Need Some Advice: Is this matter worth pursuing legally?

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truefire wrote on 2014-01-12 05:29

Relevant Background:

One week ago today, I made an order online at K-Mart. Later that same day, I learned via e-mail that the order had been cancelled due to an internal error in K-Mart's system. When I learned that it was not my bank protecting me from large purchases, I thought nothing of it and called K-Mart to reinstate my order. That same day, the order was cancelled again. I called K-Mart the next day to learn why my order was continually being rejected and only then did I learn that it was due to the item being out of stock. I find this troubling because neither the site nor the cancellation e-mail mentions that the product is out of stock; in fact, even as I'm typing this the site still gives the impression they actually have said item in stock.

In the confirmation e-mail you get when the order is made, as well as in the site records, it tells you the price of your purchase with an aside that states that any adjustments to the final cost when the transaction completes will be reflected at that time. For this reason, I thought nothing of the fact that in my online bank records the cancelled orders still had pending transactions; I assumed since the order was cancelled, they would take nothing from my account.

Now, this is where the problem comes in. Fast forward a couple days, and I learn the pending transactions for both cancelled orders have gone through, taking from me about $338 in all and leaving me in danger of being overdrafted. On the same day that I learned I could not get my product from K-Mart, I had instead looked into Best Buy, which did have the product. The transactions from K-Mart actually delayed the transaction from Best Buy and threatened to make my account overdrawn when it did occur. The day I discovered that K-Mart had taken my money in exchange for nothing, I called my bank and had them place a claim. I then called K-Mart to inform them of this oversight and they said the money would be reimbursed in 3-5 business days after the date of cancellation (January 4th). The end of the 5th business day was yesterday, and still no sign of reimbursement. Yesterday I called K-Mart again, only to be told that they were looking into why I had not been reimbursed and that I should allow 24-48 hours for an e-mail confirming said reimbursement.

The Actual Dilemma:

Flash forward to 10 minutes ago. I receive an email saying they are still researching this oversight and that I should now allow 5-7 more business days for a response. This is getting tiring, and quite frankly I'm just about ready to see if I can impress upon them the importance of not taking what isn't theirs. Is this worth pursuing legally? The idea that they took money from me two days after the initial pending period for a non-transaction and I'm now running the risk of having to wait more than two full weeks (if I'm lucky) to get it back for something that was their fault in the first place?

If it is worth pursuing, when should I consider doing so? It's still only been a week and I could very well be reimbursed Monday, so I'm simply considering my options in the case that this does become drawn out.
Yoorah wrote on 2014-01-12 05:43

Don't bother with the legal business. Print out the emails and take them to your bank. They should be able to reverse it as an unauthorized transaction after you sign some form. You might need to speak to a manager at the branch, as the regular tellers don't usually do this.
This is of course assuming that banks in the US work similarly to banks in Canada (assuming you're from the US!)
truefire wrote on 2014-01-12 05:50

Quote from Yoorah;1187153:
Don't bother with the legal business. Print out the emails and take them to your bank. They should be able to reverse it as an unauthorized transaction after you sign some form. You might need to speak to a manager at the branch, as the regular tellers don't usually do this.
This is of course assuming that banks in the US work similarly to banks in Canada (assuming you're from the US!)

Very well. I'll give that a go first thing Monday.
Hanna wrote on 2014-01-12 07:43

Yeah just print out the emails, not worth any kind of civil suit
Yogurticecream wrote on 2014-01-12 10:07

Get your bank to do something about the unauthorised transactions.
It's unlikely K-Mart would do much and will try to delay as much as they can.
truefire wrote on 2014-01-12 10:34

Quote from Yogurticecream;1187179:
Get your bank to do something about the unauthorised transactions.
It's unlikely K-Mart would do much and will try to delay as much as they can.

I had immediately called my bank to file a dispute claim as soon as I saw that they'd occurred (which I mentioned in my initial post). Pretty much the only thing I'm doing differently now is going into the bank directly and issuing copies of the cancellation emails personally. I'm surprised the claim itself didn't produce the desired result yet, and I can only hope the suggested process goes as smoothly as Yoorah and Hanna described. I have no idea what I'll do if this still ends up getting me jerked along with even more delays. The nagging possibility that I could still be dealing with this a month or more down the line has started to creep into the back of my mind, almost as much as the idea that K-Mart might not have even made an effort to reverse the transactions if I'd waited without calling anyone. We'll see what happens Monday, though.