Very cross with Netflights!!

KimmyCustard

And any advice gratefully received!

After reading about car hire and Netflights on here, DH and I decided to book our hire car. Booked on 06/08/10, was assured we would get a convertible Mustang (as we definitely wanted that car, I got it in writing). All paid for in the UK.

Arrive at the Bellagio on the 14/09 to collect Mustang for a drive down the west coast for the next 13 days. Advised by the Dollar girl that Vegas was completely out of convertibles and the best she could offer was a Dodge Charger or a Ford Explorer. I expressed my anger in the most controlled manner possible and she said she had been told this by head office and had another 3 customers that she had to tell this news to also that day. I was given a print out that showed Dollar didnt have any convertibles anywhere in the city and we chose the Explorer due to the amount of miles we were going to travel.

No further monies were given but I am furious that I was assured we would get what we paid for, only to be let down and disappointed by companies that overbook these vehicles, take your money then dont come up with the goods. :mad: Plus the amount of extra petrol we used could have fuelled the Queen Mary.

How do I go about addressing this issue with Netflights please? Do I write, do I e-mail, do I ring them and be transferred round and round until I reach someone who will help?? Do I ask for a full/half refund, the gas we used, etc ??

Thanks for reading.........

CountryGoose

Your issue here is with Dollar - they are the ones that have not fulfiled the contract. I would have invested more effort in the US to get the car swapped en-route, or extract some deal from Dollar.

At the time you could also have arranged car hire for a Mustang elsewhere and charged it to Netflights - but you would also need to call them before doing this and give them time to make it right.

Now you're back you can look for some compensation, but this will be reduced as you have had the benefit of a car, albeit not the one you ordered.

cubegame

It will say in their terms and conditions that they are allowed to offer you a car of equivalent or higher class. I would imagine this would be the case here.

Your best bet is to try and tap Netflights for a good will gesture towards the extra fuel cost. I did that once when I ended up with a seven seater people carrier instead of a super mini on Tenerife, albeit with Holiday Autos.

On the bright side, having done several road trips I can tell you that you'd probably have been truly miserable in a underpowered hire car company Mustang convertible once the novelty of taking a picture of it had worn off and the impracticality had kicked in.

littlereddevil

Dollar are infamous for this. Nearly every time we go to Houston we end up with a different car.

Alan_Bowen

Believe me, in the heat of the summer in Vegas a convertible anything is not what you want. With temperatures over 100 degrees you will have a permanant headache and sunstroke, it happened to me in Hawaii when I specifically said I did not want a convertible but Budget had only 2 cars left, both convertibles. Netflights simply act as a booking agent, and as many have said before they generally have very good rates, much better than booking with the company itself but when you pick up the car, you have to sign a contract with the rental company because legally that is who youre contract will be with. By all means contact Netflights, I am sure they don't like disappointed customers either but be aware that any response will have to come from Dollar

photome

You are never gteed a particular model of car, whatever netflights say.

Did they offer you the next class up? I thought a convertible was above both the Charger and the Explorer.

As for fuel how much did you use as the Mustang probably would have averaged about half as much again

Your case is with Dollar, netflights would act as a go between for you with Dollar but I doubt you will be getting anything back

neilbond007

As mentioned before... you can never guarantee a class of car!

I've used netflights / Dollar about 50 times. About 5 times have been from the office at the Bellagio. Very rarely do i get the car I ordered..

Looks like Dollar gave you a higher class of car in the Explorer and the gas would have cost more (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm) but I don't fancy your chances of getting anything out of them...

KimmyCustard

Thanks for all your responses!

We were not offered any next class up, the choice was the Explorer or the Dodge, there wasnt anything else left! I will contact Netflights and see what they can do for me, I didnt realise you wont necessarily get the car you book. I did ask twice at the time of booking if we will def get the Mustang and the man said 'Definitely.' I believed him!

Thanks again, .

KimmyCustard

Just a quick update re this issue, 5 months later!

I e-mailed Netflights (close to 12 times in total) who said they would take up my complaint with Dollar in the US. After loads of too-ing and fro-ing, (plus advising me my complaint had been taken over by Thomas Cook ??) I was advised today that they are sending me a cheque for $120 or about £75.00.

Right at the beginning, clearly in the hope of getting me to go away, they issued a cheque for £31.00 to cover the extra fuel used. I will also be banking that cheque

I dont think £166.00 is a bad result, even though it took 5 months to sort out!! I will never use Netflights again though, not recommend Dollar to anyone and had I been told we may not get the car we booked (by the Netflights man, when I asked him directly) then none of this would have happened.

Perseverence pays off!

dickydonkin

and had I been told we may not get the car we booked (by the Netflights man, when I asked him directly) then none of this would have happened.

Never believe anything anyone tells you when you are buying a product or service - in this situation, you should certainly get the 'category' of car - or better - but some may suggest you were a little naive in expecting the exact model to be guaranteed - despite what you were told.

Dollars T&C's on the NETFLIGHTS car rental site.

"If your vehicle class is not readily available upon collection, a similar car type will be substituted at no additional charge."

I hired a Mustang last October at LAX through Netflights/Thrifty and the T&C's clearly indicate that you are not guaranteed the model of your choice.

Although I had other issues with Thrifty (would never use them again BTW - should be renamed 'Shifty' Car Rental -another story), they managed to get me a Mustang from another depot.

I think (not sure) they are part of Dollar and they got my car from just up the road from a Dollar depot.

As for the car?..........Overrated!

It might conjure up images of cruising up the PCH with the roof down and some could argue the car is part of US motoring history - but the reality? I would not lose sleep over not getting the car of your choice - particularly the Mustang - and I would certainly not let it taint my trip.

eslick

one of the morals of this persons woe is the customer service experience from the broker, always google this before you go they often wont help and 5 months is excessive in my opinion. However I also learnt my lesson with brokers years ago the broker wouldnt help when something went wrong, the rental company wouldnt even respond to emails. move forward a few years and we had an issue with a car not been the size we had paid for, told over the phone by the rental company it was the size down but two rental place told me it was the size we had ordered. A mail to the broker on return got us the refund within 7 days, I always google the brokers customer service before we book with someone new its supprising how many wont respond to emails or help after the event.