Out of Hours fee charged twice!

spender1330

I booked a hire car through the Easyjet booking system and the price included an out-of-hours fee of £60, which I have had before and was acceptable, so I paid in full at the time of booking

On colleting the car, the Eurpcar agent said they needed a credit card authorisation for any additional fees, like if fuel needed replacing and the out of hours fee. 

I said I'd already paid that, but didn't have my email access at the time to show him.  He said, not to worry if I'd paid it there would be no issue. 

On returning the car, I planned to show an agent the fully paid fee but there was no one on duty so I,could only leave the keys in the lock box.

A couple of days later I had a £60 charge to my card. I contacted Europcar to explain I'd already paid that and they assured me they'd look into it.

The response was that the charge was correctly applied and I should not have been charged it up front be Easyjet and to contact them to get it back. I said I'd always paid it up front before and never after a booking but they stuck to their original decision. 

I contacted Easyjet and they confirmed they always charge the fee up front and were am surprised Europcar charged it again as it had in effect already been paid and theyd have sent it on to Europcar. They opened a Case and said they'd look into it. 

While waiting,  I contacted Europcar Bookings team and asked them if I was to book an out of hours collection, when could I expect to be charged the OOH fee and they said some third parties take it at the time and some don't. They couldn't say who did and didn't.  When I admitted why I was asking,  they said Customer Services could sort out a refund, and were surprised when I said they were refusing. So I rang in and discussed all that and was told a refund was no problem and they could "see" the original payment in full but not the additional £60 - that they had taken - so send in proof and they'd sort a refund and was given a new case number.

2 weeks later I rang for an update to be told the new case had been closed because I had used a different email to the one I booked with to send the documents. They made no effort to tell me that they closed it. The original case remained "open" but their decision was unchanged that their charge was apllied correctly and I should contact Easyjet for a refund. 

I contacted Easyjet for an update on their claim, and they apologised but they had had no reaponse from Europcar over their enquiry as to why they had charged the fee again, but they promised to try again. I emailed the Claim handler at Europcar asking if he could help expedite a response for Easyjet but was told that wasnt something he could do.

So I paid one company in full (as I always have done) and the second has taken the fee again. Both claim to be in the right. Europcar will not engage  any further and despite me asking multiple times the original Customer Services agent will not escalate the complaint to a higher authority. Easyjet are trying to help but are very clear they always charge this fee so don't think they are in the wrong either.

Im £60 put of pocket and have no idea who is at fault. I COULD claim £60 back from my bank but genuinely don't know who is at fault so don't know who to claim it back from! 

Can you advise/help please?

marcia_

 If you already paid it to easyJet and the second charge came from euro car then it's the second charge you should be asking your bank to charge back. 

born_again

marcia_ said:

 If you already paid it to easyJet and the second charge came from euro car then it's the second charge you should be asking your bank to charge back. 

The issue here is really what is the basis for the chargeback. Can't be duplicated payment. As it does not fit the requirement. As 2 different retailers.
Service not received. Again easy for them to reject.

Paid by other means might work. So long as OP has written proof of both payments & what exactly for.

But Hire co's are well known for not rejecting chargebacks & simply going legal on the debt.

eskbanker

born_again said:
Hire co's are well known for not rejecting chargebacks & simply going legal on the debt.

But if it went legal, it's the company trying to recover funds from the customer rather than the other way round (as it would be without charging back) and so in OP's situation, where they're confident that the charge was demonstrably invalid, there shouldn't be any fear about defending a claim.

born_again

eskbanker said:

born_again said:
Hire co's are well known for not rejecting chargebacks & simply going legal on the debt.

But if it went legal, it's the company trying to recover funds from the customer rather than the other way round (as it would be without charging back) and so in OP's situation, where they're confident that the charge was demonstrably invalid, there shouldn't be any fear about defending a claim.

Yep.
Just something that Op would need to be aware of. Given we often see posts. Won chargeback, not  Now being chased by debt collectors 👍

Edited as per below 🤷‍♀️

eskbanker

born_again said:
Given we often see posts. Won chargeback, not being chased by debt collectors 👍

Even more often it's "Won chargeback, not now being chased by debt collectors"

born_again

Oh boy bad day 🤦‍♀️
Thanks for the correction