Premier Inn website charging multiple times - no announcement or compensation 30 August 2022 at 9:22PM in Consumer rights 15 replies 2.4K views

Aitch7

On 25th August we booked a room online at Premier Inn East in Cambridge for a stay 4-6 Sept - wish it was for leisure but it's a difficult trip for a medical consultation.  At the point of payment an error message came up and said it had timed out and so I tried again and payment went through the second time.  A couple of days later we received a text from the bank saying we had gone into an overdraft - it was at this point that we discovered the cause was Premier Inn charging 2 lots of money for the booking.  We only received one email confirmation and booking reference number.

With no Reservations/Customer relations phone line over the weekend, we tried phoning the Premier Inn we were staying at but they never answered and still today (Tuesday) have the same recorded message saying that they are experiencing a high volume of calls and to call back or try the website at which point the call ends.

We've had to borrow money just to be able to pay our bills.  We are on a low income and struggling.  We got a bit of money transferred over the weekend to stop the bank charges and I spent all day today sorting out how to cover the second erroneous charge from Premier Inn.  

I finally spoke to Reservations/Customer relations on the main phone line today and they were unbelievable.  The person I spoke with left me on hold and came back to say she had been told that the website banking system had had issues and charged lots of people twice and that they would refund the money in 5-10 working days!  I explained our situation and asked to escalate the case - she said there was no way to escalate the issue.  I asked to speak with a manager - she told me that her manager refused to speak with me as she would only be saying the same thing!

Eventually - after 6 times of asking - I spoke with a different manager who said all the same things and gave me a case number, but they don't care in any way - no apology, no offer of compensation and no customer care on any level.

There has been no announcement on their social media despite this problem being widespread.  I saw a post on facebook of someone saying they had had the 'timed out' error message and Premier Inn advised them to try again - no mention of the banking issue that they clearly know about.

Why aren't Premier Inn announcing this issue and why aren't they resolving it promptly with appropriate refunds and compensation?

Can they legally keep our money for 5-10 days?  They will be earning interest on it all over this time!  It's an absolute disgrace.  We literally have no money whatsoever and according to them they can leave us this way for 2 weeks.  

powerful_Rogue

Aitch7 said:

On 25th August we booked a room online at Premier Inn East in Cambridge for a stay 4-6 Sept - wish it was for leisure but it's a difficult trip for a medical consultation.  At the point of payment an error message came up and said it had timed out and so I tried again and payment went through the second time.  A couple of days later we received a text from the bank saying we had gone into an overdraft - it was at this point that we discovered the cause was Premier Inn charging 2 lots of money for the booking.  We only received one email confirmation and booking reference number.

With no Reservations/Customer relations phone line over the weekend, we tried phoning the Premier Inn we were staying at but they never answered and still today (Tuesday) have the same recorded message saying that they are experiencing a high volume of calls and to call back or try the website at which point the call ends.

We've had to borrow money just to be able to pay our bills.  We are on a low income and struggling.  We got a bit of money transferred over the weekend to stop the bank charges and I spent all day today sorting out how to cover the second erroneous charge from Premier Inn.  

I finally spoke to Reservations/Customer relations on the main phone line today and they were unbelievable.  The person I spoke with left me on hold and came back to say she had been told that the website banking system had had issues and charged lots of people twice and that they would refund the money in 5-10 working days!  I explained our situation and asked to escalate the case - she said there was no way to escalate the issue.  I asked to speak with a manager - she told me that her manager refused to speak with me as she would only be saying the same thing!

Eventually - after 6 times of asking - I spoke with a different manager who said all the same things and gave me a case number, but they don't care in any way - no apology, no offer of compensation and no customer care on any level.

There has been no announcement on their social media despite this problem being widespread.  I saw a post on facebook of someone saying they had had the 'timed out' error message and Premier Inn advised them to try again - no mention of the banking issue that they clearly know about.

Why aren't Premier Inn announcing this issue and why aren't they resolving it promptly with appropriate refunds and compensation?

Can they legally keep our money for 5-10 days?  They will be earning interest on it all over this time!  It's an absolute disgrace.  We literally have no money whatsoever and according to them they can leave us this way for 2 weeks.  

They aren't keeping your money, it's the bank that has a hold of it. That will drop off within that time frame.

As for interest, you're probably talking about 3p.

mattyprice4004

As above, really. They can't just instantly refund the money back to you, it's a pre-authorisation that'll take a few days (but they say up to 10 in case of issues) to drop off and return the money. 
That's an issue with the banking system, not PI. 

