Questions of Cash: Once booked, twice charged - Avis drove me to distraction after I hired a truck

An Independent reader was charged twice for hiring a truck in New York - and it has 'maxed out' his card

The northern lights in Keflavik: a change in Icelandair's flight schedule left a reader out of pocket

Q. I booked a truck for three days in New York, through Avis. It charged me twice. After I enquired about this, it cancelled the booking. But Avis still has my money – which has "maxed out" my credit card. DH, London

A. When we took this up with he company, it claimed everything had already been sorted out. Its spokeswoman explained: "Avis can confirm that [the reader] made an online reservation on Avis.com, and our records show that he cancelled this at a later date. Following the cancellation, a full refund of $426.33 [around £300] was issued. No duplicate charge was made to [the reader]. However, we did over-refund an amount of $401.33, which we have since billed to recover."

Given the discrepancy between your version of events and that of Avis, we checked this with you.

You responded: "That's not correct at all. It did get resolved, but what happened was that when I made the booking, their system charged me twice. Avis had recorded two bookings for me, yet I had only made one.

"After more than 30 phone calls to the US and UK offices I eventually got the duplicate booking cancelled and the charge refunded. However, a $20 cancellation fee was deducted and I paid nearly £100 in phone costs."

We went back to Avis. On this occasion, the spokeswoman answered: "Avis can confirm that two charges were applied for the cancelled reservation and both have now been refunded. We would like to apologise for any confusion caused by this.

"Following direct correspondence, [the reader] has advised the Avis customer services team that he is taking the query up with his credit card company. We are happy to continue to work with both [the reader] and his credit card company to reach a satisfactory resolution."

We are happy to contact the card issuer on your behalf if you do not obtain full payment recovery.

Dressing down at house of fraser

Q. I bought an expensive branded dress online from House of Fraser, but it had a mark on the waistband and faults on the beading. It was on a non-branded hanger, which made me suspect it was a returned item – even though I was promised by House of Fraser that it never resold a returned item.

I took the dress to one of its stores, but was told I could not get a refund as one had already been processed. So it was a wasted journey.

I asked for £15 to cover my costs, but it will only offer me an e-voucher for this amount, which is not acceptable as I will not use House of Fraser again. MS, by email

A. We contacted House of Fraser, which has now sent you a payment of £15.

Will Icelandair show a touch of class?

Q. I booked with Icelandair to fly from Glasgow to Keflavik on 20 December last year – departure at 13.20.

I received an email and text on 19 December saying that the departure time had been changed to 19.20. This meant my wife and I would miss our connecting Icelandair flight to New York, which was due to leave Keflavik at 17.05.

We had to leave our family Christmas party to phone Icelandair's UK office. I was placed in a queue for over 70 minutes before speaking to a representative.

She explained that there was a technical issue with the plane, which caused the delay. She was sympathetic and offered us the options of either flying the following day, or travelling with BA from Glasgow to Heathrow at 06.50, to catch a BA flight from Heathrow to Keflavik at 11.20. We could then catch our intended flight from Keflavik to New York.

This was far from ideal, but was the best of the two options offered.

As we had to fly first thing the next day, we left the party early to take our dog to a kennel – a day sooner than planned, meaning an extra day in kennel fees. We also had to pay for a taxi to the airport, as we could not ask a friend to take us that early in the morning. And we had to buy breakfast at Heathrow, which was another expense.

I had participated in Icelandair's "Class Up" scheme, paying £80 per person to upgrade on the Glasgow to Keflavik leg.

When we got to Keflavik, I asked if the upgrade could be transferred to the flight to New York; I was told this was not possible. I also asked if we could use its Saga lounge, as we'd had very little sleep the night before; again I was told this was not possible.

As we could not use the Class Up arrangement that I had paid for, we also had to buy food at Keflavik airport. I asked Icelandair's staff for a refund and was told bluntly that this was "not our problem" –and to contact customer services.

On the return trip, we were again told we could not have a seat upgrade. I would like a refund of the upgrade charges and our additional expenses. DS, Glasgow

A. Icelandair says it did not receive your original refund claim. You have now received compensation of £596.33. A spokeswoman said: "We sincerely apologise for all the inconvenience [the reader] and the other passengers booked on the Glasgow flight had. Unfortunately, situations like this can always occur in aviation and are always frustrating for the affected passengers. We have now refunded the Class Up fee, and other expenses related to the flight delay, directly to [the reader] and also the European Union cash compensation he is entitled to."

Questions of Cash cannot give individual advice. But we’ll do our best to help if you have a financial dilemma. Email us at: questionsofcash@independent.co.uk