Day 2 Test Refund Refused (Express Test) - What can I do next?

[Deleted User]

kaMelo said:

rigolith said:

kaMelo said:

michael1234 said:

Yes agree 100% with that and ignore anyone who might come along to this thread to tell you to read their terms&conditions etc. You bought a service, they didn't deliver so they should refund and it will be easier to do it by raising a dispute with your CC or (for paypal) opening a case.

Frankly, if these companies have a low failure rate, I'm amazed they don't just pay up immediately in the cases where they do fail. 

What nonsense, Without the contract then who knows what service is on offer and what the rights and responsibilities of both parties are? You don't just make it up as you go along.

If the contract guaranteed delivery then a chargeback will succeed as they indeed failed to keep their end of the deal. Anything less than guaranteed and it's an easily defended chargeback for the company, if they can be bothered to do so, by simply pointing out their terms and conditions of the service they offered to the credit card company.

Contracts are not the be-all and end-all. If the terms are onerous then courts can and will ignore them.

The government has said that these kinds of terms should not prevent people getting refunds. I suppose if you want to get an affirmative confirmation of that you could take them to court and argue your point, but why waste your time and money when you can just complain to the payment provider?

That's correct, as I said in my later post, the ultimate arbiter of whether a contract is fair is a court. That can't happen unless someone takes it before a court though.

A payment provider will take no part in deciding whether a contract is fair or not. You can indeed complain to a payment provider who will do a chargeback. If a company disputes the chargeback then they will look at whether the company has done what they said they would,  the terms of service offered that formed the contract.
If they have then the chargeback will (probably) be reversed.

Have you ever done a chargeback?

I have. In my case the bank didn't really question it, just said that they would give the other party some time to respond. Other party didn't respond, or didn't convince the bank even though by what you say they were in the right, and I got a refund.

kaMelo

[Deleted User] said:

kaMelo said:

[Deleted User] said:

kaMelo said:

michael1234 said:

Yes agree 100% with that and ignore anyone who might come along to this thread to tell you to read their terms&conditions etc. You bought a service, they didn't deliver so they should refund and it will be easier to do it by raising a dispute with your CC or (for paypal) opening a case.

Frankly, if these companies have a low failure rate, I'm amazed they don't just pay up immediately in the cases where they do fail. 

What nonsense, Without the contract then who knows what service is on offer and what the rights and responsibilities of both parties are? You don't just make it up as you go along.

If the contract guaranteed delivery then a chargeback will succeed as they indeed failed to keep their end of the deal. Anything less than guaranteed and it's an easily defended chargeback for the company, if they can be bothered to do so, by simply pointing out their terms and conditions of the service they offered to the credit card company.

Contracts are not the be-all and end-all. If the terms are onerous then courts can and will ignore them.

The government has said that these kinds of terms should not prevent people getting refunds. I suppose if you want to get an affirmative confirmation of that you could take them to court and argue your point, but why waste your time and money when you can just complain to the payment provider?

That's correct, as I said in my later post, the ultimate arbiter of whether a contract is fair is a court. That can't happen unless someone takes it before a court though.

A payment provider will take no part in deciding whether a contract is fair or not. You can indeed complain to a payment provider who will do a chargeback. If a company disputes the chargeback then they will look at whether the company has done what they said they would,  the terms of service offered that formed the contract.
If they have then the chargeback will (probably) be reversed.

Have you ever done a chargeback?

I have. In my case the bank didn't really question it, just said that they would give the other party some time to respond. Other party didn't respond, or didn't convince the bank even though by what you say they were in the right, and I got a refund.

Yes and as you found the bank doesn't question you. As long as you're not obviously trying to take the mickey your own bank take you at your word and claw the money back.  If the institution can be bothered to challenge it and provide evidence they carried out the service they sold then likewise they don't play judge and jury.

 If the institution can't be bothered to challenge it then of course you keep the refund.

