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Hi all,
Wondered if I could pick some of the sizeable brains on here with a CCA query that I have ... I'm a complete newbie so please be gentle!
To cut a very long story very short, I bought an item from a large online retailer a while ago. 6 months or so later the item developed a fault, so I contacted their CS team who arranged for a replacement to be issued and the faulty item collected. What wasn't explained to me at that time was that this would be dealt with by way of a refund to the credit card used for the original purchase and a recharge for the replacement item. (I assumed that it would be dealt with by a straight swap.)
In fact, the credit card that I'd used for the original purchase had been 'closed', several months prior. The card has been destroyed, the account closed and I (foolishly, I admit), haven't retained any account details, as I considered my dealings with the credit card company concluded.
As a result, the retailer claims that they have made a refund onto the card (despite it being closed). Unsurprisingly, when they tried to take the new charge for the replacement item, this has been declined by the credit card company.
I've now received a number of (increasingly aggressive) letters from the retailer, stating that the sum of £70 is outstanding on my 'account'. I have, as far as I am aware, no 'account' with the retailer in question, and certainly haven't signed any CCA.
I have contacted the retailer's customer service team on a number of ocassions, asking for this matter to be investigated and excalated, but am getting nowhere fast. I've now received a letter from which completely ignores the dispute and states that the matter has been passed to a debt collection agency.
As far as I am concerned the status quo is restored - I have returned a faulty item and received a working one. I've not actually received any money from the retailer and therefore don't consider that I owe them anything. Any problem in reconciling this on the retailer's system is, I feel, their problem to sort out, not mine.
I appreciate that - if I had the time and inclination on my hands - I could probably eventually get the credit card company involved to confirm whether they've received the refund and request that this is released to me. I imagine there may be a fee involved in this given that the account is closed (from experience credit card companies are never ones to miss a trick ...) but don't know for sure. I do know that the reason I closed the credit card was due to the appalling lack of customer service that I received from the company, so don't expect for a second that this process would be anything like as straightforward or easy as you'd hope. In any event, having spent several hours in dialogue with the retailers' customer service department I'm not particularly inclined to spend yet further time trying to sort out a mess that is entirely of their own making. Had the procedure been correctly explained at the outset, this could all have been avoided as I could have advised them that the credit card that they had details of was no longer operational.
However, I obviously don't want to find myself on the receiving end of a CCJ. My question is therefore whether the CCA applies in these circumstances, and whether it is therefore worth me replying to the inevitable request for payment that will be landing in my letterbox shortly with confirmation that the matteris in dispute and that no enforcement action should be taken, and a request for a copy of the CCA (which they will clearly be unable to provide).
Any advice or pearls of wisdom would be gratefully received!
Thanks in advance
Wondered if I could pick some of the sizeable brains on here with a CCA query that I have ... I'm a complete newbie so please be gentle!
To cut a very long story very short, I bought an item from a large online retailer a while ago. 6 months or so later the item developed a fault, so I contacted their CS team who arranged for a replacement to be issued and the faulty item collected. What wasn't explained to me at that time was that this would be dealt with by way of a refund to the credit card used for the original purchase and a recharge for the replacement item. (I assumed that it would be dealt with by a straight swap.)
In fact, the credit card that I'd used for the original purchase had been 'closed', several months prior. The card has been destroyed, the account closed and I (foolishly, I admit), haven't retained any account details, as I considered my dealings with the credit card company concluded.
As a result, the retailer claims that they have made a refund onto the card (despite it being closed). Unsurprisingly, when they tried to take the new charge for the replacement item, this has been declined by the credit card company.
I've now received a number of (increasingly aggressive) letters from the retailer, stating that the sum of £70 is outstanding on my 'account'. I have, as far as I am aware, no 'account' with the retailer in question, and certainly haven't signed any CCA.
I have contacted the retailer's customer service team on a number of ocassions, asking for this matter to be investigated and excalated, but am getting nowhere fast. I've now received a letter from which completely ignores the dispute and states that the matter has been passed to a debt collection agency.
As far as I am concerned the status quo is restored - I have returned a faulty item and received a working one. I've not actually received any money from the retailer and therefore don't consider that I owe them anything. Any problem in reconciling this on the retailer's system is, I feel, their problem to sort out, not mine.
I appreciate that - if I had the time and inclination on my hands - I could probably eventually get the credit card company involved to confirm whether they've received the refund and request that this is released to me. I imagine there may be a fee involved in this given that the account is closed (from experience credit card companies are never ones to miss a trick ...) but don't know for sure. I do know that the reason I closed the credit card was due to the appalling lack of customer service that I received from the company, so don't expect for a second that this process would be anything like as straightforward or easy as you'd hope. In any event, having spent several hours in dialogue with the retailers' customer service department I'm not particularly inclined to spend yet further time trying to sort out a mess that is entirely of their own making. Had the procedure been correctly explained at the outset, this could all have been avoided as I could have advised them that the credit card that they had details of was no longer operational.
However, I obviously don't want to find myself on the receiving end of a CCJ. My question is therefore whether the CCA applies in these circumstances, and whether it is therefore worth me replying to the inevitable request for payment that will be landing in my letterbox shortly with confirmation that the matteris in dispute and that no enforcement action should be taken, and a request for a copy of the CCA (which they will clearly be unable to provide).
Any advice or pearls of wisdom would be gratefully received!
Thanks in advance
