We needed to pay for two checked bags on a budget regional jet in the UK. When the agent ran the Chase card she did so in dollars without asking us or showing us what the conversion rate was. When I saw the receipt was in dollars I asked her about it and was told that was the only way the card would go through. I told her that I had done that with this card before (all previous 11 days of my trip) and asked her to run the card in GBP. She refused. I then asked her to refund the charge and let me pay in local currency. She refused. I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told it would be a while. Needing to catch my flight I left it at that.
Looking at Visa's FAQs about DCCs I disputed the charge with Chase. Today I got a call from Chase and I did not go at all how I thought it would. I first needed to defend why I was disputing a charge for a service that I acknowledged I received. He didn't seem to get that I had received an atrocious exchange rate let alone the shady practice of not informing me or asking for my approval of a DCC and then not allowing me another method of payment. He said that they might be able to refund the amount and recharge it in local currency but it would likely be more (Which I didn't understand at all and he was unable to explain how that would be the case). He also started grilling me about why I hadn't contacted the airline first. I quoted him Visa's FAQ:
If you do not want to use DCC when making a purchase, then you have the right to refuse the offer and have your transaction billed in the merchant’s local currency, which will then use Visa’s conversion rate. If you did not agree to DCC, but see it on your bill, then you should ask your issuing bank to contest the charge.
He said I still needed to contact the airline first. At this point I started getting annoyed and asked if this card was a Visa card. When I was told Yes I told him I was merely following Visa's terms and conditions and contesting the charge as instructed by Visa. I asked him to follow the same terms and conditions and allow the dispute. He eventually relented and said they would investigate further
Anyone else have any experiences with this type of dispute? Did you dispute the entire charge or only the currency the charge was made in?
I thought the process would be much more straight forward and was not expecting to be treated like I was doing something wrong or shady.