Whereas on vacation in Tenerife in Could, I used to be inspired by a salesman from an electronics retailer to buy a pill pc for a particular worth of €105 (£91).
I purchased it with my NatWest bank card. I checked out my account on-line whereas nonetheless within the store and noticed two suspicious transactions totalling €4,862 (£4,197). I requested to cancel the acquisition.
The retailer agreed and appeared to talk to his personal financial institution to rearrange it.
Tech rip-off: A holidaymaker was conned out of €4,862 by a slick electronics retailer salesman who was purported to be promoting them a €105 pill
As an alternative of refunding the cash to my card for the pill, he gave me €105 in money however mentioned he would guarantee the opposite fees could be refunded. Once I arrived again within the UK, I noticed this hadn’t occurred.
NatWest initially refunded the cash and raised a declare towards the retailer’s financial institution below Part 75 of the Shopper Credit score Act.
On October 4, the financial institution mentioned it was ‘not capable of proceed my dispute by means of Mastercard dispute decision’, and it took again the cash. Primarily, the retailer wouldn’t concede.
N. M., East Grinstead, West Sussex.
Sally Hamilton replies: A fast search of chatrooms associated to Tenerife journey recommended you aren’t alone in being hoodwinked by sure electronics retailers on the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.
The hustle you fell for seems to have endured for greater than a decade, in line with info web site tenerifeguru.com.
It says the ruse ‘typically consists of a ‘bait and change’, the place you’re supplied one product at a ridiculously low worth, solely to be conned into upgrading to a ‘superior’ product at a significantly larger worth… which is able to invariably be overpriced or an out of date mannequin and could also be accompanied by ridiculously overpriced equipment’.
You had been pressed into including a ‘satellite tv for pc app’, which concerned paying a subscription purporting to allow you to watch 9,000 TV channels worldwide.
One other trick is shopkeepers ‘unintentionally’ overcharging a bank card.
The positioning says: ‘This may depart you with an enormous headache attempting to get the cash refunded by way of your financial institution once you get residence, and sometimes unsuccessfully.’
Your story fitted this situation — and also you actually suffered a headache chasing reimbursement.
Your unlucky expertise, which might occur in nearly any busy vacationer vacation spot, ought to function a warning.
An early pink flag, which occurred to you, is that if a salesman asks prospects in the event that they’re holidaymakers somewhat than residents. Being a vacationer makes for safer prey, realizing they’ll quickly be again residence and fewer capable of pursue a criticism with the authorities.
For a similar cause, the predators counsel victims return to the store on their final day — as you probably did — utilizing the ploy that their units have to be arrange in English.
You had been additionally taken to a distinct retailer to finish the transaction — one other sign that the preparations aren’t above board.
Alarm bells also needs to ring over extra rudimentary techniques (as occurred to you), when a retailer dangles a hand in entrance of the cost terminal display to obscure the sums entered.
In your case, the salesperson additionally held on to your receipts, which meant you could not examine them. He claimed you’ll get them when the deal was accomplished.
You had been additionally requested to supply ID, which the salesperson copied. Hardly needed for a €105 buy.
If you lastly smelled a rat and left the store with out the merchandise however with €105 in money as a refund, you had been hopeful the retailer would reimburse the opposite card funds, as promised; or, at worst, be protected by your financial institution if he didn’t.
For that reason, you did not report your case to the police or the native authorities. I think it’s time-pressed holidaymakers’ reluctance to complain formally that has allowed such sharp practices to endure.
Beat the scammers See all our assist, recommendation and horror tales on the most recent scams and frauds to keep away from
Tenerifeguru suggests vacationers can have extra success acquiring full refunds by demanding on the spot that the store offers them an official hoja de reclamaciones — a criticism type — for the reason that retailer will probably be nervous of the criticism reaching the authorities.
NatWest did dispute the undesirable transactions in your behalf with the retailer’s financial institution. However the retailer stood agency and produced copies of receipts (handwritten) in its response — which you had by no means seen earlier than — and acknowledged that you just nonetheless had the ‘high’ you’d bought.
