Barclaycard Reveresed my Section 75 Credit

DuncanR77

Hi
Just checked my credit card statement & as a shock have seen a reversal on a holiday deposit which I had refunded under section 75 I beleive as unable to travel / flight cancelled - portugese & british restrictions etc etc - spoken to barclaycard & they have stated the merchant has won there case and chargeback doesnt stand - this is a first for me & never mentioned before - this is 7 months after they initially refunded it - Im confused so any help would be appreciated ? Ive complained to Bcard as had no corresponace from them - I filled out last april all the section 75 claim forms etc sent evidence of cancellations - villa company are saying to barclaycard they could have fulfilled the holiday if i chose to travel or offer a credit I requested a refund and they refused offered a 12 month credit note which I refused ( which Im gald as wouldnt have been able to travel)

bagand96

A couple of questions....

Was it a chargeback or Section 75?

What exactly did you book with the merchant you are claiming from? Was it a package holiday or just a villa?

If it was just a villa, and it was open and available at the time of your trip, then it might be the correct decision. 

Your travel insurance may have covered you for the loss. 

CKhalvashi

Did they cancel the holiday, or did you?

If you cancelled, you will likely have no rights to a refund, but check your contract details. A voucher in this case is a generous offer from the holiday company.

If they cancelled, you have the right to a full refund and I would argue that Barclays are clearly incorrect in this case.

The main problems we've seen with travel agencies is consumers jumping the gun on cancellations.

In addition, see Bagand's post below, as I have assumed it's a package in my posting, but your rights will be roughly the same if the accommodation was open and ready to accept you.

Caz3121

If this was for a villa-only booking and the villa was available to you then any refund would have been as per the terms and conditions of your booking or via a claim from your travel insurance.
S75 would apply if the villa owner cancelled your booking, villa not available and was refusing to refund. I suspect if the merchant 'won' they have been able to show the t&cs that state you were not due a refund.
If this was a package holiday with aTOL certificate then the cancellation of the flights would have been a different situation.

DuncanR77

Hi Thanks
It was with a villa company direct in portugal & paid a deposit on barclaycard  - I didnt cancel but requested a refund from them as unable to get there as flights were cancelled, plus advised to not travel to portugal - resort  & facilities were only partially open
I spoke to barclaycard & filled out a section 75 claim sent evidence  as advised they agreed and creditted me my deposit back only to reverese it this week with no correspondance thanks
When I requested a refund from the villa company they refused offered a credit note against a future booking to take by october (not 12months) holiday was last april 2020 so still couldnt have travelled as they were booked and prices x3 what paid at that time so they said take it up with your insiurance whi said take it up with barclaycard - so am I in the wrong?

bagand96

DuncanR77 said:

Hi Thanks
It was with a villa company direct in portugal & paid a deposit on barclaycard  - I didnt cancel but requested a refund from them as unable to get there as flights were cancelled, plus advised to not travel to portugal - resort  & facilities were only partially open
I spoke to barclaycard & filled out a section 75 claim sent evidence  as advised they agreed and creditted me my deposit back only to reverese it this week with no correspondance thanks
When I requested a refund from the villa company they refused offered a credit note against a future booking to take by october (not 12months) holiday was last april 2020 so still couldnt have travelled as they were booked and prices x3 what paid at that time so they said take it up with your insiurance whi said take it up with barclaycard - so am I in the wrong?

The availability of flights and Government restrictions are not the responsibility of the Villa company.  If the villa was open and available then they could have fulfilled the contract.  Section 75 only covers you if the supplier are in breach of contract, which in this case it doesn't look like they will be.

By requesting a refund you were cancelling the booking.  Deposits are usually non-refundable in the event the customer choses to cancel.  The offer of a voucher to the value was likely a gesture of goodwill.  Had it been a package (i.e. the flights and villa booked through the same supplier together) then you would have been entitled to a full refund.

Travel Insurance would have been the way to go.  If you had a policy in place a the time you should go back to them and see if you can claim.  Especially if they instructed you to claim from your credit card which was not correct.  You could consider complaining to them if necessary.

You could also speak to Barclaycard if you feel you want to complain about the process of the S75 and the subsequent clawback of the funds without notice, but I'm not sure it would change the outcome.

HopeAndDriftWood

Barclaycard read a few sentences to you when you do a S75, including that they’ll provisionally refund the money, but it’ll be reclaimed if the vendor proves that they were not in breach of contract. You’ll likely get a letter about the S75 being reversed in the next few days, the money always seems to be reclaimed first. 

Rungunrossco

I Have had the exact same thing happen to me this week. Barclaycard just put the charges back on my card without any warning. I got the letter through the post today and it states:
"We have received a response from the company they have confirmed that services were available and you chose not to travel.

Unfortunately in this instance we are unable to refund the money you spent on your accommodation. We appreciate that your personal circumstances led to you choosing not to travel however, your commendation provider had not broken any of their terms and conditions."

For the record it was not me that did not chose to travel. My BA flights to Majorca were cancelled and at the time (May 2020) Spain had banned any foreign travel in or out of Spain as did the UK. Watching Martin Lewis's Show during the first lockdown they made it sound that if you had booked accommodation and were unable to get there due to the lockdown rules you were entitled to a refund and if you had paid by credit card an S75 will get your money back and you will have no further issues.

If you look at the Government Competition and Markets Authority website it is still saying regardless of a companies T&Cs you should be entitled to a refund. It states "In particular, for most consumer contracts, the CMA would expect a consumer to be offered a full refund where a consumer is prevented from receiving any goods or services, because, for example, lockdown laws in the UK or abroad have made it illegal to receive or use the goods or services". 

I have called them and requested they review the claim. Annoyingly Barclaycard have informed me the department that deal with these cases to not take calls or have a email address I can communicate with them which is utterly ridiculous 

Upsidedownandaround

If there is no breach of contract then a s.75 will not be successfull in the end. Your credit card company is not the one liable for you not being able to get to the hotel.

Thrugelmir

Rungunrossco said:

I have called them and requested they review the claim. Annoyingly Barclaycard have informed me the department that deal with these cases to not take calls or have a email address I can communicate with them which is utterly ridiculous 

Not efficient nor productive to respond to ad-hoc telephone calls. All that happens is that people raise complaints that they are unable to get through. Simply making the situation worse. Patience is required. 

HopeAndDriftWood

Rungunrossco said:

I have called them and requested they review the claim. Annoyingly Barclaycard have informed me the department that deal with these cases to not take calls or have a email address I can communicate with them which is utterly ridiculous 

I don't believe any of the S75 departments communicate directly with customers. Certainly HSBC and Amex also don't allow for direct contact.
Was your accommodation booked as part of a package, including the flights? If not, was it booked from a UK provider, or a Spanish one? 

The CMA guidance unfortunately appears to be absolutely toothless. Perhaps it was just intended as a way to encourage businesses to do the right thing. We had a lot of things cancelled last year - our wedding and our honeymoon were just two - and nobody paid any attention to the CMA. Complaining to them just gets a response that it's guidance, and not tested in law.