I booked a ride from Bologna to Forlimpopoli this past weekend because I wanted to take a class there and the train wasn’t going to get me in early enough. I set up, and for confirmation, for travel one way that day. I then got calls the next two mornings stating that someone was here waiting to take me. I told them I never scheduled one for these other days. I checked again and only have one day confirmed with the company. Then the next day, I got another call stating there was a driver waiting for me. The company said that they have me on their website for three days in a row. I would have never booked these other days and I have a confirmation email stating it was only one day. My question is how can I prevent this company, seemingly committing fraud, from charging me these fees? My main concern if I got to the credit card company is that they will just go to the company for questioning and the company will say it’s the correct charge. Thank you for any help/advice.
Posted by
WestCentral MN
285 posts
Over the years I have had to dispute a few CC charges. Based on my previous experience, it would be handled like this: You will present your evidence to the CC company showing that you only booked one day. They will (temporarily) refund you any other days that were charged. They then contact the business and ask for proof that you made the charges for the additional days. When the business can provide no proof that you reserved additional days, the case will be closed, the CC company charges the business back for those days (so they don't lose money), and you will already have your refund.
Posted by
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
3051 posts
How did you book the ride? Verbally or with an email or some other method? I have had several cases in which verbal requests were misinterpreted. In addition, the issue of European date formats sometimes arises. In the US, it is MM/DD/YY, but in Europe it is often DD/MM/YY or YY/MM/DD. Not a solution to your issue, but a possible reason(s) for its occurrence.
Posted by
OP
31 posts
It was booked on their website. Date is correct. It’s not even able to be messed up as it was 30.09.2023. I also have to pay for it before the booking can be complete each time, and I only paid 1x.
Posted by
Atlanta
4908 posts
If you can't talk to a real person with the company, then you should take it up with the credit card company as soon as possible. There may be some paperwork and other hoops to jump through, but it will probably be resolved in your favor.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11258 posts
Has your credit card been charged one trip or three trips?
Posted by
Vignola, Modena, Italy
503 posts
A company in Italy cannot legally charge your credit card without your permission.
If you find illegal and fraudolent charges on your credit card you can ask to your bank to retire them and if I'm right you have a week to do it.
In fact you can always block every charge done on your credit card directly by the seller, even if is legitimate. Is the reason why every company send you a way where you put your details and approve the payment.
If you have approved and paid the right amount probably you don't have any other charge.
Posted by
OP
31 posts
Thanks for your input Ricky, I do value it a lot. The whole experience was very sketchy. I paid for my ride when I booked it all the way back in august. You cannot book a ride with this company without paying for it when you book. So there’s no way, having only been charged for one ride, that I could have booked these two other rides. I told them this and this was their response:
“Buongiorno,
il servizio ci risulta essere stato prenotato tramite web anche per l’1 Ottobre e 2 Ottobre.
Purtroppo Le verrà addebitato l’importo per penale.
Cordiali saluti”
So I then called them and they said I would be charged bc I booked these trips (which I didn’t). I asked to speak to a manager and they gave me an email. I emailed the evidence showing I never booked these rides and they replied back 5 hours later:
“ Buonasera
Ci scusi per il disturbo ma abbiamo avuto noi un problema al nostro terminale interno stiamo facendo le verifiche
Grazie”
My credit card company said that I would have to wait until they charged me for these rides that I didn’t book before I can put in a fraud claim. Hopefully they stop now though.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
4934 posts
It's quite possible that the company did gave a system glitch. And according to the OPs posts, there was only one charge to the cc. I'd hold off on accusations of fraud until you see additional charges appear on the cc account. If and when that happens, dispute the charges.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10245 posts
Sounds like language interpretation misunderstanding: the internal system is automatically charging you but they are looking into what they can do about it. But you want to cover yourself no matter what by letting your credit card company know and making a record with the card company of the two mistakes that should not be approved.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11258 posts
Ci scusi per il disturbo ma abbiamo avuto noi un problema al nostro terminale interno stiamo facendo le verifiche
Sorry for the trouble but we had a problem at our internal terminal we are doing the checks
Seems they realize there was some 'glitch' and are working to fix it.
I would relax for now and wait to see if more than one charge shows up on your credit card bill.
( "To err is human, to really screw it up, you need a computer") :-)