Consumer complaint received 2024-01-28
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (VA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a rental car reservation with XXXX on XXXX with a quoted price of {$170.00}. 

When I picked up the car on XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, the XXXX representative at the rental counter at the XXXX XXXX, added prepaid fuel to my reservation. I told her that I wanted to decline that option and return the car with fuel. She told me that was not an option and the prepaid fuel fee of {$49.00} would be removed when I returned the car. Because XXXX was closing at midnight and there were other customers waiting, XXXX XXXX told me that my only options were to accept the prepaid fuel fee or cancel my reservation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, when I returned the rental car to XXXX, I received a receipt for {$200.00}. Since this was {$26.00} more than the XXXX quote for {$170.00}, I submitted an online inquiry to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and received a form email response from XXXX Customer Care Team. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX from XXXX Customer Services sent me an email stating that she had sent an email to the rental location for further investigation, and it would take 3-5 business days to complete the process. 

I received no further updates or communications from XXXX, and I was unable to call to follow up because they have no customer service phone number. 

Since XXXX charged me {$26.00} more than the XXXX quote for {$170.00}, I filed a dispute with Chase, my credit card company. I tried to file the dispute online through the Chase website and received a message stating that I needed to call Chase to file a dispute. After calling Chase and explaining the issue to a Chase representative, I received a dispute letter in the mail requesting the same information I had previously provided. Chase sent the letter on XX/XX/XXXX, but due to the XXXX holidays and winter weather delays, I did not receive it until XX/XX/XXXX, and had to return it by XX/XX/XXXX, in order to continue to pursue my dispute. After returning the form and receiving another letter acknowledging my response, I received a resolution letter from XXXX, a Customer Service Specialist at Chase, on XX/XX/XXXX, stating that Chase considers the XXXX charge valid based on its research and the information available. It appears that Chase only reviewed the rental agreement that I signed on XX/XX/XXXX. The letter states that Chase " found that the merchant submitted the charge for the amount agreed to at the time of purchase. '' But this is not correct since that amount- {$260.00} - included the {$49.00} prepaid fuel fee. There is no explanation for why I was overcharged {$26.00} or what that amount was for, since it was not the prepaid fuel. 

In summary, my complaint to CFPB is three-fold : XXXX ) Rental car companies are not consistently honoring the prices on reservations made through XXXX. On this occasion, XXXX was the rental car company that did not honor my XXXX reservation, but I have had the same experience with Dollar in the past. As with this experience, neither Dollar nor Chase were helpful in resolving the issue. 

XXXX ) Consumers that require assistance from rental car companies have few options. As noted above, Thrifty does not have a customer service phone number, and the only way to contact them after my rental was complete was through an online form that generated a generic response and no further follow-up from Thrifty. 

XXXX ) Chase has an intractable dispute process. Forms that should be online are not and require phone calls or submission of hard copies, making the online link to initiate a dispute nothing more than a mirage. Then customers have to continuously check the Chase website for the status of their dispute. I provided extensive documentation to Chase, and in the end, they only reviewed one form from XXXX with amounts that do not even match the fees that could have led to potential overbilling. The process is unnecessarily cumbersome and seems to have been created that way intentionally, so as to deter most consumers from disputing unfair or illegal financial practices.