Charity refusing to answer over refund

jomc

Its too long to fit into a title so please read, thanks !

A while ago i sponsored a friend 100 euro who was going on a charity trip doing the orphanage thing in a third world country. She contacted me a while later to say that she was no longer going due to problems with the charity. I heard nothing from the charity ( i sent money through mycharity.ie) and sent an email requesting a refund, as tbh i didn't really have the money but was trying to be generous in response to my friends big gesture of actually going there. Email was ignored, and three others have been sent, no response has been received. Not even an acknowledgement of my letter or asking me would i continue to sponsor the trip.

Small background info is my friend was told she would have to raise x amount to go, committed to this and they ended up claiming flights etc had gone up and they were taking a charitable donation for themselves to cover 'costs'. so x amoutn was actually nearly tripled!!! When she queried where all this money was going, she was told she wasn't suitable and they were not happy to send her on the trip.

They didn't refund any of the money she had raised or even her own deposit.

So tbh i feel like i've been scammed, where do i go from here?

Oryx

If you paid by credit card you could inititate a chargeback. How long ago was this?

jomc

I confirmed with the office which never answers now. They're not registered as a charity i found out but their a parent company is. Would myself or my friend be entitled to a refund in this case?

RangeR

jomc wrote: »

I confirmed with the office which never answers now. They're not registered as a charity i found out but their a parent company is. Would myself or my friend be entitled to a refund in this case?

If they are not registered as a charity, get straight onto Revenue. Only registered charities can legally collect for charity, as far as I know.

You paid though mycharity.ie.As mentioned, if by credit card, then issue charge back.

Send registered letter to the "charity" and their parent detailing your complaint, that you want a refund and that you have doubts as to the legality of said charity.

I would then go down the road of Small Claims Court. As this is not a charity, it's a business.Take them to the cleaners. They give charities a bad name.

snappieT

MyCharity.ie appears to be a platform for various charities to collect donations online. What was the actual charity you donated to, I suspect they're the ones you need to deal with.

I don't see anything wrong with a limited company collecting on behalf of a charity, or am I wrong?

They seem relatively legit - collecting for Special Olympics, Samaritans, RNLI, DSPCA etc.

TheIrishGrover

snappieT wrote: »

They seem relatively legit - collecting for Special Olympics, Samaritans, RNLI, DSPCA etc.

Collecting for, yes. But delivering too?