Whitecar rental ceasing operations?

[the_mouse]

Hey all,

I will be visiting London in a month and a half and have booked a Tesla Model S from Whitecar. Seeing as it had very positive reviews(even in this TMC: Renting a Model S or X in London), in November 2018 I went ahead and placed a reservation for 2 days with one of their Model S (£258 total).

Unfortunately, today I received an email:

Dear [redacted],

Unfortunately adverse trading circumstances have resulted in the Whitecar fleet having to be returned to the leasing company. As a result your booking of 28th to 30th May cannot be accommodated by the Whitecar team who are extremely disappointed to have to let you down.

If you have paid by credit card you may be able to reclaim your booking charge from your provider.

If not, please contact Panos Eliades Franklin & Co. Olympia House, Armitage Road, London NW11 8RQ, tel no. [redacted], email [redacted] to register your claim.

The entire Whitecar team is truly sorry for this unfortunate turn of events.

Mark Strachan | [redacted]

www.white.car
​

This is very bad news, because a) it's sad to see a nice company go under and b) I paid the service in full via debit card and now I have to go through their insolvency service to get my money back. I've already sent them via email a bank statement and details on where to send the refund, but haven't heard anything back. Does anybody have experience with claiming a refund under such circumstances? Do you know how long it'll take for the refund to get processed? Thanks! Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[Mark_T]

To be honest I'd start with the expectation that you are not going to get your money back.

You should contact your bank, but from the looks of your dates you paid more than 120 days ago so unlikely they will be able to process a charge-back, but it can't hurt to ask.

If this was 100% on the debit card and 0% on credit card there isn't much else to suggest.

 

[the_mouse]

To be honest I'd start with the expectation that you are not going to get your money back.

You should contact your bank, but from the looks of your dates you paid more than 120 days ago so unlikely they will be able to process a charge-back, but it can't hurt to ask.

If this was 100% on the debit card and 0% on credit card there isn't much else to suggest.

Hi there, just got word that the refund was successful, PHEW!

 

[Mark_T]

That’s great news!

 

[the_mouse]

That’s great news!

Thanks, do you have experience with other rental companies?
evrent.co.uk are not suitable for me as they charge the security deposit (4000GBP) from the credit card and that that will result in huge losses in in currency exchange for me.

Does anybody have experience with EV-GO.co.uk? They're also listed on Turo. They confirmed that the deposit is only "blocked" not charged.