I've now emailed BBC Watchdog as well. I am awaiting reply from them. If we all make an effort here, perhaps we can stop others being cheated out of money.

Thats the spirit philip rule. The family that were hit for another 500 hundred could have had problems finding that extra money which could have ruined their holiday.

Please do not use either Suncar or Decode Car Hire. I am a manager for a Car rental company in Cyprus and we have encountered very serious problems with these companies, taking reservations and payment and not paying us the supplier, which leaves you the customer with no car and out of pocket.
We no longer accept any reservations from these companies and have cancelled all existing reservartions as have most other Car rental suppliers in Cyprus.
Like most of you, we have had no response from them regarding payment and the matter is now in the hands of our legal advisors.

Today's ASK GILL column in the Travel Section of The Telegraph contains a complaint from a dissatisfied user of Suncar. The columnist could not contact Suncar or Decode Car successfully and her parting shot made it fairly clear that she felt that would-be car hirers should not hire with this company.

I did an interview with Simon Calder last week, so hopefully he will be able to give the Suncar/Decode etc scam some publicity - still, tho', the credit card companies take their bookings, google take their money for listings and trading standards sit on their asses...

Hi Folks, I wish I'd of searched "SunCar Issues" before we tried booking with them.
We made an internet booking on the evening of 11th.September; for a hire car at our destination Airport for Saturday 12th November. A response was shortly received by us, from SunCar saying that they would confirm that the chosen car was available for us at our destination, within two days.
After six days and receiving no contact, I went back online and cancelled the booking. The next day we received a call from SunCar saying that they didn't have the particular car we booked available, but could offer us an alternative. We declined their offer and explained that we had cancelled the booking and had found an alternative supplier at our destination.
Imagine our surprise when we received our CC statement to find that Decode had debited our card for the full amount on the 15th.September.
Since then we have constantly tried to contact them, when I ring them the phone disconnects after two rings. They will not respond to emails either. But their web site is still up and running and taking bookings.

We have contacted our CC Company and spoke with them again today, and were told by them that "Quite a few of our customers have made complaints about SunCar and no car being available for them at their destinations, in the past few weeks".
We will eventually get our refund but not until after we have travelled to our destination Airport and find no car available, even though we cancelled the booking and SunCar said that they didn't have the car available. I am at a loss to understand the logic behind that, but that's what the CC Company have told us.

Sorry for the long post and I hope you are all successful in getting your refunds.
Time now to spread the word across the Web.

Manningah,

You shouldn't have to wait for the refund until after the holiday. Your cc company has already acknowledged there is a major problem here. If it has already received complaints, to such an extent that it accepts the problem, it is liable for allowing the transaction to go through in the first place. I suggest you go back to the cc company and tell it that you are in the first instance going to make a formal complaint to the fsa and the financial ombudsman. Secondly if the money is not credited to your account with ten working days, you will instigate legal proceedings against the cc company in the small claims / county court. Also name and shame the cc company on this webpage and national press. The cc company has no fallback if it was already aware of the problem and still allowed the transaction to go through.

We all have to gang up on the cc and debit card companies here. Visa is well aware of the problems but cannot be bothered to block all transactions. In my view and coming from a legal background the cc and debit card companies are as guilty as Suncar itself.

Good luck one and all.

Ok.
Decode Car Hire is actually a UK Company, but it was only established last year so there is not a lot of information available for it.
SunCar doesn't seem to be an incorporated company, so is possible just a registered (or not) business name.
The interesting thing, is that both of the above companies are only agents of an agent, in that if you book a car through their websites, you are actually entering into a contract with Etrawler Limited, an Irish Company, which acts like an agent for several car hire firms across the world. So you would not actually know from whom you are hiring the car.
So if he wanted to take it up further, he would need to contact Etrawler Limited, or its trading subsidiary CarTrawler. Their cancellation policy is:

http://www.cartrawler.com/booking-conditions/

So he should have been able to cancel.
It's a very elaborate structure I can not see it having any immediate benefits, other than to potentially confuse clients. I'd be interested to hear how it turns out.

Thanks for that Philip, after reading this thread and with your advice I'm a bit more clued up on chargeback, I'll be ringing the CC Company tomorrow.

