Took two payments from me, denied it, then hung up... 3 times!!

At 4.08pm on 27th May 2010, I made a transactional booking with the National Reservations team in the UK over the phone.
I was told that the the computer had lost the details and so I went through the booking again making a second payment at 4:13pm.
Again I was told that the system had gone down and therefore no payment had been taken and no booking made.

However, after calling my bank I was told that BOTH transactions had been successful.
Each payment was for £213.63.

I called back the Reservations team and was told that no reference to my booking(S) remained on the system.
They asked me to call the Customer Services team.

I called and after explaining the above was put on hold for 5 minutes and then directly transferred to the Reservations team again.
Again they explained that needed to talk to the Customer Services team.

I called the Customer Services team again and explained the situation.
This time I was put on hold for 3 minutes before the line went dead.

First of all, National Car Rental have taken an unlawful payment twice from my account of £213.63.
And did not provided me with ANY reference.

Secondly I wasted over 30 minutes trying to sort the matter out and get a refund.

This is completely unacceptable behaviour from National.
I am disgusted with my treatment and the lack of help in resolving this issue.

All I wanted to do was to book a car for 5 days.
I have used National Car rental for over 3 years, booking and renting cars every few months.

I am left out of pocket with no help or refund at this moment.
My only course of action is to continue to call (at MY OWN further expense to get my refund).

I am seriously disapointed and let down, and feel I want to take this matter to the highest authority, and of course will promptly make use of a rival car rental firm from now on
Yours Sincerely,

Mr Justin D Goring