The Consumer Complaints Blog

Thank you for the opportunity to express my extreme frustration on a public forum.

Yesterday I purchased $10.01 from a local Esso station by swiping my credit card at the pump. This morning when I checked my credit card balance on line it showed a discrepancy between the balance and credit available. When I called my credit card company they informed me that Esso had pre-authorized $100 for my $10.01 transaction. They further informed me that they could not release the $89.99 remaining authorization without speaking to Esso directly. I called Esso Customer Service and was advised that they do not hold the funds, but rather my bank does. I called the credit card company back and spoke to a Supervisor (Tony) who said they it would violate Capital One’s Merchant Agreement if they released the remaining authorization without hearing from Esso directly. I then called Esso back and spoke with another Customer Service representative (Suzanne) who informed me that Esso has no way to track what my actual charge was an no way to authenticate release of the remaining authorized funds.

I have worked in the hotel industry for 30 years and, like Esso, we pre-authorize credit cards on check in. However, unlike Esso, there is a method to call and cancel the pre-authorization after check-out in order to release those funds back to the customer. That is the nexus of my complaint; if they are going to pre-authorize for $100 (without telling the consumer, mind you…and by the way who puts $100 in their gas tank these days???), then they should be obligated to have some way to release the funds once the actual payment amount is processed.

I am extremely frustrated as tomorrow is a the start of a long weekend, and I have been told that the pre-authorized funds won’t be released for 4-5 business days, which means that my $10.01 purchase on Wednesday November 9th will tie up $100 of my available funds until next Wednesday the 16th or Thursday the 17th!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I had a really bad experience recently with spinelli honda dealer in lachine(montreal), quebec.

I signed a lease contract in rush(within 1 hour) after I was told my deal is the best. because it’s already the off work time, so there is no time for me to start the financing procedure yet, we plan to do it next day.

after cooling off and talking with friend, I was convinced that my deal is not that good, so I decided to cancel it. I called both sales person and sales manager, and they became so rude that time. the sales person yelled at me, saying I cannot get my depost back if I want to cancel it, the sales manager threaten me of a fine of $1500 dollars, but my colleague help me to find the rule of cancelling the lease contract, the client has the right to cancel it within 24 hours without penalty, not to mention that I haven’t started financing procedure yet.

so I sent them offical fax with 24 hours and I received the email from sales person, saying he received my fax, but he still try to pursuade me to take the lease, I refused and asked the depost back($500). after that, I can not reach them anymore. they didn’t return my email, didn’t answer my call, didn’t call back after I left the message.

I wrote sales person another email, telling him I found the rule that “the client has the right to cancel the lease contract within 24 hours without penalty”, the sale person finally wrote me an email back, but what he wrote is just a crap. he tried to deny the truth. he seems very forgetful by stating that there is no writing demand to cancel the contract, so it’s not canceled.

I wrote him back stating that I have proof that the fax was properly delivered and I had received his email saying he received my fax, then he disappeared again.

I just wanted my money back, the OPC wanted to help me but it may take time.

what I wrote is 100% true and I have the email proof.
I am so angry about their behaviour and I don’t think they deserve the name of Honda Dealer.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Do not buy a car from Luxury Autos of New England. They do not stand behind their cars. They sold this car to me as a daily driver, and it is literally not running at all. The car stalls, has a horrible miss fire, and has a ton of other problems the seller failed to disclose. When I contacted the seller initially, she failed to respond. Now that I am disputing the car through my bank, she responds and accuses me of playing games. VERY unprofessional. She sent the car to me with no gasoline in it, so I ran out of gas and had to walk 5 miles to the nearest gas station to put gas in it. After that, I couldn’t even keep the car running properly. The car is currently with my mechanic and I’ve already spent more than I paid for it in efforts to get it safe and running. The seller KNEW all of these issues and failed to disclose them. The car was not safe, and the seller knew that.

Aside from mechanical the front seats were in extremely poor condition. The drivers seat is all ripped up and the passenger seat is just the same. The seller was ever so careful to circumvent taking a picture of the seat issues, and did not disclose them in the ad.

Buyer beware is all I can say if you are considering a car from Luxury Autos of New England.

Also, they claimed the car was inspected by a Massachusetts qualified inspection station. Well, the car must have been lick and sticked as there is NO WAY the car could have passed any legitimate inspection with all the safety problems it has.

Thanks for reading and I hope this saves someone else from getting taken by these thieves.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

ROBBED by Enterprise rental cars! Buyer Beware! I know this is long but please read it if you ever plan to rent from enterprise. It could save you hundreds of dollars.

My name is Ray Barton, I live in Suffolk County NY. I have recently had awful and frightening experience with Enterprise rental cars in bohemia, NY, that is unbelievable. I went to the Company website on Thursday July 22 and made an online reservation for a midsized car for weekly rental at $332. Unable to make it down there, I made a new reservation on Friday the 23rd at around 1pm. The website took all my information and I printed the reservation out, which says nothing on it about rental requirements except restrictions for people under 25 (or 23, whichever it was).

I arrived at Enterprise about 5:30 PM on Friday July 23rd all ready to rent my car. The gentlemen behind the counter hammered away at the computer and set up the rental asking for a driver’s license and Major credit card. I handed him my license and my company Visa Debit card. The gentleman (I believe named MATT) tossed the card at the counter and says, “I can’t take this”. “What?” I reply. He said policy states that it has to be a credit card and debit is no good. “So what do I do?” I ask. He say’s “I can’t rent to you.” Now becoming visually angry I asked him why it doesn’t say that on the site! And prod him further asking if there’s nothing I can do. He acted as though he could really care less. I storm out of the office stating that they just wasted my time. Leaving quite angry, I call the corporate headquarters where I am told that I need a Pay stub and a utility bill, and then he can rent to me but has to take a $400 deposit. Aggravated, but willing to accept that being understandable, I have no choice but to wait until Monday because it is now 5:45pm and I’ll never make it back by 6pm when they close. I live quite a distance away so it’ll have to wait.

