Contactless "guarantee" worthless for duplicate charge if technical error prevents receipt

FlyingEye · 16 July 2018 at 11:48AM

I understood there was a sort of "guarantee" over problems with contactless purchases. (This problem involves a contactless Nationwide debit card but this credit card forum is closest forum I can find and I guess same applies to contactless credit cards.)
situation: contactless payment at self service screen. As card was moved towards reader, main screen shows "technical error" and resets to initial welcome screen. No print, no confirmation of payment, just a system crash and reset to start. Go to different screen, make purchases satisfactorily. Two weeks later, notice duplicate transactions on bank account, clearly the failed purchase went through.
Complain to Nationwide under their disputed transaction scheme. Week later... "send us your receipt for the disputed transaction"... I reply that the whole point is that it crashed without any indication of success or printing. Answer: "without it we are unable to assist."

pochisoldi · 16 July 2018 at 12:51PM

FlyingEye wrote: »

I understood there was a sort of "guarantee" over problems with contactless purchases. (This problem involves a contactless Nationwide debit card but this credit card forum is closest forum I can find and I guess same applies to contactless credit cards.)
situation: contactless payment at self service screen. As card was moved towards reader, main screen shows "technical error" and resets to initial welcome screen. No print, no confirmation of payment, just a system crash and reset to start. Go to different screen, make purchases satisfactorily. Two weeks later, notice duplicate transactions on bank account, clearly the failed purchase went through.
Complain to Nationwide under their disputed transaction scheme. Week later... "send us your receipt for the disputed transaction"... I reply that the whole point is that it crashed without any indication of success or printing. Answer: "without it we are unable to assist."

Go back, and point them towards:
http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/contactless_consumer/How_to_use_a_Contactless_card.asp

For contactless payments for £30 and under, a receipt will not automatically be printed for you. However, you can always ask for a receipt, and the retailer must give you one if you ask. For contactless payments over £30, the retailer must always print a receipt for you.
If you are paying at an unattended terminal, like at a vending machine, the process is slightly different. To make a payment, simply select the goods you wish to purchase and when the amount is shown touch your contactless card or device against the terminal. You will not be provided with a receipt but you can see this transaction on your card statement.

If they still refuse to deal with the matter, ask for a deadlock letter and go to the financial ombudsman.

Emily_Joy · 16 July 2018 at 12:55PM

You can also ask to talk to the store manager, if you don't live miles away.

Anthorn · 16 July 2018 at 2:02PM

I'll start my reply with a little story: During the recent MasterCard outage I used my Debit MasterCard on a website and it failed. I then followed the advice of my bank and tried again and that failed too. I then just gave up. Lo and behold the next day both payments appeared at my bank and my bank authorised one and reversed the other one. So I only paid for one transaction and the duplicate transaction was cancelled.

Therefore it is my view duplicate transactions are the joint responsibility of the bank and retailer. In fact I go further and state that if a bank authorises an obviously duplicate transaction then they are responsible for the compensation.

Contactless "guarantee" worthless for duplicate charge if technical error prevents receipt

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