What to Do When a Company Won't Refund You

When a company refuses to refund you, stop negotiating and go to whoever moved the money. Your bank or card provider can reverse the payment without the company's consent, and on a credit card purchase over £100 they are jointly liable for the whole thing by law.

The mistake that costs people the claim: spending months in email with the retailer. Chargeback runs out at around 120 days. People discover the route long after the window closed, having been strung along by a company that had every reason to keep them talking.

Escalate on a clock, not on patience.

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Step 1: establish what you are actually owed

Refusing a refund is not automatically wrong. Your rights depend on why you want the money back.

Faulty, not as described, or not fit for purpose. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a 30-day right to reject for a full refund. After 30 days the retailer gets one attempt to repair or replace; if that fails you can claim a refund, which may be reduced for use after six months.

Changed your mind, bought online. The Consumer Contracts Regulations give you 14 days from delivery to cancel most online orders, and another 14 days to return the goods. This does not apply to bespoke items, perishables, or unsealed hygiene products.

Changed your mind, bought in a shop. You have no legal right to a refund at all. The shop's own returns policy is the whole of it.

Service not performed with reasonable care and skill. You can require it to be redone, or a price reduction if that is not possible.

Being clear which one applies matters, because the wrong claim gives the company an easy refusal.

Step 2: put it in writing, once

One clear written complaint, dated, stating what you bought, what went wrong, which right you are relying on, and what you want. Give a deadline — 14 days is standard and reasonable.

Email is fine and creates the record. The point is not persuasion; it is evidence for whoever handles it next.

Do not send a sequence of increasingly frustrated messages. One letter and a deadline is worth more than twenty emails, and it is what the Ombudsman will want to see.

Step 3: go around them

This is the part most people never reach.

Credit card, item £100–£30,000: Section 75. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card provider jointly and severally liable with the retailer for breach of contract or misrepresentation. You can claim the full amount from the card company directly, and they cannot send you back to the retailer.

The £100 threshold is the cash price of the item, not what you put on the card. A £50 deposit by credit card on a £2,000 kitchen brings the whole £2,000 into scope. You have six years to claim, five in Scotland.

Debit card, or under £100: chargeback. Your bank asks the retailer's bank to reverse the payment. It is a card scheme rule rather than a statutory right, so it can be defended and declined — but it is free, fast, and works on debit cards where Section 75 does not. Usually 120 days, counted from the transaction or from when you expected delivery.

Bank transfer. The weakest position, which is why sellers who insist on transfers are worth being wary of. If you were deceived into paying, the APP reimbursement rules may apply. If the trader is real and simply let you down, this is a civil dispute and the bank cannot reverse it.

Step 4: if the company has gone bust

The claim is often better, not worse.

Section 75 is unaffected by the retailer's insolvency — the card provider remains liable in full. Chargeback also survives, and "the company has ceased trading" is a strong basis for it.

Do not write off money because the business folded. That is precisely the situation Section 75 exists for.

Step 5: the Ombudsman

If your bank or card provider refuses the claim, complain to them in writing. They have eight weeks to give a final response.

Then take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free, within six months of that final response. That six-month deadline is strict and it is the one most commonly missed, usually because people were still arguing with the firm while it ran down.

Note who the Ombudsman covers: your bank or card provider, not the retailer. If the shop is the problem and no card claim exists, the Ombudsman cannot help.

If the retailer is the only route left

Where no card claim applies, the remaining options are the trader's own complaints process, an ADR scheme if their sector has one, and the small claims track of the county court.

Small claims covers most consumer disputes up to £10,000 in England and Wales, is designed to be used without a solicitor, and the fee is recoverable if you win. A letter making clear you intend to file often produces a refund on its own.

Trading Standards does not resolve individual disputes, but reporting through Citizens Advice feeds it, and patterns get acted on.

What not to do

Do not call it fraud if it is not. A trader who let you down is a contract dispute. Claiming an unauthorised transaction on a payment you knowingly made collapses when the evidence comes back, and it damages the credible part of your case.

Do not accept a credit note when you are owed a refund. Where you have a legal right to a refund, a voucher is not a substitute, and accepting one can end the claim.

Do not miss the clocks while being reasonable. Nothing stops you from starting a chargeback while still talking to the company. Start the claim, then keep negotiating.