with any false information?

Based on what you have said I don't see why a chargeback would have gone through. A chargeback is for when you purchase a product or service but the product or service isn't delivered, not when you purchase a service and you are unable to use the service.

If you gave false or misleading information to the bank to try and get the money back then it's fraud and yes they can take you to court and a court could rule for the money to be returned and that also are liable for damages (e.g. their legal costs.)  If you didn't and Visa or Mastercard made an error then the retailer should have appealed the chargeback first.

mattyprice4004

Yes, they can do this - the holiday was there for you to take but you chose not to go (your shielding status is your concern and not theirs).

They were forced to hand money to you that you probably weren't entitled to, and now they're claiming it back.

Speak to your insurance company - they might be able to offer something to the company to settle the case.

Westin

Jbren said:

I was unable to go on my fully paid for holiday in July due to shielding (Clinically Extremely Vulnerable)  I contact the company to request a refund, they said no, I contacted my Insurance Co, they said try the bank first and if they refuse come back to us.  The bank paid out (chargeback) now the holiday company are threatening to take me to court????? Can they do this?

I would agree with the other's who have responded.

I am surprised your insurer told you this (highlighted) if you had made them aware that the holiday was indeed still available and it was due to shielding that you could not/did not wish to go. This should not have been a charge back case.  I would have thought that would have been a travel insurance claim - providing you had declared your condition and were covered.  Their advice may now mean you have legal wrangling to resolve. What a mess.

sourcrates

If the Holiday was available for you to take, then its not the Holiday companies fault you could not go.

It appears your insurance company passed the buck, back to your bank, instead of looking into whether you were covered for self isolation.

So i agree the travel company can take you to court to claim its money back, but you also should have a case against your insurance company for the very bad advice they gave you, you could either give them the chance to rectify the situation, or sue them if the travel company does take you to court and wins.

Thrugelmir

Holiday company was most likely overwhelmed at the time. Now only processing chargebacks made. Not the bank's or insurance company's fault if your claim was subsequently found to be erroneous. Holiday company will obviously seek repayment. 

CKhalvashi

Yes, they are allowed to do this.

If you owe the money under your contract with them and have received a refund in error (the chargeback will have come from their bank account ultimately), then you will be liable for the amount, plus any fees they've incurred through their merchant provider (ours charges £20 IIRC), plus any costs incurred in taking you to court.

Due to the current situation, many banks haven't been forwarding issues to companies in the relevant timescales, leaving very little time to deal with the chargeback. We've proactively refunded all consumers through this (I don't work in travel, I do work in another heavily affected industry though) and have had a total of 3 chargeback claims filed against us since March, all of which we were able to deal with, but as you probably had no right to a refund, the fact that you've been refunded will mean that you owe the money to the agent and therefore an arrangement will need to be made to pay them.

RHemmings

Thrugelmir said:

Holiday company was most likely overwhelmed at the time. Now only processing chargebacks made. Not the bank's or insurance company's fault if your claim was subsequently found to be erroneous. Holiday company will obviously seek repayment. 

Given my reading of the OP and subsequent posts, this looks very much to the be insurance company's fault if they gave the OP incorrect advice. 

As mentioned above, this may put the OP in a very difficult situation if an incorrect reason was given for the chargeback.