Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Jaja Finance Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S purchased goods from an overseas merchant using a Jaja credit card, claimed to have returned them but did not receive a refund. Jaja declined to raise a chargeback or pursue a section 75 claim, instead paying £25 compensation for procedural failures in handling the dispute. The ombudsman upheld Jaja's decision, finding that despite Mr S providing proof of postage, significant discrepancies in the customs documentation (weight listed as 2kg versus 10kg on proof of postage) and the merchant's denial of receiving the correct goods created insurmountable evidential challenges that would have prevented a successful chargeback. The ombudsman concluded that Jaja would have required greater certainty before pursuing the claim and that the £25 compensation was fair.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Mr S provided proof of postage and the merchant provided photographic evidence, there were significant evidential challenges that would have prevented a successful chargeback. The key issue was that the card scheme required establishment of the date merchandise was received by the merchant, and given the merchant's denial and the discrepancies in documentation (particularly the weight discrepancy between the 10kg proof of postage and the 2kg customs declaration), Jaja would have had no way of proving what goods were actually in the package or what happened to them. The ombudsman noted that serious allegations of theft would require cross-examination of witnesses, which is not possible in the informal FOS forum. Therefore, Jaja would have wanted more certainty before raising a chargeback with a reasonable chance of success, and the decision not to pursue the claim was fair.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website