I know I didn’t – I was really careful with the account details. Now they’re not responding to my calls. What can I do?
Joanne, Co Westmeath
A If the business denies receiving your money and is now not answering your calls, there is a strong chance that you were not dealing with a genuine firm. Unfortunately, this type of online scam seems to be happening a lot lately.
You should contact your bank as soon as possible to see if they can help you recover your money.
Be aware, though, that in Ireland, your bank is not required to recover a bank transfer payment that you have authorised, whether online or at a counter, even if the payment was made to a fraudulent account.
However, several European laws are expected to help address the issue of fraud through bank transfers.
For instance, the EU’s new Instant Payments Regulation, which came into effect on October 9, requires banks and other payment service providers to check the name and the international bank account number (Iban) of an account that’s due to receive a payment before they process a transfer. They must alert customers if the details don’t match.
The EU’s upcoming updated Payment Services Directive and Payment Services Regulation will include further measures – such as refunds for customers who’ve been defrauded by someone impersonating their own bank if there’s been no “gross negligence”.
In the UK, most banks have already agreed since early October 2024 to refund bank transfers if a customer believed the transaction wasn’t genuine and if they weren’t careless when making the payment.
While the refund policy has some restrictions, it goes further than much of the existing EU legislation and offers a template for how banks in EU countries might address the issue in future.
But until then, our advice is to report a scam or fraud to the gardaí and to your bank as soon as possible.
If you see an ad on social media, always contact the company directly or search for its website independently – and not through the ad – to check if an offer is genuine. You can find more advice on avoiding scams at www.ccpc.ie/consumers/money/scams/.
Businesses must deliver goods within the period you agreed with them. Photo: Getty
A bed I ordered online in August still hasn’t arrived. Can I get a refund?
Q I ordered and paid for a bed and mattress from an Irish website in mid-August, paying extra for assembly and delivery of the bed.
When placing the order, I didn’t notice that the items were out of stock. The furniture store then advised me that the items wouldn’t be in stock until mid-September. Then in early September, they told me that while the mattress was in their warehouse, the bed base wouldn’t be available until the end of September.
I’m still waiting for delivery and I’ve just sent the retailer another follow-up message. But I’m fed up of the uncertainty and want to cancel the entire order and buy the items from another store that can deliver immediately. Am I within my rights to do that?
Niall, Co Offaly
A Under consumer law, businesses must deliver goods within the period you agreed with them. A delivery period is typically included in the item’s online listing and you can take that into account before you place an order. If no specific date or period was agreed, the business must deliver still the goods within 30 days of your order.
When a business fails to deliver within an agreed time, you should first give them extra time to make the delivery.
But it appears you’ve already been in contact with the business more than once about delivery.
You also exercised your legal right to insist that all the items be delivered together, since you hadn’t agreed to receive the mattress before the bed.
Because it’s been more than 30 days since you placed your order, you have a legal right to cancel your order and request a full refund. The store must give the refund without undue delay.
Contact the store with details of your order, provide a summary of the contact you’ve made with the store since you placed the order (including dates of the contacts), and request a refund, citing how the store has been unable to deliver the goods within the additional period you allowed.
If you’re unable to resolve your issue or secure a refund, contact your debit or credit card provider about getting a chargeback on your card. Please note that there’s a time limit for requesting a chargeback and that each card issuer has its own time limits.
If the store doesn’t respond to your satisfaction and a chargeback isn’t possible, you can lodge a claim with the small claims procedure, which handles claims worth €2,000 or less.
Gráinne Griffin is director of communications at the CCPC. ?Email questions to gabrielle.monaghan@independent.ie
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