Resort charged £1700 extra, not refunded yet

aftonandpaul

Wonder if anyone can advise.
In Jan 2021, we paid 50% up front for a holiday to the Maldives (my 40th, biggest holiday spend for us ever). We used a 0% credit card to spread the cost. Had a nice holiday, and before returning home we settled the remaining 50% plus any extra costs we had incurred. All seemed fine until we spotted my credit card had already been charged the remaining 50% a week before. At this point a month had gone by since returning home, and the 0% period on my credit card had expired, so interest had begun to accumulate. We correctly concluded it was the resort's error which they acknowledged, but a week later after requesting a refund, we are being fobbed off and sidelined. After a conversation with my credit provider, we stand to lose the currency conversion fee incurred during the transaction (£47), the interest incurred (£41) and at the moment, the exchange rate is unfavorable so we will lose £50 due to that. Am I right to say this is unfair that we should be out of pocket on this? Nearly £150 gone so far just because they took money when they shouldn't have? Let me know if you've experienced similar, what did you do?

Westin

Sorry but I am unclear, have you received back the £1700 overcharge? If not and you were double charged, have you asked your cc to apply for a section 75 claim?

bagand96

If you dispute the transaction with your card provider then they should suspend any interest against that tranaction until the dispute is resolved. The additional benefit of this is they may reverse the transaction themselves saving you chasing the hotel. 

In terms of the exchange rate there's very little that can be done. That's just how it works with foreign transactions. It may have gone the other way in which case you'd be in profit. 

I can see that you feel aggrieved that through the hotel's mistake you've ended up out of pocket. But your fees with your bank are not really the hotel's problem and neither is the exchange rate if your contract with them was based on the local currency. Unless you can get the hotel to refund a little extra as a goodwill gesture or see if the bank would waive the fees.

aftonandpaul

Westin said:

Sorry but I am unclear, have you received back the £1700 overcharge? If not and you were double charged, have you asked your cc to apply for a section 75 claim?

No we have not yet received the £1700 overcharge. The credit card company advised us to approach the resort and resolve it with them first 'since a chargeback can take 2-3 weeks and may not be successful' (quoting advice I was given). We will now progress to a chargeback, since resolving it with the resort is not progressing. The credit card company also said it was best for us to clear the balance as soon as possible as we would be liable for any interest accrued in the meantime (?)

aftonandpaul

bagand96 said:

If you dispute the transaction with your card provider then they should suspend any interest against that tranaction until the dispute is resolved. The additional benefit of this is they may reverse the transaction themselves saving you chasing the hotel. 

In terms of the exchange rate there's very little that can be done. That's just how it works with foreign transactions. It may have gone the other way in which case you'd be in profit. 

I can see that you feel aggrieved that through the hotel's mistake you've ended up out of pocket. But your fees with your bank are not really the hotel's problem and neither is the exchange rate if your contract with them was based on the local currency. Unless you can get the hotel to refund a little extra as a goodwill gesture or see if the bank would waive the fees.

What you said about the interest being waived makes logical sense. However I was advised otherwise by a representative of the credit card company, who told me that I'm liable for any interest incurred (perhaps this is just incorrect advice). As a result they advised me to clear the balance ASAP even though it's a disputed transaction.

What you said about the exchange rate and fees would apply fairly if it was a transaction *I authorised* and later needed to reverse it. However, being hit by those charges when I didn't authorise the payment and it has been acknowledged as an error is a little different, and I argue is unfair.

I agree, perhaps the resort might offer a little in the way of compensation, at the moment it seems unlikely, but I am going to ask.

I am now setting the chargeback process in motion as a backup plan.

Thanks for the comment

Westin

aftonandpaul said:

Westin said:

Sorry but I am unclear, have you received back the £1700 overcharge? If not and you were double charged, have you asked your cc to apply for a section 75 claim?

No we have not yet received the £1700 overcharge. The credit card company advised us to approach the resort and resolve it with them first 'since a chargeback can take 2-3 weeks and may not be successful' (quoting advice I was given). We will now progress to a chargeback, since resolving it with the resort is not progressing. The credit card company also said it was best for us to clear the balance as soon as possible as we would be liable for any interest accrued in the meantime (?)

Okay so this seems logical and fair.

