Issue with TPE refund

[gray1404]

I booked 2 Advance singles on the TPE site (£9.30 each) totaling £18.60 on 13 March for travel on 11 April and 14 April.

I was unable to travel and successfully submitted a refund application on 22 April (1 confirmation received with a case reference number) which was approved by TPE on 24 April. I received 5 emails from TPE. 2 relating to each of the 2 single tickets and a final one with the original case reference.

1. Refund confirmation giving a refund ID (1 for each single ticket), amount refunded £9.30 and £0.00 admin fee

2. Refund completed email giving the same information as the first emails, except under amount refunded it says "%RefundAmount" (rather then £9.30 I suspect this may be the cause of the problem I am experiencing.

3. A final email with the original refund case reference number saying that they have confirmed a refund for £18.60

I paid for the tickets using PayPal. When you submit a TPE refund claim you also have to provide a fallback method for which I provided my debit card number. They say will refund the original payment method and use the fallback if necessary.

I have not received £18.60 back as a PayPal refund or as a refund onto my debit card. I have checked my PayPal account and online bank. I contacted TPE via WhatsApp on 1 May and was told my refund has been sent back to the original payment method but they would send a message to the Refunds Team and they would get back to me within 24 hours.

This never happened so I contacted TPE again on 2 May on WhatsApp and was told it can take a few days to hear back from the Refunds Team so to contact them again if I haven't heard anything.

As the refund was approved on 24 April I am concerned there is a problem. What are my options here? My thoughts are:

1. Wait to hear back from TPE?
2. Raise a dispute on PayPal
3. Raise a chargeback claim with my bank (as I used PayPal to bill my Visa card directly)

I would appreciate any advice as this seems unusual.

 

[Watershed]

As these were Advance tickets they would normally be non-refundable. I presume TPE made an exception due to e.g. medical evidence showing you were unfit to travel?

I would give TPE a few more days and if you still haven't heard anything, raise a complaint. That often seems to be the only way to "unblock" things.

A PayPal dispute may or may not be successful - I am really not familiar with their rules, but I've heard plenty of stories of bizarre/unreasonable decisions involving PayPal.

There wouldn't be any mileage in a chargeback for the PayPal transaction. By using PayPal as an intermediary, AIUI you are legally speaking topping up your PayPal account with e-money which is then used for the transaction. The service was delivered (as the e-money was delivered) so there would be no grounds for a debit card chargeback.

 

[gray1404]

TPE approved the refund as I provided medical evidence.

I didn't top up my PayPal account with credit but I did use PayPal account to provide my Visa card details to charge the transaction.

The issue here is I have had confirmation of a refund but it hasn't been received.

 

[scrapy]

According to PayPal terms and conditions, most refunds take less than 5 working days, some take up to 30 days. They go on to say it's usually credit cards that take longer due to billing cycles, but debit card refunds can take 10 working days. If no refund received by 9th May (accounting for the bank holiday and 2 weekends), I'd take it up with paypal.

 

[Watershed]

TPE approved the refund as I provided medical evidence.

Ok, that explains that part.

I didn't top up my PayPal account with credit but I did use PayPal account to provide my Visa card details to charge the transaction.

Legally speaking, I believe it is still the case that you are buying e-money from PayPal which they top your account up with, and which is then used for the onward payment.

Hence why you do not have any grounds for a chargeback with your bank. It is always better, in my experience, to pay merchants directly as this avoids involving additional middlemen.

The issue here is I have had confirmation of a refund but it hasn't been received.

Indeed but it's TPE you need to pursue. It seems highly unlikely the issue lies at PayPal's end.

 

[gray1404]

Update: I logged onto my TPE account and it was saying the booking was refunded to PayPal. Yet on my PayPal account it is not showing as refunded.

I could see this dragging on so decided to raise a dispute with PayPal as my understanding was you have to wait a couple of weeks before you can esculate to PayPal once raising a dispute (gives the buyer and seller a chance to sort things out).

I filled out the form and provided screen shots of all of the above. Once I submitted this I received an instant refund from PayPal as credit onto my PayPal account with the case being found in my favour. I instantly transferred the money into my bank account. So I'm happy with this as it saves me spending hours chasing this with TPE.

Although the PayPal automation worked in my favour this time, moving forward I think I'll pay with my credit card directly. Had PayPal not found in my favour, I could have faced a lot of work chasing a small amount.

I am still perplexed as to why the refund TPE are saying they sent never arrived. I do not know if the instant refund was PayPal or TPE doing. I am not going to complain further to TPE as the medical refund was at their discretion and I've had my money now. I've messaged them simply saying I've now had the refund I was expecting and they replied thanking me for letting them know. I don't want to be wrongly accused of trying to recover money I've already had at a later date.