Car Rental Rip-Offs

[darren f]

Hugo a Gogo said:

those aren't compulsory

3rd party cover is included

you were sold extra insurance to cover the excess

In which case the OP is very much at the mercy of the desk staff at the pick-up point who can be 'suitably vague' as to the importance / validity of the cover they are selling. Which would make cynical old me wonder if the desk staff have an 'up selling' bonus on products they sell at point of pick up .

Whether this is the case or not, I'd make appropriate 'noises' to the Hire Company about the quality of their website infomation.

[Hugo a Gogo]

darren f said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

those aren't compulsory

3rd party cover is included

you were sold extra insurance to cover the excess

In which case the OP is very much at the mercy of the desk staff at the pick-up point who can be 'suitably vague' as to the importance / validity of the cover they are selling. Which would make cynical old me wonder if the desk staff have an 'up selling' bonus on products they sell at point of pick up .

Whether this is the case or not, I'd make appropriate 'noises' to the Hire Company about the quality of their website infomation.

oh I think they do

I've had Enterprise trying for ages to get me to buy extra cover and breakdown cover, even though I have full excess on the credit card and ADAC breakdown which covers it all

[No Bend]

sim16v said:

Then I read the small print.

Insurance dropped to the most basic 3rd party cover, hidden away in the print, the excess was the value of the bloody car!

Haven't used them since!

Wow. Gives a new definition to sting in the tail. Will look out for that one in the future.

[rockford22]

Sounds like the usual Car Rental rip off to me - I've started using Hertz and never been aggressively sold insurance or other addons.

A very nasty experience at Pisa airport with one of the very cheap rental companies put me off for life. We were given the ultimatum of putting a 1,500 Euro hold on my credit card and the advisor "guarateeing that they will find a fault that we need to pay for" or paying 300 Euro up front as a waiver. I begrudgingly paid the waiver and am so thankful I did - the queue to return the vehicle was approximately 2 hours long, I asked one of the staff at the desk before queueing if there was a quick drop box to which the reply "Did you pay the extra money we asked for when you collected it? If not then get in line". I would imagine a fair few missed their flight as a result of this.

You get what you pay for I guess.

[Sheepshanks]

oilydan said:

Mine was a different set of Ts&Cs, it seems.

Your profile says you're in Saudi - If you booked it from there then the prices and what's included may well be different to what a UK resident would get.

US car hire is like that - book on a US site and the cover is minimal.

[Fats25]

Sheepshanks said:

US car hire is like that - book on a US site and the cover is minimal.

I just hired a car through a screenscraper broker, and got a fantastic price, with all insurance included. It cost me less for a 16 seater minibus, for 8 days, than it did for an Astra in UK for 3 days. The UK always push extra insurance. The US - all was as per the price I paid online.

Broker was these https://www.americacarrental.com/ if anyone interested. They put us to Alamo (which is enterprise) and service was excellent, and nothing hidden.

Interestingly I just noticed they have a US and UK address?

[sealtt]

I always rent from carhire3000 (now www.rentalcars.com), just because they make it very clear what is and what isn't included and it's very easy to compare between providers. Don't think I've ever had an issue with them, and they give you the CDW for free anyway most of the time.

[oilydan]

berlintaxi said:

Monkeylegend said:

I was with you up to the point when you said you should have got your lawyer to check the rental terms and conditions

,only people I know who have lawyers on speed dial are gangsters or billionaires, wonder which camp the OP falls into.

Firmly in the 'taking the mickey out of people that have lawyers for everything' camp.



It seems that I was not upsold at the desk, as I did kick up a bit of a fuss and was informed that this cover was indeed mandatory before I would be allowed to take a car. So not an add-on, good to have, nice to sell, bonus for the desk girl. Mandatory. No buy, no drive.

Will be interesting to see where this goes, item not included, mandatory, not specified as a cost; was it the broker or rental company that should specify? Was it actually required? CAB and Trading Standards are quite clear - costs must be transparent.

OK they told me it was not included, they even mentioned (tucked away) that it is mandatory - but they never properly asked me to acknowledge that I understood this or agreed to it and never actually told me what the cost would be. Had I known the cost I would not have booked through them.

I think OTS will see it from my point of view as these things are part of their guidelines and many people have been sucked in buy this. They should then put it to a court to see if it is fair or not.

Imagine if everyone did it. Imagine buying a phone on a website that says that the charger is not included but having a charger is mandatory as the charger charges the battery. Then collecting the phone and finding that the only charger that works is their charger and it will cost you twice the cost of the phone, on top of what you already paid for the phone. Cancellation will result in you losing the initial cost of the phone.

Does that sound fair? No, they should tell you the cost of the charger up front if it is both mandatory and not included.

[Monkeylegend]

oilydan said:

Does that sound fair? No, they should tell you the cost of the charger up front if it is both mandatory and not included.

