My friend has had his credit card refunded now but I am shocked to see people still booking with them - surely the cc companies know they have a problem with this outfitby now. I think sadly the car hire companies have no chance of getting their money.

if you scroll back up alexmiles appears to have been succesful with a Nationwide debit card.

The important bit is to emphasise to the card company that this isn't a dispute about quality of service etc, it is a systematic rip-off.

Thanks folks - I'll ask for a chargeback and let you know how I get on.

We also booked with Suncar back in May but when we got to Athens in July there was no car and we had to hire one from another company at the airport which cost us nearly twice as much for the week. We have been chasing a refund since we got back in August - the last message we got suggested that we go to the credit card company to get the money back as Suncar "have been encountering problems with our system management, that have partly blocked our ability to provide prompt refunds". I assumed that they were going into liquidation but find that the company who took the money for the hire DECODE CAR HIRE are still trading on line. Don't use either company if you can possibly help it. I just wish I had used Holiday Autos who I have always used in the past and had no problem with. And the credit card company have said that they will deal with getting the money back, though I don' have it yet!

Just to update after my experience with Sun Cars. After having monies taken from my credit card for a booking they could not accommodate on the 29th Aug, I contacted my CC company HSBC on the 16th Oct and made a claim for a charge back. After a few problems i.e. further info not getting to them (they had given me the wrong e-mail address to send it to) I have finally been credited back the full amount.
So for any other HSBC CC holders, they are aware of Decode!!!!
Hope other are as lucky.

Well done June - you must be very pleased

Given the number of refunds due we might be starting a new banking crisis!

Don't know if anyone else has noticed but if you put suncar.co.uk into your web browser it defaults to Decode's web site which is still trading.

P.s. Big thanks!!!! to Holiday Truths as I gave this link to convince HSBS that suncar.co.uk were linked to Decode after they queried my charge back.

never mind the link, I can give them the address of a flat and office in Riga which might be relevant!

Requested a 9 seat car with Suncar back in September. Got confirmation of a carthe following day, however, it was for a Ford Focus! Cancelled order, you know what comes next. My big mistake, not using a credit card. Money taken from account, despite many requests from me, with Bank authorisation codes, to allow them to refund monies.
My Bank is currently dealing with refund claim via their Fraud Dept. Will keep you posted as to result..Bank did say could take up to 3 months to get money back!!!
Did eventually manage to hire a 9 seater with Centauro, Alicante airport. This is the 3rd time Ive used them on trips to Spain, once from Alicante airport and twice from Murcia. Why did I bother trying to book with Suncar you may ask. Simple, at the time of booking, Centauro, via a search engine, did not have any availability. However, I went direct to their website and they had a 9 seater available? Strange but having used tem before, didn't feel worried about booking and besides, they don't take any money from you, you pay at the pick up point.
There are lots of bad reviews about them but I've never had any probs. Excellent service all round and have recommended them t many friends who have had nothing but great service from them.

Hi I used Suncar in July and everthing went well until I was charged twice by Suncar and after many emails and phone calls I have just today got my refund back. So from July to December for refund my advice is don't use them.

Christmas shopping egts in teh way of everything.

Something we missed a couple of weeks ago http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=416792&SubjectId=12 - it might speed up card refunds but I'm notsure it wills top them forever if they stay in Latvia.

You can add me to the number of growing voices who have been ripped off by SunCar. We paid in full by credit card on the net in August, had the prepaid booking voucher for our car with YorCar in the Algarve, Portugal for this Xmas emailed to us, all official and promising. Arrived to find YorCar there with car reserved and all our details, but they had not been paid. We were somewhat sharp with them, thinking they were at fault, but had to pay their rates (which were reasonable, by the way - would recommend them!!) to get hold of the car. They told us our money would have gone to Riga and checking back, the credit card statement states Decode, Riga. After reading all the comments, I'm going to put this down to experience and write off our loss.

I'm going to put this down to experience and write off our loss.

Please do not do that. Contact your CC supplier and inform them. FACT - These people survive because people do exactly what you propose. The only way to stop them is report them.

fwh

I have had the full cost refunded by Mastercard so it is worth asking if you paid by credit card. I assume they will get blacklisted if enough people complain/claim which would stop other people being ripped off.

If it's a UK issued card there should be no problem in getting a refund especially as the UK government has closed down their UK company registration, see link a bit earlier. But "in Tavira" is an address rather than something to look forward to and it's a Portuguese issued card then you'd have to check Portuguese law.

Just to let you all know, we have just recieved a refund from our CC provider. I do have some issues with them concerning the time it has taken them to sort it out, but thats another story. Good luk to anyone else claiming chargeback.

Thanks for update.

Please do not use suncar as they rip you off, we paid in full for a two week car hire in Majorca and received a voucher from suncar when arriving at the airport record car told us that suncar had not paid them and after about two hours of trying to get through to them by phone,fax and email, we had to pay another £420.00 to record car as otherwise we wouldn't have had a car. I dont blame record for this as they tried to help as much as possible, but I do feel they should not be associated with them in any way. On returning from holiday I tried to phone for days but the only way I could get through to them was by live chat on the computer, they apologised and said they would refund the money, no contact for a month then asked for my bank details, still nothing.......they are full of sh** . Eventually we went through the credit card ins and got a refund that way, very disappointed that suncar seem to have got away with treating their customers this way!!!!