What to do for this Bank Transfer situation?

[boltj]

I purchased an item from a company in mid-August and paid them by bank transfer.

I didn’t like the item and was entitled to get a refund if I returned it, which I did.

I emailed the company and on the 21st October at 11:50am, they told me that they had process a refund of £200 and that it would take “10-14 working days to reach” my bank.

It’s now 13th November and I still haven’t got the money. I am so confused about this.

Firstly, why would it take 10-14 working days in the first place to process a simple refund instead of the money coming to my bank immediately?

Secondly, why didn’t they ask for my bank details when processing the refund - they just said that they’d done it when I emailed them. Maybe they linked my email asking for the refund to the email I entered when purchasing the item and linked the bank details but I didn’t know that they kept a record of your bank details.

Thirdly, if it’s now more than 14 working days, should I email them to ask for an update or would that come across as me being unnecessarily pushy?

The 10 to 14 days - i imagine they have a busy accounting team. Give them a call and chase it.

So does the 10-14 working day period mean that they plan on sending the money within that time but at the time they sent the email they hadn’t actually sent it? Or, does it mean that they sent the money and the bank was processing it for that time?

Have you actually contacted the company and chased it up?

They are saying that it could take up to 14 working days to be sent and clear into your account. It would be processed by the accounts team after the email.

they have to process it internally with a credit note etc. And they also need to process the payment back to you.
There may be layers of approvals to do this, plus it would be the accounts receivables team doing the first, then the account payables team doing the second. Added into that it may be that they only do a payment run once a week or twice a month.

Give them a call and ask for a progress report.