Europcar have messed up

rachyrach2k

I hired a van from Europcar on wednesday and upon checking my bank account they had taken out the hire charge plus deposit which was fine.

I phoned them up the following day to enquire about when I would have the deposit refunded and she said it had been processed and could take up to 1 to 7 working days. This was also fine.

I then checked my account again on the day after and sure enough, my bank account was showing the money had been refunded.

I have checked my account today and it is showing that Europcar have taken the money again from my account and I have now gone overdrawn because I have since had to use the money in my account.

I called up Europcar who advised that it was in fact an error on their system in which that deposits are not being refunded and it was happening with all their customers. However, they were not notifying their customers, they would only tell them when the customer woud phone up to enquire about where their deposit was.

I phoned my bank to see if I could stop any charges coming out but they were insistent that nothing could be done and I was going to be charged £35 for the bank to cover the unauthorised overdraft and £28 "maintenance charge".

So I shall be writing to the Chief Exec. of Europcar to put in a very strongly worded letter about the unlawful actions they are undergoing by sitting on their customers money rather than advising them that there is a fault in their system and I shall also be getting them to pay back the charges and confirming to the credit reference agencies that this was their fault so that I can put in a notice of correction.

It has spoilt my day and has left me feeling very frustrated.

I thought I would warn anyone likely to have recently hired through Europcar - make sure you ring to get your deposit back if you have not received it already!