A Question for Oppo's Legal Eagles

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/20/2015 at 13:38 • Filed to: None

0

11

A few months ago, Mrs. Ttymmnn rented a car from Hertz in Richmond, VA. Contrary to the order that I placed online, they added a refueling option and insurance to the order, without asking first or telling her that they had done so, and she didn't catch it. They refunded the fuel purchase, and we challenged the charge on the insurance through the credit card company, USAA. After speaking with USAA a few times, we received a letter from them saying that we were absolved of any responsibility on the charge, and they refunded us the amount ($115). Now we are getting letters from Hertz saying that we still owe the amount and they are going to send it to a collection agency if we don't pay. It seems to me that any agreement to pay is between Hertz and USAA, and we should not be responsible for the charge. Am I right? Is Hertz going after us because they can't get the money from USAA? What are my options at this point?

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 13:45

0

I'm so sorry, but Mrs. Tittymmnn made me laugh

ttyymmnn > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 01/20/2015 at 13:47

0

But that's not what I wrote.....

Mmmm, titties.

Tekamul > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 13:48

1

I had a similar issue with Hertz from April.

The rental was for a week, and we found the discrepancy ($420 in insurance) before the end of the week. We got the manager of the branch to agree in an email that they would refund the charge, but did not. We ended up eventually fighting it via the CC company (Capital One) as well.

They agreed to refund the charge while on a 3-way call with a CC representative. A month later, they charged it again. We went through another round of arguments on the phone, including them asking us to come into the branch (1500 miles away) to clear it up. CapOne reversed the charge and said they would handle it from that point forward.

It took 3 full months to be done with them. We never heard any threats of collections, but I would write back a letter to Hertz disputing the claim as before, and send a copy to USAA. CapOne told us these companies do not fear individual customers, but step lightly around CC companies.

ttyymmnn > Tekamul 01/20/2015 at 13:55

0

I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that when I use a credit card to pay for something the agreement is then between the CC company and the vendor. If the CC company refuses to pay it at that point, the issue is with the CC and the vendor, not the vendor and me. But I'm just not sure how it works, though I do feel like Hertz is going after us because they think they can harass us.

My wife is going to call USAA again today and talk to them. I'd rather not have to get into conference calls, but if that's what it takes, so be it. I don't want to pay just to make it go away.

Thanks for the reply.

jariten1781 > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 13:58

1

Yeah, you can be sent to collections for charge backs. In fact you can be sent to collections for the chargeback amount plus the merchant and chargeback fee. I don't know the legal ins-and-outs of it but the CC company is just the middle man payment method...the contracted service was between you and the merchant.

I went through a giant mess with Sprint a couple years ago and they tacked on a 50$ chargeback fee and a ~3% merchant fee on top of the chargeback amount.

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 14:09

0

Regardless of the efficacy of legal advice obtained from Oppo, I strongly suspect you'll end up wishing you just paid them.

Hope I'm wrong.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of 01/20/2015 at 14:10

1

I'm not going to take any legal advice garnered here to the bank. I'm looking more for opinions. And yeah, I'm not too optimistic about the outcome. I hope you're wrong, too!

Textured Soy Protein > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 14:19

0

I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that when I use a credit card to pay for something the agreement is then between the CC company and the vendor. If the CC company refuses to pay it at that point, the issue is with the CC and the vendor, not the vendor and me.

It's not quite that simple. When you buy something on a credit card, you're agreeing to 2 things:

1. The vendor provides goods/services in exchange for payment.

2. The credit card company provides payment to the vendor on your behalf, and you agree to pay the credit card company back at some point in the future.

Just because the payment is flowing from the credit card company to the vendor, doesn't mean that you haven't made an agreement with the vendor.

As for your original problem, I recommend threatening to sue the rental car company because they slipped the insurance and refueling charges into the order without first asking your wife if she wanted those things. Sometimes just saying you're getting a lawyer is enough for the rental car company to back off.

If they persist, you might want to pay a couple hundred bucks or whatever it is to a lawyer to draft a cease-and-desist letter to the rental car company saying that they added those charges to the rental order without your wife's consent, and they cannot collect on charges that they added to a rental agreement without your wife's consent.

The net cost might end up being the same, but at least this way you don't have any collections on your credit report.

Of course, I'm not a lawyer.

(Also, this is why rental companies are sneaky fuckers. When I rent a car, I always book in advance and know exactly what I'm supposed to be paying. If the rental company presents me with any sort of different number I make sure immediately that they know I only want to pay for what I've already booked.)

ttyymmnn > Textured Soy Protein 01/20/2015 at 14:24

0

I've got a PDF of the original online order, and nowhere did I select either fuel or insurance. Those were added by Hertz, and my wife was not informed of the change. Unfortunately, she signed the agreement, even if it was misleading. I'm afraid that all arguments will cease with that signature.

Thanks for the reply.

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 14:30

1

Tittymmnn is how I say your name in my head. It just so happens that putting Mrs in front of it made me lol :)

Textured Soy Protein > ttyymmnn 01/20/2015 at 14:32

0

Since you have the original agreement, you could try to make the argument that she signed the updated agreement with the additional charges because nobody pointed out to her that there was anything different from the original order.

The problem is big companies will play hardball on BS like this because they think an individual consumer is just going to get scared of threats like collections, give up, and pay the BS fees.

I found an article I remembered from a while back where Dollar Rent-a-Car pulled the same kinda crap on a lady, and she sued them. She also got the local media involved and was able to get a refund.

Dollar's parent company—Hertz.

The article mentions this guy John Mattes who is a consumer protection lawyer and suing Dollar/Hertz for a lot of these similar cases.

I'd suggest reaching out to him.