Cancellation and Dispute Process

In a Pickle Breakdown is a trading name of IN A PICKLE BREAKDOWN LTD (registered in England and Wales, company number 17456795; registered office 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, United Kingdom, IP28 7DE). It is a marketplace: the roadside or recovery service itself is provided by an independent Supplier, and your service contract for that work is directly with them. This policy explains how cancellations are handled, what happens when a job completes, and what we will and will not do when something goes wrong.

1. How payment works

Authorisation, not payment. When you select a service and request assistance, we do not charge your card. We place an authorisation on it for the amount of the selected tier, which ring-fences the money. Nothing has been taken at this point.

If no Supplier accepts. No service contract is formed and the authorisation is released. Your bank controls when the released amount visibly updates on your statement.

Capture. The authorised amount is processed in line with the completion and cancellation rules below. Where less than the full amount is due, only that lesser amount is taken.

Reduced amounts are not refunds. Where an outcome costs less than the amount authorised — an “Unsure” job that needed roadside assistance only, or a cancellation fee — the difference is simply never taken. There is no refund to process and nothing to wait for; your bank releases the remaining ring-fenced amount back to your available balance.

2. Cancellation

You can request cancellation at any time while your booking is open. Our rules compensate Suppliers for a journey they have already made.

Before a Supplier accepts — no fee. The authorisation is released and you are not charged.

After a Supplier accepts and is assigned — £25. A fixed £25 cancellation fee applies, comprising £20 to the Supplier for their time and fuel and £5 to In a Pickle Breakdown. The rest of the authorisation is released.

If you feel unsafe — no fee. You may cancel at any point, including after a Supplier has arrived. We will ask you to tell us briefly what has happened so that we can look into it. A photograph is welcome but is never required, and we will not refuse or delay a cancellation because you did not supply one. Where the safety concern is genuine, no cancellation fee is applied. If you are in immediate danger, move to a safer place if you can and call 999.

Unattended vehicles. Please be with your vehicle when the Supplier arrives. If they arrive and nobody is there, they will attempt to contact you. If you remain unreachable after a 10-minute wait, they may end the job as a wasted call-out. A fixed £25 applies — £20 to the Supplier for their time and fuel, and £5 to us.

Materially inaccurate booking information. If a Supplier arrives but cannot safely or properly carry out the job because the vehicle or the situation is materially different from what was booked — for example a standard roadside fix booked for a vehicle that is in a ditch or heavily damaged — they may decline it. A fixed £25 applies, split £20 to the Supplier and £5 to us.

That outcome is reviewable, not final. It is recorded on the Supplier’s account of what they found, so you are entitled to answer it: report the job from your job page within 24 hours and we will look at it. Where we find the charge was not justified, it is reversed. If the Supplier can still help you with a different or additional service, the price for that must be explained to you and agreed before any further work begins.

Supplier cancellations and no-shows. If an assigned Supplier cancels while en route or fails to arrive, no customer cancellation fee applies. Your request goes live again and you may either wait for another Supplier or cancel for a full release of the authorisation.

Location data does not remove this right. Location and arrival data may be used as evidence that a Supplier had mobilised or attended, but neither GPS proximity, entry into any geofence, nor a Supplier marking themselves as arrived removes your ability to request cancellation, or affects your statutory rights.

Immediate performance. When you request assistance you ask us to arrange for the service to begin as soon as a Supplier accepts. Where applicable, statutory cancellation rights may be affected once a service has been fully performed in accordance with the law. Simply submitting a request, a Supplier accepting it, or GPS proximity does not automatically remove your statutory rights.

3. Completion

The Supplier requests payment. When the work is done, the Supplier marks the job complete and requests payment.

If the vehicle could not be repaired at the roadside. Roadside assistance covers the visit, the inspection and the work carried out at the roadside; it cannot guarantee that every vehicle can be repaired there. Where the Supplier attended and genuinely provided that service, it is a completed roadside job at £55, and you can book a recovery from your job page if you still need one.

If the Supplier could not carry out the service at all. Where the service could not be provided for a reason on the Supplier’s side, you are not charged automatically. The job comes to us for review with the Supplier’s account of what happened; the authorisation on your card is left untouched while we look at it, and released if no charge is due. We will tell you what we decide and why.

You then choose. You can confirm completion, or report a problem. Confirming is not the only route available to you.

If you do not respond. If you do not respond within the displayed fallback period after verified attendance and the Supplier’s payment request, the platform may process the authorised payment administratively. This does not mean you have accepted the quality of the Supplier’s workmanship, or waived any legal or card-provider rights.

Payment processing, or completion of the platform payment workflow, does not remove any statutory, contractual or card-provider rights you may have in relation to the Supplier’s service or our platform service.

4. Reporting a problem

When you can report. A “Report a problem” route is available throughout every open booking — including while a Supplier is en route, has arrived, or is working — for 24 hours after a job completes, and for 24 hours after a job is ended with a wasted call-out or materially-inaccurate-booking-information charge. Those two are charged on the Supplier’s account of what they found, so you are entitled to answer them.

What you need. A short description of what has happened. A photograph is optional and is never a condition of raising a complaint or a safety concern.

What we do. Where it is technically possible, a pending payment to the Supplier is held for review while the issue is assessed. We may assist with communication, request evidence, administer payments, and investigate platform and payment matters.

What we do not do. We do not act as the final legal adjudicator of workmanship, negligence or other Supplier-service disputes. The Supplier is responsible for matters within its control, including performance of the service, its personnel, equipment, vehicles, legal compliance, and any loss caused by its acts or omissions. We remain responsible for our own platform services and obligations. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To raise something outside the platform, contact us at admin@picklebreakdown.co.uk.

5. Card disputes and chargebacks

Your card rights remain. You are entitled to use legitimate card-provider dispute and chargeback mechanisms, and a legitimate card dispute will not be treated as a breach of these terms merely because it was made.

We would always rather hear from you first — reporting a problem to us is usually faster, and it lets us hold the Supplier’s payment while we look into it.

Abuse. We may take proportionate action where there is evidence of fraud, dishonesty or abusive payment activity.