First approach to the resort to request that they refund the overpayment.  Reasonable to allow them 14-21 days.  Document the actions taken and dates. If unresponsive then ask your credit card firm to get involved and supply them with the information and records you have showing that you have attempted to resolve direct with the supplier, but failed. 

bagand96

aftonandpaul said:

What you said about the interest being waived makes logical sense. However I was advised otherwise by a representative of the credit card company, who told me that I'm liable for any interest incurred (perhaps this is just incorrect advice). As a result they advised me to clear the balance ASAP even though it's a disputed transaction.

They will only usually suspend interest once you formally dispute the transaction (chargeback or Section 75 claim).  It sounds as if the agent treated your call as an enquiry and gave answers based on that.  If they didn't raise a dispute then the transaction will continue to accrue interest, so the advice was right in that sense.

aftonandpaul said:

What you said about the exchange rate and fees would apply fairly if it was a transaction *I authorised* and later needed to reverse it. However, being hit by those charges when I didn't authorise the payment and it has been acknowledged as an error is a little different, and I argue is unfair.

I agree, perhaps the resort might offer a little in the way of compensation, at the moment it seems unlikely, but I am going to ask.

I agree your loss has been caused by the double charging of the hotel.  But whether you can easily recover it is the question.  In the first instance you could ask the hotel to reimburse you.  Question is if they refuse where do you go from there?  If it was a UK hotel you could start small claims court action but that's not an option for a hotel in the Maldives.  You could talk nicely with the bank and see if they will waive the fees given the circumstances.  The fact you're now formally disputing the transaction might help.

I'm wondering if a Section 75 claim might help with he fees issue.  Section 75 holds the card issuer jointly liable for transaction along with the merchant.  If you raised a S75 claim (instead of a chargeback) you may have more success in recouping the fees, as you say the loss is caused by the merchant's error.

Sandtree

The chargeback I would have thought would reverse out the international payment charge in the same way a formal refund would.

The adverse movement in the FX is something that you are likely just going to have to swallow, the transaction wasnt actually £1,700 but ~Rs36,000 therefore you are owed ~Rs36,000, the fact that now equates to a different amount in GBP is just the realities of doing international transactions and could equally have moved in the other direction and in your favour.

If you ask about a chargeback on an international payment in the Credit Card section of this site then some of those that work in that line of business will be able to clarify if they reverse the processing fee or not.

aftonandpaul

Thanks for the input.

As an update, my wife suggested we describe our experience on TripAdvisor, in the hope that would get some attention. Within 24 hours, we've had a call from the General Manager of the resort, who apologised for the situation, agreed that this should have been handled differently and is expediting a refund. That was yesterday, but so far no evidence of the refund. On reflection, this seems to be the quickest route to go, but also potentially the least satisfactory, since a simple refund doesn't address any of the transaction fees, which a section 75 might. Still I may yet try to negotiate some goodwill compensation to cover the losses.

Incidentally, Is there a difference between a chargeback and a section 75 claim? I thought they were the same thing.

[Deleted User]

A chargeback is a simple reversal of the transaction against the merchant. S75 holds the card provider equally liable, hence them often being less keen to use that route.

Sandtree

aftonandpaul said:

Thanks for the input.

As an update, my wife suggested we describe our experience on TripAdvisor, in the hope that would get some attention. Within 24 hours, we've had a call from the General Manager of the resort, who apologised for the situation, agreed that this should have been handled differently and is expediting a refund. That was yesterday, but so far no evidence of the refund. On reflection, this seems to be the quickest route to go, but also potentially the least satisfactory, since a simple refund doesn't address any of the transaction fees, which a section 75 might. Still I may yet try to negotiate some goodwill compensation to cover the losses.

Incidentally, Is there a difference between a chargeback and a section 75 claim? I thought they were the same thing.

A proper refund should automatically reverse the transaction fee too, I've travelled extensively for years and so refunds happen at times and with AmEx, Barclays, Natwest, Virgin, Post Office etc all have resulted in the overseas fee being refunded.

In some cases the merchant will not put it through as true refund but instead effectively a transfer to your card and in these cases because the two transactions arent linked it doesnt reverse the transaction fee.

In both cases they will normally conduct it all in the original currency in which case you are exposed to FX movements but that can obviously go for you or against you.

There are many differences between chargebacks and S75, timelimits and the fact a S75 is paid by the bank whereas a chargeback is clawed back from the merchant is some of the biggest direct differences however this adds the fact that S75 take much longer because the bank challenges more given its coming from their pocket. If you look elsewhere on this site you will also see examples of chargebacks where the person got their money back via their bank but the merchant then is threatening to take them to court for the money.