[sdaityari]

I booked a Renault Captur RXT Petrol Dual Tone on 9th December 2018 (Day 1) by paying a booking amount of 51000 from Renault Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi (Go Auto Sales Pvt Ltd). I am attaching the receipt.

On Day 19, Mr Abbas from the showroom calls me and says that the car has not passed a quality check from the plant and is unavailable. I have recorded this conversation. (The delivery was initially promised on Day 20)

On Day 20, I go to the showroom to cancel the booking because I did not want a different color. The cancellation is accepted immediately and I am promised no cancellation charges.

At this point, I had already confirmed from a different dealer that Orange - Black dual tone is available in the plant - the dealer was definitely lying to me! On Day 21, Mr Abbas calls me and says the color is available but it will take 10-15 days. However, at this point, he has already accepted cancellation. Because all of this is fishy, I request to keep cancellation.

After repeated visits and phone calls for a week, on 15 December, I am given a refund cheque of value Rs 49,725 where 2.5% amount has been deducted. The dealer says it's "card fees" and that is the amount that was deposited in this account. Why should I bear the fees because of their callousness?

I raised this on Twitter (since email of Renault customer care returned my mails with attachments), and got a call from the dealer. Here's the "resolution" email.

Respected Sir

Sir as per telephonic discussion with you we have not deducting any cancellation charge. We had provided 49725/-
At the time of car booking you swipe your card bank will take 1275/-charges(Credit Card swiping charges).


Thanks & regards
SONIA BOHRA
Customer Relation Manager -Sales

On top of it, I had provided my Figo for exchange, which they kept at the time of booking (big mistake on my part!) I got it back on 30 Dec (Day 22) after cancelling the booking, but it had been driven 90 km (their workshop is 10 km away). I have eventually exchanged it at a Honda dealership. However, if the dealer can charge card fees from me, shouldn't I take "Diesel fees" and all bills for Uber during that period?

1000 bucks isn't a significant amount for a car worth 14L on road, but on principle, I would like it back.

[NaXal]

Additional charge for "Card Fee" is a very common demand for many merchants. Be it a mobile / computer selling shop or automotive dealership.

I was asked to pay for 2.5% card fee when I was renewing my insurance from dealership. I declined and went ahead with coverfox. Dealership was happy to lose my business but wasn't ready to let go the card fee. But to their credit, they were transparent in asking the card fee / transaction fee up front.

However in this case, fully refundable booking amount means 100% refund. If they needed to charge card fee / transaction fee, they should have charged that as additional fee over the actual booking amount. This is violation of their own terms, since they have shown this 51k as booking amount.

Secondly, if you may notice all the threads about buying a new car advice, every expert here always recommend not to hand over your existing car till the delivery of the new car. You are very lucky that they didn't damage your Figo or worst, think about the headache if they had sold it before you cancelled the booking.

[sdaityari]

Originally Posted by NaXal

However in this case, fully refundable booking amount means 100% refund. If they needed to charge card fee / transaction fee, they should have charged that as additional fee over the actual booking amount. This is a violation of their own terms, since they have shown this 51k as booking amount.

Unfortunately, both the dealer's and Renault's customer service has called me and explained that it's "card fees" that they are charging. No talk of any refunds yet. Attaching Renault's reply on Twitter.

Originally Posted by NaXal

Secondly, if you may notice all the threads about buying a new car advice, every expert here always recommend not to hand over your existing car till the delivery of the new car. You are very lucky that they didn't damage your Figo or worst, think about the headache if they had sold it before you cancelled the booking.

I guess I dodged a bullet with that one. Their argument in early December was that my car's value would depreciate in January. Whatever their motive, it was wrong, because I exchanged it at a Honda showroom in January for a higher amount.

Besides, I realize they never intended to sell it earlier because no repairs were done on it either (it had a broken tail light, for instance). The reason for the lies and delays was to push a base model Captur that they had in their inventory (the color of which I had rejected in my first visit!)

[batish]

I'm not sure about credit cards but for debit cards any additional charge is not acceptable. The 2.5% charge which the dealer is saying has to be paid from his own pocket.

Here is a link of RBI's notification for debit cards.

An extract from the same:

Levying fees on debit card transactions by merchants - There are instances where merchant establishments levy fee as a percentage of the transaction value as charges on customers who are making payments for purchase of goods and services through debit cards. Such fee are not justifiable and are not permissible as per the bilateral agreement between the acquiring bank and the merchants and therefore calls for termination of the relationship of the bank with such establishments.

[sdaityari]

Originally Posted by batish

I'm not sure about credit cards but for debit cards any additional charge is not acceptable. The 2.5% charge which the dealer is saying has to be paid from his own pocket.

Thanks for the information. This is something I can use against them. Their side of the story is this - we got X amount from the bank, so we will pay you back only X.

Renault has started ignoring tweets and emails about this. I'll start making calls to the dealer and Renault customer care. Let's see what happens.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by sdaityari

Their side of the story is this - we got X amount from the bank, so we will pay you back only X.

I think the problem maybe something to do with the refunds/ cancellation on Card transactions in India. Overseas, you can always return back the stuff within return period which can range from 15 Days to many months and on some stores like Nordstrom practically whenever you want

Normally refund should be a reversal of transaction back the way it originally came. So they should just void the transaction. For some reasons, most likely ignorance or plain stupidness, their management even though accepts credit card for payment does not allow reversal unless it's the card companies in India that does not allow reversal of transaction beyond certain dates. In which case, you should probably give them benefit and move on.

[sdaityari]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

In which case, you should probably give them benefit and move on.

It's not a very significant amount, so I can always let it go. However, I don't want to because they have lied to me since the beginning (non availability of model after 20 days, keeping the Figo at the time of booking, taking a long time to generate the cheque).

Besides, I talked to them about a reversal at the very beginning. Apparently, they weren't even aware of the concept (or maybe they pretended to do so!)

[RedStallion]

Hello sdaityari,

I want to share similar experience which happened with me, dealing with Hyundai. However, the result which I have received, is totally different.

I had booked Hyundai Creta SX(O) petrol with 31000 k booking amount. The total transaction was done with a credit card. I had to cancel my booking after 2 weeks due to some reasons.

First, the dealership manager tried to keep the booking intact. However, when I had insisted on cancelling the booking, he said that I would not get the full refund amount as it is against Hyundai policy. Hyundai dealership experience hadn't been up to the mark which was one of the reasons to cancel. SA had misinformed me regarding the exact information on the interiors. After some discussions, I convinced him that the reason for cancellation was mainly due to experience with them. The dealership manager asked me to wait about 3-4 weeks to revert the booking amount.

Finally, I received whole booking amount by a cheque. They didn't debit any charges due to the credit card payment.

IMO, they shouldn't charge you for the credit card payment as they didn't inform you in the first place. I hope it helps.