It was more about the advice to "just chargeback and forget it" (which I appreciate wasn't you who said it) that was terrible advice. Chargebacks do not remove someone's liability to the service provider and whilst rare, they can follow that up with legal action, hence why you shouldn't "just forget it"

michael1234

kaMelo said:

michael1234 said:

kaMelo said:

michael1234 said:

Yes agree 100% with that and ignore anyone who might come along to this thread to tell you to read their terms&conditions etc. You bought a service, they didn't deliver so they should refund and it will be easier to do it by raising a dispute with your CC or (for paypal) opening a case.

Frankly, if these companies have a low failure rate, I'm amazed they don't just pay up immediately in the cases where they do fail. 

What nonsense, Without the contract then who knows what service is on offer and what the rights and responsibilities of both parties are? You don't just make it up as you go along.

If the contract guaranteed delivery then a chargeback will succeed as they indeed failed to keep their end of the deal. Anything less than guaranteed and it's an easily defended chargeback for the company, if they can be bothered to do so, by simply pointing out their terms and conditions of the service they offered to the credit card company.

Umm, you've bought a day 2 test that can't be taken on or before day 2? That would override anything in the small print UNLESS it is made very clear before purchase what the relevant term is.

Its like buying a car online and then being told in the small print "we can't guarantee we can find a car for you. In that case no refunds will be allowed"

The clause would be clearly unfair, struck out by any CC judge and moreover, it flies in the face of consumer law and I suspect you know it.

The car purchase is not comparable, you're buying a specific product not a service, if the car doesn't exist then you can't purchase it. I'm not unsympathetic to the point you raise in that you can't take a day two test if you don't receive prior to day two however that's not the point the OP raises. They received and took a test but failed to receive the results in a timely manner.

I'm unsure who you are referring to with the term "credit card judge" but a company who can show they complied with the terms of service offered will succeed on getting the chargeback reversed.  The bank/credit card company do not decide whether the terms are fair or not, that can only be decided by a court.

This doesn't mean I'm unsympathetic to the OP's position, I just don't see how, unless guaranteed results were offered, they will succeed.

CC = County Court.

If the OP does a chargeback he or she will likely receive a refund. If he/she is pursued perhaps as a test case I think she has a very good case. I don't believe it is "nonsense" or "terrible advice" and was given in good faith as I'm sure your views were.

dfurn

Jaswahhihi said:

Hi,

I'll keep this really short, but can provide much more context if needed.

My covid testing provider (Express Test) has not sent me any results from my Day 2 arrivals (test at home) PCR test. I have raised a complaint and requested a refund, they have refused and offered a voucher instead.
As the test cost less than £100, section 75 does not apply, so I am considering a chargeback request with my credit card provider.
Otherwise, does anyone know other ways to escalate this? Is there an ombudsman which I can approach?

Thanks in advance.

Just as a matter of interest. As a consequence of no result being reported to you have you been contacted by the NHS or similar asking why there has been no result provided?

Sandtree

kaMelo said:

I'm unsure who you are referring to with the term "credit card judge" but a company who can show they complied with the terms of service offered will succeed on getting the chargeback reversed.  The bank/credit card company do not decide whether the terms are fair or not, that can only be decided by a court.

CC in this context with be County Court which is where Small track claims like this are heard were the dispute to be litigated. 

One piece of missing information is how many days after posting it are you on now?

The fact they've offered a voucher suggests they acknowledge something has gone wrong but have they said whats happened? Did they not receive the returned test? Did they receive it but it got lost?

Clearly no one wants to be buying tests and what people really want is the code to put on the passenger locator form... I certainly wouldnt be putting it past people to buy the test, use the code, not take the test and then attempt to recover the test fee by claiming they did the test and that it must have been lost by the tester/royal mail 

Jaswahhihi

onashoestring said:

OP some more details would be helpful .
Express Test did provide the test .
On what date did you take the test and return it ? 

Did you register the test with correct e-Mail as per their instructions? 

Have you checked your spam / junk e-mails the results of your test may have gone there ?

