British Airways Despicable Practice

k3lvc

Wily_coyote said:

k3lvc said:

Wily_coyote said:

When I use words I am very careful and I can tell that having spoken to my bank this is not the first time that BA duplicates transactions. It is a known issue and it is probably beyond the realm of just a mistake. My ticket was £100. What if the same ticket has been a much more expensive one and it would have left me in serious trouble and financial hardship? That is my point. I do not need to make several phone calls or filling countless forms to rectify something that should never happen in the first place. By the way day 5 I still do not have the money back in my account. 

Give over - your bank haven't told you that this is regular practice with BA. Over the past 15yrs I've had over 500 flights with then and not a single issue with payment duplication

For anyone to assist in any way more details needed rather than just throwing big words around

How was the ticket booked (online/over phone/via agent) ?
How was payment made ?
Do both payments have same reference ?
What shows against 'payments' on your online record ?
Is it a genuine 'payment' or just holding funds whilst the tickets were processed ?

Ticket was purchased online
Payment made by Visa Debit
Two merchant numbers
One payment completed
One payment holding

Hope it helps.
I am ranting here as I find it frustrating that the whole process has been badly managed and I have been told 3 different versions for the same issue by BA. 

So you haven't 'paid twice' - the funds have been held which is no different from many other situations (read the thread on petrol stations)

I'm sure someone will come along with a more detailed technical explanation but might be worth changing your misleading thread title

MobileSaver

Wily_coyote said:

I should get the money back in 7-10 days. This  is frankly unacceptable!

Wily_coyote said:

When I use words I am very careful ... By the way day 5 I still do not have the money back in my account. 

Do you think day 5 is "in 7-10 days"?!?!

I cannot see any evidence that you are careful with words and the less said the better about your use and comprehension of numbers!

It was obviously a simple mistake and 7 to 10 days is a perfectly reasonable time to rectify such a minor non-life-changing error. The only despicable and unacceptable behaviour I can see is your rant about BA not doing something they never said they would...

Wily_coyote

Okay think I am compelled to explain further:
1) Purchased the ticket - Looked at my account - 2 transactions for the same amount
2) Called BA 1st time: The rep said that he could only see one transaction for that ticket done and I needed to call my bank.
3) Called my bank and got advised that 2 transactions were pending therefore I needed to call BA to rectify one of them. Got told to give some details for the rectification to be processed. bank said that this is not the first time that this issue has arose with BA. This would take 72hours to be rectified.
4) Called BA 2nd time: Referred back what my bank advised. The BA rep said that there was only one transaction made and it could be that the other one was as "holding", "mirrored" payment. This should be rectified within 72hours automatically. The Rep said to call back after the 72 hours have elapsed if no refund was activated. 
5) Called BA 3rd Time: After 72 hours I called again as advised and the BA rep said that unfortunately he could see that 2 transactions were made for the same ticket: he gave 2 merchant numbers and the refund would take 7-10 days. 
So which is one is it? is 72 hours? 7-10 days? how many transactions? The only thing for sure is that my account is short of the amount that they took it and they shouldnt have. The point is that it maybe minor but again as matter of principle that could have left me in serious trouble if the ticket was more expensive as I cannot access the fund that they took. That is what I am trying to convey here as frankly I find this unacceptable and hence my rant. 

sheramber

This should be in Praise and Vents if you only want to rant.

MobileSaver

Wily_coyote said:

Called BA 3rd Time: After 72 hours I called again as advised and the BA rep said that unfortunately he could see that 2 transactions were made for the same ticket: he gave 2 merchant numbers and the refund would take 7-10 days. 
 could have left me in serious trouble if the ticket was more expensive as I cannot access the fund that they took.

No-one denies you have had less than exemplary service from BA but your "careful" choice of words are grossly exaggerating the situation.

BA handles around 40,000,000 passengers a year; no company's systems are perfect and so it should be absolutely no surprise "this is not the first time that this issue has arose". To leap from the statistical certainty that occasionally things go wrong to accusing BA of a "Despicable Practice" is ludicrous and disingenuous.

Clearly, the first two times you called, BA's systems told the reps that there was only one transaction and so they gave you the 72hr advice they'd been trained to on the basis it was a mirrored payment that their system would automatically correct/refund.

However it sounds like the second transaction had in fact been stuck in the system somewhere but finally appeared by the time you made the third call. It seems perfectly logical that an actual transaction would never be automatically refunded and would need manual oversight and authorisation and that 7 to 10 days is quite acceptable to achieve that.

Your ticket was not more expensive, it was £100, banging on about what might have been does not help your cause; neither you or I know whether the BA responses would have been the same if you had been charged twice for a £6,000 First Class ticket.

The bottom line is a mistake was made. Once the mistake was identified you were told a refund would be issued within 7 to 10 days, so as long as you receive the refund within say 14 days then to me that would be perfectly acceptable.

