Charged twice by Curry's...Then they lied about it, Credit Card Refund.

MickoDee

Looking for advice, help, or even to even get media eyes on this. I have been defrauded by Curry's.

Here's the story. So I ordered a TV online for in-store collection on the 18th December in the morning time using a Credit Card. The website crashed AFTER I had clicked on confirm order and approved on my credit card app. So I never got a confirmation page, nor did I receive a confirmation email for any orders that day. I checked my App, and no transaction was visible. So I presumed that the order never went though. 

But, just in case, I waited a day. I checked the following evening and still no email, text, or transaction on my credit card, so I proceeded to create another order on the 19th December. This time no problems, I made the order, received the confirmation webpage, as well as an immediate email and a pending transaction immediately on my credit card. 

This is where it gets trickly. The next day, the 20th December, I checked my credit card app, and there is now 2 pending transactions for over £600 for the TV. So I went into the store to pick up my confirmed order, with the only confirmation order I received. I spoke to the Manager of the store in Newtownabbey, and told him about the 'ghost order', he told me not to worry, as it is only pending, the system will automatically cancel it, and also, if I don't pick it up within 7days, it will automatically cancel itself, if it did go though. 

This was fine, but I waited over 2 weeks, and the transaction was no longer pending, but now confirmed on my credit card. I contacted curry's who told me on the phone that there was no first order, just the second order that I had collected, and that I needed to contact my CC company to reverse the charge, so, I did this and long story short, the money was refunded on my credit card, or so I thought.

Fast forward to yesterday, 18th March, and I received a letter from my CC company that the 'temporary refund' on my CC would be reverted unless I provide further evidence to counter Curry's statement of 'fact's  - Again, long story short, in the evidence presented to my CC company for the refund, there is confirmation of a 'ghost' order on their systems, but I never received an email, confirmation because there was a typo in the email address - and here is where I have been defrauded - The General Manager of the t he Store in Newtownabbey has told my CC company that I collected BOTH orders!! That is a bare faced lie! Also impossible, since I would not have been able to collect one of the orders without an order number, which I could not have received, since there was no email confirmation due to a typo!

I am at a loss of what to do, the Manager of the Store has blatantly lied to my CC company, and I will now be charged for an order that I never received! 

Okell

Can you clarify please.

Are you saying that you never received confirmation of the first order because you gave Currys the wrong email address or because Currys got your email address wrong?

I'm not sure it matters much but it's helpful to understand exactly what happened. [See edit below]

If Currys have successfully challenged the refund I suppose your card co. must have processed a chargeback rather than a s75.  If you used a credit card you can still instruct your card issuer to process a s75 claim and you will have to tell them that the manager of the currys store is mistaken when he says you picked up both orders.  Then it's up to who your card company believes.  Presumably you have evidence of the wrong email address for the first order so you could not have picked up that first order without having received the email - which you didn't 'cos the address was wrong.

If your card provider won't accept a s75 claim you'll have to consider suing Currys and/or your card provider.  (They are both jointly liable under s75 Consumer Credit Act 1974).  Again it would be up to who the court believes

Or you could just go back to the store and tactfully point out to the manager that he must be mistaken because you couldn't have picked up the first TV without the email confirmation that you never received...


[Edit:  it might matter actually.  If you can show that you provided the right email address but Currys got it wrong, that would strengthen your argument that you never received the order confirmation email that you would have needed to collect the TV.  But if you gave Currys the wrong email address that would not necessarily help you]

powerful_Rogue

Long shot, but worth mentioning anyway.

Could the person with the email address that had the typo gone and collected the TV?

I would recommend you tone down some of the language you use, such as defrauded, lied, bare faced lies etc. It will get you no-where. As pointed out, 'mistaken' is the correct word to use. Also doubt the media will be interested is a possible admin mix up (if that's what it is.)

Okell

powerful_Rogue said:

Long shot, but worth mentioning anyway.

Could the person with the email address that had the typo gone and collected the TV?...

I hadn't considered that.  Yes it's a longshot but it is possible.  I'd assumed (my bad!) that the wrong email address with the typo simply didn't exist - but maybe it did exist and a third party has collected the TV...

This is why (1) it might matter who made the typo that introduced the wrong email address - the OP or Currys - and (2) if the OP introduced the wrong address, the OP needed to doublecheck all the info he'd given before pressing "Buy".

born_again

MickoDee said:

Looking for advice, help, or even to even get media eyes on this. I have been defrauded by Curry's.

Here's the story. So I ordered a TV online for in-store collection on the 18th December in the morning time using a Credit Card. The website crashed AFTER I had clicked on confirm order and approved on my credit card app. So I never got a confirmation page, nor did I receive a confirmation email for any orders that day. I checked my App, and no transaction was visible. So I presumed that the order never went though. 