Have you phoned Express Test for your  results ? 

What did Express Test say when you phoned them ? Did they confirm that you had registered the test with the correct e-Mail address/ contact details ? 

NHS Test & Trace say that you  can make a complaint about a test provider to them  so that it will help them to improve the service. They say you need to chase up the provider to try and resolve it first . Link is here :

https://enquiries.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/s/enquiries

Around 50 providers have been taken off the list who have found to have been failing to meet the Government standards. 

On what date did you take the test and return it? - The date they specified to take it (4th Oct).
They were initially due to collect it the same day. Their courier failed to collect (I have evidence that they did not attempt collection, but technically this could be disputed), so Express Test sent a Royal Mail label. I attached and posted this the same day I got it (into a priority postbox). I have tracking info showing the test was delivered successfully.

Did you register the test with correct e-Mail as per their instructions? - Yes. I've just gone digging around and found the test registration confirmation email.

Have you checked your spam / junk e-mails the results of your test may have gone there?  - I understand where you're coming from here, but later communications with Express Test where I explicitly ask them for my results make me think they have lost them.

Have you phoned Express Test for your results? - Many times and many many emails. The test result was due 48 hours after delivery, so that should have been the 8th of October.

What did Express Test say when you phoned them? Did they confirm that you had registered the test with the correct e-Mail address/ contact details? - Yes, correspondence with them has been fine. They have actually apologised and offered a refund.

Sadly, this saga does not end here though. Although they have offered a refund (in writing) and apparently processed it, I have still yet to receive any funds. I have waited the 6 working days they said it would take to arrive, but no dice.
I've emailed Express Test and they just say keep waiting.

I am proceeding with the chargeback request.

Jaswahhihi

dfurn said:

Jaswahhihi said:

Hi,

I'll keep this really short, but can provide much more context if needed.

My covid testing provider (Express Test) has not sent me any results from my Day 2 arrivals (test at home) PCR test. I have raised a complaint and requested a refund, they have refused and offered a voucher instead.
As the test cost less than £100, section 75 does not apply, so I am considering a chargeback request with my credit card provider.
Otherwise, does anyone know other ways to escalate this? Is there an ombudsman which I can approach?

Thanks in advance.

Just as a matter of interest. As a consequence of no result being reported to you have you been contacted by the NHS or similar asking why there has been no result provided?

No, I have not. 

I was worried about this though, which is why I've been asking the company for the last month for either my results or a refund.
I suspect my paper trail of emails will be enough to show I have at least tried to do the right thing.

Jaswahhihi

Sandtree said:

kaMelo said:

I'm unsure who you are referring to with the term "credit card judge" but a company who can show they complied with the terms of service offered will succeed on getting the chargeback reversed.  The bank/credit card company do not decide whether the terms are fair or not, that can only be decided by a court.

CC in this context with be County Court which is where Small track claims like this are heard were the dispute to be litigated. 

One piece of missing information is how many days after posting it are you on now?

The fact they've offered a voucher suggests they acknowledge something has gone wrong but have they said whats happened? Did they not receive the returned test? Did they receive it but it got lost?

Clearly no one wants to be buying tests and what people really want is the code to put on the passenger locator form... I certainly wouldnt be putting it past people to buy the test, use the code, not take the test and then attempt to recover the test fee by claiming they did the test and that it must have been lost by the tester/royal mail 

One piece of missing information is how many days after posting it are you on now? - We are now approximately 1 month overdue.

The fact they've offered a voucher suggests they acknowledge something has gone wrong but have they said whats happened? Did they not receive the returned test? Did they receive it but it got lost? - They got the test as I have the tracking info from the Royal Mail postage label. So I think it has been lost at their site.

The company has offered and processed a refund (their words which I have in writing), but no funds have been sent in the last 6 working days. I am progressing with the chargeback until I get my money back.

Jaswahhihi

Last update for those interested.

I got my money back today. Turns out Express Test had messed up the first refund, but the second refund attempt came through fine.