Te Ariki hired an electric car from a merchant while he was overseas, paying the hire fee with his credit card. Te Ariki paid cash to charge the car during his holiday, but on his last day, he decided to go to an authorised charging station assuming that the cost of charging the car would be free.
Te Ariki was surprised to see that the merchant had charged his credit card $220 for the cost of charging his car on the last day of his holiday. Te Ariki disputed the charge with his card issuer, who, after receiving information from the merchant, declined to reverse the charge.
Te Ariki said that the card issuer had made communicating with them about the charge difficult because they refused to update him or receive information electronically, and only wanted to send and receive information by post.
Te Ariki complained to FSCL.
Dispute
Te Ariki complained that the merchant should not have charged him for the cost of charging the car because on his last day, he had found a QR code inside the car that he scanned, which led him to the merchant’s website. Te Ariki interpreted the website to be saying that the cost of charging the car would be included in the hire fee he had already paid the merchant as long as he used an authorised charger.
The card issuer explained that they had to rely on the terms and conditions that Te Ariki had signed with the merchant, rather than what was on the website. Their view was that the merchant had provided enough information to confirm that the charge to Te Ariki’s card was legitimate.
Review and Resolution
We did not complete a full investigation of Te Ariki’s complaint because the card issuer offered Te Ariki an early resolution.
The card issuer offered to credit the merchant charge of $220 back to Te Ariki’s account and make an additional payment of $200 for any stress and inconvenience caused by the difficulties with communication. Te Ariki accepted this offer. The card issuer and Te Ariki agreed to disagree on the interpretation of the merchant’s terms and conditions.
As Te Ariki and the card issuer had reached a resolution, we closed our file.
Insights
Consumers should always look to their terms and conditions, rather than other sources such as websites or online searches, when wanting to understand the services that they have signed up for.
Participants should ensure that their terms and conditions are worded clearly and in plain language, to make sure that they can be accessed and understood by consumers.
