Went to cenrer parcs 8 months ago- today they ring and say payment for a meal didnt go through

[flipflopper]

and they want me to pay them £40 odd.
Not sure where I stand as I have lost my statements so cant prove I have paid it. even if I havent, can they ask for it after 8 months??

Ring your bank and ask them?

Not sure if they can ask for it to be honest - I would have thought their internal accounting systems should have picked that up far sooner, so a bit shoddy.

I'd be tempted to tell them that as far as you are concerned it was taken out so they need to prove to you it didn't!

Ask them what you ate - you should be able to tell if it was your meal or not

Then ask the bank to do a search on the amount

Agree with W and Katy, it's up to them to prove you owe the money. They must send you some (written) evidence.

If they do, you could ask your bank for a copy of your statement. But the first move is theirs - they are the ones making a case, up to them to do so rather than just expecting you to hand over money because they say so!

Thanks for the advice, I will ring tomorrow to find out what's going on, I havent actually spoken to CP myself as we went with sil and it must have been booked in their name so only left their contact details.

Although for badness i feel like not getting in touch at all, its not like im desperate to give them some money!

I wont just pay them the money, I will ask for written proof like you say. Thought there may be some legal time limit though that they have for claiming money, and we dont understand how it didnt go though as surely the card woud have been declined?

It all sounds very odd to me.

As you say the bank would have declined the card at the time if there was a funding problem; so I feel it must have been an error on their side which they presumably haven't admitted. IME the majority of businesses would take an error like that on the chin, seems a little unprofessional.

are you absoluelty sure it is centre parks and not some person wanting you to hand over all your card details?

Well I rang them back and the woman said it was a problem with the bank that weekend and they didnt send the money for some transactions that wekend.

Anyway, she said they were having to ring round and ask everyone if they could apply again for the money, even though it was 8 months ago and we are within our rights to refuse. So basically they must have been told they had to go through the motions, but who in their right mind would say they wanted to pay after all this time.

Thanks for the advice.

Legally they can't make you pay - they have 12 weeks to take the money after that they can't force you. My friend who works for iceland told me this!