I have hired lots of cars, in UK and abroad, over many years, mainly for work-related travel. I've had the odd breakdown and minor problem but nothing serious. I always stick with the big multinationals.
Anyway, I few weeks back I booked a car for collection at an airport in France. The booking was with a major rental company that operates throughout Europe and the rest of the world. I arrived early morning at the airport rental station and was given a Megane Diesel 6-sp with about 1000km on the clock.
After driving about 100k it started to lose power and play up, MIL comes on - obviously a fault with the injection system. I managed to limp on another 100km to my destination and called for Renault Assistance. RA technician turns up and pronounces it a major failure and I need another car.
It's Saturday and the rental co can't find me a car. Next day is Sunday - everything closed - so they tell me to call back Monday am. Not thrilled at this.
I call Monday morning and they tell me that local agents don't have cars available - they ask me to drive the (faulty) car about 100k to a rental station at an airport. I protest but am told that either I do that or wait till the next day. I have business to get on with so no choice!
I drive down the autoroute, pay tolls etc. and eventually manage to swap cars - this took about 4 hours altogether and knocked a big hole in my day.
Anyway, since getting back to the UK I have called the rental co. customer service dept and asked for a refund for the time I couldn't use the car, plus the cost of the tolls and about £15-worth of calls made from my mobile phone to their helpline. They have refused any kind of re-imbursement and have sent me a coupon for a 'free upgrade' on a car rental in France between now and the end of the year!
I have followed up with e-mails and a letter sent special delivery to their Customer Services manager and their MD. Spoke to them today and they tell me no compensation - the voucher is all I'm getting. Pretty staggering considering I must have spent a couple £1000's on rentals with this company over the last two years. I told the CS manager that they wouldn't be getting any of my business, but she didn't seem phased by this.
Seems to me that despite all the hype about a 'service economy' that really CS is deteriorating very badly. Just had a major problem with my mobile phone provider that has taken weeks to resolve - everything is too difficult.
Just for the record, the company was NOT any of the following: Hertz, Avis, Dollar, Budget, Alamo, Thrifty, National, Enterprise, AutoEurope.
Take care when making your bookings, ;-)
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you do everything right and get smacked by a wet kipper,sounds about right,last holiday i was on in scotland we were stuck in the snow on the coach and the driver ran out of hours and we were stuck for 2 hours at least till a replacement driver drove up ,everybody was moaning apart from me and the wife who accepted the freak weather (for january mind) anyway i wrote a polite letter to the company saying the driver had done the best he could in the circumstances (a petition had been sent down the coach asking everyone to sign it in moan fashion we refused)i got a nice reply thanking me for my kind thoughts and then i found out all the other 42 passengers had got £25 refunds.
No wonder we live in a claim ,claim ,,claim, enviroment and when you have a genuine claim like yours aprilia we are just dismissed
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I'm with you Aprilia when it comes to renting,i will only use Hertz,Avis or at a push National.End of July i flew into Barcelona for a 3 week rent in an 'Astra' type car and was given a 1500km Seat Altea diesel,without any marks or damage according to the rental agreement.Found the car in the car park,its about 10.30pm and then did my customery walkround.The Seat had more damage and scratches than the average local minicab.Luckily i found a car checker in the car park who then marked all the damage down.
This was Avis,now when i got back to the UK i contacted Avis and they have given me a free weekend,and an upgrade as well as an apology.
I shall continue to use and recommend them.
This rental cost £224 all in.
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£224 for 3 weeks was a result; lucky you spotted the unrecorded damage!
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I'm with you Aprilia when it comes to renting,i will only use Hertz,Avis or at a push National.
I wish you luck.
I have had over the years had some problems with the biggest companies.
Rejected 1st vehicle after just a few miles due to bad steering.
Replacement had the boot lock fail with all bags inside. Literally finished up using a crowbar and that opened it.
Bodged headlights that I discovered 50 miles from JFK on a dark parkway.
Badly underinflated tyre also NYC.
Rejected a car with such bad steering I indentified it before I had driven out of the pound.
Rejected the first two cars produced due to problems and sadly had to reject a free upgrade to a 3 series BMW convertible due to no luggage space. took the 4th car
I did not inspect a car very thoroughly. It not only had an illegal tyre but when I looked under the bonnet the engine had not been checked and was covered in mud - our usage was in totally dry conditions.
I had a tyre deflate and discovered the spare was sub standard.
The road tax out of date.
Only once have I had a full refund.
