Forecourt Eye Letter + £60 Admin Fee - Waitrose/Shell petrol station use - say I underpaid for fuel, but my Credit Card statement says i overpaid!

[spudmachine]

Hello all,

I'm not sure where this question should go, sorry!

 

A few weeks ago I paid for my girlfriend's fuel at a petrol station.  She is a nurse and I wanted to do my bit to help her out as costs are rising.

 

Because I wanted to buy a bottle of wine at the shop I went up to the till (I did not pay at pump) and paid for the wine and her diesel.  I paid with a credit card.

 

Today my girlfriend received a letter from Forecourt Eye telling me I did not pay for my fuel on 4th June at the petrol station in question.  They show a photo of me filling the tank, and a separate photo of a till receipt for £65.42 in print, but then handwritten over this was “Paid 55.42.  Paid wrong fuel”.  In addition they are asking for a £60 admin fee if I pay by 3rd August, or a £30 admin fee if I pay within 14 days.

 

Note that the letter starts by saying "A gentle reminder to the forgetful amongst us.  You appear to have forgotten to pay for your fuel obtained on 04/06/2022."

 

Clearly I did not forget to pay.  There is merely some question about the amount.

 

But if I paid the wrong amount then this is not my fault.  It's the garage's mistake.

 

If they had written to me and said "note that if you don't pay the £10 difference then we'll have to dock it from the wages of some poor sod who works for minimum wage" then I would would be a lot more inclined to pay.  But the fact that they are accusing me of a walk-away non-payment, and asking me to pay an admin fee for their mistake is just infuriating.

 

OK...so here's where it gets good.  I paid by credit card, so I checked the amount, which tells me I paid £66.38.

 

In other words, according to their till receipt I OVERPAID them by 0.96p !!!

 

The problem is this is from Forecourt Eye, which I suspect has the same moral values as the private clampers we hear so much about.

 

Any advice is welcome. 

I assume I don't have to pay them anything, but when I call them tomorrow I'll record the call and first establish that they feel it's my obligation to repay the difference (even though it was their mistake), and that it's acceptable to charge an admin fee.

 

Only then will I tell them that in fact I have proof that they overcharged me, and not only do I expect to be repaid but also to receive an admin fee.

 

One I have an answer from Forecourt Eye I intend to write to Shell, who operate the petrol side, and to Waitrose who operate the supermarket.

 

Cheers,

Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dx100uk]

no powers at all.

dont ring!! -  write/email with your credit card statement suitably redacted and a photo of the car to prove it was you.

you write to the owner of the pump.

 

ignore the stupid powerless forecourt eye

as like DCA's they are not bailiffs

and have 

zero legal powers on any debt - no matter what its type.

 

dx

 

 

 

[spudmachine]

Cheers dx.  The bare faced cheek of them, trying to make out it's a walk-away when they actually included a paid till receipt!!!

[dx100uk]

Forecourts don't mess around, esp if they are owned by large companies. They will and do report bilking directly to the police as it's a criminal matter 

 

What you have is an administrative error which is a civil matter, much like retail loss prevention (low level shoplifting - consumer mistake, peer pressure, cry for help) and RLP or DWF get involved (all powerless totally - civil restoration scammers).

 

Same game with forecourt eye. Head office has signed a £1M deal with these scammers and the chain has to use them 

 

No-one can add any admin fees at all, cannot enforce them nor the supposed 'mistake' sum  

 

Ignore them all do as I said in my last post 

 

Dx

 

 

[Homer67]

I'm pretty sure the principle of Estoppel would apply in this case so there is no recourse for either party if a financial mistake as been made once the deal was done and the purchaser left the premises.

 

They certainly have no legal right to claim anything from you.

[spudmachine]

Good advice from both of you - thank you. Even Forecourt Eye's FAQ on their correspondence says they are only there to deal with walk-aways.  I have no idea why they are chasing me in this case because I clearly paid, but they are disputing the amount. 

 

I will not be giving any credit card info to Forecourt Eye anyway because my contract was not with them - it was with Shell Garages and they are not chasing anyone!

 

So the update today:

 

1. I spoke to Amex.  They weren't that knowledgeable - I was worried when the guy I spoke to had an American accent.  But they said to pursue it with Shell.

 

2. I called Shell and waited 15 mins on their helpline.  Got through to a lady who assume I was trying to dispute a parking ticket.  I explained the whole thing and she said she would send forms by email.  I got her to read back my email address and it was fine.  But no email appeared (checked spam just in case). 

 

3. I gave it a few hours and managed to chat online to a guy at Shell UK.  He told me to document everything and send it to them with a case reference number.  And his email did get to me.

 

4. I know dx said not to respond to Forecourt Eye, but I am going to send them a letter with no personal info for me, but explaining that I am taking the matter up with Shell UK and quoting the reference number that Shell gave me.

 

One thing I'm concerned about is that I don't want my girlfriend fretting if she gets additional threatening letters from Forecourt Eye, which is why I want to reply.  And if it really does get to the police stage I want to be able to show I kept Forecourt Eye in the loop.

 

Thanks again for your support guys - really appreciated.

[dx100uk]

4. no ignore them totally!!

 

dx

[spudmachine]

Hi folks,

A quick update.  I am only talking with Shell UK about this.  As dx suggested I have not responded to ForecourtEye.

 

After a long delay Shell have told me that it's an independent retailer who runs the shop.  I'm not in direct contact with the retailer but they are saying to me via Shell that I "paid for the wrong fuel" and owe them ten pounds.  Note...ten pounds exactly.  My girlfriend's car takes diesel and I assume they are saying they charged me for petrol.

 

So the points I'm making to Shell:

 

1. If the retailer charged me for the wrong fuel then that's their mistake, not mine.  All I did was tell them which pump I used.  And surely the till system automatically selects the fuel type.  Nobody else used that pump in the time I was walking into the shop to pay.

2. If I was charged for petrol instead of diesel I worked out that, on this amount of fuel, the difference would be about 3 pounds.  Certainly nowhere near 10 pounds, and absolutely not an exact number like 10 pounds.

 

I reckon there must be a 10 pound minimum amount before the retailer can involve ForecourtEye, who would then use the classic debt collector tactics.

 

If this is true then surely this is a case of fraud, right?  The retailer is over-charging me so they can involve a debt collection agency.

 

Cheers,

Geoff

 

[dx100uk]

On 18/07/2022 at 14:00, dx100uk said:

4. no ignore them totally!!

 

dx

 

i meant everyone.

 

dx

 

[spudmachine]

DX - did you have any thoughts about the fraud aspect?

 

It just seems to me that if I have been undercharged then it would be about three quid.  But I suspect ten pounds is the lower limit of what they can report to Forecourt Eye.  So they inflated the amount to exactly ten pounds to make it fit.

[dx100uk]

pers i'd just let it run

you shouldnt of responded in the 1st place really.

 

looks like they owe you anyway.