The Fuelcard Company is the organisation that took over 'our' original fuelcard supplier; they had approached me prior to the launch of adindi.co.uk to become our preferred fuelcard supplier - after numerous meetings with them, it was decided that we didn't want them as they hadn't impressed us with their customer service standards and were more interested in making money than the people ....

One of our members unfortunately stayed with them after we had sourced a new supplier; below is an experience he had and we both thought he should share is ....

"This is as a matter of information for Tina as she may want to let other instructors know just how The Fuelcard company deals with its customers.

I stupidly let my business bank account run low on funds and The Fuelcard company applied to take a direct debit for approximately £60 from it which was refused by the bank. I had a call the next morning from the Fuelcard Company asking if I could bring the account up to date which I did by a debit card payment. All fairly straightforward I thought. In the meantime my bank had charged me some £35 for the returned payment request but that’s a separate issue.

This morning I received an invoice from The Fuelcard company for a “Bounced direct debit fee” of £36 + VAT, a total of £42.30, even more extortionate than the banks if that’s at all possible. I called them and eventually spoke to their finance director Jill Carmichael who told me they would drop the fee but they would close the account as well.

Having recently been one of the many thousands of people to claim back unfair bank charges I am aware that the Office of Fair Trading frowns on the practise of overcharging for activity on an account as it’s believed the actual work required to process a returned D/D request or cheque is in the region of £4 - £5. Interestingly the ‘Unfair terms in consumer contract regulations 1999’ agrees with them therefore to levy an unreasonable charge on an account is illegal compounded by the threat to close the account if the illegal fee isn’t paid. The practise is tantamount to extortion.

I contacted the OFT on 08454 04 05 06 and they recorded the complaint quoting the consumer contract regulations in support of their reasons to contact the Trading Standards office local to the Fuelcard company. At the very least the Trading Standards office will now monitor the Fuelcard company for further evidence of dubious practices so this may provide you with an opportunity to contact all adindi’s customers with another very real reason to move to your new fuel card provider, I am certainly moving! It’s also worth highlighting to the instructors that if they have had any dealings like this with The Fuelcard company they SHOULD contact the OFT and record their complaint so the Trading Standards Office can do something about them.

These activities by a company dealing with predominantly ‘consumers’ as most instructors are bad enough at the best of times but in the current financial climate these practises are particularly despicable.

I hope this is useful.