Not sure, let me check with my lawyer and get back to you

[Sheepshanks]

rockford22 said:

Sounds like the usual Car Rental rip off to me - I've started using Hertz and never been aggressively sold insurance or other addons.

After the third time in a row Hertz ripped me off (the last time was hiring someone a car in my name and charging me for the fuel - but that rental did attract a bizarrely huge number of Hertz points!) I gave up using them.

The only thing I will say is that Hertz Customer Services eventually sorted everything out in a way that I doubt would have happened with most other companies. But I just don't need the hassle in the first place.

[andy-xr]

I think the worst one I've had has been the company that uses the American currency for it's name.

Trackers, CDW being daft expensive, refuelling bills for car returned full and receipted, mystery damage report tryon after the hire. This one rental had pretty much everything go wrong with it other than the actual car (great big Yukon)

[skilly1]

Another on is you pay for a full tank of fuel upfront (at a inflated price) but can you return it empty, no option to return it full. This was on the island of Menorca were I would have had to drive around the island 20 times to empty the tank.

They (Gold Car) also tried the insurance upgrade / rip off / scare tactic but I had taken out online insurance before hand. They also took a large deposit on my C Card.

[IntriguedUser]

skilly1 said:

Another on is you pay for a full tank of fuel upfront (at a inflated price) but can you return it empty, no option to return it full. This was on the island of Menorca were I would have had to drive around the island 20 times to empty the tank.

They (Gold Car) also tried the insurance upgrade / rip off / scare tactic but I had taken out online insurance before hand. They also took a large deposit on my C Card.

Ahh Menorca,

Some great roads at night, granted I was on a 125cc scooter, but still

There's a road that connect Calen Porter and Alaoir,about 3 miles long, I spent hours on it.

[gtidriver]

Hurts in Dover pluck prices out of thin air. I tried to hire a medium sized car to take to Spain, with all the add-ons it came to double the price, since when does a Green card cost £150, most I've ever paid is £15 and now they are free with most car insurance policies, AA breakdown which i already had for europe isn't the same as the one that i needed to buy from them even though its through the AA, That was another £95 ,i think it was £9 on the tunnel for your trip duration. I gave up and phoned them at head office and ended up paying a lot less and only had to take out the CDW as that was compulsory for leaving the uk.
Felt quite smug going back in with my reservation, and not having to pay all the unnecessary extras.

[ferrariF50lover]

Hugo a Gogo said:

oh I think they do

You think incorrectly.

[Hugo a Gogo]

ferrariF50lover said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

oh I think they do

You think incorrectly.

so why do they do it?

[oilydan]

Hugo a Gogo said:

ferrariF50lover said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

oh I think they do

You think incorrectly.

so why do they do it?

These are not CDW or TP excess waivers, reducing the excess to zero.

These are CDW - cover for the rental car damage in case of accident (with an excess reduced by an optional excess waiver, if you need/want it) and Theft Protection (again, with reduced excess with the optional excess waiver).

Essentially, it included Third Party cover but the 2 extras take it through Third Party Fire and Theft, up to fully Comprehensive. (With excess)

It is at that point that you usually get asked if you want the excess waiver, reducing your excess to zero, which I never take because my credit card will cover this bit for me.

So I was forced to go from legal minimum requirement to include theft and own damage.

I then opted out of Excess reduction that would have been a further cost.

ETA: you've actually made the same mistake as I did, assuming that the CDW and TP that were 'not included' were the waivers and thought that I could drive off without them..... Oh, no Sir, they are Mandatory.

[ferrariF50lover]

Hugo a Gogo said:

so why do they do it?

It's part of their job, but they're not specifically financially incentivised to do it. Just like washing the cars, they aren't paid a tenner for every one they wash, it's just part of the job.

[ferrariF50lover]

OP, it depends which company you use. Every car in the UK rental sector is insured third party, the legal minimum. Some will be insured with actual insurers, other companies will have been in the UK long enough to self-insure.

This isn't a question of being insured or not, it's a question of excess.

Some companies will, as standard, have the whole cost of the car as the excess. You then pay your whatever a day to reduce that. Other places set a specific excess and you pay a bit more to bring it down.

The terms are confusing, but it's all down to the fact that "insurance" has a very specific legal meaning and cannot be misused in a professional or contract situation.

[lindrup119]

IntriguedUser said:

skilly1 said:

Another on is you pay for a full tank of fuel upfront (at a inflated price) but can you return it empty, no option to return it full. This was on the island of Menorca were I would have had to drive around the island 20 times to empty the tank.

They (Gold Car) also tried the insurance upgrade / rip off / scare tactic but I had taken out online insurance before hand. They also took a large deposit on my C Card.

Ahh Menorca,

Some great roads at night, granted I was on a 125cc scooter, but still

There's a road that connect Calen Porter and Alaoir,about 3 miles long, I spent hours on it.

+1 for great roads in Menorca. Even in a gutless hire car.