Help: Amunt refunded from a US company not received yet.

Hello Tia.

Welcome to Expat.com!

Hope you'll be helped by other members soon.

Thank you,
Aurélie

Hi Tia

Very sorry to hear about your situation. Which company/school did you enrol with? If it is an accredited, established academic institution, you will probably get your money refunded - eventually. Unfortunately, this sort of questionable business activity happens all the time in the US.

My advice is that your acquaintance should report the credit card as lost and get a new one immediately - with a new number. Once a company/institution gets your cc#, they all seem to feel entitled to charge you for anything they see fit. Often, the charges are buried in the fine print on their website or in some form they may have sent to you by email. Then, they often make it as difficult as possible to request a refund or get your money back. This is all part of the business model, so don't take it personally. Americans have been putting up with this greedy institutional behaviour for more than 20 years, and every American has to deal with this sort of problem frequently.

You will need to contact the billing office for the institution (after the cc has been cancelled) and request a refund. They will probably be very difficult to deal with, and you should probably ask for help in writing the letter or email. Many billing reps (representatives) will ignore your email complaint if they have difficulty understanding what you have written.

Finally, your friend should contact his/her bank that issued the credit card and dispute all charges. Here, again, you will have to explain the reason(s) for disputing the charge. Many banks will not assist you however, unless you have contacted the merchant and have tried to resolve the issue first. Be advised that you have a very limited window of opportunity to dispute charges (60 or 90 days, maximum).

Good luck.

>>You will need to contact the billing office for the institution (after the cc has been cancelled)

Actually, I realised this would be a problem - if the card has been cancelled, they will not be able to refund/reverse the charges.

I think your acquaintance should notify the bank immediately to prevent any future charges, and then contact the institution immediately to request a refund.

One more thing - you stated that it has been 4 days since you requested a refund - you should realize this can take a while - sometimes weeks.

@Aurelie Thank you very much!

@RosettaJones
Though the school refused a refund when I first asked , they eventually agreed for the refund and sent a bill confirming refund (with transaction ID) and a mail saying that they have refunded the amount. After 4 days I again mailed them inquiring abt the refund they affirmed the refund and attached my enrollment sheet where the charges for deduction and refund are mentioned. So I feel that is not the problem.
It should be a problem with the bank back home. I should probably give it a week's time(not counting weekends) before moving a complaint. Is this right?

aurouscythe wrote:

@Aurelie Thank you very much!

@RosettaJones
Though the school refused a refund when I first asked , they eventually agreed for the refund and sent a bill confirming refund (with transaction ID) and a mail saying that they have refunded the amount. After 4 days I again mailed them inquiring abt the refund they affirmed the refund and attached my enrollment sheet where the charges for deduction and refund are mentioned. So I feel that is not the problem.
It should be a problem with the bank back home. I should probably give it a week's time(not counting weekends) before moving a complaint. Is this right?

Hi Tia

Refunds can be slow to process, but you should ask the person you communicated with how long it will take. Hopefully you are communicating by email so you have a record. If not, I would email them to verify that you have understood them correctly (you can claim English as a second language - that should help), and ask them to confirm your understanding of what they have promised to do. You should ask them to give you a specific date or timeline for when the charge will be refunded to the credit card.

If the refund has not been received by the expected/promised date, you should contact the school/vendor again to advise them that the refund still has not been received. Depending on their answer, I would give it an additional week to be safe.

You need to be mindful of the dispute period allowed by the credit card or bank. I think it is still 90 days from the transaction date for Visa/MC in the US, but you should contact the bank to confirm. American Express may be longer, but I don't recall. If you don't receive the refund after patiently waiting, communicating, and documenting the process, hopefully there would still be time left to dispute the charge(s). If after an additional 7 days, I would definitely file a dispute with the bank where the credit card is issued. You have done all that you can at this point.