Remember last year’s soaring gas prices? Annette Lazzarotto will never forget them. She paid $1,390 for a single tank of gas on a visit to Italy. What’s worse, her bank insisted the charges were legit, and billed her for the full amount.
It happened at a gas station on Via Cassia near our hotel. As it was “my turn” to pay for the gas and not noticing this error, I signed the receipt which was then charged to my Visa card. While obtaining the gas we noticed the attendant to be very different from all other stops at gas stations. He appeared nervous, rushing around and gruff with us. Although curious, we ignored the behavior as we always present ourselves with deference while traveling as visitors in foreign countries.
Sure enought, when Lazzarotto returned to the States, she found a $1,390 charge on her Visa bill.
I contacted my Schools Federal Credit Union Visa, which obtained a copy of the signed receipt and explained because it was signed they could not help me. I was told I had to contact the company myself regarding the dispute. I found the station and the parent station and through a Web search e-mailed representatives who admitted the error and initially discussed the process of crediting my account through several e-mails of various department levels at the parent company-ERG Petroli SPA.
I then provided Visa with all the copies of e-mails from this company in Italy (as my problem was forwarded to several staff). All e-mails demonstrated the company’s willingness to credit or provide a money wire to my bank account. I was then told by my bank that now that I had obtained agreement to credit the money they would take over and handle it.
After the Visa dispute department apparently “lost” my entire file, I was asked to send it again through my Credit Union in February. I provided copies of all the documents to Visa only to receive a letter this June that the ERG Petroli corporate office does not have authority to issue credits on behalf of the individual merchant location, and the location refused to issue the credit.
What next?
Well, the Fair Credit Billing Act doesn’t protect you for overseas purchases, so Lazzarotto needed to take the matter up with one of the companies — Visa, Schools Federal Credit Union or ERG Petroli. I recommended that she take her bank to small claims court to recover the $1,000 or so she was charged.
Yesterday, I heard back from her.
The process was quite simple as the courts provide online forms to complete with support for writing the “demand” letter. I sent this to my credit union who informed me they would turn it over to their attorneys. Within a week, a CEO at the credit union called me to say they would pay the charge and “they do not like their customers to have to experience fraud like that.” Interesting they were letting me experience that fraud for 16 months as I fought with them and their Visa dispute department to no avail.
I learned to check and keep all receipts as I travel and to not hesitate to use the small claims court process even against a large company.
That’s a great lesson learned — and a long overdue, but happy, ending.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Way to go in fighting for what’s right, though I hope you are considering a new credit card issuer!
That’s the real beauty of small claims court. It cuts through the BS and gets the attention of someone who can actually address the situation specifically instead of some low level person who just automatically says no on a form letter
Congrats on winning that argument! I am still arguing with Chase over a charge for which I believe they owe me $340. In the meantime, I am moving all my banking business (checking, etc) from Chase. I found the dispute department totally useless and time consuming. Maybe I will try small claims court. Thanks, Chris, for letting us know it sometimes works.
I’m glad she got her money back – but how much was written on the original receipt that she obtained at the gas station when she made the purchase? Was it the inflated amount, or not? This would be a key piece of information.
I find often puzzling why people let themselves get in such situations. Checking the bill before signing it is normal, no question. But she even admits curiosity at the attendant’s behavior and she still didn’t check? That’s not smart traveling. Moreover, keeping receipts until you receive, check, and pay your monthly credit card bill in full is also not complicated and should be normal.
I’m surprised she received her money back. I’m baffled her bank took on such a cost for a mistake that she had the legal obligation to avoid.
Timen – In the U.S., credit unions (unlike banks) are “owned” by their members. As a result, they tend to be much more responsive to member complaints, and being typically much smaller as well, it’s easy for word of bad treatment to spread among members. Accordingly, credit unions are often more likely to charge lower fees and to “go to bat” for their customers. It’s true that in one sense, the traveler was legally obligated to pay the bill; on the other hand, anyone looking at the charge could tell it was probably fraudulent, and the PR cost of sticking her with the bill probably outweighed the cost of covering the charge.
Congratulations on the Small Claims victory. Suggest in future use of ATM card to withdraw money daily and pay cash, which would have headed this scam off at the pass. Also the obtaining money through an ATM machine is cheaper than using a credit card.
Even though the FCBA’s “Credit Card Rule” does not apply for foreign transactions, that just means that there are none of its procedural requirements. As in, they do not have to credit you the amount in dispute during the dispute process, meet the strict response deadlines, etc. However, that does not eliminate your normal consumer protections that would be in place in any billing dispute with anybody.