Let us know the outcome & good luck.....£185/hour may be expensive but it dwarfs what you stand to lose, if you don't fully explore your options..... If you have a successful case; then you will be entitled to seek the full return of your legal costs anyway.!

Speculate to accumulate.?

Thanks for your suggestion I have actaully spoken to a solicitor this afternoon about the situation. Have a meeting with them next week at a cost of £185/h Ouch!!!

I agree that section 75 would not cover you for reimbursement via the chargeback scheme as the payment was made through a third party, S75 is quite clear; in that the payment has to be made direct to the supplying party with whom the contract exists.

Whether you have a case or not to hold Virgin liable for equal liability in this contract depends on many conditions...I would strongly suggest you see a specialist Solicitor who is experienced in contract law, to determine if you have grounds to hold Virgin liable as a party in this contract, this may also be influenced because of the same fact that a third party was involved.

Hi all,
I engaged in a project with an Indian company to build me a website in June 2008. I paid using my Virgin (MBNA) credit card through a third party called Guru.com who took the payments and paid the supplier direct.
The project was for a total cost of £25,650 of which I paid in phase’s up to the total amount of £17000. The website was supposed to take 4 months to complete which should have been the 29th September, I raised my chargeback request with Virgin on the 23rd Jan meaning I was within the 120 day chargeback period which would have been the 27th Jan.
Virgin are saying that they won’t perform a chargeback because I didn’t pay the total amount to the supplier, however I have stressed to them that they did not complete the work within the contract agreement of 4 months and that I felt I was being messed around. I even gave them a report by an independent web design company who said the site had been poorly developed and was not fit for purpose. They only ever asked for money and didn’t correct any issues I raised with the website and kept moving the project completion date out. It basically ended up with a total breakdown of communication between the supplier and I where they did not want to go back and correct issues with the website and only wanted more money from myself even though the project completion date had passed.

Seeing as though Virgin will not issue a chargeback so I went to the Financial Ombudsman and made a complaint in March. Since then I have recently had a final decision from the adjudicator saying that he felt the bank was within reason to reject the chargeback on the grounds that I did not pay the total contract value, if this was the case and they had still not delivered then the bank would/should perform a chargeback. However I have explained that the supplier did not complete the website within the contract date and I felt by giving them more money and time to complete I still wouldn’t have had a complete website.

The adjudicator has also explained because I paid through a third party who initiated the deal and payment were made through that section 75 does not cover me which is frustrating to say the least.
The adjudicator has now said I might have a chance by taking Virgin to court on the grounds of the contract being breached.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.