credit card dispute

[soborn]

Hi, my name is shaun and Im writing to see what I need to do.

In the first week of June, I had rented a hotel room in Columbus , Ohioand so did one of my co-workers. We had switched rooms for the week because his room had two beds in it and mine only had one. Well, at the end of that week I had paid for his room(the room that I stayed in) for monday thru friday with cash. My co-worker had paid for my room(the room that he stayed in) for monday thru sunday with his credit card. Since the hotel had my credit card number from my deposit, they charged it for that week also. My co-worker had stayed another week and it was set up with the hotel that he would stay in my room and pay with his credit card. They had charged me again for that room when I wasn't even there. So, I disputed it and they would only payback for the week I was there. I dont have much money and since it was a debit card they took all the money I had in my checking account and destroyed my credit with my bank. The bank has recently closed my checking account and I cant get credit anywhere. Do I have a case and who is it against?

 

[JETX]

First, your post says two separate things. In one place you say you made your deposit with a CREDIT card, later you say DEBIT card. They are NOT the same thing and each has different 'protections'.

Federal and state laws in the United States protect credit cardholders against liability for
unauthorized transactions, against failure to receive goods or services, and in certain instances where poor quality or defective goods and services have been delivered by a merchant. Debit card holders are protected against unauthorized transactions under federal and state laws and the rules of the payment card associations.

A credit card gives you certain federal dispute rights that can be used. To see them, click on:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/crdright.htm

However, a DEBIT card is like paying cash, and your rights are very much limited, basically to fraud protection and self-imposed 'rules of the card issuer'.

My suggestions:
1) Write the hotel by certified RRR mail. Detail the 'double billing' and ask that they check their records to confirm that the hotel/motel collected twice for the same week. Ask for a response within 14 days.
2) Preserve 'evidence'. Get with your 'friend' and get copies of ALL documents pertaining to the room charges. Also, get all of yours together. Do the gathered documents support your claim of double charging???
3) Send a letter, again certified RRR to your card issuer. Detail the situation and ask that they review their merchant agreeement and policies to see if a 'chargeback' can be done against the merchant.
4) If your gathered evidence supports your claim, you can certainly consider taking Small Claims action against the merchant.

Finally, lessons learned:
a) Never, ever leave a merchant without a clear understanding of the charges.
b) Never, ever leave your credit card 'on deposit' for someone elses room. When you changed rooms, you should have CLEARLY gotten some records showing that your 'card on deposit' was no longer valid.