Question about refunds

Question about refunds

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This isn't an accountancy question, but relates to a personal issue which I hoped to get some clarification on (and possibly a nice bit of legislation to quote if applicable).

Three weeks ago we used a car park we had not used before.  It was a long stay car park which quoted a price of £7.60 for all day parking.  We put £7.60 cash into the machine, pressed the green button and got a ticket for two hours parking.  My husband called the telephone number on the machine for assistance and they explained that the machine also serviced the neighbouring short stay car park which has a maximum stay of two hours and presumes a ticket is for that car park unless you press a particular button on the machine.  It wasn't very clear from the machine, but when we read the small print on the parking notice it did say this.  As we had no other cash and the machine also accepted cards, we followed the instructions given by the lady on the telephone and used a debit card to buy another ticket, this time taking care to press the correct button on the machine before commencing the transaction.  After I had put my pin number in, the machine read "transaction cancelled", returned my card, did not issue a ticket and then froze and would not work.  The lady on the telephone advised us to use a different machine which we did and everything worked.  A couple of days later when I checked my internet banking, we had been charged twice on the debit card.  This meant that overall, to park for the day we had paid £7.60 three times over.  I accept that the initial cash payment was our fault for not reading the small print on the machine (but in reality, who ever reads that?), however being charged twice on my debit card was not our fault at all and due to a faulty machine.

I contacted the parking company to raise the issue with them and ask for a refund of the overpaid money and after sending the appropriate evidence of overpayment they finally wrote back to me today saying that they do not have the facility to refund money to customers (seems unlikely) however can offer me a days free parking, provided I give at least 24 hours notice of when I intend to use the free parking.

Whilst I appreciate it is only £7.60, on principle I object to this.  I am aware that if a customer overpays a supplier, the supplier cannot insist on holding the balance on account against future transactions but must refund the money if it is requested.  I am unsure if this would apply to my situation and what the relevant legislation is if it would?  I know this is quite a petty matter, but it's really riled me up and I would be very grateful for any insight anyone could give.  Personally, I think £7.60 is a bit steep for parking in a rural town, let alone the £22.80 it ended up costing me!

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

Replies (4)

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By cparker87
23rd Sep 2015 22:13

Move on

I would have charged you more than £22.60 for reading this. Whilst I am all for sticking it to the man I prefer my principles to be a little more valuable. 

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Flag of the Soviet Union
By thevaliant
23rd Sep 2015 22:18

Incorrect forum
This is not the correct forum at all for such a question. Try Pepipoo.

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By Tim Vane
24th Sep 2015 00:26

Just ring your bank, tell them the car park charged you twice for the same transaction and insist that the money be repaid. With such a small amount the bank will probably just do a charge back to the parking company and let the parking company dispute it if they want to.

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Replying to Red Leader:
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By bernard michael
24th Sep 2015 10:15

Parsimonious parking problem producing partial penury

Tim Vane wrote:

Just ring your bank, tell them the car park charged you twice for the same transaction and insist that the money be repaid. With such a small amount the bank will probably just do a charge back to the parking company and let the parking company dispute it if they want to.

If that fails try wasting more time and money by suing them. I suggest if you do then do it online because if it got in front of a judge he would express his opinion of the time waste in stringent terms

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