Thread: Chargeback in Process ...very nervous

Hey all,

I recently graduated college, got married, got a house and made a big, stupid purchase - a hot tub. Checked out the company and it was an established company, not just online but in "real life". They had been business for 5 years. I bought the tub, $4250.00 approximately. 6 weeks later...9 weeks later..12 weeks later.. not here. of course I'm frantically contacting the company during this time.

anyway. made a chargeback a few days before the 120 day deadline.

i now have a provisional credit in my account for the purchase. my question:

i feel like there is no possible way i can "lose" this dispute - submitted so much evidence, police report, etc.. BUT if the merchant has closed his account or if he has cleaned out his account or if he has filed for bankruptcy and left the country....will I get my money back? or do i take the loss for that?

i realize that possible just a few weeks and I'll find out, but i've heard it could take 90 days before this thing is closed.... and im wanting to buy a new hot tub - LOCALLY, of course.

thanks for your insight. its been a stressful couple of months.

You'll most likely lose the money if they cleaned their account out and left the country. You can pretty much get the money that you're owed if they have it in their account.

Originally Posted by ep7735

Hey all,

I recently graduated college, got married, got a house and made a big, stupid purchase - a hot tub. Checked out the company and it was an established company, not just online but in "real life". They had been business for 5 years. I bought the tub, $4250.00 approximately. 6 weeks later...9 weeks later..12 weeks later.. not here. of course I'm frantically contacting the company during this time.

anyway. made a chargeback a few days before the 120 day deadline.

i now have a provisional credit in my account for the purchase. my question:

i feel like there is no possible way i can "lose" this dispute - submitted so much evidence, police report, etc.. BUT if the merchant has closed his account or if he has cleaned out his account or if he has filed for bankruptcy and left the country....will I get my money back? or do i take the loss for that?

i realize that possible just a few weeks and I'll find out, but i've heard it could take 90 days before this thing is closed.... and im wanting to buy a new hot tub - LOCALLY, of course.

thanks for your insight. its been a stressful couple of months.

You have mentioned that the company from whom you purchased the tub was an established company. You can take action on them. Putting chargebacks will not be helping you in this regard. You should get a lawyer too in order to reach their headquarters. The money you have sent isn't less, and therefore you will surely be helped by government. Take full help of police and law, I am sure your money will be returned fully. Don't worry.

if i am getting it right.... you are saying that you waited, but did not get the hot tub and the merchant could have gone bankrupt. If this is right, then you have right to win this dispute by chargeback. If the merchant has gone bust they you may also check if there is any liquidator.........

In this kind of situation, you'll probably lose the money and get nothing as a return, as Jerlene has mentioned above...

No matter what, I still wish that you can win this dispute and managed to claim the chargeback...

If the dispute chargeback rights are used properly by the bank, then our friend's dispute could be won..........If the merchant agrees to provide service or merchandise, but goes bust before providing it, then i don't see any reason why customer should be held liable for that.......

Well, chandra. Like you said, "If the merchant agrees to provide service or merchandise..." What if the merchant doesn't agree with it? Thus, there are many possibilities in this case...

When the merchant has not even agreed to provide merchandise or service, then in the first place, there would not be any transaction...... ep7735 would not have paid money to merchant for doing nothing.....since money has been given by ep7735, there should have been some binding contract, which has been violated and hence the dispute.

i must also agree with chandramouli9779. i too think that ep7735 would not have paid money to merchant for doing nothing. the problem was that there hasnt been contract.

Originally Posted by chandramouli9779

If the dispute chargeback rights are used properly by the bank, then our friend's dispute could be won..........If the merchant agrees to provide service or merchandise, but goes bust before providing it, then i don't see any reason why customer should be held liable for that.......

Chandra is 100% correct.

In any chargeback, the money is taken by Visa / MasterCard / AmEx from the merchant's merchant account bank. It is irrelevant whether or not the merchant has any funds or is bankrupt because the credit card associations take the money from the bank. It is then up to the bank to recover the money from the merchant's actual account, if at all possible. If the bank cannot recover the money from the merchant, it is the bank that bites the bullet.

This is one reason why most merchant account banks will hold a "reserve" which equals a percentage of the merchant's credit card receipts as a guaranty against getting stuck with chargebacks that they cannot recover from the merchant.