If a product you have ordered online fails to arrive and you don’t get your money back or receive a replacement there are ways to force a refund. If you paid for your goods with a credit card, you can tell to the company that processes credit card payments Worldline that you wish to dispute the payment. PayPal also has a similar system to, in as far as possible, protect those that make purchases online from dishonest web shops.
If you paid using a Visa or Mastercard credit card and something goes wrong with your order or money erroneously disappears from your account you can seek help from Worldline. Worldline is the company that processes Visa and Mastercard payments in Belgium. Via the “My Card” platform (in Dutch or French only) you can dispute a purchase or transaction.
You could, for example, do this if an order is not delivered or if what has been delivered does not match the description of the goods you purchased from the website and the vendor refuses to give you a refund. You can also ask Worldline to recover your money if you have returned your purchase but have not received a refund.
Please note that you can only use this service for payments made by credit card (Mastercard or Visa). Purchases made using other debit cards are not eligible.
How to get your money back via My Card
A credit card purchase cannot be blocked or cancelled. The payment will be made as a matter of course. However, if you as a customer are cheated by the vendor, Worldline may decide to intervene. If, based on evidence you provide Worldline judges that the vendor is not following the rules, it can choose to recover the money from your purchase and refund you.
That is because any vendor who wants to join the Visa or Mastercard network must agree to allow the payment companies to intervene in this way when it judges that they are not acting in good faith.
Before you ask Worldline to intervene it is important that you first try to reach an amical solution with the vendor yourself. Only if this fails will Worldline intervene. The 'My card' platform will ask you to forward any correspondence with the vendor.
If you can’t reach an agreement with the vendor or you simply don’t get a reply, you can ask Worldline to recover your money through this form (Dutch or French).
PayPal can also help
The American-owned payment service PayPal has a similar system for disputing payments to a professional vendor. After payment, you have 180 days to dispute a payment and have it investigated. If you can prove that your complaint is justified, PayPal will refund you.
Has your credit or debit card been lost, stolen or swallowed up by an ATM? Then you should contact Card Stop immediately so that your card can be blocked. Card Stop can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 078 170 170.