UK & Ireland Requesting a refund of deposit - Beware

[Marcusjames]

As some of you may have seen from earlier posts, after months of lies from Ineos, I cancelled my order and requested a refund. Ineos did not perform the required validation checks and transmitted the refund to a closed account. They promised they'd transferred £2,500 which, after two weeks, they then claimed was £2,050 (i.e. not including reservation fee). It's now been over 4 weeks and I've lost count of the emails and calls.

The card provider has supplied documented evidence that the funds were returned to Ineos. Today's email from Ineos states that they have made the transfer and will be closing the case. They accept the account is closed but refuse to anything about it. The Ombudsman states that only the merchant i.e. Ineos can rectify their mistake.

I know many of you have received cars and are happy with the treatment you've received. I wanted to highlight my story for any potential buyers considering placing an order. The contract they supply is not fit for purpose (removes right to cancel but has no quoted dated back-stop) and if you decide not to sign, you enter the ridiculous games I'm currently in. If you're going to order, I would recommend you mentally write-off the deposit as I doubt you'll ever see it returned.

8 years ago I had a horrendous experience after a cancelled Ryanair flight. I said at the time that nobody could ever trump that terrible service. I have finally found someone to take their pole position. In my humble opinion, Ineos Automotive need to be investigated by both the Motoring and Financial Ombudsman.

 

[Chris]

As some of you may have seen from earlier posts, after months of lies from Ineos, I cancelled my order and requested a refund. Ineos did not perform the required validation checks and transmitted the refund to a closed account. They promised they'd transferred £2,500 which, after two weeks, they then claimed was £2,050 (i.e. not including reservation fee). It's now been over 4 weeks and I've lost count of the emails and calls.

The card provider has supplied documented evidence that the funds were returned to Ineos. Today's email from Ineos states that they have made the transfer and will be closing the case. They accept the account is closed but refuse to anything about it. The Ombudsman states that only the merchant i.e. Ineos can rectify their mistake.

I know many of you have received cars and are happy with the treatment you've received. I wanted to highlight my story for any potential buyers considering placing an order. The contract they supply is not fit for purpose (removes right to cancel but has no quoted dated back-stop) and if you decide not to sign, you enter the ridiculous games I'm currently in. If you're going to order, I would recommend you mentally write-off the deposit as I doubt you'll ever see it returned.

8 years ago I had a horrendous experience after a cancelled Ryanair flight. I said at the time that nobody could ever trump that terrible service. I have finally found someone to take their pole position. In my humble opinion, Ineos Automotive need to be investigated by both the Motoring and Financial Ombudsman.

I feel for you, but nothing surprises me with Ineos!

 

[Tom D]

I think this is the same department responsible for swapping my order over to the car at the dealers. 5 weeks now I think it is, and nothing has happened. Nothing! I suspect that you will eventually get your money back. They are not malicious, just incompetent. I don't know whether there is only one man responsible for this and he's been off sick for a month or whether they have just employed a load of millennials who are too busy adding pronouns to their emails. Whatever the case the department responsible is broken.

 

[Marcusjames]

I think this is the same department responsible for swapping my order over to the car at the dealers. 5 weeks now I think it is, and nothing has happened. Nothing! I suspect that you will eventually get your money back. They are not malicious, just incompetent. I don't know whether there is only one man responsible for this and he's been off sick for a month or whether they have just employed a load of millennials who are too busy adding pronouns to their emails. Whatever the case the department responsible is broken.

Tom, sorry to hear you're also having problems. I accepted the incompetence back in 2022 as they were going through their set-up stage, but now it should be sorted. I have no doubt the money will eventually come, and interest is immaterial. I guess my frustration is the pure arrogance of them. Their customer service team have stopped replying to calls or emails. I get the feeling they want me to grovel for the money.

 

[sne]

As some of you may have seen from earlier posts, after months of lies from Ineos, I cancelled my order and requested a refund. Ineos did not perform the required validation checks and transmitted the refund to a closed account. They promised they'd transferred £2,500 which, after two weeks, they then claimed was £2,050 (i.e. not including reservation fee). It's now been over 4 weeks and I've lost count of the emails and calls.

The card provider has supplied documented evidence that the funds were returned to Ineos. Today's email from Ineos states that they have made the transfer and will be closing the case. They accept the account is closed but refuse to anything about it. The Ombudsman states that only the merchant i.e. Ineos can rectify their mistake.

I know many of you have received cars and are happy with the treatment you've received. I wanted to highlight my story for any potential buyers considering placing an order. The contract they supply is not fit for purpose (removes right to cancel but has no quoted dated back-stop) and if you decide not to sign, you enter the ridiculous games I'm currently in. If you're going to order, I would recommend you mentally write-off the deposit as I doubt you'll ever see it returned.

8 years ago I had a horrendous experience after a cancelled Ryanair flight. I said at the time that nobody could ever trump that terrible service. I have finally found someone to take their pole position. In my humble opinion, Ineos Automotive need to be investigated by both the Motoring and Financial Ombudsman.