Interest on business accounts is next to zero, they may even be charged for the facility rather than earning interest so that'll be somewhere between 0 and 1p, given the bank have hold of the money and not PI. 

Penguin_

When you paid Premier Inn it can have taken up to 5 working days for them to receive the money in their account. Just because it shows as having left your account at the moment you pay doesn't mean it hits their account instantly. It will sit with their merchant service provider for a couple of days & if there is a weekend & bank holiday (which there was this weekend) it will take longer for them to receive their funds & hence return them. 

RogerBareford

Aitch7 said:

On 25th August we booked a room online at Premier Inn East in Cambridge for a stay 4-6 Sept - wish it was for leisure but it's a difficult trip for a medical consultation.  At the point of payment an error message came up and said it had timed out and so I tried again and payment went through the second time.  A couple of days later we received a text from the bank saying we had gone into an overdraft - it was at this point that we discovered the cause was Premier Inn charging 2 lots of money for the booking.  We only received one email confirmation and booking reference number.

With no Reservations/Customer relations phone line over the weekend, we tried phoning the Premier Inn we were staying at but they never answered and still today (Tuesday) have the same recorded message saying that they are experiencing a high volume of calls and to call back or try the website at which point the call ends.

We've had to borrow money just to be able to pay our bills.  We are on a low income and struggling.  We got a bit of money transferred over the weekend to stop the bank charges and I spent all day today sorting out how to cover the second erroneous charge from Premier Inn.  

I finally spoke to Reservations/Customer relations on the main phone line today and they were unbelievable.  The person I spoke with left me on hold and came back to say she had been told that the website banking system had had issues and charged lots of people twice and that they would refund the money in 5-10 working days!  I explained our situation and asked to escalate the case - she said there was no way to escalate the issue.  I asked to speak with a manager - she told me that her manager refused to speak with me as she would only be saying the same thing!

Eventually - after 6 times of asking - I spoke with a different manager who said all the same things and gave me a case number, but they don't care in any way - no apology, no offer of compensation and no customer care on any level.

There has been no announcement on their social media despite this problem being widespread.  I saw a post on facebook of someone saying they had had the 'timed out' error message and Premier Inn advised them to try again - no mention of the banking issue that they clearly know about.

Why aren't Premier Inn announcing this issue and why aren't they resolving it promptly with appropriate refunds and compensation?

Can they legally keep our money for 5-10 days?  They will be earning interest on it all over this time!  It's an absolute disgrace.  We literally have no money whatsoever and according to them they can leave us this way for 2 weeks.  

Having no money whatsoever just because a short hotel stay was taken twice means you must be in a very dire financial situation.

I recomend you head over to the Debt Free Wannabee part of this forum and post an SOA there to get some help with your budegeting so you can eventually build up an emergency fund for situations like these.

born_again

Sadly retailer saying timed out does not mean that payment has not gone through as you have found out. 

Have both payments fully debited the account? Or is one sat in authorisation. Just taking up your available balance?

You will not get any compensation. Unless you incur O/D charges & PI may pay them. 

Aitch7

RogerBareford said:

Aitch7 said:

On 25th August we booked a room online at Premier Inn East in Cambridge for a stay 4-6 Sept - wish it was for leisure but it's a difficult trip for a medical consultation.  At the point of payment an error message came up and said it had timed out and so I tried again and payment went through the second time.  A couple of days later we received a text from the bank saying we had gone into an overdraft - it was at this point that we discovered the cause was Premier Inn charging 2 lots of money for the booking.  We only received one email confirmation and booking reference number.

With no Reservations/Customer relations phone line over the weekend, we tried phoning the Premier Inn we were staying at but they never answered and still today (Tuesday) have the same recorded message saying that they are experiencing a high volume of calls and to call back or try the website at which point the call ends.

We've had to borrow money just to be able to pay our bills.  We are on a low income and struggling.  We got a bit of money transferred over the weekend to stop the bank charges and I spent all day today sorting out how to cover the second erroneous charge from Premier Inn.  

I finally spoke to Reservations/Customer relations on the main phone line today and they were unbelievable.  The person I spoke with left me on hold and came back to say she had been told that the website banking system had had issues and charged lots of people twice and that they would refund the money in 5-10 working days!  I explained our situation and asked to escalate the case - she said there was no way to escalate the issue.  I asked to speak with a manager - she told me that her manager refused to speak with me as she would only be saying the same thing!

