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.