BEWARE MAXOL pay at pump

gleep

Word of warning - Avoid Maxol's new pay at pump yokes.
Filled up the car at one of Maxol's new payment card enabled pumps yesterday, here's the <SNIP>:

Before filling they ask you to select a "Maximum amount", options are €20, €30, €50, €80 or €130.
As I was filling the car from empty and it usually takes €90+, is selected €130 as my maximum amount.
I then put €97 of fuel in.
Checked my bank last night and Maxol have taken the full €130. Rang them up today to find out why and they told me that it's correct. They take the €130, or maximum amount you select, then they take what you actually pumped (€97) then after 5 working days they will refund the €130. So they're taking €230, holding €130 for a full week then refunding it.
It's a disgraceful practice. If anyone's down to even their last hundred or two hundred euro in their account, this could wipe them out and lead to all sorts of charges from the bank.
I rang the NCA, they told me to contact my bank and ask for a chargeback as it's an unauthourised payment.

Oh, and I've used Great Gas pay at pump machines in the past, they don't take these shadow payments, so Maxol don't NEED to do this, it's a cynical grab of their customers cash. Also, the jump from €80 to €130 on the maximum amounts stinks, as most people filling a car will require over €80, so they seem to be ensuring they grab as much as possible.

Anyway, it's a <SNIP>, avoid at all costs, especially if you haven't a lot of money in your account.

coylemj

OP, if you can afford to drive a car with a 60 litre fuel tank and you can afford to top it up to full from empty at the current pump prices then I doubt if you're ever down to your last €100 or €200 in your current a/c so I can't see why you have a beef with Maxol.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind about something else.

gleep

coylemj wrote: »

OP, if you can afford to drive a car with a 60 litre fuel tank and you can afford to top it up to full from empty at the current pump prices then I doubt if you're ever down to your last €100 or €200 in your current a/c so I can't see why you have a beef with Maxol.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind about something else.

Is this a joke?

Sounds like you work for Maxol.

The beef is they took an extra €130 from my account, even if I was a Billionaire that's still wrong and would still annoy me. I forgot people like you hang out on these forums. Sad, really.

Nonoperational

Do they not put a pre-authorisation for the €130 and then just take the actual amount. I don't even think you could do a charge back because I don't know if they actually take the amount rather put it on hold.

Anyway a chargeback would take longer than it takes for the hold to be released.

Personally I don't see the big deal, it's hardly a <SNIP>. They don't take more than they should...

Edit: I just see they take the extra €130 aswell.... that's not on really

RoboRat

OP, if you can afford to drive a car with a 60 litre fuel tank and you can afford to top it up to full from empty at the current pump prices then I doubt if you're ever down to your last €100 or €200 in your current a/c so I can't see why you have a beef with Maxol.

Wow, lets all get on the 'Jump to Conclusions' Mat...



Edited to say, I really think they should have a better way to do it, example being you either select how much you want or you choose to fill it up and leave your card in the machine until you stop... surely they could develop this feature, its hardly rocket science.

maximoose

Nonoperational wrote: »

Personally I don't see the big deal, it's hardly a <SNIP>. They don't take more than they should...

It's not a <SNIP>, no - but putting a completely unnecessary hold of €130 on someones bank account which could leave them stuck for money for 5 working days is f*cking stupid and they shouldn't be doing it. I'd also imagine this isn't explained at the pump and customer won't know until he next tries to pay for something or take out money. Silly business practice that is only going to piss people off.

ScouseMouse

Nonoperational wrote: »

Do they not put a pre-authorisation for the €130 and then just take the actual amount. I don't even think you could do a charge back because I don't know if they actually take the amount rather put it on hold.

Anyway a chargeback would take longer than it takes for the hold to be released.

Personally I don't see the big deal, it's hardly a <SNIP>. They don't take more than they should...

Edit: I just see they take the extra €130 aswell.... that's not on really

The way I read it, the OP is suggesting they are "holding" the 130 and then taking the 97 as well, then a week later, refunding the 130.

If he is correct, he is right and that is way out of order.

emeldc

coylemj wrote: »

OP, if you can afford to drive a car with a 60 litre fuel tank and you can afford to top it up to full from empty at the current pump prices then I doubt if you're ever down to your last €100 or €200 in your current a/c so I can't see why you have a beef with Maxol.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind about something else.

