'Tis the season to be jolly, but purchasing expensive consumer
goods with a credit card is not folly.
There may be statutes and court cases that demonstrate that
you have rights as a consumer, but that is not very much use when
you complain about faulty/defective products (or services) to the
company that sold them to you and they tell you it's not their
problem. But buying with a credit
card gives you extra protection legally and
tactically.
If you spend more than £100 but less than £30,000, even if it's
just the deposit, whether on a sports car, boat, television,
camera, or hammock, the credit card company (ie. Visa, Barclaycard
etc.), are equally liable under section 75 of the Consumer Credit
Act. This means that you can complain to your card issuer
rather than that intimidating chap at the car supermarket, or your
local gadget retailer. In fact you don't even need to
complain to the company that sold it to you at all.
Why write to the credit card company?
They are more powerful than you realise and any retailer
who uses a credit facility must play by the credit card company's
rules which includes sorting out such complaints quickly, and also
probably paying all of visa's legal costs if you issue a
small claim in the county court. See our FREE GUIDE
One example is cancelled flights. I was supposed to be
flying to Kenya this Christmas to work with a charity. I
booked the flight with KLM online (£400), and later confirmed the
flight only to be told one month later that their partner, Air
France, had cancelled the Paris-Nairobi flight. I asked for a
refund or to be put on another flight but KLM (or at least their
call centre) insisted that it was not their problem but Air
France's.
I was forced to buy alternate flights and
have just returned but am now £400 out of pocket. No refund, no
apology and no flight.
I know my rights are strong but KLM have
been dismissive. As a very real life example I will issue a
claim in my local county court costing about £30 and I am going to
name Visa as the defendant not KLM. Visa will pass this to
their expensive lawyers at about £300 an hour and KLM will be told
to foot this bill. My guess is that they will settle my claim
rather quickly.
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