Section 75 refund process

Financial Chat
1

(sorry for starting a new topic on this - but didn’t seen any recent topics discussing this and didn’t want to raise an old topic from the dead).

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of being dazzled by an ad on the Internet and bought something that looked ok, but turned out wasn’t. FWIW, it was one of those ‘Car Tablet’ things that gives you Apple CarPlay/Android Auto without ripping out your whole radio and replacing/rewiring everything.

The website claimed a 100 day money back guarantee (*) so thought it would be ok.

When I got it, set it up and although it seemed fine, about 10 minutes into any trip the tablet would just crash and reboot itself over and over again. Got in touch with them, they asked me to check a few things (make sure it was plugged in ok, factory reset it) so did all that and no change. They asked me to video it to prove it was happening to did that and sent it over to them.

It then turned out the (*) in their guarantee was doing a bit of heavy lifting - to get the full refund, you had to return the device back to China at your own expense (around £30). I pointed out that elsewhere on their website they claimed that if it was faulty, you can return it free of charge but all they’d offer me with a 40% discount to not return it and I get to keep the tablet (which is useless). So, I’d be paying 60% of the price for a plastic box to sit on my dashboard doing nothing… :thinking:

After a week of back and forth on this, this afternoon I suddenly remembered I bought it on Flex and so put a S75 claim on it. As soon as I submitted the claim, I had an email from them saying they’ve given me a full refund and it’ll take up to 10 days to show on my account.

So, just out of interest - was that purely a coincidence? Or did the s75 dispute mean that they do just automatically give a refund?

On Monday, when the person I’ve been trying to resolve this with presumably gets back into work, can they do anything to block this now? Should I just ignore any further comms from them or tell them I’ve submitted this?

(this is my first time submitting this sort of dispute!)

2

My experience with Flex is that you get an immediate refund but the seller then has a certain period to challenge it (and if they are successful the money will be taken out of your Flex balance again).

3

At the moment, this isn’t a refund showing in Flex (yet). This is an email from the Car Tablet company saying they’re giving me a refund (which is why I’m wondering if it was just a coincidence and I would’ve had the email from them anyway if I’d waited 5 mins longer!).

4

Maintain the s75 process and let Mastercard handle it. They don’t want the fees for chargebacks.

1 Like
5

This. Flex or not (which I know will work the same way as any credit card I just don’t see it as such personally) the merchant will likely not want to mess about and will have taken the “easy path” and likely just offer the refund. Good luck!

PS - Don’t feel the need to “justify” the mistake, that could’ve happened to anyone. I stupidly fell for a third party service for an upcoming trip to Canada thinking it was the official site - a quick chat to Lloyds and a chargeback raised and a refund soon came my way.