Personal Trainer hasn’t provided service

[Raman4001]

I paid Mark Ireland £2,500 for 36 x one hour personal training sessions. To date I have not had a single session only the consultation(consultation- take measurements and is not part of the 36 sessions). This was less than 30 minutes. He has so far cancelled on three seperate occassions (four sessions in total) citing illness, cut foot and lately he has to let an IT engineer into his property. On two ocassions has given me less than 3 hrs notice. You can see from the Whatapp exchange the level of service is very poor. You need to have a lot of trust in a PT and you can clearly see I am very nervous about my health/fitness- obese and a couple of medical concerns. Therefore, for someone who coming across very blasé worries me. I don’t feel he will provide a consistent service - I’m sure he’ll manage to provide all 36 sessions but I am certain there multiple cancellations. Consistency is key and unfortunately I don’t believe he can provide it - I need someone who is committed. Given there is clearly a breakdown in communication I don’t think there any way back. Therefore would like to be fully refunded.

[kernowlass]

@Raman4001 

How do I open a dispute with a seller when a purchase goes wrong?

You can open a dispute in the Resolution Centre of your PayPal account within 180 days of payment if:
•You don’t receive the item OR service
•You receive an item but it’s significantly different than the description on eBay or on the seller’s website (or you receive a totally different product).

By opening a dispute, you can communicate directly with your seller to work out a problem transaction.

If you reach an agreement with the seller you can close the dispute. If you're still not happy with the result, you can escalate the dispute into a claim. Paypal will review the claim and decide on reimbursement.

These steps apply to Personal accounts. If you have a Business account, please log in to see the steps that apply to you.

To open a dispute:
1.Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click on the transaction and use the resolve a problem option at the bottom of that details page.

Note:
•Generally buyers must wait at least 7 days from the date of payment to escalate a dispute for an item not received
•Where an item has not been received, please ensure you have given the seller enough time before opening a dispute

Do not close the dispute until you have a refund or your item.
If a seller states that they can't refund until you have closed the dispute don't believe them.
Escalate the dispute to a claim within 20 days (before it times out), if you need Paypal to get involved.

If that does not work then if you funded your paypal payment via a card then contact your card issuer and see if they will issue a chargeback.

[Raman4001]

Thanks. I have already followed the steps you mentioned. The resolution team have now contacted the Personal Trainer for more information. Not sure what exactly but all the info I have provided is factually correct and supported by screenshots from Whatsapp and Instagram. How likely is it I will get a refund - just to be clear none of the service has been provided. Thanks again for your advice.

[kernowlass]

@Raman4001 

Paypal does not take any notice of screenshots / messages or anything like that so basically its one persons word against anothers.

If you lose then maybe consider a small claims court action against the seller?

[Raman4001]

I’ve spoken to Barclaycard they appear to be taking this very seriously. They have asked me for the screenshots of WhatsApp messages. S

[kernowlass]

@Raman4001 

Wish you had waited until paypal had made a decision, as soon as paypal know you have involved your card issuer they will close your claim and paypal may have refunded you more quickly.

As you have involved your card issuer its unlikely paypal will continue the claim as soon as your card issuer contacts them and then you may have to wait a long while for your card issuer to make a decision.

[Raman4001]

Hi, Paypal have rejected my claim and closed my case. But I think it might because my card issuer went ahead and queried the payment. Barclaycard have temporarily credited my account. I provided Paypal all the details - I have made a payment of £2,500 over six weeks ago to the trainer and to date I have not received anything. Paypal’s response was: Start We've reviewed the transaction(s) and are refusing your claim(s). This decision was made because if an item is materially similar to the seller's description, we don't consider it to be significantly not as described End I am fairly upset because I provided so much detail to Paypal. The trainer has not provided me with any services whatsoever, I can appreciate if it were the case the trainer has provided a service or I was questioning the quality then it would be very subjective. But in my case nothing has been provided. Not sure how Paypal have come to this conclusion. I am hoping Barclaycard will be more understanding. Thanks