Europcar take unauthorised payment

NettyG

We hired a car from Europcar, I won't go into details but it was a disaster. We had to wait almost 3 hours for the car, we were offered 3 cars that were unroad worthy, and in the end we had to take a down grade in vehicle and go as we were late for our daughter's wedding. We had booked the car a month in advance.
We returned the car and they took various amounts of money from our credit card for stupid reasons, and after 2 weeks we finally got it sorted and we were refunded.
Six weeks later they write to tell us they they are giving us £50 as a good will jesture and then proceed to debit £50 from our credit card.
Our business with them has finished, and they have no right to access our credit card. I have told them they have a debited it by mistake (IT IS A PENDING DEBIT TRANSACTION) but they said they have to debit it before they can credit it to us. Well if they do that I'm no better off am i?!
What can I do, because it's a pending transaction the card company can't do anything they said.

[Deleted User]

It sounds like an error, but one they are fixing.

If it doesn't resolve itself, once the transaction has gone through, you can dispute it via your card provider.

NettyG

I wouldn't complain, only they debited over £300 from us once we had returned the car, for issues that were totally wrong, and nothing to do with us. It took 2 weeks to sort out. Every time they said they were going to refund money they debited it.

Then, six weeks after our business with them had finished we get this email, and then they debit money AGAIN!
Surely they should no debit money from someone's account when we have no dealings with them. Bearing in mind it's six weeks after the initial car hire.

We're considering cancelling our card to stop them being able to use it again. This is about the sixth time they have debited money instead of crediting it. I have to chase it up each time.

slopemaster

NettyG wrote: »

We're considering cancelling our card to stop them being able to use it again. .

I don't think this works.
(As they can just claim you authorised it before the card was cancelled.)
But I would make sure your credit card provider is aware of the issue all the same

eco_warrior

Hire care disputes are extremely common. As alarming as it’s been for you thus far it can be solved as zx81 has said. If the 50 debits then your cc can dispute this and it should be successful.

Cancelling your card might be worthwhile if you have concerns and i think most people would have concerns. Sounds a right mess tbh but again, so common.

MalMonroe

I think you should complain to the credit card company as they are in a position to help you with this. They don't want you to cancel your card as you are their customer and they don't want to lose you! If this drags on, if I were in this position I would make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. I did that recently for a similar reason to this, and my complaint was upheld. And I received compensation. It's well worth doing.

eddddy

Cancelling your card probably won't help.

The car hire company will be debiting your card (rightly or wrongly) using authority you gave before the card was cancelled. So the debits are likely to go through.

(It works like this, because otherwise, a 'rogue' could hire a car with their card, then immediately cancel the card and the car hire company can't take payment.)

NettyG

Thanks for that I will try x