A couple were left £1,300 out of pocket after trying to buy hotel vouchers online as Christmas presents.
Chris Ridley, of Seaham, has told of how his wife tried to buy three vouchers for Newcastle's Crowne Plaza hotel but the site kept displaying a "payment unsuccessful" message.
Mrs Ridley, who does not wish to be named, was trying to nab the £145.45 Vouchermine deal on black Friday when her online shopping went awry, reports ChronicleLive.
Every time she tried to pay for the vouchers, the error message showed up on the screen and it wasn't until the next day she realised she'd been charged.
When checking her account the next day she saw nine separate transactions totalling £1,309.05 to Vouchermine, which is run by a firm called Brookfield in Bristol.
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Mr Ridley, 31, claims it took the couple a week to be refunded the cash – and they were left with a hefty overdraft charge.
The couple were planning on buying two vouchers for a romantic break and another for Mrs Ridley's mum as a Christmas present.
"My wife saw an advertisement for a special offer and went to the Vouchermine website,” he said. “It seemed like quite a good deal.
“She said it wasn’t allowing the payment. She tried it on a couple of devices but it didn’t work."
The next day Mrs Ridley saw £1,309.05 had been taken from her account, putting her in an overdraft, for which she says her bank charged her an extra £32.
Mr Ridley claims it took days for his wife to get through to Brookfield to ask for a refund.
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The couple were furious they had to wait until the following Friday for their account to be refunded.
Brookfield managing director Richard Fifield offered a complimentary £65 spa voucher to the couple in recognition of the error but refused Mrs Ridley’s request that the firm covers her overdraft charges.
However, when the goodwill voucher arrived in the post the code didn't work.
“Luckily my wife checked online whether the code worked, and it turned out to be void,” Mr Ridley claimed.
“If we had turned up at the Crowne Plaza with that voucher, it would have been an embarrassment. We were very frustrated.”
Mr Fifield said Brookfield processes more than 150,000 successful online voucher transactions over the Black Friday and Christmas periods.
He added: “In this instance, we could not determine with Mrs Ridley the root of the transaction error.
“Once we were made aware that there was an error, we offered her two methods of repayment. She decided to take the longer option, and the funds could have been transferred back into her account on the same day.
“In recognition of the transaction error, we offered her a complimentary voucher to the value of £65 which in our view compensated for any bank charges she may have incurred – in this case, double the actual amount.
“As the correspondence indicates, she refused our offer.”
Mr Fifield described the case as “an object lesson” for customers.
He said: “If your card fails more than twice for an online transaction, do not keep entering your card details – contact the company concerned."
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