On 27 July, I hired a car with Enterprise Car Club to visit the seaside with my family. Two weeks ago I received a fine from the company for unpaid fuel at a BP station in Attleborough in Norfolk. It had paid the collections agency £41.45 for the fuel, and the legal firm’s £42 fee, and added a £30 processing fee of its own, so a total of £113.45.
I thought it was strange because I hadn’t been in Norfolk that day or that month, and indeed I’ve never been to Attleborough. I even double-checked my Google Maps timeline to make sure, and I was nowhere near there.
When I called and emailed Enterprise, it insisted no mistake had been made and said that if I want to dispute the ticket I should take it up with the collections agency that had sent it the fine. However, the agency refused to speak to me, as I was not the person named on the penalty charge notice (PCN). I told Enterprise this but it refused to take further action.
I called the petrol station and was told that it did not have a record of any fines on the vehicle I was driving from 27 July.
I asked them to check other dates, just in case they had the right vehicle and the wrong date. There was a fine from 21 July for £41.45 in unpaid fuel. The person’s payment method didn’t work and they signed a form promising to pay within a certain amount of time. They probably forgot (which is why it went to the collections agency). The person that signed the form is named on the PCN.
When I contacted Enterprise with this information, it doubled down, insisting the fine was mine to pay, case closed. I don’t think they care whether they have the right person as long as someone pays the fine. Can you help?
PL, Cambridge
It is frustrating to get this “computer – or rather human – says no” treatment when your sleuthing got to the bottom of this mix-up quite easily, so I took this up with Enterprise.
It has since sourced the paperwork relating to this incident, which confirmed there had been an error and the PCN related to 21 July, not 27 July (when you were driving the car). This was due to a handwritten note at the garage, where a “1” was mistaken for a “7”.
Enterprise Car Club says: “We have since contacted PL to apologise for the misunderstanding and have refunded him the full amount. We have also contacted the solicitors acting for the petrol station to notify them of the error.”
So: sorted, but not a reassuring snapshot of how Enterprise treats its customers.
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