Car hire nightmare

born_again

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

One of the things that you should always tell a customer when/if you reassign a debt such as rental car damage to the retailer's Acquirer is that you are not relieving the cardholder of their contractual responsibilities to the retailer; you are merely exploiting the fact that the retailer has not correctly followed the payment scheme rules for processing such a charge to the card and that they may quite rightly pursue the cardholder for payment by alternate means.

we do as well as advising them that the car hire co can chase them directly for the debit if they lose.
I know this happens quite often. As customers ring back saying I have got a letter from a debt collection company re the charge.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

I don't know the current rules for processing rental car damage transactions to a Visa card, nor the current means by which the charge should be investigated if challenged by the cardholder, but I would imagine they still require the rental company to prove the cardholder agreed to pay for damage and also that they agreed for the charge to be placed against their card. This used to require the rental company to provide a signed Rental Agreement showing the T&Cs, a card 'imprint' and a description/estimate of the repair costs provided by an appropriately qualified repair shop.

Is that still the case?

Yes. They just provide a signed by customer copy of T/C hire agreement, which has the clause about further charges for either damage or traffic offences.
If they do not provide a estimate to the customer 10 days prior to taking the funds. That is when a pre-compliance will kick in, but it is a slim chance of getting funds back.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

15 and more years ago, this type of dispute was a pain to deal with but there were potential remedies through both Chargebacks and Compliance depending on what you got from the Acquirer when you requested what used to be called 'T&E Documents'.

Nothing has changed. Still a PIA to deal with.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

The 'Transaction Not Recognised' Chargeback was branded as mostly useless by many of us in the industry when it came in but it was never originally used to resolve issues like this because the transaction was usually recognised - it was just disputed.

It was only really used when the customer had not received any notification of the charge, even then it was a long shot and often failed. If they had then it was a no go, as no chance of winning.

rajeshk4u

NewToTheUkAgain wrote: »

I work in the business and personally I wouldn’t touch the external policies either.

Can you explain why?

Terry_Towelling

rajeshk4u wrote: »

I have done this in the past, but on my car if left the keys in the boot, it still opens, as it needs to remote to lock the car. So how on earth did it get locked in?. Curious about the make/model of the car.

Many hatchbacks are prone to this - if not all.

You have the car in a locked state; you click the boot-unlock button only; the boot opens; you place the keys on the boot floor (although I cannot fathom why you would) whilst you do whatever you have to do; you close the boot; the car is fully locked with the keys inside.

Elinhaf

rajeshk4u wrote: »

I have done this in the past, but on my car if left the keys in the boot, it still opens, as it needs to remote to lock the car. So how on earth did it get locked in?. Curious about the make/model of the car.

If Advantage answered the phone call, your maximum liability would have been for them to send someone over to you with a spare key to unlock the car.

If you have screenshots of the number of times you called them, can you counter-sue? As you did your best to resolve the issue. I guess this is US territory. Is there a no-win no-fee lawyer?

It was a Hyundai accent, we were so confused by how it locked as well that we rang Hyundai that day too to see if they could remotely unlock it and they were totally unhelpful. Luckily we have the call logs as you've mentioned so I think that's the best plan now. Will speak to a lawyer here to see what they recommend. Thanks!