I requested some days ago a refund of my advance payment made in mid February by cancellation of the order (2.500€). Ineos confirmed the next day that they will proceed the payment within 14 working days. I am looking forward to that and will report accordingly. In Germany the legal definition of working days is Monday through Saturday. Let’s wait and see. I will consider a new order for this great vehicle concept, once a solid and fault free series build standard is achieved which obviously includes proper user and workshop documentation and spares availability as well as a „build for purpose“ reliability. Personally, I think that 100.000 km without serious faults (requiring road assistance or workshop) should be possible at regular use within about 5 years. At least that is, what I am used to in this price class and would call a reliable and well engineered and tested vehicle.

 

[Cheshire cat]

Ineos really are failing to do the right thing in the finance department. These are large sums of money and these transactions should be taken more seriously. Very sorry for the trouble that some Ineos customers are experiencing.

 

[DCPU]

+1 ~ it only takes a single person there with a sense of integrity to dig into this and sort it. It's shoddy for the company to seem to behave like this.

 

[sne]

I requested some days ago a refund of my advance payment made in mid February by cancellation of the order (2.500€). Ineos confirmed the next day that they will proceed the payment within 14 working days. I am looking forward to that and will report accordingly. In Germany the legal definition of working days is Monday through Saturday. Let’s wait and see. I will consider a new order for this great vehicle concept, once a solid and fault free series build standard is achieved which obviously includes proper user and workshop documentation and spares availability as well as a „build for purpose“ reliability. Personally, I think that 100.000 km without serious faults (requiring road assistance or workshop) should be possible at regular use within about 5 years. At least that is, what I am used to in this price class and would call a reliable and well engineered and tested vehicle.

The full amount (2.500€) has been reimbursed to my credit card account today after about one calendar week. IA Germany acted quick and fair, no reason for any criticism about this process from my side. Will consider new order with new advance payment in due course.

 

[AZGrenadier]

In the United States most places won’t refund to a different credit card. I don’t know if this a law or not but almost all places will only refund to the original card or the refunds have to get processed differently. Maybe it has something to do with your original payment method account being closed.

 

[Eric]

In the United States most places won’t refund to a different credit card. I don’t know if this a law or not but almost all places will only refund to the original card or the refunds have to get processed differently. Maybe it has something to do with your original payment method account being closed.

Same in the UK

 

[muxmax]

Same in the UK

I am not too familiar with UK and US law but my guess is that even under Common Law, if someone owes you money, they have to pay it in a way you can receive it and not just insist on what is most convenient for them.

 

[Eric]

I am not too familiar with UK and US law but my guess is that even under Common Law, if someone owes you money, they have to pay it in a way you can receive it and not just insist on what is most convenient for them.

I just assumed it was something to do with the BACS payment system, it could only go out the way it came in, if different required manual intervention required. Technology rules............

 

[muxmax]

I just assumed it was something to do with the BACS payment system, it could only go out the way it came in, if different required manual intervention required. Technology rules............

I think there is a difference between a blocked payment as e.g. hotels and car rentals often request and an actual payment as the reservation fee and down payment to IA. The first can only be freed via the same card, the latter is „just“ money they owe you.

I had a refund in March. They first paid 2050 € and then, after a reminder, the 450€ were wired as well. Reason for the separate payments was that the reservation fee actually went to a different company. I only discovered that when I tried to find out if I was wrong or IA (with a small bias towards myself, of course).

 

[ADVAW8S]

The OP paid from one account then closed that account. He then requested a refund to a different account. Ineos issued the refund to the orginal account. The bank denied the deposit since the account holder closed the account. One big red flag would be attempting to get refund sent to a different account, that is money laundry at its finest. The OP probably wasn't trying to do it but banking regulations are so tight now that a flag was trigger. Instead of the OP complaining, they could have requested to have a certified check mailed to him and ask for it overnight with signature required.

 

[DCPU]

The OP probably wasn't trying to do it but banking regulations are so tight now that a flag was trigger.

Probably? Don't you think the OP should be given more credibility than that?

Instead of the OP complaining, they could have requested to have a certified check mailed to him and ask for it overnight with signature required.

Cut it any way you want, Ineos appear to be employing people with a total lack of empathy.

 

[FlyingTrotter]

It’s not always like that - I paid by credit card and the transaction was cancelled by IEOS and I am now refunded - didn’t take long - dare I say quite efficient

 

[Tom D]

I think the issue is that the wait has been so long that there is a high chance that some cards might have expired during that time. I think mine might have actually, I got a new one fairly recently...

 

[DaveB]

I think the issue is that the wait has been so long that there is a high chance that some cards might have expired during that time. I think mine might have actually, I got a new one fairly recently...

I haven't had any credit cards for over 20 years so not going to be a problem for me.

 

[Trialmaster]

The OP paid from one account then closed that account. He then requested a refund to a different account. Ineos issued the refund to the orginal account. The bank denied the deposit since the account holder closed the account. One big red flag would be attempting to get refund sent to a different account, that is money laundry at its finest. The OP probably wasn't trying to do it but banking regulations are so tight now that a flag was trigger. Instead of the OP complaining, they could have requested to have a certified check mailed to him and ask for it overnight with signature required.

Standard practice to return to the account the invoice was paid from. Now it makes perfect sense why there is a problem, as said above by @ADVAW8S
Doesn't make it right, but understandable. If the OP had kept the account open he would have had his money returned weeks ago.

 

[DCPU]

If the OP had kept the account open he would have had his money returned weeks ago.

Was that even worth typing...

If the OP had kept his hands in his pockets then he wouldn't be in this situation at all...