Atlas Choice and GreenMotion payment problems

malky39

So what is the deal with future car hire booked with atlaschoice, I have one booked for a week in July 2017.

magyar

malky39 wrote: »

So what is the deal with future car hire booked with atlaschoice, I have one booked for a week in July 2017.

If they are truly insolvent (as it appears they are) then there is not much hope of seeing anything from this. If it's over £100 then you should have protection from the credit card company.

joncombe

danwednesday wrote: »

Had the same thing. Paid Atlas Choice £250+ by credit card in January! Had a message from Noleggiare (the car hire firm) that they have charged almost the same amount today from my debit card because of a non-payment by AtlasChoice. Despite the obvious anger/frustration/inconvenience, I'm particularly baffled by the following:

It's a shame you used a debit card not a credit card, as there is more protection with the latter. It seems most of these hire companies are relying on a clause in the terms and conditions that if they don't get paid by Atlaschoice they take payment from the hirer instead.

Has the hire company emailed you and stated under what terms they are doing it? If not I would try contacting your bank and state it is an unathorised debit and see if they can refund it.

If they have quoted the terms and conditions, I would check you were given a copy of these at the hire time (they may have sneakily added the clause later). If not again you should be able to get it rejected as unauthorised.

If you did get the terms and conditions and they do say this, then it becomes tricky. I would see if your bank can do anything about the payment you made to Atlaschoice if you state that you did not get the service you had paid for.

Really this should be a dispute between Atlas Choice and the various hire companies they have a deal with, customers should not have to get involved but it seems many are using a clause in the T&C to charge it to the customer. Personally I would avoid using Atlas choice or any of the hire companies that are doing this.

malky39

There seem to be a distinct lack of information to be found on the subject apart for the complaints of people getting charged by the hire companies, am I better just contacting my credit card company

magyar

malky39 wrote: »

There seem to be a distinct lack of information to be found on the subject apart for the complaints of people getting charged by the hire companies, am I better just contacting my credit card company

The trouble you're going to have is that your CC company can't do anything until the company has either
1- formally gone bust or
2 - defaulted on your contract.

As yet they've done neither. BY all means contact your CC company but I suspect they won't be able to do anything.

Mr_Wangers_Wang

Confirmed they're in liquidation.

I'm out in Florida and a friend flew over last night, had same email from Atlas Choice. Phoned credit card for charge back and was advised 'Atlas choice are in liquidation'. Charge back granted (8 - 12 weeks refund time).
That this company is still taking customers money is disgraceful.

I can personally confirm that no car hire company in the US is accepting vouchers issued by Atlas Choice.

joncombe

magyar wrote: »

The trouble you're going to have is that your CC company can't do anything until the company has either
1- formally gone bust or
2 - defaulted on your contract.

As yet they've done neither. BY all means contact your CC company but I suspect they won't be able to do anything.

Most (all?) can because there is a provision of services paid for and not recieved. So if you've got a voucher from Atlas choice and the hire company is not accepting it, Atlas choice have taken your money but not delivered the service. I used something similar recently when booking a train ticket online when the ticket machines would not accept the reference and so I was unable to collect the tickets, despite having paid for them.

magyar

joncombe wrote: »

Most (all?) can because there is a provision of services paid for and not recieved. So if you've got a voucher from Atlas choice and the hire company is not accepting it, Atlas choice have taken your money but not delivered the service. I used something similar recently when booking a train ticket online when the ticket machines would not accept the reference and so I was unable to collect the tickets, despite having paid for them.

I agree with the above, but Malky has a booking for next summer. So they have not yet failed to deliver the service. I'm not sure you could make a claim that 'others have been denied the service, and I'm worried it will happen to me' - however reasonable that may be.

You could cancel and then - like me - Atlas probably won't refund the money but in that instance I don't know if a CC would cover you because it's a simple civil debt.

Thus I think the best thing to do given that the booking is some time away, is see how things pan out with Atlas over the next few weeks.

magyar

PS - Also worth nothing that claim must be >£100 for Section 75 to apply, plus there is a grey area where the contract is to an agent: the credit card company may claim that they would only be responsible for provision of the actual service (i.e. renting a car).

However one would hope they'd be reasonable.

magyar

Quick update on this as I have just received an email from Atlaschoice asking me to make a chargeback claim (which is what you can do if it's <£100).

Spoke to the credit card company who said that you cannot make this claim until after the service delivery date has passed. So Malky you probably can't do anything until July I'm afraid. If they actually go into liquidation then you could do something then, as you'd be a creditor. But whilst they're in administration they're not technically 'bust'.

As an aside when I said it was about a hire car company they said "is this Atlas Choice", so clearly dozens of people have been calling them.