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Good morning,

Would you be so kind as to answer a question for me:

When buying a product from a web site, at what point may the company concerned debit the customer's credit card. I have purchased an item from a dot-com company. They immediately debited my credit card, but have, through their own internal logistical problems, lost track of the order and failed to despatch the item from their warehouse, should they have waited for confirmation of despatch prior to debiting my credit card ?

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Peter Sweet

Dear Peter:

To the best of my knowledge, there is no legislation in Europe that rules on when a credit card may be debited in an online sale. However, if you do not receive the goods for which you have been debited, you can normally contact the bank or company which issues the credit card and request a "charge back". This means that the bank does not charge you (or credits you if you already have been charged) the amount and demands compensation from the company which debited your credit card. This should normally act as protection against situations as you have described as well as fraud. In any event, if the company does not fulfil the order, they are legally obliged to refund your money within 30 days.

Note to dot-commers reading this: this is not the first complaint I've heard from someone whose credit card was debited at the time of sale rather than the time dispatch. Clearly if you want to promote good customer relations, don't debit until you dispatch!

Dr. Ecommerce