It isn’t clear why the store used the phrase ‘high’ somewhat than pill. And, frankly, it was unrealistic you’ll purchase a ‘high’ priced at £4,000.
What additionally rankled was that you just acquired no textual content warnings or calls from NatWest about these excessive worth transactions, which had been out of character and made overseas.
NatWest insisted that since you had entered your PIN to confirm the transactions, they handed safety. This meant it couldn’t reinstate your refund.
I requested NatWest to rethink, because it was clear you had been the sufferer of fraud.
I am happy to say that a couple of days later, the financial institution modified its thoughts and returned your cash — as a goodwill gesture.
A NatWest spokesman says: ‘We all the time work to attain the most effective outcomes for our shoppers and have a look at circumstances on a person foundation. We’re happy we’ve got now reached a constructive answer.’
You had been delighted, and as a token of thanks, will make a donation to St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley, West Sussex.
Readers planning a break to the solar this winter, please be cautious.
Switched off: Our reader was having fun with the free Netflix subscription which got here with their Virgin broadband contract – till it stopped working
Why will not Virgin give me my promised Netflix
In Could, we signed as much as a broadband contract with Virgin Media, which included a regular Netflix subscription. We acquired an activation electronic mail, opened our account and began watching Netflix.
In early August, once I tried once more to look at one thing, I received a message saying: ‘You possibly can’t stream due to a problem together with your account.’
I contacted Netflix, which mentioned Virgin wanted to resolve this. I contacted the latter many instances and was advised there was a technical hitch and that I’d be contacted inside a couple of days.
Nothing. Nonetheless no Netflix. Nonetheless no assist from Virgin Media.
Ok.C., Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Sally Hamilton replies: You needed to look at dramas on Netflix, not be concerned in a prolonged one getting the technical problems with accessing it sorted out.
I contacted Virgin Media and requested it to resolve your drawback as soon as and for all. Inside a couple of days it got here again with a decision — although not fairly the one you anticipated.
Virgin says it’s sorry to your problem, nevertheless it appears its specialists are nonetheless unable to reinstate your Netflix account by way of your Virgin contract. As an alternative, the agency has cobbled collectively a clunky answer.
This entails crediting you £10.99 a month for the subsequent 13 months —the rest of your contract — which you’ll spend on subscribing to Netflix if you want.
It is usually crediting you with about £33 for the three months you’ve gotten been with out Netflix, plus an additional £50 for the effort.
The entire worth of recompense is nearly £226. When you are grateful, you say you’re disillusioned by the complexity of the answer and the very fact you needed to contact me to get issues carried out.
A Virgin Media spokesman says: ‘We’re conscious of some technical points impacting a small variety of prospects when attempting to entry Netflix. Our technical workforce is working as shortly as doable to resolve these points, and we apologise to any buyer impacted by this.’
Straight to the purpose I ordered a lipstick from cosmetics firm Charlotte Tilbury as a part of a hamper for a sick buddy. It turned clear it will not be delivered shortly. I requested for a refund however it’s going to take ten days — a very long time to attend. M . H., by way of electronic mail. A Charlotte Tilbury spokesman says miscommunication between its ordering system and customer support workforce meant you weren’t knowledgeable concerning the delay. You have accepted the corporate’s provide of a brand new care package deal to be despatched to your buddy and it’s sending one other product to apologise. *** My daughter had her residence flooded with sewage water a number of instances previously three years. Why did Yorkshire Water fail to deal with the problem as an emergency? L. H., Sheffield. Yorkshire Water says no direct criticism has been handed to them. It insists it carried out clean-ups on each flood event. The corporate says it isn’t accountable for any losses or damages attributable to a direct or oblique results of sewer flooding. *** My automotive insurance coverage was up for renewal so I went on the RAC web site. I noticed a deal for 2 months of free cowl, which I assumed could be added to my present coverage. As an alternative, my coverage was auto-renewed and the RAC took £216.60 from my account. I referred to as to cancel however was charged £25. I am nonetheless ready for a refund for the remainder. D. M., Cornwall. The RAC has since given you £100 as a gesture of goodwill and you’ve got determined to resume your coverage with it for an additional 12 months. It admits that the provide was unclear and will probably be reviewed.
