Q: Cardholders from abroad

Does anyone know more about this? Our main reason for choosing wrapit is because the majority of our guests were from overseas.

Posted in a discussion in FB group:

Hi, I live in Canada and just found out about the problems with Wrapit. We purchased a gift for friends in the UK and found out yesterday that they never received any, as we paid by CC I have been in touch with them after emailing Wrap it and getting an auto reply out of offfice reply saying not available. Our CC company is now looking into this for us and we should receive information in 30 days at which time we have to fill out a bunch of forms and wait for a credit, so eventually we will get our money back might take a while though.
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Sounds like it's worth asking over seas guests to get in touch with their providers and seeing what the score is.

A

I also chose Wrapit because of overseas guests as I am American. I called my credit card company. It is a Visa but just one of many many banks in the US so they said that it will depend on the bank but that there shouldn't be too much to worry about. People just need to call and make a claim and it will be investigated and fingers crossed the money refunded.

I'll be penning an apologetic letter to my American guests tonight with instructions that they should call their bank and then just let me know what they need and I will get it to them asap. I guess there really is no alternative.

I'll be emailing guest in Brazil and the US and ask them to explore this. On the Facebook group, a Canadian guest mentions they have contacted their credit card company and seems like they may be able to.

Anyone else with guests from abroad they can ask?

Thanks,

Tamara

A friend of ours in Germany contacted her card company last week and has already had the amount she spent credited to her (it was under the £100 threshold). I don't know what the situations will be in other countries, but maybe that gives some hope.

Do you know what your friend from Germany told the credit card company? I want to make this as simple as possible for all of our guests. Did they simply say the company is going into administration? Or that you had never received your gifts?

My Aunt bought us a present with a German Visa card but as it is over a month there is nothing they can do, they suggested taking it up with Wrapit!!!!!!!!

That is very odd as my friend also used Visa and definitely bought our present over a month ago and she has received her refund...

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back on this one, but I wanted to be sure about what my friend had said...
She wrote to the card company saying that the company was now insolvent and attached the email I had sent her (see below - I used a template someone else had posted on here). She explained that while the gift was bought by her in May (our wedding was June), the order was only placed on 19th July and so should be within the 90 days I mentioned in my email. They seemed to then credit her card without any problems and certainly didn't require any proof of administration.

FYI- her Visa card is issued by 'Air Plus International'.

What we wrote to guests last week....

Dear everyone,

As you may have picked up in the news, the company we chose for our wedding list is in financial difficulty and may go into administration. This means that they will be unable to fulfil customer orders (apparently they have been having trouble doing this for some time) and we are unlikely to receive the presents you so kindly bought for us.

I imagine that many of you will assume that we had received our gifts as we sent out thank you cards to you, but sadly this is not the case, as we sent cards as and when notified by wrapit that you had bought something, but wrapit only order and deliver gifts when the whole list is closed and we press 'order' (which we did just over a week ago).

The advice wrapit has given and that we have picked up is: to ask our guests who bought from the list to get in touch with the issuing card company or bank of the card which they used to buy the gift. It seems that all credit cards (including Amex, Visa and Mastercard), as well as Visa debit card companies, are insured for situations like this, and your card issuer will put in a claim on your behalf and refund the money to you that you spent on the gift. Obviously it's up to you whether you want to do this or not!!

Some card companies do have time limits by which you must claim and this may be as little as 90 days from time of purchase (though this is unclear). As we only pressed go on our list on 19th July you should all be within the time limits, as we understand card companies will take the date of order as the date of purchase, but please do check this.

We are being told that Mastercard is already processing refunds and that all the credit card companies are aware of the Wrapit situation. Unfortunately things seem a little more complex with Maestro/Switch and it is uncertain whether they will refund these purchases, though it is being reported that they perhaps will do so on the basis of "non-delivery of goods".

So... the message is if you would like to claim your money back then please do. If not, then wait for another week and we will update you.

We are very, very sorry to cause you the trouble of having to get in touch with your banks and finding your statements to prove purchase etc. Please let us know if you need any details from us to help you go about doing this.

FOR AMERICANS -

We had not yet "ordered" from our list when Wrapit went into administration, and my uncle was just refused a refund through US Visa - they are saying that the dispute should have been filed within 120 days of the charge (our list is over a year old and he bought our gifts in May 2007). He explained that the delivery of the gifts was not due within 120 days after purchase and that delivery was due now (or in the coming months) and thus, the 120 day period has not expired. He was informed that that is of no significance as the applicable time period commences with the date of the transaction/charge.