Eventually - after 6 times of asking - I spoke with a different manager who said all the same things and gave me a case number, but they don't care in any way - no apology, no offer of compensation and no customer care on any level.

There has been no announcement on their social media despite this problem being widespread.  I saw a post on facebook of someone saying they had had the 'timed out' error message and Premier Inn advised them to try again - no mention of the banking issue that they clearly know about.

Why aren't Premier Inn announcing this issue and why aren't they resolving it promptly with appropriate refunds and compensation?

Can they legally keep our money for 5-10 days?  They will be earning interest on it all over this time!  It's an absolute disgrace.  We literally have no money whatsoever and according to them they can leave us this way for 2 weeks.  

Having no money whatsoever just because a short hotel stay was taken twice means you must be in a very dire financial situation.

I recomend you head over to the Debt Free Wannabee part of this forum and post an SOA there to get some help with your budegeting so you can eventually build up an emergency fund for situations like these.

Thank you for your advice but I would like to focus on the behaviour of Premier Inn rather than get into our personal finances.

Aitch7

Thank you for the replies - they were very surprising as I did not expect the behaviour of Premier Inn to be defended, especially in the current financial climate where many of us are struggling to pay bills.  Premier Inn are a huge organization and whilst it may be a 'banking issue' - it is there website and their name that appears on our bank statement having taken out 2 lots of payment erroneously.

I feel that they should have refunded our money and then spent the seemingly obligatory 5-10 working days themselves waiting to recoup the money as ultimately they are accountable to their customers.

Just to give an update it is now 13 working days and there is no sign of our money being returned, nor has there been any communication from Premier Inn.

It has been and remains my opinion that their behaviour in all of this is deplorable.

p00hsticks

Aitch7 said:

Thank you for the replies - they were very surprising as I did not expect the behaviour of Premier Inn to be defended, especially in the current financial climate where many of us are struggling to pay bills.  Premier Inn are a huge organization and whilst it may be a 'banking issue' - it is there website and their name that appears on our bank statement having taken out 2 lots of payment erroneously.

I feel that they should have refunded our money and then spent the seemingly obligatory 5-10 working days themselves waiting to recoup the money as ultimately they are accountable to their customers.

Just to give an update it is now 13 working days and there is no sign of our money being returned, nor has there been any communication from Premier Inn.

It has been and remains my opinion that their behaviour in all of this is deplorable.

Can you confirm if the money has actually been taken from your account twice or if, as other people have suggested, it haas been taken once and the second time is showing up as a 'pending transaction' ?

I know that in either case it doesn't help you get access to the money, but it will make a difference to what action needs to be taken to correct it.

You have my sympathy - I'm having problems with Premier Inn myself at present, trying to resolve a parking notice we got while staying at one of their hotels, and they're proving less than communicative about the issue.

Aitch7

p00hsticks said:

Aitch7 said:

Thank you for the replies - they were very surprising as I did not expect the behaviour of Premier Inn to be defended, especially in the current financial climate where many of us are struggling to pay bills.  Premier Inn are a huge organization and whilst it may be a 'banking issue' - it is there website and their name that appears on our bank statement having taken out 2 lots of payment erroneously.

I feel that they should have refunded our money and then spent the seemingly obligatory 5-10 working days themselves waiting to recoup the money as ultimately they are accountable to their customers.

Just to give an update it is now 13 working days and there is no sign of our money being returned, nor has there been any communication from Premier Inn.

It has been and remains my opinion that their behaviour in all of this is deplorable.

Can you confirm if the money has actually been taken from your account twice or if, as other people have suggested, it haas been taken once and the second time is showing up as a 'pending transaction' ?

I know that in either case it doesn't help you get access to the money, but it will make a difference to what action needs to be taken to correct it.

You have my sympathy - I'm having problems with Premier Inn myself at present, trying to resolve a parking notice we got while staying at one of their hotels, and they're proving less than communicative about the issue.

Hi - They took 2 lots of money from our account.  There is no 'pending transaction' or I wouldn't have posted here.

You have my sympathies too.

jon81uk

As above its not Premier Inn being defended, its stating that even if they process the refund today the 5-10 days is how long the banking and credit card system may take.

As it hasn't come 13 days later it may well be that they didn't process the refund, but once they have asked their payment system to send a refund they can't do any more, the 5-10 days may not be within their control.