I'm usually a BT-er, but I'm hoping someone over here will be able to help me! It's a bit long, but I wanted to give all the information.
My H placed an order with a large online store. The site wasn't working at the time, so he rang the number and placed the order over the phone using a credit card. This was a couple of weeks ago. On Monday this week, our bank rang to say that there was unusual activity on the card (the card is only used for online purchases, but they're usually small.) There were two more orders for this online store, plus two separate P&P charges, altogether totalling approx. £600. Obviously, my H told the bank it wasn't him, they stopped the card and instructed him to contact the store. He did this, and after a return phone-call, was told that a second account had been opened using his credit card details, but a London address (we live nowhere near London). He was also told that this money would be refunded.
Today, (Friday) the money is still showing as 4 debits on the credit card (online banking), and we received a letter this morning from the online store saying that they had concluded their investigation and apologised for the 'unfortunate incident' so my H rang the online store again. Today they told him (in 3 separate phone calls) that it was the bank's responsibility to refund the money, as they should never have authorised a second account set up with a different address. The bank are adamant that it is the responsibilty of the online store. They now say that my H needs to be sent a dispute form, which he will then fill in and return, and the bank will then open a dispute with the online store. In the meantime, they say he has to pay the credit card bill. Unfortunately, we don't actually have £600 to spare to pay off somebody else's purchases!
Although the online store haven't admitted this, it seems likely that the person who took my H's call wrote down the credit card details and used them to open a second account, using the fact that he worked there to over-ride the part where the credit-card address should match the delivery address.
I'm really angry and worried about this. Is this really the way these things work? Do we really have to pay £600 (which we haven't got) because either the online store or one of their employees has fraudulently charged goods to our (my H's) credit card?
I'd be really grateful for any advice anyone has. I hope I've included all the relevant facts, and that it's not too long!
Thanks.