I am not impressed with any of them. I cannot trust them.
I now check everything I can including lifting the bonnetand checking the fluids, a good look at all the tyres and the dreaded scrapes and dents.
It is a real pain especially if you are tired after a long flight or it is dark when you pick it up.
So once again I wish you better luck than I have had.
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With regard to the mobile phone companies.......they all suck. I too am PRO with multi national do nothing watsits. If we all witheld for a week or two they would be stuffed as they watched the share price head south.
PRO.......................MD
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In reply to T Lucas, I do actually mainly use Hertz abroad and Enterprise in the UK (I get 'business discount rates' with both). I must say I've had one or two problems with Hertz - last year they gave me a car that had just a bit too much panel damage (some saucer-sized dents in the doors and a long black scrape mark down the side). The car was OK, but it looked a just bit too rough to be sent out on rental IMHO. I complained and got a $50 discount coupon - but that was only valid off their regular rates - and I pay a lot less than that in any case, so no use to me.
On this occassion I went with a different, but very major, company - basically because I was doing a one-way rental and they had a rental station right at my intended drop-off point, so it was most convenient.
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Aprilia it may be worth your contacting the travel section of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph or the Mail (or probably any other national) - all have trouble shooting columns where they take up problems directly with the company - amazing how quickly major companies respond when contacted by a National newspaper!!
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I'm a member of the Consumer's Assocation so I'm going to write a letter to them with a CC to the rental company. I'm not so much after compensation as a simple refund of the fule used, road tolls and phone calls - anything extra would have been a bonus. I'm not so much angry about it as surprised. I thought they would have made a refund after the first phone call. I was given a 'file number' for the breakdown and subsequent vehicle swap and they have told me all phone calls etc have been logged to this file - so they know its all genuine. Very surprising attitude. I can only assume that they have plenty of new customers lining up and don't need to spend money hanging on to their existing ones!
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I'm a member of the Consumer's Assocation so I'm going to write a letter to them with a CC to the rental company. >>
That would also be my next step, dont give up.
Although an unforseen failiure is difficult for the hire company to account for you should certainly be compensated for the lack of use of the car, the time you spent delivering and collecting another car and your calls.
I am surprised that the Renault Assist guy could not sort out another car independantly of the hire car co via the Megane's warranty.
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My hire car in Italy this year via Holiday Autos (but actually Hertz) was written off within 30 minutes of collection. Excess should have been 800 Euro which they charged but Holiday Autos had a 600 Euro excess and Hertz given the difference back. Awaiting HA to also refund the 600 Euro which is in process because I took out their £2.50 additional CDW. But of course I paid over £200 for the hire car and drove for about 30 minutes that week!
My main point though was the claim, initially against the travel insurance policy. Injury, treatment and loss/damage to personnel possessions. Hope this helps other backroomers.
Medical:
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My wife broke a tooth in the rear collision and policy says emergency dental treatment only overseas for pain. Get back thinking the injury relates to accident and told, you're back in UK now so no contribution. Oh and when overseas not covered because (a) emergency only and (b) you were in a motor vehicle!
Possessions:
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Knowing there was a single item limit of £300 but my camcorder (damaged) could now be bought for £300-£400, claimed all on holiday insurance. After 6 weeks get a letter that asks for more details and seemed to indicate £300 was maximum full stop. Phoned and it turned out £300 single item limit but also £300 total! They tried to say they are generous!
Immediately called my home insurance and explained what had happened and I knew some time has gone by after accident etc. Within 1 hour:
- Their preferred company for camcorders rang and after taking details arranged for collection of the damaged item the next day (yesterday). Today they confirm it's not economically repairable and new camcorder on the way and model/spec agreed with me. The travel insurance expected me to send the camcorder at my expense!
- D&A ring to arrange replacement prescription sunglasses. Eye test booked on Monday and glasses within the week
- Rest of claim also in progress
So basically holiday insurance okay for cancellation, repatriation, etc. but carp for possesions. If the mods allowed it I'd name the Home Insurance (Barclays) because not the cheapest but they have done more in 2 days than the other in 6 weeks.
Can I name them. Even had follow up customer service calls already... absolutely excellent. Yes I have an excess and next year will pay more but the loss was near £1000 due to the accident.
Rob
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In Germany this summer I had prepaid for the hire of an Astra type car with sat. nat. I was given a new BMW 3 series with sat. nav., leather seats, auto etc for no extra cost. Only 1200km on the clock. This was with Europcar.