Wily_coyote

MobileSaver said:

Wily_coyote said:

Called BA 3rd Time: After 72 hours I called again as advised and the BA rep said that unfortunately he could see that 2 transactions were made for the same ticket: he gave 2 merchant numbers and the refund would take 7-10 days. 
 could have left me in serious trouble if the ticket was more expensive as I cannot access the fund that they took.

No-one denies you have had less than exemplary service from BA but your "careful" choice of words are grossly exaggerating the situation.

BA handles around 40,000,000 passengers a year; no company's systems are perfect and so it should be absolutely no surprise "this is not the first time that this issue has arose". To leap from the statistical certainty that occasionally things go wrong to accusing BA of a "Despicable Practice" is ludicrous and disingenuous.

Clearly, the first two times you called, BA's systems told the reps that there was only one transaction and so they gave you the 72hr advice they'd been trained to on the basis it was a mirrored payment that their system would automatically correct/refund.

However it sounds like the second transaction had in fact been stuck in the system somewhere but finally appeared by the time you made the third call. It seems perfectly logical that an actual transaction would never be automatically refunded and would need manual oversight and authorisation and that 7 to 10 days is quite acceptable to achieve that.

Your ticket was not more expensive, it was £100, banging on about what might have been does not help your cause; neither you or I know whether the BA responses would have been the same if you had been charged twice for a £6,000 First Class ticket.

The bottom line is a mistake was made. Once the mistake was identified you were told a refund would be issued within 7 to 10 days, so as long as you receive the refund within say 14 days then to me that would be perfectly acceptable.

Thank you. It all makes sense, albeit frustrating. Appreciate perhaps that in the heat of the moment I used strong words. We all learn I guess! 

born_again

Wily_coyote said:

k3lvc said:

Wily_coyote said:

When I use words I am very careful and I can tell that having spoken to my bank this is not the first time that BA duplicates transactions. It is a known issue and it is probably beyond the realm of just a mistake. My ticket was £100. What if the same ticket has been a much more expensive one and it would have left me in serious trouble and financial hardship? That is my point. I do not need to make several phone calls or filling countless forms to rectify something that should never happen in the first place. By the way day 5 I still do not have the money back in my account. 

Give over - your bank haven't told you that this is regular practice with BA. Over the past 15yrs I've had over 500 flights with then and not a single issue with payment duplication

For anyone to assist in any way more details needed rather than just throwing big words around

How was the ticket booked (online/over phone/via agent) ?
How was payment made ?
Do both payments have same reference ?
What shows against 'payments' on your online record ?
Is it a genuine 'payment' or just holding funds whilst the tickets were processed ?

Ticket was purchased online
Payment made by Visa Debit
Two merchant numbers
One payment completed
One payment holding

Hope it helps.
I am ranting here as I find it frustrating that the whole process has been badly managed and I have been told 3 different versions for the same issue by BA. 

How many tickets did you purchase?
As I have seen where, you purchase more than 1 ticket so the total is say 2 x £100 = a total of £200. But when it actually debits the account it is 2 x £100 which does not match the auth amount of £200. As system only see 2 x £100 debiting, not 1 times £200
Yes I know to a human they match, but that is not how the auth system works.

If this is the case all you bank need to do is remove the auth still outstanding (but they will warn you that it could still debit) which will free up your available funds. Front line call center staff will not be able to deal with this, you need to get through to disputes team to deal.

Of course there is always the other option where person purchasing presses confirm button more than once as it is taking a long time to go through...

jon81uk

Wily_coyote said:

Okay think I am compelled to explain further:
1) Purchased the ticket - Looked at my account - 2 transactions for the same amount
2) Called BA 1st time: The rep said that he could only see one transaction for that ticket done and I needed to call my bank.
3) Called my bank and got advised that 2 transactions were pending therefore I needed to call BA to rectify one of them. Got told to give some details for the rectification to be processed. bank said that this is not the first time that this issue has arose with BA. This would take 72hours to be rectified.
4) Called BA 2nd time: Referred back what my bank advised. The BA rep said that there was only one transaction made and it could be that the other one was as "holding", "mirrored" payment. This should be rectified within 72hours automatically. The Rep said to call back after the 72 hours have elapsed if no refund was activated. 
5) Called BA 3rd Time: After 72 hours I called again as advised and the BA rep said that unfortunately he could see that 2 transactions were made for the same ticket: he gave 2 merchant numbers and the refund would take 7-10 days. 
So which is one is it? is 72 hours? 7-10 days? how many transactions? The only thing for sure is that my account is short of the amount that they took it and they shouldnt have. The point is that it maybe minor but again as matter of principle that could have left me in serious trouble if the ticket was more expensive as I cannot access the fund that they took. That is what I am trying to convey here as frankly I find this unacceptable and hence my rant. 

It is 72 hours to check if the pending holds become full transactions.
Then 7-10 days for a transaction to be refunded.

So it is both. The second one might have gone away anyway so they needed to wait the 72 hours. Once it didn't they have refunded and you should get that money in 7-10 days.

Some kind of mistake was made, it has been resolved.