Advice needed I just returned from holiday where I hired and paid £130 for a hire car in advance. The booking was made through a company called { SNIP - the name is irrelevant to your question}. I flew into Marseille and collected the hire car.
They asked if I wanted to pay more money for an insurance damage waiver excess. I said no I didn't need it and the girl said she would have to pre-authorise my Visa card with £800 accident damage excess. I agreed to this and was delighted when she gave me the keys to a new Fiat 500.
I checked the car over for damage and left Marseille to drive to Barcelona for a few days holiday. 20 miles from my hotel in Barcelona the fuel light came on so I left the main road and found a petrol station in a rather seedy looking industrial area.
I filled the Fiat up with 'Sin Plomo 95', paid for the fuel then drove off the forecourt and got 200 yards up the road before the engine started making loud knocking noises and lost power. I then realised that there was a small sticker on the fuel flap saying Diesel Only.
I was quite surprised as the hire car company did not say the car was a diesel, and the car was quiet with great performance so I did not think I was driving a diesel. I called their breakdown Assistance which was in France, and they were quite surprised that I had driven to Barcelona. They said that they would have someone call me from snip Assistance in Spain.
20 minutes later someone from snip Assistance Spain called and said they would send a mechanic. 2 hours later a guy showed up with a tow truck and started loading the Fiat onto the back. The towtruck driver did not speak any English, and I do not speak Spanish so I called the breakdown Assistance and asked what was going on. They said to clear my belongings out of the car and they would send a taxi to take me to the hire car company office in Barcelona. The tow truck driver took the Fiat away.
After waiting another 2 hours by the side of the road with my bags in this seedy industrial area while it was getting dark. I started getting concerned for my safety and called the breakdown assistance again to ask what was going on. They said they had no record of a taxi coming to pick me up and asked me whether I received the fax from the breakdown assistance authorising the tow truck driver to take the car away.
I started yelling down the phone and was promptly hung up on. Moments later a taxi appeared and drove me to their office in Barcelona. The guy at the desk did not know who I was, and asked where the Fiat was. I explained that a tow truck driver had taken it away and he asked where the documentation was that the tow truck driver had given me. I explained that I had been given nothing.
He tapped around on his computer for a few minutes then said that he had a French registered car that I could drive back to Marseille, but it was not available until the following day. He gave me a Spanish registered VW Polo and said he would call me the next day so I could change cars again. I got to my hotel 6 hours after my intended arrival.
The following day there was another 2 hours spent taking the Polo back to the hire car company in Barcelona, where they replaced it with a Swiss registered VW Polo and were very careful to tell me that the car was a diesel. I drove the car back to Marseille and decided to fill it up before I returned it to their office. I double checked the fuel and discovered that the Polo was in fact a petrol engined car.
I returned the car and the the hire car company and the girl asked how things had gone, when I said not well she shrugged took the keys from me and said goodbye. I decided that I would not bother using this hire car company again and left.
I opened my email today to discover I have been sent an invoice for the hire of a VW Polo with a charge of £300 which has been collected from my Visa card. What should I do? Am I at fault? Should the hire car company share any responsibility for ruining my holiday? Who do I talk to? the hire car company in France? the hire car company in Spain? their breakdown Assistance? The travel company? or my Visa card provider/bank?
{names generalised as you're making an accusation against them, which falls foul of this forum's naming/shaming policy}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/05/2009 at 11:54
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Firstly, yes the customer service sounds below standard, no doubt about it.
However, the bad news is that ultimately it was your fault that the car was misfuelled. Given this, a £300 charge for a replacement car seems very reasonable. I'm actually surprised that they haven't also billed you for the tow truck, taxi and costs to drain and re-fill the Fiat, plus repairs to the fuel system that might be required. Perhaps, in fact the £300 is to cover all of that too? In which case, it doesn't seem all that much...
Consider yourself lucky, pay the money and hope that's the end of it!
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>>got 200 yards up the road before the engine started making loud knocking noises and lost power. I then realised that there was a small sticker on the fuel flap saying Diesel Only.<<
So how did you realise that there was a sticker on the fuel flap while you were driving???
You obviously must have seen it while fuelling, and not taken any notice!
I very much doubt that any added insurance would have covered you against this. I would suggest that £300 is a small price to pay. On some cars you may have been facing a bill for full engine fuel system replacement running into thousands! Possibly writing off a low value car.
I do not see why I, or other hirers should subsidise your carelessness, pay up!
The only thing that may work in your favour is that the handling by the hire company does seem to have been somewhat poor. Hence they may be prepared to limit your exposure to the £300.
p
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What I should have added to my reply, (edit timed out), is that you may yet receive further bills!
