Dear Stumbled,
Last July, my wife and I traveled to Germany to visit Munich and the Bavarian Alps and have some good beer. (I co-own a brewery in Colorado). We rented a car from Enterprise, which had a dealership inside a hotel lobby, and picked it up at an unmanned garage a few blocks away. I photographed the fuel gauge when I picked it up (the car had five-eighths of a tank of gas) and again when I dropped it off with three-quarters of a tank. But they charged me 94.50 euros, plus 20 percent tax, a total of about $131, for 25 liters of “missing” fuel. Also, my original reservation said taxes were included, but I was charged an additional €65.87 for taxes on the final tab. I complained to Enterprise and filed a credit card dispute with American Express, but no luck. Can you help? Jack, Broomfield, Colorado.
Dear Jack,
Why should car rental companies make the simple act of filling up your gas tank so stressful? Their rates are so punitive (in their case, about $16.75 per gallon, if my double conversion from liters to gallons and euros to dollars is correct) that we would do anything to avoid them, even risk missing a return flight if we miss the last gas station before the airport. (Note that a gallon of gasoline in Germany in July 2025 cost less than $8, on average.)
You weren't even renting at an airport and you actually left the tank with a little more gas than it started with. You took pictures to prove it, and they also charged you too much tax, or so we both thought when we looked at your bill.
I contacted Enterprise and the company quickly refunded $131 for the extra gas. But they were right about the taxes: the original amount of the tax had been removed and a revised amount, including the gasoline tax, was added in the end. I think the German-language bill tripped us both up.
“We are committed to resolving any issues promptly and take all customer concerns seriously, investigating each one thoroughly,” Enterprise spokeswoman Danielle Stuart wrote, adding that a third-party vendor who cleans and refuels the company's vehicles did not realize the car did not have a full tank when it was picked up. That's why they wrongly accused you.
It was an obvious injustice and I'm happy to help. But after re-examining his paperwork and speaking with an expert, I think he could have resolved the issue without me, if he hadn't changed his tactics to a credit card dispute.
Here's how: His original emailed complaint to Enterprise, just two sentences long, said only that he thought he had been taxed incorrectly. You didn't mention the gas charge because (as you told me later) you hadn't noticed it yet. But since the real problem was gas, not the tax, his complaint was inaccurate and Enterprise rightly rejected it.
Then, when Enterprise didn't refund her money, she went directly to American Express and filed a dispute, also known as a chargeback. Amex denied their first chargeback request. He then noticed the gas charge and filed another dispute, asking for about $160 back. This time he cited both the gas surcharge and taxes, and again the amount was incorrect. Importantly, he did not return to Enterprise between disputes.
He told me in a follow-up email that he no longer has any complaints because the process was done within the American Express website and he can no longer access it. That seems fine to me. Let's assume you made a strong argument and included the before and after photos of the fuel gauge with time stamp, and therefore you should have received at least the $131 back.
So why might Amex have rejected its second dispute? I'm sure it didn't help that you requested $160 instead of the $131 you were entitled to, but I suspect the main reason was that you didn't return the issue to Enterprise before filing your second chargeback request. It's important to give the merchant a chance to resolve the issue first, said Todd Ablowitz, who has worked extensively with chargebacks as co-founder of payments technology company Infinicept.
“You have to prove that you tried to get a refund and work it out with them,” he told me over the phone. That could include providing invoices with errors highlighted, emails back and forth, or screenshots of online chats and text messages. You could also include contemporaneous notes of telephone conversations, with the dates of the calls and, if possible, the name of the agent you spoke to. In cases where travelers complain about inaccurate product descriptions (for example, a resort that advertises a pool but doesn't have one), you can include a screenshot of the description along with photos of the hotel grounds.
As an arbiter of consumer complaints, I would add that the poor people judging chargeback requests should not be overwhelmed. Keep your argument simple and don't muddy the waters with a bunch of unnecessary documents. If you're not confident in your writing skills, consider using generative AI to help keep your argument short and clear.
But filing a credit card dispute should be your last step, not your first. There are reports that some companies blacklist customers for what they consider frivolous or excessive chargebacks. Mr. Ablowitz points out that network rules do not allow a merchant to reload your credit card after a chargeback, but I have heard many stories where a company re-bills customers and threatens collection proceedings if they refuse to pay.
On the other hand, if done right, chargeback can be the most powerful tool available to customers in the United States, with its pitiful consumer protections.
So if you hadn't acted so quickly to dispute the charge, would it have gotten to a chargeback situation in your case, Jack? I can't be sure. Normally, I would question Ms. Stuart's statement about being “committed to resolving any issues promptly” and taking “all customer concerns seriously.” In my experience with other companies, customer service representatives often do the exact opposite.
But in this case, the benefit of the doubt goes to Enterprise, as it never had the chance to resolve its problem quickly.
If you need advice on the best travel plan gone wrong, email [email protected].
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