John Lewis finance won’t help us get back our lost £30,000 kitchen money

theguardian.com:

We’re at our wits’ end with John Lewis Finance after it turned down our credit card claim.

Last year we paid a small independent company to supply and install a kitchen for us. The total cost under the contract was £29,950. We paid just under £9,000, mostly on credit cards with John Lewis Finance. About six months later, when the installation date was approaching, we paid the same company for the purchase of kitchen appliances – but under a separate contract.

Unfortunately, the company then effectively disappeared, and all our attempts to contact them have failed. So we took the matter up with John Lewis as our credit card provider. First, staff refused to do a chargeback, without explaining why. Then they said they wouldn’t refund us under section 75, because our contract (singular) was for more than the £30,000 upper limit. We have sent them the two separate contracts, with as much information as their online form allowed, but they don’t seem to understand that the contracts are separate and should have been treated as such.

We have phoned them three times in the last month to complain but have been told our case is hopeless because of the £30,000 limit, and we should just drop it.

This whole experience has been very distressing for us, and John Lewis’s refusal to engage at all leaves us at a loss now as to what to do next. Can you help?

JH, West Sussex

This is not the first letter we have had from a reader who had had what appeared to be a perfectly valid section 75 claim turned down. The clause holds credit card providers jointly responsible for providing the item or service bought via the card, provided it cost at least £100 and below £30,000. Consumers can claim from the card provider if the supplier collapses