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I think at least part of the problem, Aprilia, is that this happened in France. It seems remarkable, but customer service is virtually an unknown quantity over here.
The French are - by and large - extremely polite, but that's often as far as it goes. You don't get what we would expect as 'customer service' because they are not used to providing it and Monsieur Joe Punter doesn't make a fuss because he doesn't expect to get it.
A bit back I bought a camera that didn't match the spec in the advert from the national chain I bought it from. I took it straight back and asked for a refund - no chance. I then went to the local council office and asked for their equivalent of the trading standards dept - blank stares, there's no such thing.
When I recounted the experience on a few forums the general response was 'welcome to France'.
By coincidence, or not, DIY chain Castorama and electricals retailer Darty both push themselves on the basis of good after-sales service and have good reputations. Both are British-owned.
Having said all that, a few years ago I had to call on the services of French-based Europ Assist for breakdown help and car rental. Everyone involved was very helpful - except the local garage they first called out, who took one look at the car, said 'take it to Honda in the morning' - this was at 5pm - and drove off.
I guess the answer is, don't have problems in France until they have caught up with the rest of the world's service-based economy.
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Mike
Renault Assist in France were most helpful and I did eventually get a replacement car sorted out. The problem is with the UK Head Office who have all the details from France and don't dispute any of it. They just refuse to offer any form of refund or compensation.
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Point taken. I just have to get this lack of service thing off my chest now and again...
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I once worked in Holland, arriving weekly at Brussels airport and driving to the bulge. The company rented cars, generally Vectras or Astras. One Monday they didn't have a car for me, and upgraded me to a Chev Eldorado. I went to look at it in the lowest depths of the airport multistory carpark and doubted that I could even get it out of the carpark unscathed. I chickened out and waited an hour until another Vectra came in, and drove it away un-cleaned.
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I fell foul of a rental scam once (at least once!).
Because big rental companies invoice busy accounts departments when they rent cars to businesses rather than individuals, they could routinely and deliberately add spurious amounts to the bill. Because the amounts were relatively small (usually £50 - £100) the accounts departments passed them without question and the employee who had driven the car never got to see the bill (or would care much anyway). If anyone did query the extras (which I did when they tried to sting me) they simply apologised for the error, said it was most unusual, and made a refund.
This was certainly the case with one of the major international renters, hopefully the others are blameless. Do you suppose they've stopped this practice now?
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Hi
I presume you paid via credit card? If so get the credit card company involved. They'll probably try to fob you off at first but under the Consumer Credit Act 1874 you are covered if the goods in question cost under £30000 but over £100. and were bought with a credit card - doesn't cover debit cards. Also you are covered outwith the UK also. There's chapter and verse on the Which? website about this. Which? recommend writing to the CC company and the retailer. After all you paid for a hire car for x days but didn't get what you paid for - yes?
good luck!
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....but under the Consumer Credit Act 1874.....
best make that 1974! :-)
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but under the Consumer Credit Act 1874.....
I did a quick double take ! Bearing in mind that two World Wars were run on credit I could forsee the losing side demanding their money back !!!!! :-)
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><>Because big rental companies invoice busy accounts departments when they rent cars to businesses rather than individuals, they could routinely and deliberately add spurious amounts to the bill. Because the amounts were relatively small (usually £50 - £100) the accounts departments passed them without question and the employee who had driven the car never got to see the bill (or would care much anyway). If anyone did query the extras (which I did when they tried to sting me) they simply apologised for the error, said it was most unusual, and made a refund.>>>>
You are quite wrong my friend, I have some experience of this (see my profile)
Major accounts in my company complain all the time about invoices. In particular the legendary grey area of fuel charges. The amount of complaints I deal with over amounts less than £10 are numerous, and no there are no quick refunds either. One of my duties is to investigate these and 95% of charges stand.
Contrary to many opinions here though my car hire company is NOT a rip off merchant. We deal with customers queries, accounts and the like with utter professionalism and courtesy.
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Hi Imagos,
You obviously have good accounting procedures and deal with an ethical renter - not all others are so lucky.
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I have had good service from www.fastcarhire.co.uk. They are brokers but I have had keen quotes and, in particular, when I cancelled a trip with about 14 days notice I had a no quibble refund of the full amount of my hire within about 48 hours. No connection other than a satisfied user.
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Aprilia, interesting, you've had the exact opposite experience to me. I had huge problems with the French who didn't give a monkeys. and the british head office have been great and have (well, say they will) reimburse me fully.
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