Getting a credit card refund

[WanderinRoy]

I thought I would share with the group my experience getting a refund from my credit card company. I had signed up early for the box set, and got the $99 price and free shipping and was charged $20 for a deposit. Like everyone else, I was then charged for the rest of the amount without the set being shipped, and later double billed. I was very patient about this since it still looked like AU had exclusive rights to the set, and I figured that everything would eventually be sorted out. It wasn’t until I finally saw the set listed on Amazon at far less than the AU price that I finally gave up on them.

It took three phone calls to my credit card company, and I had to tell the whole story twice with each phone call, but they finally credited me the full amount I was owed by AU, the $20 deposit amount, and both $80 order completion amounts.

During each call to the credit card company, I stressed the following facts:

AU had billed the first $80 completion amount without shipping. That they then double billed me, but still without shipping. That they had done this, not just to me, but to thousands of other people. That they had repeatedly missed announced shipping dates, and that this is the reason that so much time had gone by without these charges being disputed, because AU had repeatedly told customers that they were on top of the situation, and that everything would be taken care of. I had gotten a response from AU that the refund was being “processed” but weeks and then months had gone by with no refund. And finally, the exclusive rights had become a fiction, and this box set was being sold for half the price as Au’s set, or even a third of AU’s price. (see DeepDiscount).

The end result was that even though months had gone by, my credit card company did give me a full refund. (I never did get any kind of refund from AU).

I now have a copy of the box from BestBuy for $59, but I have not opened it yet, and if DeepDiscount can get me a set for $45, I may go that route. I am still surprised that everybody has not cancelled their AU order. The lunch box and bonus disc are certainly not worth an extra $75. If the lunch box vendor continues to have problems with AU, they should just make the lunchbox available for sale to people who have picked up a copy of the box set from somewhere else.

I just wanted to let people in the group know that in spite of what you hear about not being able to get a refund from the credit card company after so much time, a little persistence will pay off.