And the reputable rental companies that had to cope with any number of irate 'customers' who'd essentially had the money they'd paid stolen from them were also victims of Suncar as well. I think that it has become pretty clear that this isn't a case of incompetence but one which displays all the characteristics of a blatant attempt to defr aud people. The whole thing worked because 'customers' were led to believe that they would renting from companies which did have a good reputation but which never had a bone fide business relationship with Suncars in the first place.

SM

Hi I have just returned from kefalonia having booked and paid 453 Euros a hire car with Hertz through SUN CAR on arrival I was told I would have to pay again as no money had been received from Sun car and the price had gone up to 640 Euros! the money was taken from my credit card by DECODE car hire who are evidently based in Riga, fortunately my credit card company have paid up for the original amount I cannot get the extra I paid unless I can find a link between Sun Car and DeCode the credit card company have tried and they can't find anything so I don't hold out much hope. If anyone has any concrete evidence I would be glad to hear from you.
So please be very wary when booking car hire stay with someone you know.

Hi and welcome to HT!

You could try and claim "consequential losses" for the difference between the original price and the price you paid under Section 75 of your credit card. They are not legally obliged to pay this, but I was successful when FlyGlobspan went into administration.

luci

I'm slightly confused by this latest complaint for 2 reasons.

Firstly, Decode was supposed to have been closed down late last year - when was the booking made/payment taken?

Second, what exactly do they mean by find a link? Surely if you booked with Sun Car but Decode took the money that would be a link!!

As for "the credit card company have tried and they can't find anything so I don't hold out much hope" - uhm, they would say that wouldn't they. The card companies were saying the knew of no problem with Decode right up to when it hit Radio 4 and various newspapers, only shortly beofore the OfT shut them down as a UK registered company. Which card issuer is it?

I've just discovered that although Decode's UK company registration has been shut down their website is now diverting to a different URL http://www.us-rentacar.com This site claims to be North America based with call centres using Las Vegas and Toronto dialling codes but so far I can't find any actual address anywhere in the site, also the sites registration details are masked so don't giving anything away. Dialling codes don't actually mean much these days as techology lets the numbers be diverted elsewhere. They are using commercial software that lets them access car hire company reservation data (similar to the way agents can get at all airlines), this makes it appear that they have a wide range of suppliers.

It's possible that they are an honest company but you have to ask why would an honest company make it's real address so hard to find and why would they take over a link from another company with such an appalling reputation. It's your money you're spending - you decide!

If I find out more I'll post here.

Steve ... one of the other websites in the Suncar/Decode empire was http://www.car-rent-malaga.com. It remains active and still appears to be registered to Dainis Kanopa in Latvia. However, if you open that site and scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see that it is powered by http://www.us.rentacar.com whom you mention. That would appear to link http://www.us.rentacar.com to at least two of the known Suncar/Decode domains.

Please note: Contrary to what the name might suggest, http://www.us.rentacar.com takes bookings for locations worldwide and should not be confused with the UK registered INVALID URL or other companies with similar names.

David

Thanks David, not looking good is it? We really are going to have to get a smilie symbol for a big red alarm bell!! I'll trawl through their sites in other countries and see what happens, the Germans were having trouble with them as well.

I can't believe Suncar is still trading and getting away with it! After we were stung last Xmas (2010) in Portugal, we got a refund from our credit company. About February there was an item on (I think) Moneybox on Radio 4 warning people off Suncar in particular and saying what a scam they run, even mentioned Decode etc. Who can do anything about this? I don't know!!

If you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser you can use flagfox, which shows a flag from what country the site is originated. You can then click on the icon and it will give more information apparently. Heard about this last week on a tv show.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Mozilla-Extensions/Flagfox.shtml

thanks for that I am trying and may have found the link needed at the web site of the Insolvency Service whiich shows the winding up order of De Code and all its subsiduries one of which is Sun Car.

the Winding Up order only applies to the fake UK company Decode used as a front, the bad guys and their bank accounts are in Riga and I don't suppose the Insolvency Service has told their Latvian counterparts.

The press release for the winding up is http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=95&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=418141&SubjectId=36

The main web site shown in above is now renamed to the "US" version just found, the "Malaga" site is still running and linked to the US site, the Russian site shown is still running as before and there's a Latvian site that isn't even on the list. But the German site is gone.

However, the other bad guys here are at Visa and Mastercard. If they genuinely haven't spotted a problem with the number of refund claims then there is something seriously wrong with their audit procedures. If an amateur like me can track down an office and flat in Riga, university records and hobbies of some of the people involved and even a Latvian mobile phone number how come the brains of world finance can't see something wrong? Then again, how did the world economy get into it's current state...?

Anyway, back to the new US site. The London contact number is allocated to a specialist company called Magrathea Telecommunications Limited (Douglas Adams fans presumably) who provide business users with divertable phone lines - so it could be anywhere.

However, the other bad guys here are at Visa and Mastercard. If they genuinely haven't spotted a problem with the number of refund claims then there is something seriously wrong with their audit procedures.

Your comment raises a bigger concern than just Decode/Suncar. We all use plastic these days. Surely many of the problems we experience with these rogue companies would be reduced if the card suppliers took more notice of the complaints raised. These companies would be stopped quicker if they withdrew the facilities from them sooner. At the very least you would expect them to be asking questions. As you say if an amateur can find these things out they can.

fwh

There is another part to this problem. The distribution software they claim to use is provided by an Irish company called http://www.Cartrawler.com - if they cut the link then Decode wouldn't appear to be so professional and take people in. Maybe the people who have been victims should contact Cartrawler and tell them what happened. Use the Dublin address on the contact page not the customer service phone number - guess what, it's not in Dublin (it's a call centre in Cork).