Prepaid for a service and did not get it

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Disclaimer: I know EF is not a legal counsel and I should contact my legal insurance (I have one), but I just wanted to use some advice here before opening an "official claim" with my insurance. Thanks.

Hi,

So, to save time here is a bullet list of what has happened

- I was looking for someone to do some furniture assembly work (including on EF. See https://www.englishforum.ch/jobs-off...isau-area.html )

- Someone was recommended on Facebook. I contacted them via Whatsapp and we agreed on terms, including the fee and that the work is in Eglisau

- A week or so passes without agreeing on an actual date

- The guy somehow forgets that they need to come to Eglisau and asks for a higher fee. I refuse, he accepts my refusal.

- The guy ask for 100 CHF in advance so that he can "book a slot" for me.

- I pay 100.- via TWINT as a sign of goodwill

- The guy says end of this or next week he will come. Ok.

.

.

.

A month has passed. I have sent them three messages on Whatsapp, without getting an answer. I tried to "call" them today, but the call was rejected. So, it seems something has happened :-/

Obviously, this 100 frank is not going to change my life (a lot, that is ). What really annoys me is the time wasted, and the feeling of so easily getting cheated because I wanted to be nice :<

I know from reading EF that in some similar cases, the legal insurance pays that small claim to you and asks you to forget about everything. That is certainly not what I want! To incur a cost on my LI which may come to haunt me later in some more important "case"just because someone else has been a disgrace.

What would you do if you were me? So I have two phone numbers (one Whatsapp, one TWINT), plus a Facebook page from him. The fact that he has a Facebook page with decent activity and history makes it still hard to believe that the guy is just a scammer, but still...

Many thanks

Best

2
Come on higgs... you should never have to pay someone on Facebook 100chf to 'reserve a slot' and that should be an immediate red flag. Don't use "being nice" as a replacement for "being naive" and please for your own sake be a little wiser and more suspicious of things like this.

I would contact the police and file a report and give them all his info. Also ids it your credit card that is linked to TWINT? If so report the fraud to them and see if they can reverse the transaction.

By waiting one month you already left this too long.

3
Yes, I admit being naïve of course. As I said, there was a Facebook page with decent activity etc.. etc.., but yes, I was naïve :<

And yes, my TWINT is linked to my credit card. Does this reporting affect my credit card score (whatever that is) or my financial record in any way?

4
The person may be deceiptful, or he may just be disorganised. Not okay either way, though chaos is less worse than malice.

On option would be to write to him (on Whatsapp, Facebook, etc.) that since you have not had replies to your last n messages, it now appears to you that he does not want to do the work, and then to request that he refunds the money you advanced him. Send him a refund request on Twint, too, so he could just click on it to send you your money back..

Another option would be to use the info you have to try to determine his real identity and, if you succeed, to send a registered letter demanding either a binding appointment (within the next n days, and suggest several time slots that would suit you) to do the work as agreed, or a full refund of the Fr. 100.

You might also - depending on the contact you've already had - be able to enlist a third party to get in touch with him, asking him to do the right thing and send you your money back.

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I did these today.

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Of course it does not 'affect your financial record'. Your credit card generally has fraud protection so stop dithering and dilly dallying and just call them immediately. You will need to provide them with the exact date and time of the payment and ideally a payment number (the payment entry in your online credit card statement should have this) though when you call them they can guide you through all of this.

7
This is what TWINT tell you to do https://www.ubs.com/ch/en/help/twint...s-missing.html

8
This is helpful advice. The hostile tone is unnecessary. I have asked questions on EF before and had responses similar to yours, indicating ' what a stupid question .' If someone feels the need to ask a question, it's obviously not stupid to them. Could you try to be a little kinder?

higgsboson, the link that Island Monkey posted lays it out in simple steps what you need to do. I appreciate that you were trying to be a good person, I'm sorry it's bitten you in the butt this time. Good luck with getting it resolved.

9
Thanks for sharing. Sometimes we make poor decisions simply because the offer just resonates for whatever reason. We have all made decisions we may later regret, even Chuff.

10
Thanks to everyone everyone for their guidance. I have the money back now.

So, the guy actually answered my message just the day I posted here. Maybe he was reading this thread? :-/

Then it took another week and finally a threat of contacting TWINT (which I really didn't want to make until there is no other solution) for him to return the 100 CHF.

I am still hesitant to claim that he wanted to keep the money, but the way he "handled" the situation up until the last minutes removes all my doubts about his lack of integrity, unfortunately.

Next time I will be more careful picking recommendations from the web.

Many thanks

Best