Cheap car hire article discussion

wrghjr

Hi
Has anyone hired from Hertz having booked a long time in advance?
A search on the Hertz website is showing a pre-paid rate for a Mercedes C180 for next July/Aug of £213.52 for 2 weeks in Murcia Spain. It does say that this is an approximate charge and when I e-mailed Hertz to query what approx meant, I got the following reply:
'Approximate charge means, if you agree to pay for optional items like GPS system, or any optional insurance you will be charged on top of the prepaid quotation given. Local taxes, location service charge, are already included in your rate.'

As I would buy top insurance from an insurance broker, I wouldn't need optional insurance, but I am sceptical that I can get this level of car for cheaper than an economy car with all other sites I've searched.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of quotation?

Thanks in advance

Frugaldougal_2

Hi just been to Spain and used Carhiremarket.com to locate a car. It brought up a good deal with Goldcar but it wasn’t all it seemed. Firstly although it was all inclusive and I did not request a diesel I was made to pay a environment tax. I slipped up and didn’t see the take fuel full and return empty but I didn’t expect to be charged a 25% premium on the fuel. Also they had a fixed conversion from Euros to Pounds which with seems strange especially as it had a detailed disclaimer from my card provider on the final paperwork. Any suffered the same way?:mad:

Bengt

wrghjr wrote: »

Hi
Has anyone hired from Hertz having booked a long time in advance?
A search on the Hertz website is showing a pre-paid rate for a Mercedes C180 for next July/Aug of £213.52 for 2 weeks in Murcia Spain. It does say that this is an approximate charge and when I e-mailed Hertz to query what approx meant, I got the following reply:
'Approximate charge means, if you agree to pay for optional items like GPS system, or any optional insurance you will be charged on top of the prepaid quotation given. Local taxes, location service charge, are already included in your rate.'

As I would buy top insurance from an insurance broker, I wouldn't need optional insurance, but I am sceptical that I can get this level of car for cheaper than an economy car with all other sites I've searched.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of quotation?

Thanks in advance

I have used Hertz like this several times (sometimes 11 months in advance) and it has worked really well. Only once was I overcharged as the pick up time for the car was 4 hours earlier than the ordered, but I was refunded without any big hassle.
The price seems really cheap so I would go for it. Only make sure that basic insurance and theft protection is included as the insurance broker I use only covers up to 1500 £ in penalty.

lizclassic54

Whlis trying to find cheap car hire in BASEL tried the Ryan air website and it offers 25% discount
so far the chepaest at £200 per week including winter tyres

trevjl

I am along time user of Avis and belong to their Preferred scheme. I have in the main had few problems and the ones I have had have been sorted out.
I recently booked a car for cyprus for next June and checked various companies. I tried Avis through my normal account, but also went in through BA. This tunred out to be sustantially cheaper at £127 for pre pay or £138 for pay later. I booked, received a confirmation and also the pre pay rental voucher all showing the £127. When I checked my CC statement, they have taken £175. On questioning and being move from CS to reservations and back again, I was informed that it was a 'system error' and should have been £175. Use your voucher as normal i was told.
I politely informed them that they were missing the point and I had their quote in black and white and wanted a refund of the over payment.
Finally I sent an email to CS and had the 'we will respond in 5 days' reply.
10 days later i am still waiting.
Has anyone else had this or knows where i stand so that i can go back to them all guns blazing. :mad:

Nordictat2

You do have proof of the price (£127) in the booking correct?

If they won't give you the hire for that price then demand a refund especially since you were polite in the matter. After being treated in such a way for a long time customer..and if you get the refund..I would take my business elsewhere.

eslick

avis are hopeless with customer service via email, we had an issue a few years ago where they said insurance hadnt come through with the booking, if it hadnt been for our broker we wouldnt have got a penny back. numerous emails and nothing. i would take it up with the credit card company as dont expect avis will be bothered

trevjl

Made another phone call today and quickly, well fairly quickly, got through to a helpful young lady called Rachael. She said she could see the emails sent to me and said she agreed that it was their balls up so she would put through to the appropriate dept for a refund of the difference.
Still no email though. Goes to show that in many companies it all depends on whether you are lucky enough to get someone in CS that cares.

Marie333

Thank you very much for useful information, which you provide here. I am planning to visit Spain next year and now I have less questions about car hire

Murielson

Been looking into 5 days car hire in Scotland at the end of the month and the insurance excess issue is a nightmare. Hertz are circa £500 or Supercover for circa £14 per day and that raises the hire by a huge amount compared to the basic hire.

With Car Hire 3000 I note that they have the option of £2.95 Damage Excess Fund at checkout and would just like to confirm if anyone knows if this is basic insurance to pay any additional excess payments such as the £500 referred to above? Adds £14.75 to the hire cost rather than whatever the Supercover costs if I am reading correctly and would appear to be a no brainer!!.

Thanks in advance for any response.