Airline claims they overpaid compensation and demand refund within 10 days!!

[Ed Gasket]

Last July me and my wife's flights were delayed

 

I made a claim with the airline for compensation as per the regulations.

 

Since then I have had no communication at all from the airline but on checking my bank account I can see that two separate payments have been made by the airline, the second being two months after the first and for the same amount. I have had nothing from the airline to say what these payments are for or how they have been calculated.

 

Today I have received two emails addressed to 'Dear Mr/Mrs Customer' claiming that the second payment was in error and that I need to make an international bank transfer of the second payment within 10 days or they reserve the right tom take legal action. The amount they are asking for is two lots of £250.

 

First of all am I obliged to pay this when I have had no explanation for either of the payments the airline made?

 

Secondly how do I know this is not some kind of scam (can't even use my name) and is it safe to just make a payment to some foreign bank account using an IBAN number (I have never done one of these)?

 

Thirdly are they actually likely to take legal action and what would be the likely chance they are successful and that I would have to pay their costs and what might these costs be?

 

I don't actually have the £500 to pay right now anyway so if I engage with these emails, would I be entitled to ask for a payment plan?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

 

[Ed Gasket]

I would rather not name the airline but it is a European one.

 

According to my bank statements, I have had two payments of £500 (none for £250 as referred to below, though there were two concurrent claims) and now being asked to make two payments of £250 back to the airline ( I have received a total of £1,000). So assuming it is genuine, the numbers look right if one assumes that I was supposed to get £250 per claim and not £500 as I have been paid; but as I have had no communication from the airline I don't actually know what they intended to pay.

 

The redacted email is as follows:

 

Dear Mr/Ms customer,   We are writing to you regarding a payment of 250.00 GBP that XXXX made on 2022-07-31 as compensation after accepting your request referred to above, in accordance with European regulations.   After analysing your case, XXXX has confirmed that this compensation was paid twice in error, the second payment being on 2022-11-20.   In accordance with the aforementioned, XXXX is requesting you to amicably return the amount of 250.00 GBP that was paid in error within the next 10 days, by bank transfer to the following account:   - Banking Entity: BANKINTER, S.A.   - BIC/SWIFT Code: BKBKESMMXXX   - IBAN: ES88 0128 9444 1901 0000 4423   - REFERENCE: xxxxxx + Passenger's Name and Surname   Once the transfer has been made, please send us the proof of payment to this email address.   XXXX will cover any bank charges or similar charges, provided they are reasonable and justified, that you may incur when refunding the money. You may automatically deduct them from the payment.     If you do not make the requested refund within the established time frame, XXXX reserves the right to take legal action to recover the amounts received in error, as well as any legal costs that may arise.   Please accept our sincere apologies once again for the inconvenience caused by this incident.

Yours sincerely,, XXXX  airlines

[Ed Gasket]

Yes that it exactly how it is addressed; very unprofessional if genuine. Only if it is a scam then how would they know I got compensation and how much ? - well I suppose emails aren't secure so that's one way or someone at the airline passing information on.

 

They do have my address.

 

I think I will do nothing and see what happens; I mean I have a good defense in that I submitted two claims and had two payments; neither of which I had any advise of from the airline. The recent emails could have gone to my junk box for all the airline knows; it is not from an email address I have had anything from before though does contain the airline name.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Ed Gasket

[Ed Gasket]

Is it reasonable to expect at least a statement and/or calculation of what they have paid me before going any further? Otherwise there is just two credits to my bank with no explanation.

[Ed Gasket]

By 'estoppel', do you mean I expected compensation X 2 and when I received two payments I believed that was what I was due as the airline had not explained what the payments were for or what the correct amount should have been?

 

Then I acted on the belief that the money was mine and have put myself in a position different to had I not been paid the money (i.e. I spent it) so should not have to pay it back. Is that the gist of the estoppel argument?

 

If a genuine error has been made, then I don't object to paying back the money BUT not just in response to a possible scam email without even my name in it, not without a proper statement showing what I should have received and what I have actually been paid, and then given a reasonable time to pay it back or some kind of payment plan.