£2,104.18: tourists charged by date for rides on Brighton Palace Pier

One of England’s most popular tourist attractions has apologised after hundreds of visitors to Brighton Palace Pier were overcharged for fairground rides to the tune of thousands of pounds.

The pier – which is largely cashless – blamed the fiasco on the processing company Worldpay, which it said had used the date of the transaction instead of the actual amount in each case.

Worldpay, which is working to provide refunds, then compounded the anger of customers who contacted it by refusing to engage with them on the grounds of data protection.

One woman who had visited the attraction in April told of her surprise on the morning of 24 June when a text message from her bank informed her that her account was overdrawn. She discovered that £2,104.18 had been taken on Wednesday by Brighton Palace Pier in what was described as a “deferred payment.”

“I simply couldn’t understand what had happened. We had visited the pier back in April with our two grandsons and I spent about £85 on my debit card, which paid for three all-inclusive wrist bands at £25 each for the fairground rides, some candy floss and doughnuts,” she said.

Leave a Comment