i'm ready to refer my Section 75 claim to the FOS. what do i do ?

eastmidsaver

Hey everyone,

 

I recently made a Section 75 claim against my credit card company as I believed I was owed a refund from a retailer. However, they refused to reimburse me. I then submitted a detailed report to the credit card company, explaining why I thought I deserved the refund.

 

Unfortunately, the credit card company swiftly dismissed my claim without much explanation. I followed up with a comprehensive report highlighting the breach of contract, misrepresentation, and raised concerns about their customer service and lack of investigation.

 

Once again, they rejected my claim without providing adequate reasoning, indicating it as their final decision. I'm considering escalating this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for investigation. Is this the correct step to take?

 

Should I inform the credit card company about my intention to involve the FOS? Would it be beneficial, or is it unnecessary? Additionally, for anyone who has been through this process before, what documents should I prepare to lodge this case with the FOS? Would it suffice to include all correspondence and receipts?

 

Regarding the covering letter, do I need to further explain why I'm pursuing this case? I hope this process is straightforward, but any hints or tips from your experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Keep_pedalling

You say you believed you were entitled to a refund, could you provide some details on the transaction and why you believe this? 

eskbanker

eastmidsaver said:

Should I inform the credit card company about my intention to involve the FOS? Would it be beneficial, or is it unnecessary?

Unnecessary and not beneficial - if they've given their final response then by definition they consider the matter closed from their perspective.

eastmidsaver said:

Additionally, for anyone who has been through this process before, what documents should I prepare to lodge this case with the FOS? Would it suffice to include all correspondence and receipts?

Regarding the covering letter, do I need to further explain why I'm pursuing this case?

The rationale for escalating a complaint to FOS is that you don't believe that the financial institution has resolved it to your satisfaction, so you need to provide FOS with everything you sent to the institution and all that came back - if they need anything else they'll ask for it.

eastmidsaver said:

I recently made a Section 75 claim against my credit card company as I believed I was owed a refund from a retailer. However, they refused to reimburse me. I then submitted a detailed report to the credit card company, explaining why I thought I deserved the refund.

 

Unfortunately, the credit card company swiftly dismissed my claim without much explanation. I followed up with a comprehensive report highlighting the breach of contract, misrepresentation, and raised concerns about their customer service and lack of investigation.

Sounds odd to submit a claim, then a separate 'detailed report' and finally a 'comprehensive report', so it would perhaps be worth sharing more detail on here about what it's all about so that others can offer more meaningful guidance?  Saying you 'thought' you 'deserved' a refund doesn't sound particularly confident about what you're legally entitled to.... 

Okell

First - are you 100% certain that your bank treated this as a s75 claim and not as a chargeback?

It's not unusual for posters to come on this board thinking they've made a s75 cliam - they may even have explicitly told their bank they were making a s75 claim - only to discover that the bank has treated it as a chargeback instead.

Banks do this because with a chargeback they are refunding you with the seller's money, but with a chargeback they are refunding you with the bank's own money.

Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 you have a legal right to a s75 claim if you have a claim against the seller.  There is no legal right to a chargeback - it's run under rules privately agreed by Visa and Mastercard.  And you can only have one attempt at a chargeback.  If the seller rejects it (and your bank acceptes their rejection) that's it.

Second, the FOS tends to decide cases on "what is fair" rather than what your legal rights are.  If you have a valid s75 claim you might be better cutting out FOS and go striaght to court.

On the bare information you've provided it's impossible to help.

What is the underlying issue with the seller/product/service you bought?

eastmidsaver

thanks for the information.

yes maybe i should have provided more information, and maybe my wording was not correct.
essentially, it is against an airline who should have refunded us (not fully, just partially),  but their customer service was so bad and they gave very vague (and very delayed) responses, that i eventually gave up on them and decided to take it up with the credit card company.

the credit card company admitted themselves they were struggling to get hold of the airline, and they also admitted they were struggling to find the T&C on the airline website too  (which to me indicates lack of transparency, therefore breaching the contract).
in the end, the credit card just dismissed it without any reasoning.

when i say comprehensive report, maybe i went a bit over the top with my wording. essentially i just explained why it is a breach of contract / misrepresentation.  but the credit card company just responded saying they are not upholding it without any proper justification.

i had half given up on this due to the barriers i have had with both the airline and the credit card customer services, but i feel that is probably what they want.  and as a result i should just take it to the FOS and let them investigate.

Keep_pedalling

OK but you still have not provided enough information. What happened with the actual flight?

Voyager2002

Air tickets are generally not refundable (apart from tax, and usually there is an admin charge on tax refunds), so you need to have some particular reason why a refund was due. You would get more help on this from the Air Travel board.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

In terms of the FOS I would imagine you first have to follow the credit provider's official complaints procedure first, they will then have x days to resolve after which you can escalate to the ombudsman.   

Ectophile

The first thing to do is make a formal complaint to the bank, to say that they haven't handled your case correctly.  You go to the FOS if they reject that.

born_again

eastmidsaver said:

thanks for the information.

yes maybe i should have provided more information, and maybe my wording was not correct.
essentially, it is against an airline who should have refunded us (not fully, just partially),  but their customer service was so bad and they gave very vague (and very delayed) responses, that i eventually gave up on them and decided to take it up with the credit card company.

the credit card company admitted themselves they were struggling to get hold of the airline, and they also admitted they were struggling to find the T&C on the airline website too  (which to me indicates lack of transparency, therefore breaching the contract).
in the end, the credit card just dismissed it without any reasoning.

when i say comprehensive report, maybe i went a bit over the top with my wording. essentially i just explained why it is a breach of contract / misrepresentation.  but the credit card company just responded saying they are not upholding it without any proper justification.

i had half given up on this due to the barriers i have had with both the airline and the credit card customer services, but i feel that is probably what they want.  and as a result i should just take it to the FOS and let them investigate.

Sadly not.

Without CC having sight of the contract & T/C, you can not prove breach of contract or misrepresentation.

T/C should have been supplied to you on booking. 

You will have to raise a complaint with bank 1st or FOS will not deal.

Can we take it that the flights (each one) were more than £100?

eskbanker

Okell said:

the FOS tends to decide cases on "what is fair" rather than what your legal rights are.  If you have a valid s75 claim you might be better cutting out FOS and go striaght to court.

My understanding is that FOS would typically be seen as more consumer-friendly than a court and that the fairness angle is more likely to add to the claimant's legal rights rather than detract from them, so ought to be beneficial to the customer - court action remains an option if FOS don't come up with the goods but involves some cost and time, so it would generally make more sense for a consumer to try FOS before court.

eastmidsaver said:

the credit card company admitted themselves they were struggling to get hold of the airline

This would probably imply that the card company is processing the claim as a chargeback rather than s75 (where no liaison with the merchant is actually necessary).

eastmidsaver said:

they also admitted they were struggling to find the T&C on the airline website too  (which to me indicates lack of transparency, therefore breaching the contract).
in the end, the credit card just dismissed it without any reasoning.

when i say comprehensive report, maybe i went a bit over the top with my wording. essentially i just explained why it is a breach of contract / misrepresentation.  but the credit card company just responded saying they are not upholding it without any proper justification.

Hopefully your explanation of a contract breach didn't involve the lack of transparency argument, as that's very weak and unlikely to be tenable....