Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that I can find some hope from the good folk on MSE forums.

My partner has had a bathroom renovation completed but unfortunately the work isn't it up to scratch. She has paid £3060 on her credit card and £890 on her debit card.

She applied or the section 75 with Barclaycard and they were happy to refund her the payment until the last minute when they identified that the plumber used a merchant called Pay Leven to accept the payment.

They have said that because the payment went to a 3rd party the chain has been broken. I've read a few articles online and it seems clear that this us a murky area regarding Section 75 claims.

My partner has put a complaint in to the Financial Ombudsmen - they've upheld the original decision so we've escalated it to the last stage, this is where I hope anyone on here can help.

Are there any cases out in the public domain in which a similar scenario (eg a 3rd party merchant involved) has been successful with a refund?

I've come across something from 2006 that says creditors should be liable off there are 3 or 4 party's involved but I'm not sure whether that is relevant with it being 11 years old.

We also contacted Pay Leven and they don't have a procedure but if a complaint was made they would look into it. They wasn't clear on how or what this complaint procedure is though.

We're at the stage of going to the small claims court but the stress and anger this has caused has made us both ill.

Any help is appreciated.

Lastly, my partner has attempted to do a chargeback refund claim with Nationwide but they have refused it that. They say that because we've essentially done a bank transfer to the plumber we're not covered. That's also with the Financial Ombudsmen so we're awaiting a decision on that but we're not hopeful of getting a result with that either.

Thanks for reading, I hope no one has to go through this themselves!