Monzo chargeback

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1

I ordered online and paid £580 for an iphone that was never sent. The merchant proved to be a fraudster who shut down the website on 20th Nov., running away with the customers’ money. Just before closing down the website, he put up an announcement - see attached screenshot.

Screenshot_20201130-154542_Samsung Internet
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Needless to say, we never got our products. It turns out we were scammed! He clearly said in that last announcement that the company went bust, and he asked the customers to claim refund from their bank/ card provider. Importantly, they is NO way of contacting them. No more website, no one answering the phone number, and the email I sent on 22nd Nov obviously never got a reply.
I contacted Monzo on the same day.
On 23rd Monzo got in touch saying that I provided sufficient evidence for them to initiate a chargeback via Mastercard. At that time, the deadline was 17th Feb - see the next screenshot.
Screenshot_20201125-123820_Monzo
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I was going to wait, although it was almost 3 months.
To my surprise, I just saw today that the deadline was moved to 1st April - see screeshot.
Why?!
That makes it OVER 4 months since 22nd Nov. when I first contacted Monzo!
I find the waiting of over 4 months unacceptable, especially where my case is clearly a case of a scamming merchant who took the money without honouring the order, closed everything down and applied for his company to be striken off the Companies House!
This is a clear case of fraud.
Screenshot_20201213-233238_Monzo
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Why cannot I get a refund while the Mastercard/ Monzo dispute the charge and try to find the vanished company director and get their money from him?
Please advise. £600 is not a small sum, I have been extremely upset about this whole situation, and I am currently unemployed - so you can imagine that in my present financial situation this amount of money is significant.
What chances do I have to appeal against/ complain about the significant delay caused by the change of the deadline from 17thFeb to 1st April?
Should I try and contact MasterCard directly?
Should I make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service?
Any light and advice as to how I can get back the money that I was scammed of would be much appreciated.

2

There’s been a spate of posts here similar to this. I don’t know the reason, but it is a reminder that credit cards offer better protection against company failure or fraud than debit cards.

3

Seems like something strange is happening that these have all reset.

Contact Monzo in app and see if you can get to the bottom of it

4

Thanks for the reply. I now learned my lesson the hard way… Sadly, the scam is done. I need advice on what I can do now.

5

An automatic transaction dispute deadline “Reset”?
Hmm… :unamused::thinking: That sounds odd!
In cases like this, the deadline is a very important element.
Thanks anyway, I will contact Monzo tomorrow!

6

Reset is just a guess. I had to check, it’s 15 weeks away so not that

Looks like an error tbh, especially since they’ve said they won’t challenge the chargeback.

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7

Thank you, I hope you are right, although the error occurred at a strange time, it seems all too convenient for the other party and terribly unfair on me.

8

You may want to keep in mind that basically any other bank would have just refunded you immediately when they received evidence. Monzo is very much the exception here. I’ve been a victim of Monzo’s poor practices in this area as well as a family member - both of us had to wait months for a resolution.

If you want to avoid anything like this again it’d be better to switch banks or use a credit card.

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9

Thank you, yes, as I replied to someone else on here, I now learned my lesson. In the future I’ll do so. I would have never expected that Monzo’s practice differs so much from other banks’. Out of curiosity, how long did you and your other family member had to wait to be refunded by Monzo after you disputed a transaction?

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10

I’m not certain exactly how long it was but I remember the app gave a guideline of around 3 months - that time came and a week later I told him to raise a complaint in the app and then a week or two later he was eventually refunded in full.

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11

I see. With the new extended/ delayed deadline, it makes my wait over 4 months. I would be fuming if they are one day late with the refund, given that I am a victim of fraud.

12

My assumption is that the 3 months thing happens in the background and then it triggers a review by a staff member at that point to see whether they’ll refund you or not.

You may also be interested to know that Monzo almost immediately gets the money back when you lodge a dispute. They just sit on it, earning interest etc. in the meantime just in case the merchant tries to get it back again. I’ve always thought it’s a very anti-consumer way of doing it, seeing as it’s the bank holding on to your money not the seller or their bank.

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13

On the flipside, it could also be considered very anti-consumer for the money to be given back straight away (oh yay, my chargeback worked) only for it to be yoinked away again if the merchant successfully disputes the chargeback (how can they take my money again?! I already spent it all and now I’m overdrawn! This is an OUTRAGE!)

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14

The flip side doesn’t exist. If the bank provides a refund to you in advance it’s because they believe the evidence you’ve provided. They wouldn’t take the money back even if the money didn’t come back from the seller and they’d swallow the cost.

The exception perhaps is when fraud has occurred and the consumer demands a chargeback, falsifies evidence etc.

2 Likes
15

Despite the information here, there’s no guarantee a chargeback will be successful.

It isn’t, sadly, like section 75 protection so just because somebody has been scammed doesn’t mean they’ll get the funds back. If the seller has been scamming people, it’s also not that likely that they’ll be truthful to their word not to contest any chargebacks.

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16

As above :point_up_2:

Another reason deadlines get extended is when the merchant disputes the matter.

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17

This is not true and not how chargebacks work.

Some banks re-credit your account straight away, but reserve the right to take the money back if your claim’s unsuccessful. So be careful not to spend it before the Chargeback claim is complete. If the company you’ve bought something from disputes your claim, that’s when it could be taken back.

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18

However, for low value transactions, in my (limited) experience, they will just absorb the loss. It is one reason why despite archaic technology, they are actually more customer friendly that Monzo, albeit provided with a different tone.

19

That’s completely false and not how a chargeback works at any bank at all. If they give you the money immediately, and your claim fails, you will still be liable to pay them back.

In effect, in cases with sufficient evidence, you can just see it as them immediately giving you the money as a temporarily interest free loan.

They may in some cases with very low transactions not bother. But for a transaction above £100 I highly doubt it.

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20

Just to point out unless it isn’t clear, although you may already be aware:

The deadline is a worst case scenario date and isn’t necessarily indicative of when the next action will occur. Monzo raised the chargeback to Mastercard, and Mastercard sets the date, not Monzo.

If the merchant doesn’t reply in that time, Mastercard deems the merchant to automatically lose, but of course Mastercard has to give merchants time to investigate and build their case.

If the merchant replies to the dispute tomorrow, the chargeback will be successful tomorrow - not in April.

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