Admin fee from rental company on top of ticket

[newacre]

here is the email that i sent to Enterprise on thursday 7th;

****

You have debited £35 from my account, as an administration fee for forwarding my details to the police and notifying myself of a speeding ticket.

 

I note, from your terms and conditions, that two references to this possible charge are made;

 

First, it requires me to pay “A reasonable administration fee…” in such circumstances.

 

Secondly, it is stated that it must be no more than £50.

 

While I accept that you have fulfilled your obligations, in respect of the second, I cannot accept that you have, in respect of the first; that is to say, I cannot accept that this represents a fair charge for the generation and posting of two such standard letters. I imagine them to be standard database reports with the absolute minimum of manual intervention.

 

I paid £399.52 for the vehicle for 9 days and would have hoped that you could have done this for no extra cost. If this is not to be the case, having committed yourself to a reasonable fee, I feel entitled to ask you to reveal your costs and how you have arrived at such a figure?

****

 

no reply, as yet, but the area manager has made attempts to contact me. and here is the letter that i intend to drop off at my bank, at lunchtime;

****

An error has been made on my account. £35 was taken from my account by “ENTERPRISE” on 5th August 2008. I have contacted them to tell them that I am in dispute with them over this payment.

 

I would ask that this money be fully and immediately refunded to my account, which I understand to be my right, in law, and part and parcel of your terms and conditions.

****

 

i have deliberately not gone into ANY detail and we will see if they cave or continue to say it's a legal matter and they can't do anything.

Edited August 13, 2008 by newacre

[crem]

and here is the letter that i intend to drop off at my bank, at lunchtime;

****

An error has been made on my account. £35 was taken from my account by “ENTERPRISE” on 5th August 2008. I have contacted them to tell them that I am in dispute with them over this payment.

 

Again I would have recommended avoiding any suggestion it is a "disputed charge" and just maintained it was a "banking error".

 

I would ask that this money be fully and immediately refunded to my account, which I understand to be my right, in law, and part and parcel of your terms and conditions.

****

 

"I would ask.." seems a bit polite. I think something like "In line with my Direct Debit Guarantee Mandate, I request that you make a full and immediate repayment to my account".

 

i have deliberately not gone into ANY detail and we will see if they cave or continue to say it's a legal matter and they can't do anything.

 

I think because of your first statement, i.e. you have told the bank you have a dispute with Enterprise, they will stand their ground as you are effectively admitting it was not an error, more a disagreement over the level of charge, therefore it is a "legal matter" as they say and nothing to do with them.

[newacre]

crem

 

thanks for that and i take your points but they are going to look into the matter and come to their own conclusions, irrespective of what i say. they will know the facts before they do anything. i, either have the right to have this refunded or i do not and if i don't then i will have to pursue them via other means.

[newacre]

speak of the devil. lloyds just rang and said that i need to speak to the relevant dept. they have already knocked it back, so i think it is back to square one. i could try again but the first question that she asked me was if i had had any dealings with the company. i cannot tell them i didn't, so i will just try insisting that they do not make any judgments and do my bidding.

[newacre]

spoke to the regional mgr at enterprise and he was sympathetic and said that he saw my point and would take it up and had never had a complaint of this type, before.

 

then, 15 minutes of arguing the toss with someone at my lloyds branch. she just kept saying that i had consented to this in the terms and conditions and that meant that it was not an 'error'. i kept making the point that she was effectively making a judgment about what was reasonable as that was all that i had consented to. she kept telling me to take it up with enterprise. i asked her to read out the banks T&Cs that she was interpreting but she just told me that that was the banks position and i could complain if i didn't like it. in the end she hung up .

[newacre]

got an email from the branch, saying that the area manager has decreed that i get a FULL refund. apparently, they are chasing the fleet business from my company. what that has to do with me, i have no idea but they're giving me my money back.

 

the way i have been spoken to by the bank has infuriated me and i intend to take it up with them. a lot of good it will do but am still going to have a word.

[mfpa]

just rang them and they said that they cannot do anything unless i have been charged for goods i did not receive or charged twice or something.

 

You HAVE been charged twice: once by the police and once by the car rental company.

[Al27]

the way i have been spoken to by the bank has infuriated me and i intend to take it up with them. a lot of good it will do but am still going to have a word.

 

Welcome to the world of dealing with banks!

You wouldn't think £35 would bother a multi million pound company, but banks hate giving refeunds, even when they are legally required to. Most people give up, which is what they're planning on.