Have returned items bought on internet but not been refunded (not ebay)

[sarah573]

I bought 2 netbooks (mini laptops) for my childrens birthdays from an online laptop company. They cost me £350 for both.

When they arrived they would not connect to my wi-fi, apparently this was a problem with the encription, and being a teckie dumbo I could not resolve it, meaning they were useless to me. I contacted the company who agreed to a return (i had had them less than 24 hours), and I posted them back the following day by special delivery at my own expense.

The comany emailed me to acknowledge receipt of the return, then they emailed me again to tell me the money had been refunded to my card. This was on 3rd November, and so far I have not received the refund.

I have emailed them twice to query this, but their reply just says that my refund was sent on 3rd November and refunds take 5-7 days to clear. Its now been 2 weeks.

I paid by credit card, the company is laptopsdirect, part of buydirect.

Where do I stand?

call your credit card company, you are covered

It's only been 7 working days today though so your credit card company may have it pending

You should be able to reclaim this back from your credit card company as it is a purchase worth more than £100 so you need to give them a call. Keep reciepts and copies of the emails. Your credit card compay should be able to advise you.

I would be tempted to send them a copy of the statement to prove that it has not gone into your account, then request proof from them that it has been paid.

I have just had this with amazon.

E-mail them again asking for the transaction number. They are required to provide this in the event of a dispute.

Contact your credit card company and quote them this transaction number. They will be able to see if the transaction is pending.

An accountant friend reckons that this has become a credit crunch business practise. ie. company keeps money in account as long as possible at your expense.

Thanks everyone. I've spoken with the credit card company today. They have no record of it pending, and the guy said it definitely should have arrived by now if it was sent on the 3rd. They are sending me out a dispute form. Thank god I paid by credit card, I nearly used my debit and then thought better of it!

Ramble thats interesting. Why are they doing that - is it so that they are getting the interest on the money??????