Vueling declined payments is this a new airline scam?

Rydingonthewaves

Can any one help me to understand rules on declined payments and disputed payments?

I am still trying to resolve the fact that the Halifax paid Vueling 2 times for flight bookings for which I received no booking codes. I told the story in an earlier thread. But to recap.

Vueling airlines website said I was buying the last seat on the plane. This proved to be a lie. Vueling declined my Halifax card on several occasions and took payment from my Santander card. Three days later Vueling took payment from my Halifax card for two flights. This meant I paid for 3 flights. Maybe this is a way to effect a scam.

On the same day the payments were taken by the Halifax I put the matter into dispute with the Halifax. The Halifax said they could not put it into dispute immediately and they would need proof that I had disputed the matter with Vueling. I needed to show the Halifax I had tried to dispute this with the provider of the service or goods. Halifax did not listen to my efforts to recover payments from Vueling or my concern that this might be a scam. I had heard about the declined payment scam with other airlines.

Halifax were supplied by me with 'proof' sent to me from Vueling saying there was only one booking and and no "doble" payments on three dates in May, before I took the flight.

Halifax paid me a charge back in July re-debited it. In Sept Vueling sent the Halifax a incomprehensible document saying it was proof that I had made bookings and therefore the charge backs could be re debited. I was not informed of this or given the non 'proof' Vueling had supplied to the Halifax. I had to fight the Halifax and demand this supposed non "proof" for weeks.

Not only did the Halifax not tell me about info from Vueling but they also did not come back to me to ask about it, before making the re-debit.

Finally when I received the Vueling non proof, it was clear Halifax did not cross reference the evidence from Vueling I had given them in May which said  I had only one booking. Halifax had not done the basic maths that I appeared to be making three payments for what the Halifax may have believed to be two bookings.Two bookings was dubious as in fact there was only ever one booking. But I had told the halifax on many occasions I had paid what amounted to three flights.

The later Vueling document was non-sense and could be read in many ways. said I had booked two flights on my Halifax card in my own name to the same place st the same time on the same day at the same time.

Halifax did not fully explore the accuracy of the information supplied by Vueling or other airlines. I have heard of other banks doing the same.

The Vueling document was clearly nonsense: it had no booking codes; it said it had sent booking confirmations to a "gmil" address (similar to the first part of my googlemail address) and claimed this is why I did not receive the booking confirmation. A "gmil" address is exactly the sort address that would be used in a scam. There was no evidence of matching with passports etc.

I do not understand how this does not fit with item 10 of the payment services regulations. Can any one help me here?

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/regulation/10/made

Bottom line it seems to me that Halifax had evidence I had paid for three flights. Halifax advised me to put the two Halifax payments into dispute at the outset but later suggested I should have put the Santander payment in dispute.

MorningcoffeeIV

Clearly it's not a scam.

Your post is too confusing to understand exactly what happened, but at best, this is an admin issue.

penners324

Have you lodged a formal complaint with Vueling?

Rydingonthewaves

yes I have logged a complaint with Vueling  sorry if my post is too confusing

Rydingonthewaves

can you tell me why you think it is not a scam?

I have read on MSE forum that some airlines always claim payments after they have been declined

hoping people not bother to pursue this

MorningcoffeeIV

Because it would be a blindingly obvious one and no one puts their entire airline business at risk for a handful of payments that will be easily claimed back.

There is also the small matter of hoping that no member of staff ever tells anyone about the crimes committed by the airline 

Presumably they have such people killed before they can talk.

Rydingonthewaves

how is it possible to easily claim back payments made after payments have been declined?

I have been grappling with this issue for months. Advice welcome

Hoenir

How did you end up purchasing seats on the same flight on different cards?  The card providers wouldn't have sent payment unless you requested them to do so. 

MorningcoffeeIV

Rydingonthewaves said:

how is it possible to easily claim back payments made after payments have been declined?

I have been grappling with this issue for months. Advice welcome

Because you either agreed to buy something or you didn't.

Kim_13

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Rydingonthewaves said:

how is it possible to easily claim back payments made after payments have been declined?

I have been grappling with this issue for months. Advice welcome

Because you either agreed to buy something or you didn't.

The OP agreed to buy one flight and made payment for it from their Santander card after their Halifax card was declined, whether the cause of that was at Vueling’s end or Halifax’s. If a transaction is declined it shouldn’t be a surprise when a consumer then tries a different card. Once valid payment was made, Vueling had no right to claim the funds from anywhere else.

If OP wanted two flights to the same place at the same time, they would have booked two seats on one booking, one for them and one for someone travelling with them. They didn’t do this, because they only needed the one seat.

Trying to dictate which payment you dispute is ridiculous, as a consumer you have the right to choose how to pay and why would anyone raise a dispute against the one transaction that went through exactly as it should have done? Two payments were taken in error and Halifax were the one having made two identical payments to the merchant. Disputing one with Halifax and one with Santander would seem more complicated (though perfectly valid if the customer would prefer that the payment for the flight they did book was charged to their Halifax card.)

MorningcoffeeIV

Kim_13 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Rydingonthewaves said:

how is it possible to easily claim back payments made after payments have been declined?

I have been grappling with this issue for months. Advice welcome

Because you either agreed to buy something or you didn't.

The OP agreed to buy one flight and made payment for it from their Santander card after their Halifax card was declined, whether the cause of that was at Vueling’s end or Halifax’s. If a transaction is declined it shouldn’t be a surprise when a consumer then tries a different card. Once valid payment was made, Vueling had no right to claim the funds from anywhere else.

If OP wanted two flights to the same place at the same time, they would have booked two seats on one booking, one for them and one for someone travelling with them. They didn’t do this, because they only needed the one seat.

Precisely.  The evidence to claim back is clear.