Complaint Review: Shell Vacations Club

On June 18 &19 SVC had a computer problem with its online site.  After asking for your credit card number to pay the transaction fee you would get an error saying the site was unavailable, try later.  I tried this two time on the 18th and two times on the 19th before being successful.  I checked my credit card to make sure I was not charged multiple times only to find out there were multiple authorizations.  I called and was told by an SVC rep that they were authorized but she assured me the charges would not be processed through.  I checked again a couple of days later and all had been processed through as legitimate charges.  When I called back I was told by another rep that yes, the system problem had caused these charges and the only way to get them reversed was to send a copy of my credit statement to their finance department.  To recap:

1) I was lied to when the problem first happened

2) Even though the company knew about the problem, they did nothing to notify effected customers they were going to be billed incorrectly.

3) Only if a customer noticed and called would they be told how to get reimbursed.

4) The only way to get reimbursed totally put the burden on the customer to "prove" they had been wronged and go through the archaic process of copying and sending copies to their finance department. 

Being a systems engineer for years I can tell you they absolutely have the ability to recapture the transactions put through for authorization during their system outage and reverse them.  They clearly are hoping that some won't notice they they will pocket the $17.50 per transaction. 

This company should be put out of business or at least should be forced to fix all of these and send an apology.  Charging a card for something you did not receive and doing nothing to correct the problem after you know you have done it is most certainly credit card fraud.