But, just in case, I waited a day. I checked the following evening and still no email, text, or transaction on my credit card, so I proceeded to create another order on the 19th December. This time no problems, I made the order, received the confirmation webpage, as well as an immediate email and a pending transaction immediately on my credit card. 

This is where it gets trickly. The next day, the 20th December, I checked my credit card app, and there is now 2 pending transactions for over £600 for the TV. So I went into the store to pick up my confirmed order, with the only confirmation order I received. I spoke to the Manager of the store in Newtownabbey, and told him about the 'ghost order', he told me not to worry, as it is only pending, the system will automatically cancel it, and also, if I don't pick it up within 7days, it will automatically cancel itself, if it did go though. 

This was fine, but I waited over 2 weeks, and the transaction was no longer pending, but now confirmed on my credit card. I contacted curry's who told me on the phone that there was no first order, just the second order that I had collected, and that I needed to contact my CC company to reverse the charge, so, I did this and long story short, the money was refunded on my credit card, or so I thought.

Fast forward to yesterday, 18th March, and I received a letter from my CC company that the 'temporary refund' on my CC would be reverted unless I provide further evidence to counter Curry's statement of 'fact's  - Again, long story short, in the evidence presented to my CC company for the refund, there is confirmation of a 'ghost' order on their systems, but I never received an email, confirmation because there was a typo in the email address - and here is where I have been defrauded - The General Manager of the t he Store in Newtownabbey has told my CC company that I collected BOTH orders!! That is a bare faced lie! Also impossible, since I would not have been able to collect one of the orders without an order number, which I could not have received, since there was no email confirmation due to a typo!

I am at a loss of what to do, the Manager of the Store has blatantly lied to my CC company, and I will now be charged for an order that I never received! 

If Currys have disputed the chargeback on the grounds that both orders were picked up, then S75 is destined to fail, based on that evidence.
While OP may/will not have got both, they have nothing to prove breech of contract, & CC have the proof from currys that they were via the rejected chargeback.

TheSpectator

Highly unlikely Currys would be the ones to get the original e-mail address incorrect from an online order as nearly all these things are automated, it's not like there's someone in a back office transferring it over to another system to send an order confirmation.

Aylesbury_Duck

I very much doubt you've been defrauded.  If you really believed you had, why haven't you gone to the police?

Hoenir

MickoDee said:

The General Manager of the t he Store in Newtownabbey has told my CC company that I collected BOTH orders!! That is a bare faced lie! 

The stock control system will be such that products simply don't walk out the store. There'll be a full audit trail. The store manager isn't to risk his entire career by making a falsified statement. 

born_again

Hoenir said:

MickoDee said:

The General Manager of the t he Store in Newtownabbey has told my CC company that I collected BOTH orders!! That is a bare faced lie! 

The stock control system will be such that products simply don't walk out the store. There'll be a full audit trail. The store manager isn't to risk his entire career by making a falsified statement. 

Never mind the fact that store manager will have had nothing to do with the chargeback process. That will have been the central finance team.

haze23

There's a subtle difference between the manager stating (asserting?) OP collected both orders and both orders were collected or fulfilled, that may influence the OP's approach.

Did Currys record any details on collection that may differ if there were indeed a first order that someone else collected? Will they admit when and where the other order was collected, that could help the OP? Now what happens if they hide behind data protection, claiming OP needs to supply a collection number they don't have, no idea.
In one sense it is similar to a fraud case; if someone had used the OP's details but a different email address, how would that be handled?

In this particular instance, I think the advice to de-escalate and politely explain in store that the refund hasn't come through is wise. Take it from there, probably more likely to get the additional details to help resolve than by using intermediaries.

Alderbank

haze23 said:

Did Currys record any details on collection that may differ if there were indeed a first order that someone else collected? Will they admit when and where the other order was collected, that could help the OP? Now what happens if they hide behind data protection, claiming OP needs to supply a collection number they don't have, no idea.
In one sense it is similar to a fraud case; if someone had used the OP's details but a different email address, how would that be handled?

I have done click & collect with Currys a few times and the process has always been the same.

The email 'Your tech is ready to collect...' confirms the location of the store where your goods are held and contains a unique order reference(CUR followed by 10 digits).

The text is

Great news! Your order's ready to collect from our store. Keep hold of this email because you'll need it when you come to collect your tech. Before you make your way, there's just a couple of things to remember.

When you arrive at the store:

You'll need to give us the last 4 digits of the debit/credit/gift card(s) you paid with, and the order reference shown on this email.

It would be quite a coincidence if whoever received your email was close enough to your local store to bother and also knows the last 4 digits of your credit card. Could that possibly have been a member of your household?