A mum is hundreds of pounds out of pocket after buying her children a Christmas balloon and being charged a whopping £430.
Amy Lloyd thought she was buying two £15 Christmas balloons when she visited a festive park with her husband and their two sons Jacob and Jorgie.
But when she got ready to pay the £30, she didn't realise how much she would actually get charged when the march machine malfunctioned.
The mum made the crippling purchase to a man selling fairy light balloons at the park gate.
But it wasn't until she got home and her husband John was contacted by his bank and discovered how much they had actually paid.
"We offered to pay cash and the man said he would rather we paid by card which is fine because I guess a lot of places prefer card payments these days," Amy told Wales Online.
"He then said the contactless wasn’t working and asked me to enter the card instead. But it was all a bit of a rush so I quickly tapped in the pin and that was that.
"The next day, the bank messaged my husband to say that £430 had been taken out of our account, so he rang them and they said the money had been paid by card to a company called Fairy Lights Balloons.
"The website address written on the balloon doesn’t work so I emailed Bute Park themselves and messaged them on social media."
The mum, from Cwmbran, Wales, was asked to enter her card and tap in her pin.
Without realising, she actually agreed to pay £430 after an extra digit was entered before the £30, which is what the balloons should have cost.
Amy said that the park’s management have responded to her and clarified that they will refund the £400, providing she can send them a screenshot from her bank statement confirming the payment.
However, it isn’t as simple as it would seem as the bank advised Amy and her husband to cancel their card following the incident, meaning she has to wait for a new one to arrive.
When it does, it is hoped that Amy and her husband will get their £400 back.
"It’s a lot of money, especially at Christmas," Amy said.
"At least we’re hopeful we can get the money back. I’m just worried that this may have happened to others too."
Organisers of Christmas at Bute Park have said the over charge was down to a simple human error and that a refund of £400 will be made to Amy and her husband.
