Get your money back when something goes wrong
Which right applies, who to ask, in what order — and that none of it costs you a penny.
The laptop never arrived, and the store that sold it has stopped answering. Most people assume the money has gone with it.
It usually has not. There is a second place to ask and a third above that, both free, and the reason almost nobody uses them is that almost nobody has been told they are there.
Key points
- Changing your mind is the store’s policy; never arriving is the card company’s problem
- A card dispute survives the store — sixty days from the statement, in writing
- Above the bank: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov and your state attorney general, both free, neither able to order a payment. Small claims court is the one that can. And the FTC, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, where it was fraud rather than a dispute.
- Nobody genuine ever charges a fee to recover money you have lost
What to remember
- Three different doors, and people knock on the wrong one. Changed your mind is the store’s decision. Never arrived is the card company’s. A charge you never made is the bank’s, and it is the one where the clock is measured in days rather than months.
- Store, then card company, then above the bank — and only the top rung has a fee. Know before you start that the free rungs cannot order anybody to pay you; what they can do is make a firm answer in writing, which is often the whole of it.
Try this
Find the returns page of a store you buy from often and read how long its window is and when the clock starts. Doing it this evening, with nothing wrong, is worth more than reading it in a hurry with a parcel you do not want on the table.
Practice: Get your money back when something goes wrong. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.