Amex chargeback gone to debt collection agency (EOS solutions)

ojloverman1

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'll go ahead and explain the situation anyway.

Last year I rented a car with Hertz in Mexico for £700, paid in advance on my amex. The whole thing was a horrendous experience, but long story short, after an insane 4hour wait they ended up giving me a battered old car and not the class I'd paid for. Rather than wait any longer I just took the car and went about my holiday. Upon return to UK I tried to contact Hertz twice via the telephone to discuss a partial refund. I could not get through the Hertz as their automated telephone system just sends you around in circles (still blaming it on covid). 

So I decided to do a chargeback on my amex. I raised a dispute on 21st Dec for "The goods received were damaged or not as described" and provided the relevant information. The dispute was resolved in my favour on 12th January, "As a result of our investigation, we have credited your account" and I thought that the end of the matter.

Well when I returned home today I have received a letter from EOS debt collection suggesting that I now owe them the £700. What's the correct way to proceed here? I have been told in the past not to contact the debt collection agencies as they may be seen as acknowledging the debt (which I don't). 

[Deleted User]

You'll need to contact either them or Hertz to dispute the debt, depending on who now owns it.

Probably the best you can hope for is a reduced figure, based on you not getting the car you paid for.

born_again

Common action by car hire co's. They do not contest. Simply pass onto their chosen debt collector.

[Deleted User]

In essence, you have hired a car, used it and then taken the money back from the car hire firm by "force" as it were. I am not sure why you thought it was the end of the matter, the car hire firm were always going to come after you as you have taken the money back out of their account.  If you reclaimed the whole cost of the car hire despite having use out of it (albeit less value than you were expecting) it is somewhat inevitable they would go to debt collectors. I suggest you engage now before you get a CCJ

Sandtree

You've had a hire car for free... doesn't work that way and so they will pursue you for the debt.

Chargeback isn't a legal resolution, banks cannot make legal rulings, they just enforce their T&Cs against both parties and so it moves who has to take legal action from the customer to the merchant. Many merchants for smaller amounts will write it off as its not cost effective to pursue but for larger amounts, or if the company takes a more principle based approach, then they will attempt recovery.

Deleted_User said:
I suggest you engage now before you get a CCJ

A little melodramatic... a CCJ only appears if you fail to settle a court order within a month. As long as the OP can afford to pay the debt and the modest court fee there is no reason why they'd end up with a CCJ even if they contested it to the end. 

[Deleted User]

Sandtree said:

You've had a hire car for free... doesn't work that way and so they will pursue you for the debt.

Chargeback isn't a legal resolution, banks cannot make legal rulings, they just enforce their T&Cs against both parties and so it moves who has to take legal action from the customer to the merchant. Many merchants for smaller amounts will write it off as its not cost effective to pursue but for larger amounts, or if the company takes a more principle based approach, then they will attempt recovery.

Deleted_User said:
I suggest you engage now before you get a CCJ

A little melodramatic... a CCJ only appears if you fail to settle a court order within a month. As long as the OP can afford to pay the debt and the modest court fee there is no reason why they'd end up with a CCJ even if they contested it to the end. 

Car hire firm send the dispute straight to debt collectors, it's hardly melodramatic to point out they're highly likely to go to court for a CCJ if he doesn't pay up now. Given the first post was saying they did a chargeback and assumed that was the end of it, it's not unrealistic to warn of the potential end result of ignoring it

Sandtree

Deleted_User said:

Sandtree said:

You've had a hire car for free... doesn't work that way and so they will pursue you for the debt.

Chargeback isn't a legal resolution, banks cannot make legal rulings, they just enforce their T&Cs against both parties and so it moves who has to take legal action from the customer to the merchant. Many merchants for smaller amounts will write it off as its not cost effective to pursue but for larger amounts, or if the company takes a more principle based approach, then they will attempt recovery.

Deleted_User said:
I suggest you engage now before you get a CCJ

A little melodramatic... a CCJ only appears if you fail to settle a court order within a month. As long as the OP can afford to pay the debt and the modest court fee there is no reason why they'd end up with a CCJ even if they contested it to the end. 

Car hire firm send the dispute straight to debt collectors, it's hardly melodramatic to point out they're highly likely to go to court for a CCJ if he doesn't pay up now. Given the first post was saying they did a chargeback and assumed that was the end of it, it's not unrealistic to warn of the potential end result of ignoring it

They can only go to court for a judgement - the Op only gets a CCJ if they fail to settle the judgement after 1 month - CCJ is a really bad acronym as it confuses a lot of people and doesn't really explain what it is, for one a High Court judgement that isn't settled will result in a CCJ despite the "CC" standing for County Court.

As to the hire firm... that could easily be the basics of automated scripts, the payment would have been due ages ago when the OP originally paid. The chargeback now makes the debt show as unpaid and the script simply sees its over 30/60/90 days (whatever the cut off) so passes it off to the collectors not factoring in the reversal that only recently happened. 

ojloverman1

So I spoke with amex and they say it's now nothing to do with them. I spoke with EOS and they intimated that they have not bought the debt from Hertz but are managing a "Hertz account". They wanted me to come up with a figure that I would be happy to settle at, which to me sounded suspiciously like them trying to get me to admit some liability. I just told them to either serve me court papers or stop contacting me.

amexblue

So we'll see you back here in a few weeks when the court papers arrive I guess? 

ojloverman1

Yeah if they serve me papers I'll just pay the bill before we have to go to court

amexblue

Then wouldn't it make more sense to just tell them a figure you'd be happy to settle at? They'll probably still mark your credit file as partially settled.