What to do when a shop forgets to charge you?

[cwathen]

At my work our card terminal is separate to the EPOS system, so it is entirely possible to charge one amount to a customer's card and present them with a receipt saying something completely different (although the customer gets a card receipt aswell to confirm what they have been charged).

We did once have an incident where a customer was chronically undercharged (entering 199.99 instead of 1999.99 into the termminal).

This wasn't noticed at the time and the customer left having only paid 10% of what he owed. We contacted the customer apologising for the mistake and asked them to come in to pay the rest. The customer flatly refused.

We thought it would be a simple matter to take the customer to court to collect the sum - actually not. The customer could 'prove' that he paid the whole lot - he had an authentic receipt saying so. We couldn't prove otherwise - all our records showed was that £199.99 was taken from a card matching that customer's details, which doesn't in itself prove anything - he could have used alternative payment for the rest or someone else could have paid for on his behalf.

We ended up having to absorb the loss and never did get the rest of the money out of the customer.

Being that you've got a receipt saying that you've paid up in full, you could argue on the same lines, refuse to pay the rest, and gamble that they won't be able to prove otherwise (it's also extremely unlikely that they'd take someone to court for the sake of recovering £150 - if they lost the legal action would cost them more than the debt is worth).

You are of course comitting fraud and are in serious shit if this is proved, so it's up to you to wrestle with your conscience over this.

I wouldn't worry too much about threats of debt collectors - the transaction didn't take place under a credit account which would make it somewhat difficult for them to damage your credit rating. Even if it did get assigned to someone, debt collection agencies are nothing but playground bullies - they might make nasty phone calls and send threatening letters - but as soon as anyone challenges them on their own terms they are easily scared away. Sending a copy of your receipt, asking for their proof that the debt is owed and quoting your rights should do the trick.

[cdd]

You are of course comitting fraud and are in serious shit if this is proved, so it's up to you to wrestle with your conscience over this.

Actually I'd say not. There's no requirement to incriminate yourself, he doesn't need to say admit anything - merely insist that they prove otherwise.

If that letter from the branch manager is copied word-for-word though, you might consider editing it to paraphrase it instead. Just the paranoia talking, but it might be worth hiding from google.

[DAS]

I've opted for a middle-of-the-road "What do you mean? I have a receipt! Did your cashier make a mistake? Of course I realise I must pay, but I hope you appreciate I didn't budget for this, and I'm rather taken aback by your mention of legal action. Could you confirm how much you want me to pay exactly?" sort of thing. I'll report back any interesting developments.

[Gavin Scott]

I've opted for a middle-of-the-road "What do you mean? I have a receipt! Did your cashier make a mistake? Of course I realise I must pay, but I hope you appreciate I didn't budget for this, and I'm rather taken aback by your mention of legal action. Could you confirm how much you want me to pay exactly?" sort of thing. I'll report back any interesting developments.

Well that's the reasonable thing to do, but it won't leave you better off.

I've used the "I've not budgeted for this" when speaking to the bank about a badly timed (late) standing order - and was told that I "must have" realised the money would be drawn, and so was my responsibility not to overspend. Which is true, and made me look like a mug.

Not that I'm being all, "take my advice god dammit!" - can you imagine if that was me - but unless you argue the technicality that they ought to have known the transaction was successful at the time (as the DPA dictates), then you're acknowledging a debt (and concluding a "Dispute" - which prevents collections agencies becoming involved by law) and will be bound by their terms for repayment. They may want it in a oner, right there and then, as they have your word to that in writing.

If they're storing card details for some nebulous period (days?) before processing, then they shouldn't be, so on that basis alone you can tell them they can whistle for it.