Accidentally sent too much bitcoins.Company wont refund rest.What are my rights?

[BBaa]

I use a bitcoin service which has a bitcoin debit card. It allows me to send bitcoins there and these are converted into Euros and put onto a debit card. The way topping up works is that I state the amount I want to top up in euros and then a bitcoin address is generated it tells me the amount I need to transfer in bitcoins. I send the bitcoin amount to the address and then the account is topped up. Pretty much how most of these services work.

The other day I made a mistake and I accidentally sent the same amount two times to the same bitcoin address. I checked my account and my account was only topped up one time. I contacted the company to tell them about the issue and asked them to manually top up the missing second payment. They told me that its impossible and the funds have been lost and cannot be recovered.

I was able to find both transactions on blockchain explorer and I linked both transactions to them. They confirmed the transactions are there and that they received both. So I asked them why they cannot top up my account if the transactions have been received. They told me its because of their policy and rules. And they told me its my error for accidentally sending a double payment.

I am just wondering what my rights are in this case? Technically I agree it was my fault for messing up the payment. But is there any reason why they cannot refund the second bitcoin payment back to me or to just top up my account based on the current value? I would even pay a small admin fee to them but they dont seem willing to help at all.

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[DdmrDdmr]

<…> they dont seem willing to help at all.

That is the real issue here. Their software isn’t prepared to accept more BTC that the top-up value, and no logic is implemented to deal with the unlikely, yet factual situation, where by you happened to send BTC twice to the provided BTC address.
 
Obviously there’s nothing that can be done from the blockhain’s point of view. 2 valid confirmed TXs have been issued to the same recipient address, so it’s down to the service wanting to resolve the issue, rather than hide behind the shield of unexpected events are not treatable. After all, they did receive the BTC twice, and should therefore be in control of the x2 funds. BTC TXs are irreversible, but they can in good faith and ethics, try to resolve the case.

I presume you’ve read through the TOS and contract (if not, read from head to tail), and there may be no explicit nor implicit wording to cover/disregard the case you describe. You mentioned that they threw the “policy and rules” card at you, which you should claim to receive a written copy of in full.

If they have multiple contact channels, try all of them, and see if you get the same reply in all the cases.

The complete legal focus will depend on matters I do not know well enough (country, specific legislation, etc.), but start by getting them to send you, in writing, those policies and rules. See what they state, besides being sure that you had access to them beforehand (i.e. in the contract, or via one of those boxes we tend to click and dismiss without reading the content fully).

[gmaxwell]

Demand their support escalate to someone with any actual authority.  Unless this business is an outright scam, you're just being subject to some first level support flukie that only knows how to press a couple buttons.  No legitimate business would rob you like this.

Make sure to get their absurd position in writing (email). E.g. acknowledging that you transferred the extra funds to them and that they're refusing to return them or credit you.  It'll make things easier to deal with when you don't have to deal with them claiming that you never even sent the extra funds at all.

If ordinary escalation is unsuccessful, file a police report in your local jurisdiction and if possible where the executive of the company are located, name and shame them on the internet,  complain to the card payment network, and if its viable where you are, bring action against them in small claims court (or whatever is equivalent where you are).  Give them every opportunity to make things right and make it clear that you've given them every opportunity.  Don't let them rob you.

[coinycoiny]

Try using a normal visa card, you won't have this issue

[avikz]

I use a bitcoin service which has a bitcoin debit card. It allows me to send bitcoins there and these are converted into Euros and put onto a debit card. The way topping up works is that I state the amount I want to top up in euros and then a bitcoin address is generated it tells me the amount I need to transfer in bitcoins. I send the bitcoin amount to the address and then the account is topped up. Pretty much how most of these services work.

The other day I made a mistake and I accidentally sent the same amount two times to the same bitcoin address. I checked my account and my account was only topped up one time. I contacted the company to tell them about the issue and asked them to manually top up the missing second payment. They told me that its impossible and the funds have been lost and cannot be recovered.

I was able to find both transactions on blockchain explorer and I linked both transactions to them. They confirmed the transactions are there and that they received both. So I asked them why they cannot top up my account if the transactions have been received. They told me its because of their policy and rules. And they told me its my error for accidentally sending a double payment.

I am just wondering what my rights are in this case? Technically I agree it was my fault for messing up the payment. But is there any reason why they cannot refund the second bitcoin payment back to me or to just top up my account based on the current value? I would even pay a small admin fee to them but they dont seem willing to help at all.

You are royally screwed! As @DdmrDdmr mentioned correctly, the logic of the software is faulty that it can't handle more amount than what you are specifying before initiating a transaction. However, since the transaction is showing in blockchain, that means, they have received the amount and probably be lying in their suspense account. So if they are willing to help, they certainly can do it. I am not sure why they are not willing to do that!

