Holidaymakers face legal action from agents for fraudulent chargebacks

Agents are threatening to sue customers who submit fraudulent chargeback requests for cancelled holidays after seeing thousands of pounds whipped from their bank accounts by card companies.

One agent has already reported a customer to Action Fraud after they filed a successful chargeback request weeks after she’d refunded them.

Another agent, Janine de Silva of Waltham Travel in Lincolnshire, is threatening to sue her client after the woman submitted a chargeback for £350 following the collapse of the cruise line CMV in August even though the customer had cancelled her booking in March.

Janine said Worldpay had deducted the money from her account despite her sending them a letter signed by the client acknowledging that she would forfeit the £350 deposit if she cancelled. Janine had also sent proof that she had transferred the money to CMV, which subsequently ceased trading.

Worldpay refunded Janine when she contested the claim but the money was deducted from her account a second time after the client resubmitted her chargeback request. Worldpay has since closed her case, she says.

"I was told that the card issuer had declined my documentation. They said the case was decided on the fact that the customer has not receive the service they paid for, and the customer had claimed she wasn’t made aware of the T&Cs when she cancelled, which is nonsense."

Janine is now planning to write to the client warning her that unless she returns the money she will take her to the small claims court.

Customers ‘think chargebacks are paid by banks’

Worldpay has also taken more than £3000 from Janine’s account after another customer submitted a chargeback request for a holiday to the US for which she’s already been refunded. "She even emailed me to thank me for sorting out the refund on 22 October – and on 7 November she put in a chargeback request!"

While she’s confident Worldpay will refund her £3000, Janine pointed out that she won’t get the money back for several weeks, during which time she is racking up interest on her overdraft.

"I think customers don’t realise that it’s the agent that has to pay this money, they think it’s the banks who pay and they don’t care that it’s fraud," she said. "But if I lose this case I will take this customer to court because they’ve stolen this money."

Janine has also written to her MP to request action.

Several agents say they have successfully defended chargeback claims only for the card issuer to later reverse the decision and take the money back. Others say card issuers have ruled against them, even though they’ve provided proof that customers have been refunded.

Posting on the agent Facebook group Travel Gossip, one agent said she had lost three appeals but managed to get the money back direct from two clients, one of whom had actually deferred her holiday. One had accepted a voucher but still submitted a chargeback request.

ABTA has set up a helpline for agents, which offers 30 minutes free advice to agents dealing with chargeback requests.