Is this fraud? What do I do?

[Hairydogmummy]

I booked and paid £120 for a car service for my electric car 3 weeks ago with Protyre online to be done at a local garage. I'm not sure if they own it or just linked in some other way. Anyway, I turned up on Tuesday at the appointment time and they said they don't do electric car services and they had told 'them' that before. The guy was apologetic and said he would organise a refund. I rushed off as I had to get to work thinking that I'd get an email in a few hours saying they'd actioned it but nothing came. I've emailed and phoned and all I get it that the area manager is looking in to it but is in a meeting. Any advice? Is this fraud as they knowingly sold me something that didn't exist. I'm thinking trading standards and the fraud helpline?

Sounds like you’ve booked via a middle company and they’ve not updated the services available available at that garage. Sounds more like incompetence than fraud.

Did you pay on a credit card? You can claim it back that way instead if so.

Are you chasing the company you paid, or the garage? It’s the company you paid who owes you the refund.

Both. I thought Protyre were a middleman to start with but when I emailed them, they said it was being dealt with by the area manager and when I rang the actual local garage they said the same (but he was in a meeting) and I could call the garage again tomorrow if I wanted. The guy on the phone said he may have been discussing it in the meeting so I might hear something afterwards! It's all very weird.

It’s more of a dispute than fraud if you get nowhere with the company you can start a claim with your bank