What kind of a useless comment is that. My '00' worthless car has a 60 ltr fuel tank and I'm regularly down to my last hundred. Clown.

Nonoperational

superscouse wrote: »

The way I read it, the OP is suggesting they are "holding" the 130 and then taking the 97 as well, then a week later, refunding the 130.

If he is correct, he is right and that is way out of order.

Ya, that's a very strange, and stupid, way of doing things.

Pacing Mule

So they're taking €230, holding €130 for a full week then refunding it.

You would assume from your post that Maxol are sitting on your money earning interest etc before giving it back. In this case Maxol are NOT taking the extra €130 so there is no benefit to them at all from doing it this way. (And I'm bemused that someone in Maxol stated in those terms that they did TBH)

What is happening is that Maxol are pre authorising your card for €130 and letting you pump away. IF you get as far as €130 the pump cuts off and that transaction proceeds. This would be the same for €20, €50 amounts. If though you do not use the full amount up - a seperate charge is requested / processed for that amount and the original authorised amount of €130 is not settled / cancelled. This can take anything from 2-5 days for your bank to process but at no time does those funds land into Maxols account.

I agree though that Maxols processing system needs tweaking to settle the lower amount from the already authorised larger amount (this is doable) as it would save both themselves and their customers some grief.

dudara

emeldc Please don't insult other users.

dudara

coylemj

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

What is happening is that Maxol are pre authorising your card for €130 and letting you pump away. IF you get as far as €130 the pump cuts off and that transaction proceeds. This would be the same for €20, €50 amounts. If though you do not use the full amount up - a seperate charge is requested / processed for that amount and the original authorised amount of €130 is not settled / cancelled. This can take anything from 2-5 days for your bank to process but at no time does those funds land into Maxols account.

Which is the same as what happens in hotels all over the world - they grab a slice of your credit card authorised limit at the time you check in to cover the probable size of the bill and then release it when you check out and settle the bill.

If the release takes a day or so, that is not the merchant's fault. Can't see where there's a problem caused by Maxol and agree with the mods who have removed the defamatory word from the thread title.

Cabaal

So your card is authorised for the full amount, they only take payment for what you actually use and then your bank don't release the authorisation for a number of days.

How is this maxols problem?

They don't actually take anything more then they are due, as they don't take it they physically don't have anything to refund.

This issue is with your bank and how long they hold authorisations, as well as how they release them

wmpdd3

Is this a laser card? As opposed to a VISA debit etc.
Something similar happens when you fill up at Tesco but its a €1 that is taken o the pre-authorisation and then released later.

Greenmachine

One Maxol I know has prepay on some of their pumps. I pulled into one such pump of a day. Noticed the sign and told them how much I was spending. Pump was opened and I was told pump until it gets to (insert amount).
Weird how different garages come up with completly different strategies.

gleep

OK, the point of the post was to warn people that if they use Maxol's pay at pump, they will take 2 payments and you won't get the shadow transaction back for 5 working days.
They don't have to do this, I've used the SAME debit card at other garages and they haven't needed to take 2 payments.
By the way, they do not warn you that they will charge your card with 2 separate amounts. Dress it up whatever way you like people, it's wrong.
So if you are running low on cash, or just don't like the thought of coughing up over €200 for a tank of fuel before waiting on a refund, then just avoid them. I will from now on.

gleep

coylemj wrote: »

Which is the same as what happens in hotels all over the world - they grab a slice of your credit card authorised limit at the time you check in to cover the probable size of the bill and then release it when you check out and settle the bill.

If the release takes a day or so, that is not the merchant's fault. Can't see where there's a problem caused by Maxol and agree with the mods who have removed the defamatory word from the thread title.

If you can afford to visit hotels all over the world then why are you bothering with little issues like this.

I think you have another agenda............

Ridiculous, isn't it?

gleep

Cabaal wrote: »

So your card is authorised for the full amount, they only take payment for what you actually use and then your bank don't release the authorisation for a number of days.

How is this maxols problem?

They don't actually take anything more then they are due, as they don't take it they physically don't have anything to refund.

This issue is with your bank and how long they hold authorisations, as well as how they release them

Other garages use this technology and don't take 2 payments. That's why it's Maxol's problem. Fair enough?

coylemj

gleep wrote: »

I think you have another agenda............

Ridiculous, isn't it?