Hi

It would appear that I have fallen fowl of SUNCAR/DECODE also as I arrived on the first day of my honeymoon at Paphos airport only to be told that SIXT had cancelled my booking as they had not been paid by Decode. I have been trying to contact them but to no avail at all. Has anyone actually been able to speak to someone at Decode about these issues? I have notified Consumer Direct, Watchdog and Trading Standards. It is absolutely digusting that they can still get away with this. I have done a Companies House search and it looks like the two directors are based in Latvia and the organisation has a number of CCJs already. Be keen to hear if anything comes from this through the notification of these issues to other third parties.

Cheers

Whoopeee.
After ten days of sending emails and trying to phone Suncar, finally a response.
Don't get excited though they are really telling me to reclaim from our CC Company.
Here is their response in full

"Dear Client,
Accept our apologies for the delay of our reply.
We have been encountering problems with our system management, that have partly blocked our ability to provide prompt refunds.
In order to receive a refund in the given situation of shortcomings regarding payment types, please contact the Bank or Credit Card company operating your remittances.
By making an application of reclamation on the given amount charged by our company, it can be pulled back to your account, which as a reclamation will be accepted from our side.
The given process will include time consumption from your side, but it's the most effective way to provide that the refund will take place in the nearest future.
Kind regards,

Sun Car Team"

Like a lot of you I have contacted, Watchdog and Consumer Direct, I am in the process of contacting the ECC Trading Standards Institute.

Hi Everyone
I found this site (unfortunately) after I had made a booking with Sun Cars!!! But have since been checking in for any info or advice.
On the 29th Aug I booked a car for 5 days in December from Aberdeen airport and paid £156, I thought nice car, great deal!!! Money was taken from my credit card and I thought great that's sorted, (stupid thought). On the 9th Sept, 2 weeks later, I received an
E-mail saying, "We are unable to process your booking as there are no automobiles for your desired time frame or model selection".
Ok no problem I thought, once I receive my refund I'll book a different car"¦"¦. and then it all began.
After no sign of a refund I tried phoning the company, no answer, got through to live support to be told I would receive a refund (which of course never materialised) sent 2 e-mails then received a reply.
"I had been charged due to a technical fault" (sure you've all had the same) So it's now the 24th Sept, enough is enough so I send an e-mail to their complaints dept"¦"¦"¦"¦..no reply so I sent another one informing them that I would be contacting Watch dog, (which I have and my CC company).
Last Wed I received an automated reply to my complaint stating they would respond in 24-72hrs, what a joke!!!! It's now been a week so I'm done, am now awaiting the forms from the cc company, I will also add the link to this forum in my correspondence so they can read all the complaint and hopefully speed up the refund.
I was lucky"¦ I wasn't stranded in a foreign country but still frustrated at being ripped off. Following this forum has really helped knowing I was not alone so thank guys!!!!!

Dear Manningah,

Hell will freeze over before Suncar coughs up. Of course they're going to say this because they're as confident as they can be that the cc companies will not chase them up. It's all in the "too difficult tray". Who pays in the end when the cc companies cough? We all do with the utterly ridiculous interest rates we're all suffering from.

I don't want to be a pooh bah here but this is a total cop out by Suncar. If I ever find those responsible and I have too much time on my hands .......

Good luck.

very glad you weren't caught out too badly - of course, if the credit card companies, consumer direct and google ads had done their jobs properly, no one would be having any problems

Oh dear, I have a problem now, like so many before me so i hope some people will read..... inwardly digest.... and then DON'T book thru Suncar.

I do not like these Forum things, but as they are a very good way of exposing problems such as mine, I have "joined in" on this one.

Booked with Suncar on line with a debit card as I wanted a company that would take full payment before I left so i didn't have to take the car hire money with me.

Then the problems started....
Got confirmation that I had paid, very quickly, with a booking ref. excellent value.
THEN got an email telling me my booking is good, but I will have to pay AGAIN on collection, and my initial money would be refunded.
Phoned the actual car hire company as Suncar are just an agent.
Fortunately the booking was confirmed as good, the car was avail, but I WILL have to pay again.

Now I am back, the car hire was brilliant value, just £15 a day, FARO Portugal, with AV/Discovery, Faro.
A guy in the actual care hire firm sympathised, and said if he could help me get my refund from Suncar, well, Decode actually, he would do his best.

