Newspaper used my card without my permission!

[Luxury Beauty]

Hiya everyone

Last week i placed an advert in my local newspaper. I paid for it on my personal account because my business account was in the process of being opened. I asked the lady that the following week can i give new card details as it will be coming out of my business account which the lady replied 'well what we actually do is for every advert you place you have to tell us your card details every time as the computer automatically deletes them at the end of the publishing day'.

So i thought ok thats great she will give me a call the following week to discuss my 2nd advert and to take payment details. With this newspaper i was placing 4 adverts and getting another 4 for free. So this week i was quite busy and didnt recieve a call, just an email confirming my 2nd advert. There was no mention of payment. I just thought either she will call me to take payment or its my free advert!

This morning i got a letter from my bank (personal account) saying that i was over my agreed overdraft by £77 and that they were charging me £15 for going over my authorised overdraft but they are also charging me £20 a day until i pay back the £77! I thought ok i havnt bought anything on the card this week. So i called up the bank and found out that the newspaper had taken out money for the 2nd advert!

I was so peeved! Not only did the bank refuse to do anything about it, oh, because i have dealt with them and its better for me to take it up with them. Which i then argued back saying well what if the newspaper dont refund me the charges i have incurred? I will be out of pocket of at least £75!

So then i phoned the girl directly on her mobile saying that i didnt not give anyone permission or consent to use my card and not only that, my card details werent deleted off your system. I also mentioned that i have incurred charges on my account and that i specifically said i wanted to pay on my business account for any other adverts. I also said that if the newspaper dont refund me and give me back the charges that have incurred on my account, i will involve my solicitor.

Sorry for the nag but its not nice waking up on a saturday morning to see those horrible charges on your account!

What does everyone else think? Anything else i should do?

xx

 

[hippy-chick]

that is terrible isn't it.

You have done the right thing by getting onto them straight away.

theres a website called consumer rights, its free to use, and they specialise in things like this. fill in the form with as much detail as possible and they will answer within a week. (I contacted them about vistaprint taking money out of my account every month saying I had agreed to their membership)

ring the woman from the paper again and tell them that you are in talks with consumer rights and your next step will be Trades Description and a lawyer.

Note down the date, time and the person you speak to, what they said, what you said. tell them that you are noting down these facts for the lawyer. Tell her you will ring everyday until it is resolved and that you will also bill them for the phone calls to a mobile.

You may find that they pay you back your costs, etc, without any more fuss. At the end of the day, what you are dealing with are salespeople who are told not to give refunds unless they have too.

 

[ValencianNails]

I work in sales for a magazine, we would never take money off a card without explicit permission from the client beforehand.
We keep their card details on our invoicing system as a record of payment only, when they renew their advertising we ask them if we can use the same card as previously and tell them the expiry date and last 4 digits, they either agree or give us a different card.

I think the way they have behaved is disgusting and totally unprofessional.

Apart from what hippy-chick suggests (which is a good idea), you can also contact Citizens Advice.
Good Luck :hug: and let us know how it goes.