QDR Solicitors letter receieved for non payment of fuel

towills

Good evening,

The registered keeper of our car has just received a letter from QDR solicitors about non payment for fuel.  It's a petrol filling station we routinely use and on that day the driver selected "pay at Pump" then entered the credit card  and PIN number. As usual, the pump held the £100 and we fuelled and left the station.

After 5-6 weeks, we recevied the letter for non-payment from QDR solicitors. The fuel was for around £52 and now they are asking for 102 plus £17  (so total £119). We called the credit card customer servcie who confirmed that Sainsburys held the £100 as holding fee on that day but they never charged. We usually check our statement once a month but never realised that the fuel amount didnt appear.

We have today recieved an email from the Credit Card bank confirming the Holding Fee transaction and I've also recorded the call made to the Credit Card bank. We then approached the Sainsburys store and met CS manager who was not at all helpful and said it has been referred to 3rd party so we need to deal with QDR directly. The store manager also confirmed that they no longer have CCTV as more than 28 days ago and are unable to receive any payment instore and said I have to deal with the 3rd party (QDR).

I'm happy to settle up on the Fuel we used 6 weeks ago but not convinced with the QDR processing fees and Admin charges (£67). Could you please help me how to fight this case?
Many thanks.

user1977

Just tell them you're not paying it, surely? They're hardly likely to take further action for £67.

Herzlos

Someone in another thread managed to get the petrol station to take the payment after a bit of hassle. QDR are only involved to get the fees from you so have no interest in letting you pay the lower amount, but I believe they aren't able to actually start court action so you can probably ignore them. If it ever did go to court you could settle or argue that the fee is unreasonable. 

I'm not a lawyer though, so take that advice with as much salt as you need. 

TooManyPoints

Who is he Registered Keeper of your car?

There are two earlier threads, both of which were quite lengthy. I'll dig them out later. 

It is my view that only the driver is responsible for the debt. GDR don't know who that is and have no way of finding out.  You have no obligation to deal with them. They have effectively "bought" the debt from Sainsbury's but you owe Sainsbury's and nobody else..

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require he cardholder o do anything after he has finished filling up?

Baldytyke88

TooManyPoints said:

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require he cardholder o do anything after he has finished filling up?

It's usually automatic; perhaps the card was removed before the transaction could be completed?

QrizB

TooManyPoints said:

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require the cardholder to do anything after he has finished filling up?

Until I read this thread, I has assumed it was foolproof

• Driver inserts card and enters PIN (I've not yet seen a contactless one but I guess they might exist)
• POS system validates card and initially makes a charge (usually £100 or £120)
• Pump allows you to dispense fuel up to the value charged
• Driver dispenses fuel then returns nozzle to holder
• Pump finalises sale, issues receipt and udates the previous card transaction to reflect the actual amount

There's no apparent way for the cardholder to obtain fuel before validating the card, and no way to cancel it without payment once fuelling has commenced.

facade

TooManyPoints said:

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require he cardholder o do anything after he has finished filling up?

When you insert your card and type your PIN, it immediately puts a "hold" on £100 of your money/credit, and then dispenses less than £100 of fuel. (It ring fences £100, if you are not good for £100 you can't buy fuel with pay-at-the-pump, so they know they can definitely get paid before they allow you any fuel)

In the fullness of time, the correct amount is actually charged, and the "hold" is released. If no charge is made within a set time period, the "hold" is released anyway by your bank.

Sounds like it is Sainsbury's fault that they didn't process the transaction and charge the OP.

It wants escalating up the chain at Sainsburys, with the offer to settle the original bill.

paul_c123

Baldytyke88 said:

TooManyPoints said:

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require he cardholder o do anything after he has finished filling up?

It's usually automatic; perhaps the card was removed before the transaction could be completed?

It wouldn't/shouldn't have completed the pre-authorisation if the card was removed before it was complete.

It sounds like what's happened is there's an issue with the payment processing after the pre-auth was taken and after the fuel was taken, but it was Sainsbury's error. I don't think the OP owes Sainsbury's or QDR anything. Their error has effectively 'gifted' the fuel to him.

They had the pre-auth (which lasts a long time, I think its 90 days?) but never corrected the error and presented a payment in the time allocated.

QrizB

TooManyPoints said:

There are two earlier threads, both of which were quite lengthy. I'll dig them out later. 

Here's one of them:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6607380/qdr-solicitors-non-payment-of-fuel-advice-required

This might be the other. This thread drifts all over the place and has a lot of noise:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6629275/fuel-drive-off-in-my-car-wasnt-me/p1

Car_54

facade said:

TooManyPoints said:

I'm not familiar with this "holding fee" process. Does it require he cardholder o do anything after he has finished filling up?

Sounds like it is Sainsbury's fault that they didn't process the transaction and charge the OP.

It wants escalating up the chain at Sainsburys, with the offer to settle the original bill.

I agree. I'd offer to pay, in exchange for an apology and compensation for the inconvenience caused by Sainsburys' error.

TooManyPoints

That sounds a good idea. However, the tone of the response might depends who the RK is. The business model adopted by QDR seems to simply to chase the RK and nobody else. That may be different if he RK is a lease or hire company.

I would like o know whether the RK is a company or an individual.