Question about Paying by switch

[virtual-angel]

Hey guys and gals

I was in to my local Big W last night cos they were having a 10%off everything day and as i had been looking for a new TV recently, a nice 28" samsung widescreen caught my eye. It was £199 with 10% off so me and the boyf decided to buy it. Went to the till and paid by switch, got our reciepts and took it home.

Phone my dad and told him about the deal we had just got and he asked us to go back and pick one up for him. So back at the shop, was at the till paying for another by switch when the same woman who served us earlier gave us the reciepts without my boyfriend signing for it, he noticed and asked if he had to sign anything and the woman got all flustered and said yes, she 'always forgets that bit'!?!, could he sign the reciept.

My boyf is 99% sure that he didnt sign for the first TV and im sure i cant remember it either! What happens now? Can they debit us for the TV when they dont have his written authorisation? Have i just bagged myself a free TV or will the bank get in contact with us?

Any advice is welcome

Originally Posted by virtual-angel

Hey guys and gals

I was in to my local Big W last night cos they were having a 10%off everything day and as i had been looking for a new TV recently, a nice 28" samsung widescreen caught my eye. It was £199 with 10% off so me and the boyf decided to buy it. Went to the till and paid by switch, got our reciepts and took it home.

Phone my dad and told him about the deal we had just got and he asked us to go back and pick one up for him. So back at the shop, was at the till paying for another by switch when the same woman who served us earlier gave us the reciepts without my boyfriend signing for it, he noticed and asked if he had to sign anything and the woman got all flustered and said yes, she 'always forgets that bit'!?!, could he sign the reciept.

My boyf is 99% sure that he didnt sign for the first TV and im sure i cant remember it either! What happens now? Can they debit us for the TV when they dont have his written authorisation? Have i just bagged myself a free TV or will the bank get in contact with us?

Any advice is welcome

I'd imagine the bank would be in contact, if not Big W themselves (through the bank).

But as far as I know an unsigned switch receipt is invalid. So in hteory you have a free TV.

[altis]

I remember a while back in Canada, in all the argument over what price we were paying for the hire car, I 'forgot' to sign the credit card authorisation. It still ended up on my bill. My guess is that you'll still have to pay.

[El Diablo]

Originally Posted by virtual-angel

My boyf is 99% sure that he didnt sign for the first TV and im sure i cant remember it either! What happens now? Can they debit us for the TV when they dont have his written authorisation? Have i just bagged myself a free TV or will the bank get in contact with us?

Any advice is welcome

The bank or the shop are unlikely to notice this, since the "signed" copy generally ends up in a big pile which will then be shoved in a shoe box and forgotten about for six months. However, if you contacted your bank and said that you believed the store to have debited your card twice for one transaction, then the store will be forced to present evidence of the transaction having been authorised by the card holder - at which point they fail, because all that's there is an empty dotted line

It's a bit sneaky, you have to do some work yourself, but you could then get the TV for free - if the bank or the store refund your cash... The store are likely to *know* that you *probably* received the TV, since their stock will not reconcile correctly if they refund you - they'll be a TV short... but then again, they could simply put that down to theft or another stupid human error made by one of their employees.

Oh, and go back to the store to make sure there are no CCTV cameras above the point of sale, since if they are able to check video tapes to see whether the TV was presented at the counter or if one of their staff are on the fiddle, then they'll see you happily handing the card over!

There's also the possibility that having looked at the receipt, regardless of whether it's signed or not, they can tell that the card was actually swiped through the till, rather than key entered... therefore, someone has presented them with the card. If you then used the card later in the day, then they could conclude that either the card was used legitimately earlier in the day and that you are pulling a fast one, or that someone stole your card, presented it as payment and then returned it to its owner... hmm... unless of course it was a cloned card...

Personally, I think you're better off just forgetting about it!!!