Chargeback from Santander

Bridgetjs

Thank you. I woke this morning to an alert from Santander telling that my account was in unauthorised overdraft to the tune of £1,800. I then spent an hour on the phone to them and they agreed to authorise an overdraft of £2200 until I could raise the funds to clear it (which I am desperately trying to do). However this will take 24 hours to become effective and in the meantime I have had regular monthly payments returned unpaid and am unable to use my card. All the while I am incurring charges and it is undoubtedly affecting my credit rating. I have spoken to the Office of the Financial Ombudsman and have requested a final resolution letter from the bank.
As regards Andante, at no point did I accept a voucher from them. They initially offered me a refunf but then withdrew the offer. I I complained to the FCA and when Andante were notified they sent me a letter saying that if I took them to court and won they would be unable to pay but would, instead, appeal the decision and come after me for costs. It was at this point that I approached my bank.
The bank wrote to me on 20th June telling me they were refunding me the money but that Andante had 45 days to appeal, after which the money would stay in my account. I heard nothing until 2nd December when I received a letter from my bank telling me that Andante had successfully appealed and that they would be withdrawing the money from my account within 14 days of the date of the letter. I immediately rang the bank and raised a complaint. Despite constant calls from me chasing it up it wasn't until yesterday that I spoke to someone who informed me that, whilst they were very sorry for what had happened, they would still be taking the money. Incidentally from the correspondence they sent me on 2nd December it is clear that Andante responded to the bank on 29th June stating their intention to appeal. So Santander knew within 9 days of refunding me the money that an appeal had been lodged but they did not notify me then or at any time subsequently.
I am so distraught. It is Christmas and yet I can barely afford to feed myself and pay the bills. I am trying to raise money to pay back the overdraft but this will take some little time. Andante have stated that they will not process any refunds until end Feb 2021 at the earliest. Surely none of this can be right. I have done nothing wrong. I read an article in The Guardian about a woman complaining of similar treatment by Andante. The newspaper had contacted them but they just refuse to budge. Is there anything I can do to raise the profile of this.

Alan_Bowen

I hate to mention it, but the Daily Mail loves a story like this, their consumer affairs or finance team lead by Tony Hetherington will make a good fist of it. They named and shamed a company that has appeared on this site numerous times, beginning with a J, last week and went so far as to suggest people should simply not book with them