Been stiffed by an online business

Larlar

I've given them over five months to deliver what I purchased and stopped hearing back from them in January. The only reason I've left it this long is due to a mixture of superhuman patience and forgetting I'd even placed the order. Looking for any legal avenues to contact, advice to follow, noun preposition verb.

They're based in the UK and I'm from Canada. Does that change anything? Thoughts?

As7

If they aren't particularly shady, just the THREAT of legal action in a sternly worded email could get you some attention.

TL DR

If you paid with a credit card, that's your best bet. Dispute the charges.

Pheezer

Follow up with your credit card company. Find out if they'd be willing to do a chargeback, and find out how much longer you can go before they won't do one. Then contact the company and threaten them with the chargeback and tell them what their timeline is before you go ahead and have it done.

Then when you don't get anything, do the chargeback.

Larlar

Contacted my credit card company, eventually found out it I made it using a direct bank account transaction through paypal. Paypal won't open a transaction dispute at this point because it's been so long, so the sweet VISA phone lady suggested I go to my branch and see if they might do anything.

I'll go there on Monday, but I'm thinking they probably won't do shit.

subedii

Larlar wrote: »

I've given them over five months to deliver what I purchased and stopped hearing back from them in January. The only reason I've left it this long is due to a mixture of superhuman patience and forgetting I'd even placed the order. Looking for any legal avenues to contact, advice to follow, noun preposition verb.

They're based in the UK and I'm from Canada. Does that change anything? Thoughts?

That does indeed change things.

Get in contact with the Trading Standards Institute or TSI. They're a government body set up to ensure that trade in the UK is properly regulated, and they're who you go to if a company is screwing you over.

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

I'm not sure whether your being in Canada makes any difference, but since the company itself is based in the UK they should still likely look at your complaint.

Last time an internet retailer stiffed me for a purchase I sent them an e-mail talking about why I was upset, outlining the situation, how long it had been since my order etc. etc. I also CC'd a copy to my local TSI (and mentioned this in the e-mail), who got in contact with me soon afterwards. They were pretty helpful and sent me an e-mail saying they'd investigate the problem. They also contacted me by phone soon after as well, but if you're in Canada that's probably not as likely.

They got in contact with the company (who had since stopped responding to me altogether) and got them to give me a refund. IIRC the whole process took about 1-2 weeks (took a bit longer for the refund to come through, but that was minor).

In your case I'd suggest putting in the postcode of the company you're dealing with and contact the TSI that's closest to them.

SanderJK

You should be able to still do a chargeback on the card. I'm pretty sure the limit on that is 6 months.

EDIT: If you really want more information, I can ask at work (Dutch creditcard aqcuirer) on Monday.

Mojo the Avenger

I had a similar problem with an online company when a friend wanted to use my debit card to buy something. Debit cards as far as I know are pretty much the same thing as using your bank account directly.

I went to my bank and disputed the charges. They advanced me the amount of the purchase and investigated the claim, and ultimately I got my money back.

Dispute the charges with your bank.

aioua

I work for a credit union, and I don't know about the other companies (mastercard, &c.) but for Visa you only have 60 days from when you get the statement the charge is on to file a dispute. At least in the US.
Now, if you did it as an ACH (which it sounds like you did) you might still have some recourse. Your bank is definately the people you want to talk to about that.

Larlar

subedii wrote: »

Larlar wrote: »

I've given them over five months to deliver what I purchased and stopped hearing back from them in January. The only reason I've left it this long is due to a mixture of superhuman patience and forgetting I'd even placed the order. Looking for any legal avenues to contact, advice to follow, noun preposition verb.

They're based in the UK and I'm from Canada. Does that change anything? Thoughts?

That does indeed change things.

Get in contact with the Trading Standards Institute or TSI. They're a government body set up to ensure that trade in the UK is properly regulated, and they're who you go to if a company is screwing you over.

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

I'm not sure whether your being in Canada makes any difference, but since the company itself is based in the UK they should still likely look at your complaint.

Last time an internet retailer stiffed me for a purchase I sent them an e-mail talking about why I was upset, outlining the situation, how long it had been since my order etc. etc. I also CC'd a copy to my local TSI (and mentioned this in the e-mail), who got in contact with me soon afterwards. They were pretty helpful and sent me an e-mail saying they'd investigate the problem. They also contacted me by phone soon after as well, but if you're in Canada that's probably not as likely.

They got in contact with the company (who had since stopped responding to me altogether) and got them to give me a refund. IIRC the whole process took about 1-2 weeks (took a bit longer for the refund to come through, but that was minor).

In your case I'd suggest putting in the postcode of the company you're dealing with and contact the TSI that's closest to them.

Thanks, I'll check this out if the bank trip on Monday does squat.

Hypatia

On the chargeback thing it's one of those things to be careful with because businesses -really- hate it if you do that. It will get you a very fast response but don't ever plan on doing business with them again.

Not that you were planning to, I'm just saying it's probably the fastest way to get a response from them. I threatened a chargeback to a company that was doing that after they blew me off for 3 weeks and within 12 hours they had e-mailed me back, shipped my stuff, and gave me a tracking number.

exoplasm

Hypatia wrote: »

On the chargeback thing it's one of those things to be careful with because businesses -really- hate it if you do that. It will get you a very fast response but don't ever plan on doing business with them again.

Not that you were planning to, I'm just saying it's probably the fastest way to get a response from them. I threatened a chargeback to a company that was doing that after they blew me off for 3 weeks and within 12 hours they had e-mailed me back, shipped my stuff, and gave me a tracking number.

Yep. Most credit card authorization places will cancel service with someone if they get X many chargebacks in Y amount of time (like 5/week or month it varies). So most companies that care about processing credit cards will make sure to minimize these.