Holidayautos and Alamo/National Rent a car - Beware!

Tozer

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Tozer

I think that's what the OP thinks, but it's not true. For hires of 5 days or more, you are required to pay for a full tank on arrival at the hire office, and then return the car empty. The full tank is not included in the price.

I think that the OP thought he had pre-paid for a full tank, as part of his hire charge, and hence refused the "extra" of paying for a full tank on arrival (and hence returning the car empty), instead opting to return the car full.

There are only two choices:

- receive the car full, pay for the full tank on arrival, return the car empty; or
- receive the car full, don't pay anything on arrival, return the car full or pay the penalty charge for failing to re-fill it.

I hope that is clearer and that I'm understanding what's gone on. If I am, then the hire company has done nothing wrong; the OP has simply not understood what's happening.

As the OP still hasn't explained whether they did, or didn't, pay £70 on arrival at the hire office, it's hard to know.

Yep, that seems to be the case. Bottom line appears to be "Was the fuel paid for?" as you rightly say.

Bamber19

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

As the OP still hasn't explained whether they did, or didn't, pay £70 on arrival at the hire office, it's hard to know.

They have whilst you were typing your post though.

MarkyMarkD

Right, good.

So all the waffle about terms and conditions is completely irrelevant.

You have proof that you have paid for a tank of fuel up-front. So it's obvious that it's wrong for them to have charged for refuelling when you returned the car.

End of story.

Stop confusing matters by banging on about different Ts & Cs. Simply tell them that they charged you £70 on arrival for a tank of fuel and that therefore you aren't liable for any further fuel-related charge.

I can't honestly see how that's hard to explain or resolve. Unless you muddy the water by talking about different companies' Ts & Cs.

Annando

Tozer wrote: »

Yep, that seems to be the case. Bottom line appears to be "Was the fuel paid for?" as you rightly say.

Yes, in case I haven't made myself clear before. We did pay for fuel at the time we picked up the vehicle. We paid for it separately from the rental charges.

This is not the first time we have rented a car and we are aware that you have to pay for fuel when renting a car.
Last year we hired a car from CarHire3000, for the same reason (family coming over), we were given a Vauxhall Zafira, there were absolutely no problems with that rental. In hind site we should have used them again, but decided to spend more on a Renault Espace to have more room...

To answer your previous comment:
Although I am aware that rental companies can "upgrade" you to what they think is a better vehicle, we had expected something that looked like a car, not a van, particularly because one of the group had mobility problems and it was difficult for them to climb in and out of the van which was quite high! We only accepted the van because we were told they had nothing else and we had to go and pick up 4 people at Gatwick.

Annando

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Right, good.

So all the waffle about terms and conditions is completely irrelevant.

You have proof that you have paid for a tank of fuel up-front. So it's obvious that it's wrong for them to have charged for refuelling when you returned the car.

End of story.

Stop confusing matters by banging on about different Ts & Cs. Simply tell them that they charged you £70 on arrival for a tank of fuel and that therefore you aren't liable for any further fuel-related charge.

I can't honestly see how that's hard to explain or resolve. Unless you muddy the water by talking about different companies' Ts & Cs.

That is what we did when we called them, but they said that we had to refer to the T&Cs and they are the ones that kept changing the T&Cs we should be referring to.

MarkyMarkD

But they are just diverting you. Tell them that the Ts & Cs are not the issue here. You have paid for your tank of fuel, and there's no way you should therefore get charged any fuel supplements. End of debate.