Car Hire Warning

GeoffP

Apologies if this has been posted before:
I recently traveled to Exeter Airport and pre-booked car hire through Avis at a quoted price of £68 for two days. When booking in to collect the car I was met with the torrent of extras - "bigger car sir at only £2.00 per day?", "reduce the excess Sir? Only £49.00" etc etc. Once we had gone through all of that I was presented with my paperwork to sign, the total price came to £124.00! This was explained by showing me an item for fuel on the list, I had to pay for a full tank of fuel, bring it back full and this will be taken off the bill (the next bit is important) but if we have to put any fuel in then you will be charged for the full tank of fuel; £57.00. When I collected the car it was noticed during the pre hire check that the tank was not full so it was commented on my copy of the paperwork that the tank was 70% full and I was informed that the fuel part would be removed from my bill. When I returned the car I had filled it up just 4 miles from the airport, I dropped the car off in the allocated space and reported to the office, paperwork was exchanged, I ensured that the full tank of fuel did not apply and I returned home. When I got my invoice Avis had somehow managed to squeeze £5.60 worth of fuel into the tank and here finally we get to the point - the fuel station I used was the closest to the Airport, the car was a Citroen 1.4 deisel probably capable of in excess of 60 miles to the gallon, I did 4 miles. Had I been left with the full tank option I would have been charged £57.00 for that topping up! If hiring a car to travel a short distance DO NOT TAKE THE FULL TANK if indeed it is an option at the point of hire.

iolanthe07

Car rental agencies try to keep their headline prices as low as possible so use all sorts of schemes and scams to make extra profit. A bit like Ryanair.

vikingaero

So Avis expected you to refuel the car back to the original 70% level and thought your 70% refuel level was different to their interpretation of the 70% level resulting in the £5.60 charge? If so that's rather disingenious on their part. But it doesn't surprise me with hire car companies. I hire around 2 vehicles a month and have had all sorts of scams foisted on me. The worst was when a car was parked so close to a brick wall to hide damage on picking the car up.

One of my friends has "issues" with some hire car companies and would think nothing of hiring, taking out the excess cover, and having an accident in their compound... whoops!

missile

Europecar charged me a full tank and it was very difficult to get the cash back. I think they prefer business users who may not check or complain.

GeoffP

vikingaero wrote: »

So Avis expected you to refuel the car back to the original 70% level and thought your 70% refuel level was different to their interpretation of the 70% level resulting in the £5.60 charge? If so that's rather disingenious on their part. But it doesn't surprise me with hire car companies. I hire around 2 vehicles a month and have had all sorts of scams foisted on me. The worst was when a car was parked so close to a brick wall to hide damage on picking the car up.

One of my friends has "issues" with some hire car companies and would think nothing of hiring, taking out the excess cover, and having an accident in their compound... whoops!

No the point is, if I had not accidentaly been moved off the full tank scheme, I would have returned the car with what I thought was a full tank, Avis would have somehow managed to get some fuel into it and charged me £57.00! If you intend doing a lot of miles then fine - just get it back to Avis as empty as you can manage. I am guessing that other hire companies "offer" similar scams oops I meant schemes.

vikingaero

Ah OK.

The UK car hire market is dodgy and they know it. But whilst their practices are sharp it's not as bad or as fraught as renting abroad where you know that more often than not you will be shafted.

thescouselander

We often get hire cars when going away on business. More often than not the damage report form does not have all damage recorded on it.

In the event of any dispute its always worth checking under to carpet in the boot where, depending on the hire car company, you can find the proper damage report for with all damage listed.

Hintza

But OP you also paid for 30% more petrol than you needed to anyway. (Unless I have read it wrong?)

GeoffP

I also used my debit card at the point of hire and to pay for the hire, Avis have taken their final invoice value of £70.14 from that account but have still somehow got a block on my funds. My statement shows I have £114.00 in the account but have £0, zero, ziltch, nothing available to withdraw. I am assured by both Avis and the bank that this will be lifted but it has been this way for nearly two weeks now. Apparently if I had used a credit card I would not have had this problem. Insert frown type smiley here 'cos as a newby I am not allowed.

GeoffP

Hintza wrote: »

But OP you also paid for 30% more petrol than you needed to anyway. (Unless I have read it wrong?)

I did get a very small refund for fuel:
Hire 61.50, 2 days windscreen protection £3.40, less (£5.00) for fuel - all plus VAT. In all I did 72 miles and paid £7.80 for fuel at the pump. Compared to the £90.00 quoted for a taxi transfer I have not come out of this too badly but had I been caught with the full tank to pay for....

iolanthe07

it's not as bad or as fraught as renting abroad where you know that more often than not you will be shafted.

I have rented cars in the US on more than 20 occasions and I can honestly say that I have always been fairly treated - this is with Hertz, Avis, National & Alamo.