Look at
news.carrentals.co.uk/the-hidden-cost-of-misfuelli...l
Average Cost Breakdown of Misfuelling -
? Typical estimate of cost of repair - £5,350 ? (costs range from around £300 for a fuel drain, to over £12,000 if the car is driven causing serious damage)
? Time to organise/manage repair, eg organising garage, chasing up insurance company, checking on progress - £218.38 (based on an average hourly wage of £13.37 ? source: Office for National Statistics - and approximately 16 hours and 20 minutes to organise repair)
? Re-organise/cancel business appointments - £100.28 (based on seven and a half hours)
? Time and effort involved in changing personal arrangements - £40.11 (based on three hours)
? Organise car rental for typical two weeks ? approx £250 (based on Compact category car in London)
? Sundries, eg phone calls to garage and insurance company, wasted fuel etc ? estimated at approximately £60.
p
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Am I at fault? ...
yes of course, you've put petrol in a diesel car and not noticed either the diesel rattle on start up or the warning sticker in the fuel filler
>>Should the hire car company share any responsibility for ruining my holiday?
No. In the big scheme of things IMO, a taxi back to the office, a new car and still getting to the hotel 6 hours later is good service. From their angle they've given you a hire car and you've broken it by putting the wrong fuel in it.
Will they be sending you the bill for the repair of the Fiat or taking another £500 off your visa card to go towards it?
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/05/2009 at 11:50
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From my limited experience of hiring cars in Portugal car hire companies often don't permit cross border travel and those that do don't extend breakdown cover across borders.
It's also not unknown for them not to cover damage due to negligence, which misfuelling is.
Cancel the Visa card asap. It could be a much bigger charge next month.
Edited by daveyjp on 28/05/2009 at 09:48
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Cancel the Visa card asap. It could be a much bigger charge next month.
>>>>>>> surely thats an offence and would only slow down what could be an even bigger bill in the future
why do people hire cars and cut corners on insurance is the thing that always gets me
i equate it to walking on glass with no shoes,you might get away with cutting yourself if you are lucky but you are in an area outside your comfort zone so the odds are stacked against you from the start
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>Cancel the Visa card asap. It could be a much bigger charge next month.
wont work, the hire agreement with the signature agreeing to pay was signed before card cancelation. The CC compnay will still charge you for any amount they put on.
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"Started shouting down the phone and was promptly hung up on"
Quite right too. Call centre work is bad enough without being shouted at by people who have clearly screwed up.
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Give OP a bit slack here please! I am always told that I have got a diesel (if I have) when I pick up a rental car, perhaps he wasn't Did this sorry event occur in the dark ie could he see the DIESEL sticker on the fuel flap? I didn't even know there was a diesel Fiat 500!
I don't think that he is saying he saw the sticker on the flap while he was driving but it would be useful to know when he did see it. I can imagine being late for an appointment, stuck in a broken down car in some grotty area and, when ringing a call centre being told "Your call is important to us - please continue to hold" and then listening to pan pipe music! Obviously ranting at them wasn't a good idea, as he found out. Don't give him too much grief - he might be looking at a very big bill! Might the 3rd party claims element of any travel insurance cover he may have apply to this situation?
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Did this sorry event occur in the dark ie could he see the DIESEL sticker on the fuel flap? I didn't even know there was a diesel Fiat 500!
Really? I can't remember the last filling station I saw that didn't employ about 1000W or more of lighting...
True, it's an easy mistake to make, especially with an unfamiliar car, but it's still their mistake and not the rental company. Personally, when I've re-fuelled rental cars I've double and triple checked what fuel it is before putting a pump anywhere near it, it's seems common sense, doesn't it?
Why shouldn't the OP pay for his mistake, especially since he was offered the waiver but refused it?
I feel sorry for them, because it's easily done, but it still needs paying for to put right.
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>>>>especially since he was offered the waiver but refused it<<<<
Extremely unlikely to cover it!
p
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Actually, you're right:
From their T&Cs:
"You are advised that any waivers you may have chosen will be invalidated if you fail to take reasonable measures for the safety of the Vehicle, its parts or accessories, or fail to comply with all restrictions on the use of the Vehicle or otherwise abuse or misuse it. "
Plenty of wriggle room there.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/05/2009 at 11:50
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It was You who messed-up, so take some personal responsibility and stop trying to blame someone else for the situation you put yourself into.
I think if you get away with £300 you have been very lucky
MVP
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SWMBO misfuelled a diesel car she was familiar with in a filling station she used all the time. It happens.
