Enterprise Rent-a-Car stolen money under the guise of "Admin" charges.

youzernaim

I recently had a rental car from Enterprise while mine was being repaired.

During the rental, we had to visit Kent to see a very ill family member - and travelled via the Dartford Crossing.  We added the hire car reg number to my pay-as-you go account, so all was good.  

2 days later, I spotted that the charge had not come out of my account, so I checked the account, and sure enough the charge had not been applied to my account - so I phoned up Dart Charge to query.

The person I spoke to couldn't have been any more helpful.  She mentioned that as it was a hire car, it could be that the charge has been applied to someone else's account, so their system didn't know who to charge for the crossing.  She said that the worst that could happen is that I receive a penalty notice - but don't worry as she would add a note to my account to the fact that I had called to query and that any charges should be waived.

On dropping off the vehicle later that day, I made a point of speaking to the Branch Manager of Enterprise to inform them of the issue. She told me that it isn't an issue, and as I had spoken to Dart Charge, I should just wait to see if a penalty notice arrives, in which case they'll send it to me and I can then phone up Dart Charge and have it quashed.

So...

2 weeks later I receive a letter from Enterprise stating that they had received a penalty charge notice and they were going to charge me £35 in admin fees to forward the notice to myself.

I got in touch with Enterprise via email recounting the above and stating once again that it was not my fault - and as such strongly refuted any charges.  Their representative got in touch with me stating that should the fine be cancelled they will refund any admin charges.

I got back in touch with them stating that as any fine was not actually my fault or indeed valid, that I did not see that it was fair to take the admin charges that they had already said they will refund and asked them not to take the funds - especially from the card they had on file, as it is our bills account and does not hold any surplus funds and will likely cause us to incur additional charges. I implicitly wrote that I withdrew consent and did not give them permission to take funds from my account.

They took the money the same day anyway.

Move on 2 more weeks and I receive the letter from Dart Charge, so I called them up as told.  They immediately waived the penalty, but said that as I had used the service and as yet had not paid for the crossing, I owed them £2.50.

I thought that was more than fair enough, so I paid the £2.50 and asked them for confirmation that the fine had been waived - which they duly sent me via email.  Their operative mentioned that Enterprise were well known for playing the system and refusing to refund customers, as such he would re-word the email he sent from the standard email to ensure Enterprise wouldn't try to keep the money.

I forwarded it on to Enterprise and awaited my £35 refund.

Enterprise have told me that because the communication said the fine had been "waived" and not "cancelled" and because I paid £2.50 for the crossing, I am therefore still liable and so they refuse to refund my money.

So there's a few things here:

•  Are they allowed to take money from your account if consent has been withdrawn?  (I have a feeling the answer is yes, even though it is not exactly the moral thing to do.)

•  Are they allowed to go back on their word of then refunding the charge based on semantics of language?

•  Is £35 for ticking a box and posting a pre-paid letter back to the sender a reasonable "admin charge"? 
 
Either way, it feels to me like Enterprise Rent-a-Car have seized the opportunity to steal £35 from me with no just reason and quite frankly don't care.

It can't just be me that they have scammed in this way (as the Dart Charge rep quite correctly alluded to). They probably think that the charge isn't enough for someone to kick up too much of a fuss about and will just resign themselves to having lost it.

If there is anybody out there who has suffered the same, or has any advice on how to deal with such a situation, I would be very grateful.

Coupon-mad

I agree. Just dispute the charge as unauthorised by your bank and tell them to reverse it.

Fruitcake

Worst case, send Enterprise an LBC, and if that fails, follow it up with a court claim. 

Do complain to your MP as well. 

youzernaim

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's an LBC?

Fruitcake

Letter before claim. It's part of the pre action protocol for debt claims that the court system requires a claimant to do before they issue the court claim itself.

youzernaim

Thanks! I just got the radio station when I searched 

Are there any decent templates for this kind of thing, or do I need to speak to a legal person?

Le_Kirk

youzernaim said:

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's an LBC?

We have a post in the NEWBIE sticky that explains all acronyms.  Have you tried the advice given by @Coupon-mad and what happened when you did?  Has the bank reversed the charge?

youzernaim

Apologies Le_Kirk - I had only posted the original yesterday and had received 2 very useful pieces of advise.  I have raised a dispute with the bank yesterday.  I am awaiting the results of that dispute.

Not sure how effective it will be as they have raised it as a "Service Not Received" dispute and will contact Enterprise for their comment. I have a sneaking suspicion they will tell the bank the same as they have told me...