I have been debited twice but it’s impossible to get my money back

CD31

Sorry for the long post. I recently went to the post office and paid £42.80, placed my debit card in paid and it was “accepted” on the machine but no receipt printed off and the gent behind the counter said it had been rejected, placed my card in again and it worked and the receipt printed off. Upon looking at my banking app that night it showed -42.80 twice with a clock symbol to say the transactions were being processed. On Sunday I contacted the bank through my chat function ( I bank with Virgin) and they told me that it had definitely been “debited” twice and that the Post Office had taken payment twice and to let them know about it.
 I’ve been down to the Post office this morning, shown them conversations I had with the bank, shown them my banking app to say it’s -£42.80 twice. He rang someone up and the lady on the phone says that as long as the initial rejected transaction said £0 on the receipt then it was a banking issue. The gent showed me the initial receipt that he luckily kept ( I have the receipt showing the transaction that went through)  and it did say on the receipt that the transaction was rejected and I should be refunded automatically, if not they said it was definitely a banking issue and nothing to do with them. 

I then got home to contact my bank m told them what the post office said and they point blank told me “ we cannot refund “cleared” payments, the post office has definitely taken it twice , we can see they have taken it twice on our end and that it is their issue and they should be refunding you the payment”

I am just being passed around between the post office and the bank and neither seem to take any responsibility with this , I know if I go back to the post office they will probably refuse to give me the money and ask me to contact my bank and the bank will tell me t9 contact the post office, I’m in a loop. Any suggestions helpful as in times like this losing £42.80 is a lot of money 

lisyloo

Did you take a photo of the receipt you were shown by the post office on your phone?

I think I would be doing a chargeback with the bank.
a copy of the receipt (of phone photo) would be really useful
get it quick before it’s gone

Brie

Very odd - I've had this happen with my Virgin1 debit card at a local shop.  As with you they swore the payment had only been taken once but also said that their machine had been acting up all day.  When the debit was showing twice on my account I only had to contact Virgin1 (which is part of RBS) and it was sorted immediately.  

It's possible that your Virgin account (might not be RBS?) will need a copy of the rejected transaction slip in order to get things processed.  Otherwise the post office needs to refund you.

CD31

lisyloo said:

Did you take a photo of the receipt you were shown by the post office on your phone?

I think I would be doing a chargeback with the bank.
a copy of the receipt (of phone photo) would be really useful
get it quick before it’s gone

I took this photo earlier when I went, as you can see the amount taken according to receipt was £0.00 and that the transaction was cancelled yet the money still came out for this transaction and the one that went though the actual time it worked successfully 

molerat

If it is showing the clock symbol then it means it is pending, not debited.  The amount was asked for by the machine so the account will hold it.  Being rejected does not mean your bank rejected the transaction, there could have been a failure in the handshake process somewhere along the way and if the terminal did not get a positive response it rejected the transaction.  The receipt states that nothing was taken, your bank is still waiting for that terminal to confirm it wants the money - it won't so the transaction will fall off in a few days.  The second one will go on to debit from the account.  There is nothing to dispute, nothing to chargeback, nothing has been taken from your account.

CD31

molerat said:

If it is showing the clock symbol then it means it is pending, not debited.  The amount was asked for by the machine so the account will hold it.  Being rejected does not mean your bank rejected the transaction, there could have been a failure in the handshake process somewhere along the way and if the terminal did not get a positive response it rejected the transaction.  The receipt states that nothing was taken, your bank is still waiting for that terminal to confirm it wants the money - it won't so the transaction will fall off in a few days.  The second one will go on to debit from the account.  There is nothing to dispute, nothing to chargeback, nothing has been taken from your account.

The clock isn’t showing , it was initially in the day it happened but the payments have now cleared and been fully processed. The bank have told me today that the money HAS now been taken out twice and they can’t refund it because it’s not their issue and it’s up to the Post Office to refund it …..but the Post office say the bank need to deal with it , hence the loop and why I asked the question 

marcia_

 You need to request a chargeback it's definitely the banks issue IMAO 

CD31

marcia_ said:

 You need to request a chargeback it's definitely the banks issue IMAO 

I’ll give them a call tomorrow although the bank on the chat function have told me this isn’t possible 

marcia_

CD31 said:

marcia_ said:

 You need to request a chargeback it's definitely the banks issue IMAO 

I’ll give them a call tomorrow although the bank on the chat function have told me this isn’t possible 

 It is if you have not received the thing you've paid for. Ring and speak to someone else.

sourcrates

CD31,

Escalate your request for a refund from post office counters, to a complaint, best done in writing.
Enclose copies of your evidence that payment was taken twice.

Don`t attempt to deal with it at grass roots level, as they will just go on assumptions instead of policy.

Make sure to let them know you are being passed around from pillar to post, so you expect them to deal with this.

Write to us at:

FREEPOST Post Office
Customer Care

Email: polcustomercare@postoffice.co.uk

Further complaints

If you are unhappy with the response you first receive, you can ask for a review of your complaint under our appeals procedure by writing to the following address:

Appeals Manager
Branch and Customer Support Centre
Post Office Ltd
1st Floor
Future Walk
West Bars
Chesterfield
S49 1PF

If you are not satisfied with our final response, you may be able to refer your complaint to the appropriate Ombudsman or redress scheme as detailed below.

Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service

If you make a complaint about a Post Office Limited Bureau de Change service or Postal Orders (but excluding Overseas Property Money Transfer), and you are not happy with our final response, or if 8 weeks have passed since you first raised the matter with us, you can ask for an independent review by contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza,
183 Marsh Wall,
London,
E14 9SR

Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

penners324

Bank issue, get them to refund you.


And the earlier poster claimed Virgin Miney is part of RBS. No it isn't.