Transaction failed but we've since found out gift card was still charged, what can we do?

lemurphs

A little while back, my mum attempted to pay for some cosmetics/perfume in store at Boots with the balance of an One4All gift card she received at Christmas. They asked her at the checkout to tell them the current balance of the card because they needed to put that information into the register in order to use it. She told that them it was £30, but when they tried to go through with the transaction they told her that they couldn't use the card and she would have to pay with an alternative method. She had a second One4All giftcard with the same amount, £30, which she had received for her birthday from the same person who gifted her the other one at Christmas. That card was tried but it the checkout staff told her again that it hadn't gone through. She was only interested in buying the items with her gift card(s) so she left without finishing the transaction. 

Yesterday she logged into the One4All site to check the balance of her card and the statement seems to say that the £30 was spent in Boots on the date she tried to make this purchase. She checked the other card and the same thing has happened - £30 was deducted in Boots on this date. Both cards now have a balance of zero, so obviously the money was taken at the till but due to some kind of mistake my mum didn't get the items she paid for. 

This happened at the London Liverpool Street branch of Boots so she'll be going back on Thursday on her way through to work. I advised her to speak to the staff there first and show them the gift card statement, and that I will help if it doesn't get resolved - but to be honest I'm not sure where she stands and how they should be trying to rectify the error? I'm sure she'd be happy to accept store credit from Boots in the amount she lost, should I suggest that she asks for that?

Thanks for reading! Happy to hear any feedback or advice. 

Sandtree

This sounds like one of those situations where both finger point at the other and so whilst its fine to go into Boots to ask the Qs I would suggest also raising the query with the card issuer at the same time

lemurphs

Sandtree said:

This sounds like one of those situations where both finger point at the other and so whilst its fine to go into Boots to ask the Qs I would suggest also raising the query with the card issuer at the same time

Thank you for suggesting that, I'll encourage her to get in touch with One4All customer service when she can.