So if the amount is high and considering the company is doing business legally in your country, file a police complaint under appropriate "breach of trust/financial cheating" section of your law. That should do the trick as a police complaint might force them to take some extra effort to find the transaction in their wallet and refund it back to you. These businesses don't understand that sometimes putting an extra effort to resolve a customer's issue will create trust among their consumers.

[Reid]

These businesses don't understand that sometimes putting an extra effort to resolve a customer's issue will create trust among their consumers.

I agree.
WTF. Losing 1 client just because he did something wrong even if it's fixable.
This ain't like a good business approach.
Imagine if this goes into the news and goes viral. Damn, even social media can make a mess just sharing it over and over again.
Why not just fix one issue and they might even get more clients for good service.

I'll sue them if I were you and I'd share this with all the details so they can lose more than how much you are trying to get back.
Tip: Use the angry client method. 

[thesmallgod]

Since they can confirmed that they received the money twice from the transaction history, I do not see the reason why they cannot top up the card or send back the bitcoin to your wallet even if they are going to remove the transaction fee. It cost them a few minutes to do this. I have used similar service in the past although not a debit card and whenever I sent more than imputed amount, I do receive a mail telling me how to claim the excess coin I sent at the current trading price. There is nothing like the money is lost because it is not lost. They just want to ensure users keep with their term of services which for them, they did not consider the scenario of mistakenly sending twice due to network or other issues. I strongly believe if they say they cannot help, it means there is nothing you can do. I am sorry for your lost

[The Cryptovator]

There are a few issues when they will refund the funds. I am not sure if they are using their party API or using their own server to accept BTC. Usually, I don't think the support team has access to the wallet. There is an API call to identifying each transaction and most probably there is a time frame as well when you made a transaction. I think receiving an address designed for one-time use to identify your transaction. So definitely there is no easy way to refund your funds and most probably that's why they wrote it on their terms (I am not sure if really they wrote since we hadn't read it).

But if the platform is honest then it's possible to recover your funds. Because somehow the funds on their wallet either its third party or their own server. The address has been generating from their wallet. This means the funds should belong to the same wallet. If they mentioned it on terms then you can't take any legal action. Sorry for your loss and this is the disadvantage of using centralized organizations.

[adzino]

I use a bitcoin service which has a bitcoin debit card. It allows me to send bitcoins there and these are converted into Euros and put onto a debit card. The way topping up works is that I state the amount I want to top up in euros and then a bitcoin address is generated it tells me the amount I need to transfer in bitcoins. I send the bitcoin amount to the address and then the account is topped up. Pretty much how most of these services work.

The other day I made a mistake and I accidentally sent the same amount two times to the same bitcoin address. I checked my account and my account was only topped up one time. I contacted the company to tell them about the issue and asked them to manually top up the missing second payment. They told me that its impossible and the funds have been lost and cannot be recovered.

I was able to find both transactions on blockchain explorer and I linked both transactions to them. They confirmed the transactions are there and that they received both. So I asked them why they cannot top up my account if the transactions have been received. They told me its because of their policy and rules. And they told me its my error for accidentally sending a double payment.

I am just wondering what my rights are in this case? Technically I agree it was my fault for messing up the payment. But is there any reason why they cannot refund the second bitcoin payment back to me or to just top up my account based on the current value? I would even pay a small admin fee to them but they dont seem willing to help at all.

Read their terms of service. If they state anything about not refunding excess payments, then you can't do anything since you already agreed to their terms. But, usually that does not happen. As long as they have control of the wallet (which they should!), they should either top up your account or send you back the rest of the money as a gesture of goodwill. Would be really stupid of them to hold on to the coins (I wonder how would they file that excess coins they received) if they can easily send it back to you.

[Husires]

If they have a responsible support team, they will contact you to one of the managers who will pay the money out of his pocket (after making sure that the money arrives) for you and return the money to you as long as updating your balance will cause many problems.

It's easy and the platform can avoid all undue noise with some flexible solutions.

They might do the annoying solution which is compliance with the terms of service, but I don't think the good reputation is worth losing for that money.

[Maestro75]

Try using a normal visa card, you won't have this issue

The user is asking for what to do on their issue at hand and you are here giving them suggestion that wil make them feel bad. It has happened, it has happened what remains is a way for OP to see how to recover the lost payment. Not 'why did you not do it this way or that way?'

[coinycoiny]

Try using a normal visa card, you won't have this issue

The user is asking for what to do on their issue at hand and you are here giving them suggestion that wil make them feel bad. It has happened, it has happened what remains is a way for OP to see how to recover the lost payment. Not 'why did you not do it this way or that way?'

I don't want them to feel bad, they should feel stupid.

