Section 75 Credit Card Reversal - slightly odd one

simeyb

I made a section 75 claim on my Santander credit card back in September 2020.  This isn't about the rights and wrongs of the claim itself, but the way in which Santander have dealt with it - they wrote to me on 9 October 2020 advising that they had put the credit back on my card - the usual and that if the vendor has any documents as to responsibility for the claim etc, they reserve the right to recharge my card - no problem so far.  The next sentence said "If you don't hear from us within 45 days, the credit will stay on you account and we'll close your claim".  Pretty unequivocal - they even put "within 45 days" in bold.  So I waited 45 days (23 November 2020) and duly gave back to other people who were travelling with me (it was for a holiday), the money I had put on my credit card etc.  Nothing then from Santander until yesterday when I received a letter dated 4 February (received 11 February) advising that they had a letter from the holiday company disputing the claim (and this was enclosed and dated 9 November 2020) and that they would be recharging my account.  Now, this isn't a question about the claim, but rather that in October Santander created a legitimate expectation that if I didnt hear from them by 23 November 2020, that was that.  They now come back over 2 months past the 45 days, to my mind, chancing their arm as not having sent on the holiday company's letter in time.  I have lodged a complaint (can't speak to anyone), but does anyone think I'm on safe'ish ground here?  Santander have simply missed their own deadline to deal with this.

born_again

Retailer has 45 days to reject. Santander did not tell you that if you had not heard at that point then all was OK. Did you contact them to check?
We always tell customers 75 days. To cover the time taken to pick up rejections. 
Given last year made the T Cook collapse look like a normal day in disputes. Expecting anything to run to plan went out of the window before Covid even hit hard.

Add in you are talking about a chargeback. S75 the retailer has no input at all. 

eskbanker

born_again said:

Add in you are talking about a chargeback. S75 the retailer has no input at all. 

Indeed, and if the chargeback claim is rejected, OP may still have the option of raising a s75 one, if the transaction concerned qualifies for that.

simeyb

born_again said:

Retailer has 45 days to reject. Santander did not tell you that if you had not heard at that point then all was OK. Did you contact them to check?
We always tell customers 75 days. To cover the time taken to pick up rejections. 
Given last year made the T Cook collapse look like a normal day in disputes. Expecting anything to run to plan went out of the window before Covid even hit hard.

Add in you are talking about a chargeback. S75 the retailer has no input at all. 

Thanks for your reply - the sentence in Santander's first letter to me said, and I quote "If the retailer has documents to confirm any of the payments are your responsibility, or any other information becomes available, we'll let you know and we may debit your account with these amounts.  If you don't hear from us within 45 days, the credit will stay on your account and we'll close the claim" 

Not sure why I would need to check with them?  They didn't reply within 45 days of the date of that letter, in fact it was 118 days later.  And I get the issues Santander were facing, but they set the expectation, not me.

simeyb

Perhaps I should add that the retailer is VillaPlus - who in their response to the chargeback lied saying I had cancelled when their rep in Spain called me to see if we were travelling - I explained we want to but cannot due to FCO advice etc - at no point did I mention the word cancel - they are going down the road of "the villa (it was villa only) was available, so tough luck we're keeping your money"

pbartlett

If the villa was still available, the fact that you could not get to Spain is irrelevant - it presumably was not a package holiday and you had booked the flights, villa etc separately. The villa owner is entitled to say 'here is the villa come and get it' and if you didn't go (even if it was for FCO reasons) then you are not entitled to a refund.

That said, it looks like Santander has given you some misleading information and you would be entitled to ask for some small compo in the way of an apology. 

simeyb

pbartlett said:

If the villa was still available, the fact that you could not get to Spain is irrelevant - it presumably was not a package holiday and you had booked the flights, villa etc separately. The villa owner is entitled to say 'here is the villa come and get it' and if you didn't go (even if it was for FCO reasons) then you are not entitled to a refund.

That said, it looks like Santander has given you some misleading information and you would be entitled to ask for some small compo in the way of an apology. 

Thanks for your reply - want to keep my powder dry re Villa Plus, but want to keep on topic re Santander, as don't want compo from them - they clearly told me if I haven't heard in 45 days then case closed - I didn't, so case closed.  Say I had a mortgage decision in principle from them, valid for 90 days, and I went back after 150 days and wanted to rely on that, do you think they would?  If anyone sets a time limit then they have to abide by it otherwise no one has certainty, doesn't treat the customer fairly and isn't doing the right thing

JamesPeter

Not wanting to go too far ahead here, but I had a very similar claim with the Co-op bank, where I was told if I hadn’t heard in such a period, to treat it as if the claim was successful. However the payment was subsequently ‘reversed’ a few months later.  

As happened to you, it appeared they had ‘sat’ on a letter from the other party for quite a few months.

I took the case to the Financial Ombudsman – and lost.

The bank basically told the Ombudsman that due to Covid-19 and the large number of staff working remotely, it was impossible for a bank to ‘process administration’ within the same timescales as during ‘normal operations’. Hence the delay in processing the letter from the other party was ‘unavoidable’ due to Covid. .

The Financial Ombudsman sided with the bank, that due to Covid-19 they could not process matters ‘within normal timescales’ and it was acceptable for them to have sat on the letter from the other party for a number of months.

So, I lost. I know my case doesn’t set a precedence, but speaking to the Ombudsman’s investigator, although sympathetic, she would not change her decision.

Fortunately, in my case it was only £110 (and typically less than the excess on my travel insurance).

If you took out travel insurance, it may be worth trying them?

pbartlett

I would also point out that a chargeback (unlike a section 75) is not a 'right' that you the cardholder has, so you are unlikely to get very far with a complaint about it.

That said, you could (as mentioned above) now try a S75 complaint, where the bank IS (jointly) responsible but as I said if the villa was available that complaint will be rejected.

And yes, Santander didn't treat you fairly, so you should expect at least an apology from them and maybe £50 compo, although I am sure the pandemic has something to do with their tardiness.

simeyb

pbartlett said:

I would also point out that a chargeback (unlike a section 75) is not a 'right' that you the cardholder has, so you are unlikely to get very far with a complaint about it.

That said, you could (as mentioned above) now try a S75 complaint, where the bank IS (jointly) responsible but as I said if the villa was available that complaint will be rejected.

And yes, Santander didn't treat you fairly, so you should expect at least an apology from them and maybe £50 compo, although I am sure the pandemic has something to do with their tardiness.

I think what I would say is that the letter stating 45 days was issued in October, well into the pandemic and so they should have reviewed that before setting it and this was for over £4k, and so should have been prioritised.  We will see - still have s75 but as you say ....., also have pre-Covid travel insurance.

born_again

As someone else said.
If chargeback was rejected on grounds Villa was available, then S75 will most likely fail. As no retailer breach of contract. So that would leave travel insurance.

If Santander put it in writing, then they have shot themselves in the foot. As all banks were under massive pressure dispute wise due to covid. I know that we were at least 8 weeks behind on starting actual chargebacks, and god knows how long on checking for rejections. As that is done by a very small team, as there are usually very few, but require quite a bit of work to resolve.
TBH. You may as well raise a complaint and see what they say. Many amounts have been written off due to timescales not being adhered too. Due to too many to do & not enough time to work them.