Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Legal recourse for unauthorized credit card transaction
When trying to make dinner reservations I gave my
credit card # to hold it for later realizing only
moments later that it would not work, I called back to
cancel, to which there seemed to be problem.later I
received a call from the same restaurant claiming that
they had already debited my card, they could not
re-credit my account it was their policy for the
holiday that cancellations had to be made weeks prior.
I has never seen this menu and had
used the phone book to obtain their # to make the
reservation and was never at anytime made aware that
their was a no cancellation policy until the had
already charged me $170.00. I have a phone
record that shows that there was a span of
9 minutes between my call for the reservation and the
cancellation + a call to my bank in an attempt to
block the charges. I have tried challenging this
charge with my bank, but they are unable to
help me I need to resolve this issue with the
restaurant who are unresponsive. what can I do to get
the $179.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Legal recourse for unauthorized credit card transaction
If the credit card company won't help you, you should file a claim for the money in Small Claims Court.
Re: Legal recourse for unauthorized credit card transaction
The credit card company should reimburse you the money since you did not authorize the charge. You may need to right a letter to the restaurant demanding your money back and send a copy to the credit card company. This has worked for me before. If, however, this doesn't work for you I would file a lawsuit against the restaurant for the money. I think if you took them to court you would win because they were not authorized to charge your card and they did not notify you of their cancellation policy. Good luck.
John Hayes