ESTA Visa application mistake

[Herbsman.]

Hi..

A friend of mine is going to the USA soon and has accidentally used a dodgy website to register for this ESTA thing. She was charged £32 instead of US$14.

Does she have any rights to claim her money back? She realises it was a stupid mistake in a brief moment of having let her guard down - the site looks like it was built by a 16 year old IT student and the URL ESTA USA visa application online form is quite clearly not an 'official' one.

The t&cs say that the fee is non refundable but is there anything she can get her money back? E.g. something in the Consumer Rights act. or Distance Selling Regulations or anything that entitles her to cancel the order and get a refund? Her bank refuses to help as they are saying that the company is providing a legitimate albeit expensive and arguably misleading service.

Cheers.

Hman

 

[Sirena]

The time involved in trying to sort it out is going to outweigh any financial loss, isn't it?

Personally, I wouldn't bother....

 

[Pickman's model]

if it's clearly not the official one why did she fill it out? reckon she'll have to chalk it up to experience

 

[baldrick]

Has she been accepted? If she's got her authorisation, even though they charged her too much, I would just leave it tbh. She's got the service she paid for, hasn't she.

 

[Spymaster]

Her bank refuses to help as they are saying that the company is providing a legitimate albeit expensive and arguably misleading service.

And they are correct. She hasn't been ripped off, she's just got an expensive ESTA.

Not worth bothering with for £32.

 

[Herbsman.]

if it's clearly not the official one why did she fill it out?

Doesn't really matter but as far as I know:
- she's never done it before, so didn't know what to look for, what the proper URL is or what the official site looks like.
- dodgy site was top result on Google search, so presumed legit
- she had her guard down for whatever reason, may have been tired /stressed/ distracted by work etc.
- didn't notice the dodginess until the weird confirmation email came through with spelling mistakes etc.
- etc. Etc.

I've read some forum/blog posts saying people have successfully received refunds. Gonna give this a go:

[Your address]

[Company address]

Dear Sir/ Madam

Ref: [Order/Contract number]

I recently entered into a contract [add details] on [date] [over the telephone/ online].

In accordance with my rights under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, I would like to cancel the contract.

I require written confirmation from you that the contract has indeed been cancelled and that no payment will be claimed by you.

Yours faithfully,

[Your name]

If it doesn't work it's 5-10 minutes lost. Worth a go for £32 if you ask me.

I noticed that the organisers on the team she's going with don't appear to have given any advice or instructions for anything with regards to booking this trip. It's their first USA tournament - you'd think the organisers would send an email to all team members, giving details of what to do, including the correct links to whatever needs doing online, including a link to the official ESTA site. The organiser of my team trip to Spain did it for us (obv. no ESTA required) , I would do it too if I was organising a trip for my team. It's a pretty basic part of organising a trip for a team, to make sure everything runs smoothly.

 

[keybored]

- dodgy site was top result on Google search, so presumed legit

A couple of years back after a bit of fuss Google started clamping down on "copycat" sites like this and removing them from top ranking. Must have slipped past them.

 

[pogofish]

Some folk have had success reclaiming fees from these scammers.

You might find useful info in this MSE thread:
Steps to take if you have been ripped-off by a copy-cat government website - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

 

[wiskey]

A couple of years back after a bit of fuss Google started clamping down on "copycat" sites like this and removing them from top ranking. Must have slipped past them.

Yes lots and lots of people got stung by sites which charged for filling in the UK passport form and costed you a fortune for something you could do yourself.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

btw, the correct site is: Home | Official ESTA Application Website, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

 

[keybored]

You might find useful info in this MSE thread

I must say I'd much rather just write off £32 than sift through 111 pages of the MSE weirdos bickering with each other.

 

[planetgeli]

111 pages of the MSE weirdos bickering with each other.

How soooo unlike Urban then.

 

[keybored]

How soooo unlike Urban then.

Someone seems salty