Suncar, who must be the same company as Decode, have an automated answer on all the numbers I try.
I haved had NO refund, and as I paid by DEBIT card the card company cannot do anything, other than contact Suancar and "ask them to cooperate by paying me back."

They have a registered office somewhere near Big ben and I am tempted to go there and hammer the table, but it's probably just a companies house registering office.

If I don't get my money by the end of October 2010 i WILL be taking them to court for my money.
If anybody is interested in joining in please get in touch with me as the more impact, the better.
If I do have to go that far I will also get the press involved etc etc etc.
Unfortunately it might just drive them underground, but we will cross that bridge in the fullness of time.

Philip, fair enough it looks like the CC Company will be giving us our refund. When we spoke to their Chargeback Dept they acknowledged on going problems with Suncar, surely they and other CC companies have a blacklist of companies such as Suncar. In this day and age they should be able to block all payments to them?

bobgadjit

I wouldn't waste the fare travelling to London, you'll be nowhere near the culprit!

the extract of the Google map on the Decode home page is a joke, they have obviously asked for the Houses of Parliament then copied and pasted the image of the map. The address shown next to it is actually near the Bank of England and is full of very serious companies (like Standard Chartered Bank) plus at least one lawyer, who I suspect did the UK registration.

All address details for Sun Car have been blocked on whois enquiries about the website. But some of Decodes survive leading to both the City address and one in Regents St which is home to a company called Hold Everything - if that isn't a mail holding company I'll give up!!

Decode list a company registration number so I Googled that and it gives a string of car hire websites in US, Germany, Russia and Latvia. One of those websites did show a name in a whois query - Dainis Kanopa - so I Googled that and it came back with other forums complaining about him. If it's a genuine name (and by now I trust nothing with this trail) he's based in Latvia and was behind a company called Autorent that crashed last year leaving people out of pocket.

Google also points to our old mates at Martin Lewis Money Saving Experts who also have a file on this crowd http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2779552

At this point this thread really should end. The credit card companies you've all used ought to have done what I've just done and be on their way to the Police, although it's not clear whether this would be City of London (original registered office), The Met (new office) or Riga (likely hiding place). Ordinary customers have very little chance of getting anything back other than from the card company.

Hi Steve8482

Many thanks for that info, and in the menatime I have been doing a little "pushing" with my card company.
I agree, this should now be put in the hands of the authorities from just the info in this thread, but this thread will only lead to red tape for the low life like those being robbed blind.

My card company "thanked me for my interest" until I said "office of fair trading" and "trading standards".
Then they escalated my "notes" to a "complaint".

Having done that I got the guy to state that under these circumstances I "will" now get my money back, but he could not put a time scale on it.
I don't mind that, as long as I get my money back.
By the way, it's a DEBIT card, which should have the same protection as a CREDIT card, under these circumstances.

I have to admit I have been guilty of not reading the whole thread before placing my post. Not used to these things.
So, in short, all of us on this thread, if not already done, should contact their card company and escalate their matter into a COMPLAINT. The card company should then take you seriously and eventually refund your money.
It will mean that the card you used should then be blocked so that the company can take no more money from you. A little inconvenience, but then at least you are safe from more money going to that company.

I thank you all for your time in bringing your experiences to this thread, and I hope mine will add to helping others.

Bobgadjet

I've just found that Kanopa also seems to be behind a site called rubbe.com which is another car hire operation with absolutely no physical location shown on the site. It gets about more than some of their cars having been on 8 servers in 6 years although may have been in Solna near Stockholm at some stage.

Decode's company registration shows that there have been changes of directors this year. Just before Kanopa was appointed the name of Mihails Ribzamens appears. Apart from possibly being a Latvian table tennis champion until 2008 not much more appears on Google with that name but but drop the final letter and you get a link to car-rent-malaga.com - which, guess what, has the same City of London address that Decode once used and is registered to Kanopa. and here it gets interesting, the registration shows a UK mobile phone number of ***** - if they owe you money why not try it and see who answers?

Searching for the anglified Michael Ribzamen came up with - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michaelrib - now supposedly living in Darlington since 2009.