Brighton Palace Pier: Overcharged visitors face weekend with no money

Hundreds of people have been overcharged by more than £2,000

Visitors to Brighton Palace Pier say they face having no money over the weekend after being charged more than £2,000 for tickets to fairground rides due to a payment error.

The boss of the pier said "human error" was to blame by payment processing firm Worldpay.

Kinga Hofman, who visited the attraction in April, said: "We're being left without money over the weekend."

Worldpay said it was crediting cardholders "as a matter of urgency".

Apologies 'won't feed us'

Ms Hofman said she and her husband had taken their eight-year-old son to the pier in April.

"On Wednesday afternoon he received a message from the bank that he was just about to go into his overdraft," she told BBC Radio Sussex.

"We are being left without money over the weekend. It's a big shock.

"No matter how many apologies or free tickets - it's not going to feed us."

Kelly Cunningham, from Brighton, said £2,104.13 had been taken twice from her bank account. She said she received an email from her bank on Thursday to say her account was overdrawn.

"I was quite stressed - they had taken quite a lot of money out of my account."

Palace Pier 'furious'

The chief executive officer of Brighton Palace Pier, Anna Ackord, told the BBC: "Until yesterday we were not aware, like the customers, that this had happened."

She said Worldpay had uploaded some transactions manually.

"The person doing it made a mistake and instead of using the transaction value, for some unknown reason she used the date.

"We are absolutely furious with Worldpay."

Worldpay confirmed it had taken action to reverse the incorrect payments, adding it would continue to cover the costs of any associated bank charges incurred.

In a statement, it said: "We anticipate some cardholders will begin to see funds in their account over the weekend and encourage impacted cardholders to contact their bank for specific guidance. We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused."

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