I've been charged £65 for a pizza instead of £6.50,what can I do?

[shopoholiicc]

Went out on a date on Thursday and had a few drinks.
Popped into pizza shop on way home and spent £6.50 on a pizza (or so I thought )
He said contactless was down so I had to type my pin in.
Anyway checked my bank yesterday and £65 was pending for this pizza shop.
Went straight up when they opened and the man was rude and said I must have spent £65.
I said I only ordered 1 pizza and asked them to check cctv or the till.
He said cctv wasn't working and asked me to leave the shop.
Is there anything I can do here?

I doubt he will say that the contactless was down. He’ll say that the amount was over £45 so customer couldnt pay by contactless. Yes you could report to police and trading standards and if there is a pattern of these reports they may try to catch him in the act with an undercover investigator. At least that will stop more people being tricked. It probably wont get you a refund though but I would definitely report it.

Bank
Shop
Police

Be VERY careful about 'naming and shaming' on social media. You could get yourself into a lot of trouble that way.

Send a letter of action to the shop. Send it by recorded delivery.

Then outline what you’d like to happen. Next step would be small claims court

@lottiegarbanzo

Bank Shop Police

Be VERY careful about 'naming and shaming' on social media. You could get yourself into a lot of trouble that way.

I agree with this

@NautaOcts

If you do post on social media just keep it factual and dignified and with a ‘warning others to double check amount charged’ type slant

Yes. Never blackmail with I’ll post it all over social media

Because if you do have to take it further. This won’t look good on you.

Also, I wonder if the bank wont let him do contactless? He may have had complaints and they will only allow transactions with chip and pin from him. I know some retailers dont take contactless payments but have never known why.

He will argue that she put her pin in, and by doing so, accepted the amount on the screen as correct.

But what about customers with very poor/no eyesight? Or with learning difficulties, for that matter? The machines usually have a raised bump on the 5 specifically to assist blind and partially-sighted customers in entering their PIN - I don't see how it would wash in a court of law that a purchase with a stated/contracted/agreed price of £6.50 could be made, the card machine mysteriously asks them to pay ten times that and then, because they press five buttons, they have agreed to a completely different price.

Also, whatever the strict legal status is, the commonly-acknowledged purpose of entering your PIN and pressing 'enter' is to satisfy the security requirements and authorise that it is your own card and not a stolen one, and thus that you are authorised to complete the transaction - not to suddenly introduce a completely different amount for the transaction, with no arrangement or reason to change it.

That may be right but what if there is no record of the amount charged apart from the record of the payment authorised by the pin number? I think then the balance of probablities is against the OP without some supplementary evidence if lots of people had the same experience that could be evidence but the problem is finding those people without posting up on social media and risking a libel action if there is no proof of the truth of what the OP experienced.

I doubt he will say that the contactless was down. He’ll say that the amount was over £45 so customer couldnt pay by contactless.

Frustratingly, yes - unless there were any witnesses, he can lie about this and it's his word against hers.

I definitely think a report to Trading Standards and a mystery shopper scenario would be ideal here - preferably later on at night. Or even just anybody with a phone set up to record audio.

He's very foolish, though, as for every scam he perpetrates and gets away with, he will probably lose all of a future customer's business for ever, which is not a good way to run a sustainable business.

Even in the (for him) best-case-scenario, a person who was far too drunk to remember what they ordered or ate that night and thus realise that they were scammed will, when they check their banking once sober, make a clear mental note that that particular place either charges rip-off prices and/or they end up bingeing and spending a fortune there and do their best to completely avoid it next time, even if it's a "Whatever you do, Terry, don't let me go in to Bob's Pizzas after the pub again" request to a non-drinker friend.

Why not just go to the police?

He has defrauded you and stolen from you.

You've given him the opportunity to rectify an honest mistake. He didn't take it.

Don't bother with the whole SocMe vigilante behaviour and just report it to the police. More than likely he does this now and again, boosting profits on the back of hoping people are too drunk on a night to know what they spent and where.

That may be right but what if there is no record of the amount charged apart from the record of the payment authorised by the pin number?

I do agree that, for a lot of small businesses, the payment terminal is the single high-tech element in their business and often not backed up with similar-level technology and digital records-keeping at any other point of the transaction process.

@SparklingStars10

We had this with a takeaway curry, it came to £30 something but he accidentally pressed two zeros, so came to over £300, as it was over the phone payment, we didn’t notice initially, however, we called them and they apologised and refunded us the additional money. Do you have a receipt?

Someone tried to charge £64,000. On a £64 drink

Fortunately their bank declined it 😂

Actually, yes, SM-shaming could easily backfire and you'd have to tread very carefully - maybe saying "Never going back there again - one small pizza cost me £65!" rather than "Bob at the pizza place is a thieving crook".

Bearing in mind that, if Bob doesn't have a thorough records-keeping system with which to track back orders, and all he has to go on is 'well, you must have spent £65', there's no way he can actually gainsay you by showing proof of an order for/supply of ten pizzas. He can't have a perfect crystal-clear memory of orders when it suits him but then also 'have far too many orders going through to remember them all' when it doesn't.