Hopefully others reading this thread won't be as stupid.

[gentlemand]

In this day and age a service can't offer this without some form of approval from someone. Find out who's regulating them and make some noise. They don't have a leg to stand on. You can't steal and hide behind your terms and conditions.

[shield132]

This company is a scam. Yeah, there was a mistake from your side but if they want to keep loyal customers and if they respect them, then they should fix this mistake and give you your money. Company has to trust it's users. What this company does is the opposite and just tells you that it's against their ToS. First of all I want to say that such ToS looks scammy and there is no logic in it. Better to spread the message and tell everyone that this company is bad, open the scam accusation thread here. If they want to destroy their reputation for some bucks, then it's their choice, you can't undo that.

[stompix]

Read their terms of service. If they state anything about not refunding excess payments, then you can't do anything since you already agreed to their terms.

That is pure bs, you can write anything you want in your ToS that doesn't make right and it doesn't matter in a court of law.
Theymos can write in the ToS of this forum that by making 10 posts you acknowledge you will have to offer your firstborn as a sacrifice, do you think it would be enforceable? Terms and conditions can't prevail against the laws of a country, end!
Both the US and EU have laws exactly for this kind of abuse.

So definitely there is no easy way to refund your funds and most probably that's why they wrote it on their terms (I am not sure if really they wrote since we hadn't read it).

It doesn't matter how their platform was being designed, it doesn't matter how their API works it doesn't matter how the funds are stored. If I am offering a product and I ask clients to put the money in a box at the entrance I will not sue them because a raccoon managed to eat the bills before I was able to get them. They have acknowledged they received the payment it's their obligation to come with a solution.

[aesma]

I was going to say the same thing as stompix, laws and regulations will dictate what happens in the end, not just TOS. Of course such companies might be based in places with little laws and regulations...

My first question though is, were the coins from the second transactions sent elsewhere or are they still there ?

[iTradeChips]

Well, you need to be very vocal about this so that they would be able to move and give back the said bitcoin. You did a mistake but that does not mean that they should not refund that. But of course you have to prepare much more than just yapping on social media. And that preparation would cost you more money, if you have the financial means to hire lawyers, go to court and other things you might do in your case, then by all means fight for the said money. If the legal costs would be more than the amount you paid to the "erring" company, then think twice.

[mocacinno]

100% in agreement with stompix...

I've never had this exact case happen to me, but i've once bought a pair of vr glasses that were incompatible with my setup (eventough the prereqs of the product did not exclude my setup). The company refused to take my glasses back pointing to their TOS which said that all sales were final.
I actually dug into the EU laws that said company's have to take back products that were sold online for a certain amount of time after purchase (except some very rare cases that were described within the law), even if the client refuses to give a reason why he wants to return said products.

I confronted them with the law, and actually made it pretty clear that their TOS mean jackshit if they contradict the law... In the end they had to take back the glasses and refund my money.

In your case, it's exactly the same... Compare it with a FIAT situation: you went to the supermarket and had to pay 10€ for your products. Somehow, 2 10€ bills stuck together in your wallet, and you accidentally hand over 2 10€ bills to the cashier at checkout.
You immediately see that you've handed over 2 bills instead of 1. Do you think the store has any legal rights to keep the extra bill? I don't think so... If they refuse to give you your 10€ back you'll go to the police. Even if they have a policy not to return bills after they were handed to the cashier, i'm still pretty sure you'd get your money back once a police van stops at the shop.

In your case, it's a bit harder, since the store you used is online... Maybe not in the same country as you... And you used a payment method you can't charge back... but still, they can't hide behind a TOS if they're breaking the law. Offcourse, in the end it might be a big hassle.. Maybe you don't want to hire a lawyer to take them to court... But you can harm their reputation by sharing your story, they broke the law and only got away with it because you didn't want to take them to court: the internet is going to love that story, it'll do wonders for their popularity 

[bearexin]

They really must be joking lol, it’s not me that’s going to be making use of such an exchange, they have already shown to you that they are scammers in disguise; how do they send you an address to send your funds to and then tell you that since you mistakenly sent the funds twice that they can’t credit it to your debit card?

They must really be kidding me, the address belongs to them and they received the second fund the same way they received the first, so what kind of an excuse is that they are giving? I don’t know the particular platform that is doing this, but I will advise you to look for another one.

[Casdinyard]

Proofs would settle this.
Try to file a lawsuit against the company and if that won't work, try looking for someone which has higher authority than that company. And if nothing still will happen, publish the scenario online. It won't be a case against you  such as libel IF your argument is factual and is having enough evidences that will show the irresponsibility of the company. This won't guarantee actions bringing back the money lost but it will leave an image which will affect the company for sure as a counterpart. These are the ways I think OP could make to give justice to what happened.