economycarhire rip off

TopVeg

Have been well & truly caught by economycarhire.com. We followed the instructions on the Martin Lewis site for car hire & chose economycarhire.com because of the insurance offer. They confirmed the deal & it turned out to be with Budget.
When we got to Belfast City, Budget were unhelpful & said it was impossible to insure a car through a 3rd party (economycarhire.com) & we had to insure again with budget to get the car we had paid for.
We complained on our return & economycarhire.com said that Budget had made an error as their staff were not aware of the procedure. Budget have promised to reimburse us for part of the insurance - but not all.
economycarhire.com, who did the deal with us, say they can do nothing.

Please can Martin Lewis stop recommending economycarhire.com so that other do not get caught in this trap. We have lost money & had agro, time wasted etc.. How can we proceed to get our money back from economycarhire.com??

cubegame

Unfortunately you were probably at fault. I would imagine the economycarhire package an excess waiver with their rentals.

Therefore if you have an accident you would pay the excess to the hire company and claim it back from economycarhire.

If Budget were not aware of this (and it's likely they wouldn't be), they will try to sell you their own excess waiver meaning you end up with two lots of insurance. Additionally they could have tried to sell you insurance for tyres, wheels and glass which is not normally included.

The key to all agent booked inclusive car hire is to say no to everything. The car hire companies make extra money by trying to sell this sort of stuff to weary travelers even suggesting you can't have the car without it.

Say no to everything....if they don't let you have the car without the insurance, pay on a credit card and write "sold under duress" against everything you sign. That way the credit card company will probably refund you.

richardw

TopVeg wrote: »

we had to insure again with budget to get the car we had paid for.

Did they refuse the car if you didn't buy their insurance? or did they say the economy car insurance was not valid?

TopVeg

Thanks cubegame - I like "sold under duress" will definately use that in the future.

I went for economycarhire.com because of the full insurance package - "Our fully inclusive car rental prices provide complete peace of mind as there is NO insurance excess to pay in the event of theft or collision damage, "
But they gave our business to Budget, who said it was not possible for a third party to insure the car - so none of the insurance we had paid for was valid. (They were wrong there - but we still had to buy Budget's insurance - which is what we are trying to reclaim.)

TopVeg

Hi RichardW - They said the economycarhire.com insurance was not valid & implied that we would need insurance for the car. But as we originally did the deal with economycarhire.com, don't you thimk they should look after us & give us our money back?

richardw

So they would've let you have the car without their insurance? Is that correct?

TopVeg

No, richardw - they would not let us have car without their insurance - sorry got it wrong way round.

TopVeg

would trading standards help?

Max_1066

You should have been provided with a car hire voucher in advance when booking with economycarhire ... this would clearly state all the car hire terms that apply.

Its very easy to get confused between all the insurances such as CDW, car hire excess as well as insurance cover for tyres, etc.

alun4

I am looking at Economy Car Rentals.com for Paphos next sunday and their web site does say all covered! Also looking at Elephant Car Rental where they say: Total rental cost £125.00 plus £22.50 for extra driver plus Excess REIMBURSEMENT insurance (Avoid all excess charges for GBP 4.73 per day) £33.11.

Can anyone give advice?

citycastaways

Hi can anyone give me any feedback on Economy Car Rentals. com not to be confused with Economy Car Hire.com which seems to have got a bad press I assume they are two different companies if any one has used the former was all ok? we are looking at hiring a car from prevesa airport in greece we usually use Argus but the above company is £60 cheaper

Any Info Appreciated

Thanks