Threats from online store

[Disgruntled Biker]

Hi,

I have woken up to an email from an online company called far canal (a printer of novelty t-shirts).

The email is as follows -

 

Dear customer,

 

During last year you placed an order on our website and chose to pay by credit or debit card.

 

This order was processed and you have had the shirts for some time now.

 

However a system problem caused us to not take payment on your order, and this has only now come to our attention during an audit.

 

We now need to take payment of this amount as soon as possible, but to avoid any embarrassment we would like to let you know in advance. If your card details have changed, or should you have a problem with meeting this payment in the next few days, please contact us urgently. If we do not hear from you, we will try to take payment between 23rd and 31st of July.

 

You can verify the status of this order by logging in to your Far Canal account, selecting "My Account" at the top of the page then choosing "View the orders I have made".

 

We are sorry for any inconvenience due to any false sense of extra wealth this may have caused you during the past few months.

 

Regards,

 

The Far Canal Team

 

Now I recall placing an order around a year ago, recieving the goods and the payment coming from my bank account.

What I need to know is do they have any rights to attempt to take payment after such a time especially as there is no proof that payment was not taken.

I am currently in a DMP and the account I made the purchase on is now not in use and overdrawn so no funds will be availible.

I have already emailed them back stating as far as i am concerned the transaction was completed and I give no authority to remove funds from my account.

I have also pointed out that their email is suspiciously lacking any reference to the trasaction or myself i.e an order number, amount owed or even my name.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the above, DB

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

I suspect a [problem] email. Don't give them any details.

 

Keep an eye on your account just in case they are real and they try to take money from you.

 

If you have your old bank statements showing payment, keep it handy just in case they are real.

 

fox

[Disgruntled Biker]

Hi,

I have had a reply back from the online retailer, can anyone offer any advice as I no longer have any bank statements and the accout in question, athough active, is part of a DMP and therefore not in use but has funds availible.

Here is the email they provided -

You are welcome to check your billing records, but I assure you that you

were never charged. I had no merchant account at the time due to an

international move of my own. I was embarrassed about the lack of card

facility, so I sent the shirts out hoping to sort out the billing quickly.

This dragged on and on until I had supplied about £12,000 worth for free,

and as you may know I am a one man show, not a big company.

 

Your order #3869, which can be seen in your history on our site, was for a shirt and a vest & was placed on 10 July and posted 17 July last year.

The value was £31 incl post. Your card expires August next year.

 

I hope this clears the matter up and look forward to hearing from you.

 

Many thanks in advance, DB

[silverfox1961]

Morning, I would go ask the bank if they could supply you with the statement for the period of the sale which could be 2 or 3 statements. Banks will (may) charge for this (up to £5 per statment) so it may be worth just doing a SAR instead. This costs a tenner but will get back all your info from the bank.