Your paranoia, yes.

coylemj

gleep wrote: »

So if you are running low on cash, or just don't like the thought of coughing up over €200 for a tank of fuel before waiting on a refund, then just avoid them. I will from now on.

Or use a credit card, problem solved.

SantryRed

coylemj wrote: »

Or use a credit card, problem solved.

:rolleyes:

dudara

Enough off topic posting - the OP has a genuine issue here. Stick to the topic.

dudara

TheChizler

Are you absolutely sure that they take out two separate amounts OP? Other people thought they had this problem in the past and it turned out that it was one authorisation and one actual transaction. A €130 hold is put on funds for a few days, and when the bank get around to processing it only €97 is taken out, so that you're only missing access to €33 for a few days, not €130. Some online banking statements subtract all the authorisations from the balance displayed, but if you check your balance in the branch or at the ATM it will tell you the correct amount.

Maybe try doing this again when you only have €130 or not much more in the account as an experiment?

It wouldn't make sense for the garage to hold the €130 then completely separately claim €97 and cancel the €130 after the few days, if you had less than €227 in your account and they follow that procedure then they wouldn't be able to charge the €97 separately and you'd end up with free petrol. The two charges must be linked.

Markcheese

coylemj wrote: »

OP, if you can afford to drive a car with a 60 litre fuel tank and you can afford to top it up to full from empty at the current pump prices then I doubt if you're ever down to your last €100 or €200 in your current a/c so I can't see why you have a beef with Maxol.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind about something else.

I drive a crappy van , a full tank is 130 euro .... An extra 100 euro in or out of my account can make a massive difference to me (especially at end of
month )

tatli_lokma

TheChizler wrote: »

Are you absolutely sure that they take out two separate amounts OP? Other people thought they had this problem in the past and it turned out that it was one authorisation and one actual transaction. A €130 hold is put on funds for a few days, and when the bank get around to processing it only €97 is taken out, so that you're only missing access to €33 for a few days, not €130. Some online banking statements subtract all the authorisations from the balance displayed, but if you check your balance in the branch or at the ATM it will tell you the correct amount.

Maybe try doing this again when you only have €130 or not much more in the account as an experiment?

It wouldn't make sense for the garage to hold the €130 then completely separately claim €97 and cancel the €130 after the few days, if you had less than €227 in your account and they follow that procedure then they wouldn't be able to charge the €97 separately and you'd end up with free petrol. The two charges must be linked.

I'm thinking the same thing...€130 pre-authorised. You spend €97. The unavailable amount on your account is €130 and when the proper €97 is processed they - for want of a better word - get cross referenced based on the authorisation code. You get charged €97 to your card and the €33 underspend is released back to your spending limit.

It would also not make sense to process in effect 3 transactions (€130, €97 and a refund of the €130) because merchants get charged for each transaction, so they're paying 3 transaction fees for one actual sale.

dudara

Markcheese Please stick to the topic. I don't want the relative worth of this coming into it anymore

dudara

coylemj

As I understand it, the problem only arises with a debit card where your current a/c can be temporarily cleaned out of some money that's then unavailable to you until the bank unlocks it at the behest of the filling station.

Don't most filling stations have an ATM nowadays? Withdraw the amount of money you want to spend on fuel from the ATM, hand the cash to the counter assistant and they don't get near your current a/c.

Or use a credit card. Most people have a credit limit that they never reach so having some of the spending limit 'reserved' by the filling station for a few days shouldn't cause anyone a problem.

Irish Steve

OK, I may ruffle some banking feathers here, but there is another side to this issue that's not been mentioned yet, and it IS an issue that may be affecting the situation that the OP has described, and depending on who he was speaking to, there are several versions of BS that are handed out to try and cover the situation.

Depending on which bank the OP uses, it is possible that during the day after the transaction, if an on line statement is viewed, both transactions will appear on that statement in different versions, but when the end of day processing is completed, the second item for the full amount is cleared off the transactions.

The bank concerned is BOI, and their on line system that provides statement to users on the 365 online system is a total disaster, due to an incompatible mix of real time and batch processing that has not had the warts and wrinkles ironed out of it, which can result in completely misleading and inaccurate information being printed on the statement, and the final balance on the bottom of the page not reflecting correctly the balance that is actually in the account.

Yes, this is NOT an April 1st spoof, I spent the best part of half an hour one evening trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with the system as a result of this mess, and the rep I was speaking to could not make sense of it at first, and had to speak to someone else in another department, and when the real answer came back, both of us were more than somewhat surprised at the way the system was working.

