advise on debit card chargeback

cheeky

Hi looking for some advice as i have £166 extra charges to my debit card from a car hire company in Spain

Cut a long story short, i had a puncture and tried to use the puncture repair/12v pump to blow the tyre up. No joy, we had full insurance and they came to us with a new car. All good until 2 days later they called up and asked where the 12v pump was - "in the boot" i replied. Apparently not. As far as i and my partner are concerned i left it in the boot and after their employee/agent took the car it was removed.

Ive called my bank, had the charge revered but if the supplier gives them evidence i will be recharged. It seems totally crazy that they can charge me without my PIN and my bank will act as the judge and jury on it. Any advise or am i going to get robbed here?

grumbler

cheeky wrote: »

...It seems totally crazy that they can charge me without my PIN

It's very common, not crazy, if you authorised them to do this by signing the agreement.

Any advise or am i going to get robbed here?

advice

£166 for a pump indeed is a robbery even if it really was missing. Was it some robotic one that climbed out of the boot? If so, it really could do a runner.

eddddy

grumbler wrote: »

£166 for a pump indeed is a robbery even if it really was missing. Was it some robotic one that climbed out of the boot? If so, it really could do a runner.

You'd be surprised! A friend was charged about that for a scuffed plastic hub cap on a hire car in France.

They provided an itemised bill:
- Car unavailable for hire for one day (at full daily rate)
- Car delivered to main dealer for hub cap replacement (at full car hire delivery charge)
- Car collected from main dealer (at full car hire collection charge)
- Labour charge from the main dealer for fitting a plastic hub cap
... and the cost of a plastic hub cap.

lisyloo

Any advise or am i going to get robbed here?

As far as car hire goes - Tip 1: Get zero excess (prefereably direct to give them no incentive to rip you off). Tip 2: take photos of everything. In this case it's your word against theirs (which doesn't automatically mean they will win).

Firstly they have to get an appeal in within 45 days. My personal (very limited) experience is that normally they don't bother, so there's a chance they won't especially if they are pulling a fast one.
Second there's whether the charge is reasonable. Yes it's a bit weird your bank is judge and jury on auto matters, but at least the car hire firm will have to provide evidence for the size of the charge.

There were 2 of you and you probably have no motive to steal a pump so I'd be relatively hopeful.

I try to get zero excess with the hire company and shop around with that as a major criteria.

cheeky

thanks for replies
I paid for the full insurance and was told by the desk in span-gish there was "no excess" so you can imagine my surprise when i read the t/c's on the back. Excess for car swap....Excess for every day the car is swapped (i wasnt given the option of swapping it back!) Excess payment table online for all the possible loss/damage/theft items. They really know how to screw you these firms

agrinnall

lisyloo wrote: »

As far as car hire goes - Tip 1: Get zero excess (prefereably direct to give them no incentive to rip you off).

They may have no incentive to rip you off further, but you've already paid vastly more than you need to by purchasing excess insurance from the hire company - unlikely to be a very money saving tip.