First thing Monday morning on the 26th of July, I call headquarters again and ask if a Geico bill will do for the utility bill, they say it will. I call the Bohemia branch around 10:30am and explain the situation, telling them what corporate had told me. “That’s fine he say’s, bring it down and we’ll rent you the car.” I head down to the branch; See the same gentleman from Friday, give him the company debit card along with my pay stub and Geico bill in hand, and the rental goes smoothly. I get a $332 weekly rate and he tells me he has a Hyundai Sonata ready, but an impala coming in about an hour if I’d like to wait. I tell him I’ll take the Sonata and we do the paperwork. He even tells me that since I had a problem on Friday he’ll put down that the tank was empty even though it was full so at least I get a free tank of gas. He charges $400 to my card as a deposit and I leave with the car around 12 noon.

I drive the car for the week without incident, and return the following Monday, August 2nd to return the car. Everything goes fine until the guy says that the charge will be $786. What??! I exclaim, I had the weekly rate. He tells me I have had the car for a week and three days so at $149 per day for the extra three days, the total is $786. I explain that I took the car on Monday and am returning it Monday, that’s one week. He tells me (are you ready for this?) that I took the car on Friday!!! I know when I took the car! I calmly explain what happened and that I was there on Friday but had to come back. I told him why I came back Monday (with my business partner as a witness, I might add) and he insists that the paperwork says 7/23 so that’s when the car left. Now, I did sign the rental form. The form does say 7/23/2010 in tiny dot matrix computer printing, but I didn’t notice that the date was wrong, Even if I noticed the date I probably wouldn’t have realized that it was the 26th and Friday was the 23rd.

The salesman say’s he has to take it up with Matt (manager, and the guy I saw both Friday and Monday) when he comes in so, he will hold on to my copy of the receipt and when it is settled he’ll give me a call. I wanted something to show I returned the car but he refused to give me a receipt unless I was willing to pay the $786.

Two hours later, I check my bank account and see that in addition to the $400 deposit they took on 7/26 (MONDAY), they also took $300 out on Sunday and an additional $86.97 about a half hour previous to my checking. Infuriated, I call the branch for an explanation and the guy I speak to says “sir, you took the car on Friday, it’s impossible for you to have not taken it until Monday. Well, I am not accepting that, so he puts me on hold to get Matt, who is also the manager (and the guy who helped me). Matt picks up and say’s, “Sir, you picked up the car on Friday and you are being charged for it!” I am appalled, how on earth can they be charging for three extra days?! How can they think I took it on Friday when I didn’t even decide on a car until Monday? If I had taken the Impala, it would be easy because it didn’t come back until Monday so it would have been easy to prove. Needless to say I have been charged $786.97 for a $332 weekly rental.

I called your corporate headquarters and spoke to someone there named shelly who took my info and told me they would put me on hold, call the branch, and if we got disconnected, she would call me back. After about ten minutes I was disconnected, called back and was told nobody named shelly works there!!!! It’s now 8:00 pm and still no call back.

My only assumption is that Matt was angry that he had to rent to me with a debit card and is purposely lying about it to screw me. How can he not remember the events above only one week later?

I am not going to give up. I’m going to spread the word and file complaints with consumer affairs and the BBB as well as the Enterprise Regional office. First of all it’s a lot of money, second it’s really the principal. I am having my attorney draw up a law suit, I have sworn affidavits from two people who were with me and three others who know When I got the car, and I’m getting my money back from the branch or from the corporation. I will spend $100,000 to get back my $400 so it would be best for someone over there to check the security cameras or whatever it takes to fix this mistake. I have better things to do than try to screw a rental company out of $400!

I’m posting this everywhere so that Buyers BEWARE, and check the dates on any rental agreements they sign and most importantly STAY FAR AWAY FROM ENTERPRISE!!

They are franchises so they can screw you and the corporate office cannot do a thing. Beware!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I found your site because I needed to tell someone about the experience I had dealing with Toronto LX Limousine. I booked a reservation online with this company and then found out that I no longer required their service. I felt that not confirming the reservation was enough to cancel the deal, as is the case with most services.

After receiving a phone call the day before the day I originally intended to use this company’s services, I was told I had to cancel by responding in an email. So I did this, 24 hours in advance.

Despite this, I was billed $261.61 for not canceling 72 hours in advance. I hardly think that the administrative costs of 5 minutes worth of phone calls totals $261.60!!! I called to try and resolve the issue and tell the owner “Joseph” that he was stealing from me and that his business practice was a very short term strategy. He basically told me there was nothing I could do because he had my credit card information already. He then continued to say he doesn’t need to worry about my business, and brag that his company is worth $2.5 million. Well Joseph, that’s because you’re stealing from people Joseph! Shame on you!

I know other people have probably experienced this same situation and I don’t think it’s fair that companies take advantage of the “fine print” to steal from customers with good intentions. If anything, I hope I’ve at least succeeded in warning others not to make the same mistake in having good faith in transportation companies like Toronto LX Limo.

Sincerely,
Andrea (last name protected for privacy)
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Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.