That's BOI for you, on another occasion, with their business banking on line system, which is even more ancient than the 365 system, like it's still fixed at 800 x 600 screen resolution which cannot be changed at user level, I reported a security certificate that was out of date, and causing Java to barf because of the error. After nearly a week, they acknowledged (VERY reluctantly) that there was indeed an issue, and it was scheduled to be fixed in a maintenance update. It took them nearly 6 MONTHS to replace the out of date certificate, which perhaps demonstrates why there are problems with banking systems, the level of support available now as a result of constant cuts over the last couple of years has resulted in the people with experience and knowledge being moved out or on as they were the expensive ones, and the people left behind in a lot of cases just do not understand the older legacy systems, with the results that are being seen now at a retail user level.

So, if the OP is banking with BOI, and checking the information on line via 365 online, the issue may not be with Maxol, it's possibly the systems that BOI are using to update their accounts that is wrong, and yes, it's very confusing, and very bad practise, and if we had a banking regulator that had any teeth, BOI would have been told a long time ago that their system is unacceptable, and MUST be changed as a matter of urgency, as it is presenting incorrect information to the customer in a way that is totally misleading and confusing.

And before anyone asks, I do not work for BOI, and never have, but as a computer specialist for longer than I care to think about, I know when I'm being fed BS by customer support, and when there are serious shortcomings with the information that I am being presented.

coylemj

I doubt if this is an issue specific to BOI. I was on the original pilot for 365online many years ago and have been using it probably longer than anyone, I can access it today from my laptop, Android phone or iTouch. I very seldom used my BOI Laser card as I never used to write cheques and have used the VISA Debit cards only a few times since it was issued to me.

I have never seen a transaction debited twice on my 365online statement. I'm not saying the system is perfect but the issues I have with them are beyond the scope of this thread.

Far from the bank or merchant grabbing my money twice in a dual transaction, it actually took a couple of days for the last debit card transaction (a visit to McDonalds) to appear on my online statement on 365online so I doubt if its the BOI systems that's causing a problem for the OP.

sandin

firstly if there were not so many scumbags who drive off without paying, pre pay would not be needed.

Secondly, I think the OP has to check on the very carefully with Maxol and preferably in a calm manner. Possibly there is an error on this one occasion as I use the local pre-pay maxol at least once a week and always state a maximum of €100 - most times the amount is circa €90 - €95 (its fairly easy to guage what you are going to be buying) and I have never seen a €100 hold PLUS a €90+ deduction.

So instead of the OP running onto boards sreaming and shouting and getting all heated about it - call Maxol HQ and ask in a VERY CALM manner how the system works. - My guess is last time you talked to a sales assistant in the shop who really wouldn't know the system.


The other way is to simply know how much you want (any regular driver will be able to guess a near enough amount for thier fill) and just buy that amount.


But as for blame - its the driveaway scum you need to target your ire to - not the €9 an hour shop assistant.

gleep

sandin wrote: »

firstly if there were not so many scumbags who drive off without paying, pre pay would not be needed.

Secondly, I think the OP has to check on the very carefully with Maxol and preferably in a calm manner. Possibly there is an error on this one occasion as I use the local pre-pay maxol at least once a week and always state a maximum of €100 - most times the amount is circa €90 - €95 (its fairly easy to guage what you are going to be buying) and I have never seen a €100 hold PLUS a €90+ deduction.

So instead of the OP running onto boards sreaming and shouting and getting all heated about it - call Maxol HQ and ask in a VERY CALM manner how the system works. - My guess is last time you talked to a sales assistant in the shop who really wouldn't know the system.


The other way is to simply know how much you want (any regular driver will be able to guess a near enough amount for thier fill) and just buy that amount.


But as for blame - its the driveaway scum you need to target your ire to - not the €9 an hour shop assistant.

Sandin, I did call Maxol HQ and spoke in a very calm manner. They had the garage owner call me back. He explained the 2 charges and the refund.

Also, as I have already said in my OP, the Max amounts available to choose jump from €80 to €130. I knew I'd be putting in about €100, so if that amount was available to select of course I'd have selected it. Anyway, they'd still have taken 2 payments. Get it?

BTW, it was the Garage OWNER I spoke to, after talking to Maxol HQ.

Moral of the story, avoid using these things at Maxol, just go inside and pay in the shop.