Delayed refund of overcharged online payment

On 23 Sep 2017, we made an online payment of R580 for additional baggage on a flight between OR Tambo and Cape Town. In my FNB Savings Account, the R580 went to a "Pending" status and the available funds was deducted from my account. On 29 September 2017 BA processed another payment of R1160 (double the R580) off my account. This resulted in my account going into arrears and FNB contacting me to deposit funds to make up the arrears amount. The R580 still remained as "Pending" with the funds unavailable to me.

After calls to BA on the 2nd October 2017 and emailing my bank statement showing the transactions they failed to resolve the matter. On the 13th October 2017, I reverted to FNB to see if the transactions could be reversed. After some time FNB managed to remove the R580 from the "Pending" status and this amount became available again. However, they informed me that they have passed the query of the R1160 on to BA to resolve. In the SMS FNB sent me, on 19 October 2017, they mentioned that BA has 30 days to respond.

This prompted me to try and contact BA again to try and resolve the matter. BA finally agreed that they will refund me R580 to make up for the overcharge. They also said that it could take between 24 and 48 hrs to reflect. When I contacted BA on the 23rd October 2017, as the refund did not happen, they informed me that the card detail I used for the payment, rejected the refund. My suspicion is the fact that it was a debit card and not a credit card. I forwarded (23 October 2017) my saving account details to BA for the refund.

Today, 24 October 2017, I called again to confirm that payment was made (although nothing reflected in my account). After insisting on details of when the payment will be done, I was informed that it could take up to 6 weeks but they managed to get it down to 10 days from their accounts department. I informed them in so many words that is not acceptable. BA "stole" my money and they are dragging their feet to do the refund.

It is unacceptable that it can be so easy to take the wrong amount out of my account, taking it into arrears in the process and then it is a battle to get refunded for close to a month.

I managed to, eventually speak to a Supervisor, who were also unable to give me a clearer answer on why the refund cannot be done immediately. After insisting, the Supervisor tried to put me through to her Supervisor, who was unavailable. I was promised a return call by 16:00 today. I am waiting in anticipation.