advice needed re a transaction dispute

[Billathome65]

His my daughter who is a vulnerable adult noticed a transaction that she had not made for £164. She rang her bank and reported the transaction stating she had not made it. The bank refunded the money and she thought that was the end of the matter.

She has now received a letter from the bank stating they have investigated and found that the order was "linked" to her account the order went through Amazon and the item was delivered to some stranger the other end of the country? As such they are now going to take the money back out of her account?

She has been in touch with the bank who refuse to accept this has nothing to do with her and basically told her to phone this number and that number plus Amazon?

Due to the Covid19 issue she has been unable to contact Amazon. In the meantime if the TSB remove this money it will leave her and her partner unable to buy food or pay the rent.

Advice needed ASAP

Cheers Bill

[R0b]

Hello

Your daughter needs to make a complaint to TSB. It seems odd that TSB are suggesting that they are taking the money back from her account just because the order was linked to her bank account. The fact that the order was delivered somewhere else would give rise to some suspicion that this was not authorised.

Either TSB are not giving a complete explanation as to why they think your daughter is responsible or your daughter may be omitting something she may be aware of.

Unfortunately this isn't a fast moving process, TSB will have 8 weeks to provide a written response to the complaint and your daughter can either accept their decision, make a further complaint to the Financial Ombudsman which will probably take another 8-12 weeks or longer given the current situation or take legal action. Alternatively, she can skip straight to the legal process but that will still take some time and won't be immediate, however the threat of legal action tends to focus the minds of everyone and take it a little more seriously.

I would be surprised if TSB would defend the £164 payment all the way to a hearing, since it would cost them a hell of a lot more to defend it than pay up.

It's your daughter's choice, but if shes expecting an immediate reaction, I wouldn't count on it. She can try to call TSB and reason with them to explain that this is a disputed matter and if they take her money then she will be left without food and rent and any losses following that will be at the expense of TSB, but there's no guarantee they will agree to anything.

Is there any way you or any other family member can help her out to plug the rent gap if TSB do take the money?