Originally Posted by
samkma
Quick update to my situation:
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3. Based on CAA / Etihad response I contacted CC Company and made a claim under sect 75. Even though the transaction was over 24 months they have refunded the money back to the card account.
Not sure how Etihad will deal this now! Can they send me an invoice for the amount?
As far as I know charge-back refunds only become final after a few months.
My understanding is that (in the UK at least) your bank will refund the money to your account immediately but Etihad still has the right to contest the charge-back. If they do then your bank will consider your version of the events, and Etihad's, and come to a decision. They could reverse the refund if Etihad are convincing.
Whether Eithad would bother contesting this with the bank or not is another matter. I doubt that they would as it seems fairly clear that they are just trying it on in the hope that many people won't do charge-backs and will just let Etihad keep their money. Based on comments here that does seem to be the case, astonishing as that may seem.
If Etihad did issue an invoice, and if you did not pay it, then it would be up to them to take you to court for non-payment and I can't see any UK court backing them on that as Etihad clearly have not provided the service you originally paid for. So I doubt they would do that.
Let's all be thankful for charge-back regulations and consumer protection laws.
Moral: always pay by credit card.