Unfortunately though, it is solely the fault of the driver. You might kick yourself, call yourself names, and feel sheepish, but you did it. It's not down to the hire company to pick up the tab.
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I'd expect a big bill coming my way once the hire company gets its act together. No leg to stand on either IMHO, I doubt any insurance would cover this.
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A colleague of mine got a bill for 3,000 Euros from the rental car company after he misfuelled a 320d.
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I am taking these responses on board, and starting to think myself lucky if £300 is all I get away with.
Just to clear some things up. I genuinely thought the Fiat 500 ran on unleaded. The hire car company Clerk in Marseille DID NOT mention what fuel the car ran on. The fuel station was well lit, but I genuinely did not notice the sticker on the fuel flap. I noticed the sticker on the fuel flap while I was sitting next to the car on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck driver to appear.
While I was waiting I also carefully read my rental contract. I should have done this before even accepting the car, but honestly who ever does. The rental contract covered the Fiat for travel throughout Western Europe, and covered for unlimited mileage. In regards to vehicle damage it states that I am responsible for tyre and glass damage, and have a duty of care to check any warning lights appearing on the dashboard. There is nothing about misfuelling.
The additional insurance charge only covers my excess in the event of a motor vehicle accident.
And I shouldn't have shouted at the call centre worker over the phone, but I am normally a very calm person. The frustration of having made a mistake, being stranded for hours in a foreign country, in a bad area, then being told that I should have received a fax while I was waiting by the side of the road was enough to tip me over the edge.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/05/2009 at 11:50
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I am taking these responses on board and starting to think myself lucky if £300 is all I get away with.
Exactly. Yes it was bad luck and a simple mistake, and the clerk should have mentioned it was a diesel..but it's done now and needs sorting. If they don't charge you more than £300 than you should feel very happy about it, given how much worse it could be... :)
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This is an interesting tale.
Barcelona is a great place to spend a few days but definitely not a city in which it's a help to have a car.
And when I last went to Barcelona, I found it easier to arrive at the local airport and go into the city by metro, than to fly into Marseilles, which is four hours away by car, and drive on to my hotel in Barcelona which I'd carefully pre-booked.
But if I did organise my leisure time so strangely, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find myself mis-fueling the car I'd just driven 500 km.
What do I know?
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Barcelona is a great place to spend a few days but definitely not a city in which it's a help to have a car.
Until very recently, ALL of the people that I knew that had been to Barcelona had either been mugged (or attempted) or been stolen from! The last 2 years has reduced the percentage to about 50%.
The 'punctured rear tyre trick' for foreign registered cars is a well established way of getting the innocent to stop.
p
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Until very recently ALL of the people that I knew that had been to Barcelona had either been mugged (or attempted) or been stolen from! The last 2 years has reduced the percentage to about 50%.
We got seriously mugged by 2 taxi drivers - does that count?
I agree with most of the others, that ?300 is a bit of a result. You could make a fuss and end up being hit for a lot more.
A friend on mine hired a car from a major rental at Heathrow and then promptly ran it into the back of another car. They came and recovered the car and when he asked where the replacement was, they said the hire ended when he crashed the car!
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Maybe a good place to mention the usefulness of Car Hire Insurance Excess Waiver? Not purchased from the Rental company (costs an arm and a leg) but from any of the specialist insurers on the web. Wouldn't take out a rental agreement without it.
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I have just rented thru Holiday Autos and during the booking process one is given the option to buy CDW insurance for £4.50 a day; this is being bought from insurance4carhire com and that is their daily rate, if one doesn't want to pay £49 for a year's cover.
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Barcelona - my mum ( 63 y.o ) went there with my warnings ringing in her ears. Around midday and having gone on her own with her friend going elsewhere , she was surrounded by 4 Gypsy women who tried on a distraction trick with a map - she fought them off , thumping one who had her hand into her handbag , at which point the Gipsy woman started screaming ' My Baby, My Baby !! ' whilst clutching her stomach - despite being at least 50 y.o -
She got away there but only just. Police totally disinterested. Not a surprise there. Stay away from that filthy Catalan capital , full of druggies and Gypos , if one won't get you, the other will .
Oh yes Mods , if the mayor wants to sue for defamation , I'll gladly forward my details .
Edited by motorprop on 24/06/2009 at 14:38
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I have just hired a car from Economy Car Rentals for my trip to Bulgaria and all insurances are included, inc CDW etc
Last time I went I used the same firm and it was the same then. Wouldn't it make it easier for these firms to have fully inclusive, all singing and all dancing insurance?
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Have they refunded the original damage excess? If so, can they really deduct more money without informing you that investigations/repairs are taking place and your liable in the future?
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