Exactly a decade ago — April 2012 — I began a consumer column with the words: “If you own a credit card, there’s a good chance you’ve been using it for years without ever having heard the term ‘chargeback’, much less understood how it could work for you.”
I went on to say that chargeback is a “wonderful consumer protection”, offered by banks and their credit card company partners, because it’s an effective means of being refunded if you don’t get what you paid for with your credit card.
You can also apply for chargeback in the case of billing errors, duplicate charges or fraudulent transactions. Essentially, your payment is reversed if your application is successful.
“So, for example, if you make an internet purchase with your credit card and the item doesn’t arrive, or is not what you ordered or is defective, and the seller won’t refund you, you can apply to your bank for chargeback.
“But there’s relatively little consumer awareness of chargeback in this country,” I wrote, “so many consumers have suffered a loss when they could have applied to the bank that issued their credit card for chargeback”.
It was in early March 2012 that it became clear that budget airline Velvet Sky was in trouble, and that’s when I began advising my readers about chargeback and exactly how to go about applying for it, having sourced specific information from each of the four major banks.
We encourage our customers to attempt to resolve the dispute with the merchant first and, if that proves unsuccessful, to approach the bank.
— Trish Ramdhani, FNB Card Fraud head
And it was hugely gratifying when many people emailed me to say that they’d followed my advice and been refunded.
Veenay Bennideen applied for chargeback at First National Bank, having had no response from Velvet Sky to his request for a refund.
“The chargeback was successful and I got all my money back,” he told me at the time. “Thank you sincerely for your advice and support in this matter. I would never have known about this option were it not for your advice.”
I’ve been going on about chargeback ever since because many cardholders are still unaware of it.
When Comair’s domestic British Airways flights and Kulula flights were cancelled for five days a month ago — due to the Civil Aviation Authority’s suspension of Comair’s operating licence — and Kulula customers were emphatically told that they would not be getting refunds, I advised those affected to apply to their banks for chargeback if they paid by credit card.
Keith Goulding was among the many affected Kulula customers, and did just that.
But he was given a firm no.
“The bank is unable to intervene on your behalf as this is between you and the merchant,” he was told. “Thus, the matter cannot be resolved by anyone other than you and the merchant.”
While another affected passenger tweeted: “Yay, Absa credit card charges reversed. Thank you Absa.”
So I asked FNB on what grounds Goulding’s and presumably other passenger’s chargeback disputes were declined without explanation.
The head of FNB’s Card Fraud, Trish Ramdhani, told me: “We advise all our customers to first try to resolve the issue with the merchant before filing a dispute with the bank.”
But when Goulding applied for chargeback, Comair was on record — on multiple media platforms — as saying that affected Kulula passengers would not be refunded.
Pressed for more information, I was told: “We encourage our customers to attempt to resolve the dispute with the merchant first, and if that proves unsuccessful, to approach the bank.”
And then: “We are assisting with the chargeback currently.”
Interestingly, Comair changed its mind about refunding a week later and announced that Kulula customers would be refunded, if that’s what they wanted.
But they would have to be patient, as it could take up to 10 weeks for the money to make its way back into their credit card accounts.
And that makes the chargeback route a lot more appealing.
Clearly, in some cases, persistence is required for successful chargebacks.
Are pets covered by the Consumer Protection Act’s warranty?
That’s what Jody wanted to know from me.
“My two sons, aged 19 and 14, purchased a puppy without my permission,” she wrote.
“I returned the dog to the pet store within half an hour, but they are refusing to give me a refund. Do I have any legal recourse?”
No, she doesn’t.
Even if pets were covered by the warranty section of the CPA, the pet shop wouldn’t have been obliged to take back that poor pup, not unless it was “defective” or unfit for purpose in some way.
But as I discovered many years ago, even if a poorly bred puppy is sold with an existing, potentially fatal disease, there is still no recourse, because the pets don’t fall under the CPA’s definition of “goods”.
CONTACT WENDY: E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer
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