@Nocutenamesleft - Thank goodness for that 😂

Someone tried to charge £64,000. On a £64 drink

Fortunately their bank declined it

That reminds me of this case, where a woman returned something to a charity shop and the assistant made a huge mistake when processing her refund -

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/comfort-konadu-proceeds-of-crime-20425806

But what about customers with very poor/no eyesight? Or with learning difficulties, for that matter? The machines usually have a raised bump on the 5 specifically to assist blind and partially-sighted customers in entering their PIN - I don't see how it would wash in a court of law that a purchase with a stated/contracted/agreed price of £6.50 could be made, the card machine mysteriously asks them to pay ten times that and then, because they press five buttons, they have agreed to a completely different price.

But OP isn't blind or poor-sighted so that doesn't apply here.

You are supposed to double check the amount before you put your pin in to make sure it's correct - that's what it was drummed into me to say to every customer when I worked in retail, and I do it every single time now as a customer.

Ultimately she has to prove she's been scammed. If the owner of the shop put a false transaction for 10x£6.50 pizzas through the till and charged OP accordingly, his till will balance and there will be no proof that he did something wrong.

That said, for some of the ultra-rich people in the world, deciding on a whim to buy a £64K bottle of wine with a particularly notable 1784 vintage is probably no different from the rest of us fancying a can of Tango from the corner shop

No he probably won’t if officially challenged but it is what he DID say to OP. So I think she can assume intent.

Aren't most card payment machines these days linked to the till, so the amount displays automatically? It's a long time since I've seen somebody have to manually type in the amount payable by card, except maybe for a market stall or mobile food van

Ours aren’t (proper old school fish and chip shop). Our till is live with HMRC but the machines are independent of the till. My OH matches the till roll with the credit card machines and if there is a mismatch he has the time and till/machine involved and so he knows who was doing the transaction. It is now very rare as the staff member is pulled on it sharpish. It is very easy for him to track it.
There is a chance that someone could circumvent the till and put a transaction on the machine but it would be picked up by my OH at end of shift.

Mistakes can be made but they can be discovered. This man is scamming you and as he has refused to rectify it, you must go to the police.

@RickiTarr

No he probably won’t if officially challenged but it is what he DID say to OP. So I think she can assume intent.

Definitely, but she has no proof. It's her word against his.

If the shop owner believes himself to be telling the truth (yeah, right), how does he explain one person and their date eating 10 pizzas in or her date not noticing her walking out of the door with 10 takeaway pizzas.

Just an idea but if takeaway, are there any CCTV cameras in other businesses or private homes that you have ever noticed on the route you took where you can go speak to someone and ask if they saw you pass by on the night to prove you were not carrying pizza box mountain.

Another vote for deliberate scam from me.

It can be hard to tell though as none of us are mind readers. One local corner shop once tried to charge me £70 odd for a 2lt bottle of diet Pepsi and a packet of chocolate biscuits. "Oh, I put the wrong amount in, sorry, pregnancy brain", was the stated reason when queried. On other occasions I caught the husband inflating prices input into the till for payment by both cash and card plus I saw him shortchanging drunks so who knows if she was just not as good at it as him by going for too big a "mistake" amount.
I don't think that they were very troubled by British law or morality though as they used to sell phoney cigs available from other (cough...ahem) sources for £3 for nearly the same price as a packet of legit Benson & Hedges, about £7 at the time so no more than 50 pence cheaper at £6.50, and they had a big white van that was always filled with booze very obviously from Euro Duty Free Land. The owners brother used to disappear for the day,at least twice a week and a lot of their full priced and more spirits had a funny looking duty paid label. I never needed to buy either but was offered the cigs more than once.

Definitely, but she has no proof. It's her word against his.

That’s why I was suggesting Trading Standards. If several people all have them a heads up, they might be able to act eventually. I would at least park the allegation with someone while I pursued the debit card chargeback whatever it is called.

But OP isn't blind or poor-sighted so that doesn't apply here.

You are supposed to double check the amount before you put your pin in to make sure it's correct - that's what it was drummed into me to say to every customer when I worked in retail, and I do it every single time now as a customer.

Has OP clarified on that, though?! Even if she personally has perfect vision, I think we're still on potentially discriminatory grounds in general, as many customers will have poor eyesight. How could the retailer necessarily know?

In fact, IF he's particularly fond of trying this trick after pub closing time, plenty of his customers won't have their usual visual and mental processing faculties - and being very drunk is not an excuse to be taken advantage of in any way. If a drunk legitimately spent far more than they would do when sober, it's on them; but if they had placed a 'normal' order and been severely overcharged for it, I don't see how this could be considered in any way acceptable behaviour - especially by a presumably-sober trader.

I agree on the always advising customers to check the amount before inputting their PIN (although it could still be tricky if customers cannot see it) - but that tends to be the behaviour of an honest business that's trying to forestall any potential errors or cause for uncertainty, not one where that's their deliberate business model.

I highly doubt in this case that the pizza man urged OP to check the amount before inputting her PIN. Surely you'd also expect him to check the amount as well as the customer and to have said "Wait a minute - £65 for one pizza?!, that's not right!" For all we know, along with the contactless and the CCTV, some of the diodes (or whatever they are) on the terminal screen might also have been 'not working'!

I doubt OP is the first or only person they've dond this too

The fact contactless was down and conveniently no CCTV clearly shows he did mean to do this. Alerting trading standards or maybe the police maybe beneficial as OP will not be the only person this has happened to. And if they were to investigate will show repeated unusual transactions for a pizza place. £65 is a lot on pizza

Its also possible OP is evident on another shops CCTV carrying one pizza?

I think also the fact he wasn't apologetic indicates he is a scammer. Any normal small shop would have been apologetic