However, he was also told that in the event of unauthorized charges to the credit card, the time period to dispute/contest the charge and claim a credit/refund is limited to one year from the posting of the transaction or possibly from receipt of the credit card statement. Perhaps this could be an argument to use? While the charge was technically authorized by the customer, shouldn't the assumption be that when a charge is taken, some sort of order is placed? It seems like an unauthorized transaction for money to be taken immediately but nothing even "reserved".

Has anyone had any success (or similar failure) with American cards?

FRENCH CREDIT CARDS

I have just started getting responses from friends and family in France and it seems that French credit cards do not cover this situation of non delivery of goods.... This is quite upsetting as most of our friends and family were either from France or the US!

I'm in similar sinking boat since I got married last summer, many guests were American and I only recently closed list. I'll just add what I've learned from US banks:

USAA Banking and Credit Services: My brother (who is active military and therefore exactly who the bank particularly serves) bought us gifts last year. USAA told him they were unable to help with charge disputes beyond 90 days after purchase. My parents, who bought us something from the list recently, will likely be refunded for that purchase by USAA.

Citibank: When I inquired, they indicated a six month time limit following date of purchase.

Neither seemed responsive to suggestions that the so-called 'order' date would serve as a starting point.

All the nonsense Wrapit/KPMG have publicized about "80% of customers receiving a refund" (e.g. except 20% who used Switch/Maestro) is just that - utter nonsense - since so many people purchased from abroad and are completely out of pocket.

One of my guests in Brasil contacted their Amex card who were very helpful. They said they would first try and claim the money back from KPMG, and if that failed would refund the money. It will take up to 55 days however.
Am emailing my US guests tonight, will provide feedback here when I have any.
Cheers.
Tamara

DUTCH CARDS?

My cousin lives in The Hague. He is contacting his card company and I will update on his progress. Does anyone else have any Dutch guests?

I have dutch family who are currently trying to get refunds from their card companies. My uncle used his AMEX card, and i see there was a positive outcome from Brazil so fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.

A friend in Hong Kong had to challenge his bank to get a refund on Amex . I ll post the outcome when known on the cards tracking tables .

We had a friend in Hong Kong who managed to get his money back from Amex. It took some argument and he had to get a manager involved, but in the end they agreed to refund the charges.

GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICAN GUESTS

One of my guests based in California purchased a £93 gift in early April.

Her card company told her they will issue her a conditional credit, which basically means that they will take on WrapIt for her. If they can not get them to pay them back, they will still uphold the credit since she, or us the couple, have not received what they promised to deliver.

Her card is CitiBank American Airlines AAdvantage card.

Cheers,
Tamara

I am based in Ireland, as are the guests who used the wrapit list.

The requirement from the 2 main banks (AIB and BoI) is that they need proof in the form of:

- copy of the invoice/booking confirmation/signed agreement
- proof that the company has ceased to trade, for example a copy of the letter from the liquidator or media coverage
- copy of any correspondence with the retailer

The last one relates to the requirement to show that you took steps to resolve the problem. It is a bit difficult to do this when the adminstrators specifically say they won't answer individual queries.

I also wonder how people are meeting the HSBC's requirement (as indicated on the wrapit website on 20/8) to provide confirmation of non-delivery of goods. How do you prove a negative?

I sent off the paperwork last week - I'll let you know how I get on.

THanks - have now discovered my dutch cousin used Paypal - who have told him to forget it, so no luck there.

Just to let you know that my refund from Bank of Ireland came through today - the day after they received the paperwork.
It's a big relief.

My uncle in Netherlands is getting his AMEX payment refunded. The initial response was no, but he wrote to them and they have agreed no problem

"My uncle in Netherlands is getting his AMEX payment refunded. The initial response was no, but he wrote to them and they have agreed no problem"

Could you please post further detail about the AMEX refund. I am having problems with my AMEX, and for sure having details of someone who was able to obtain a refund would help my case

Matt,
Could you post further details of how your friend was able to get his money back from AMEX?

Hey Melissa (or anyone else out there??) - What luck did your American guests have with their refunds? I have a guest who has been told 'no' by Bank of America as the gift was purchased more than 60 days ago...anyone know what the process is there?

Also have a guest in Australia who is struggling...so any advice for Australian cards would be useful too!!

Many thanks!