child seat hire prices - Europcar

djfpoolbank

I booked car hire with Europcar in Tenerife last week. The basic car hire cost was approx £110 for 8 days. I took out extra insurance for approx £70 to cover the excess. When I arrived I asked for a child seat for my 2 year old son. I was told that a car seat cost 10 Euros a day to a maximum of 72 Euros. I protested at the outrageous cost as I had expected to pay approx £35 - 40 for the hire of the child seat.

Does anyone else think this cost is excessive? It represents over a third of my total car rental price.

fthl

yes, especially as there are some companies that don't charge. Always worth doing the research before going. Car hire is a minefield.

Lip_Stick

Yeah they are very expensive. When ever I've been abroad with my folks and my little one, the car seat has always flown with us, as it's a lot cheaper!

italiastar

In future try Holiday Autos or AutoEurope - the latter is better as you can choose who you get the car from - that way you agree and pay in the UK

Equaliser123

italiastar wrote: »

In future try Holiday Autos or AutoEurope - the latter is better as you can choose who you get the car from - that way you agree and pay in the UK

Recently booked with AutoEurope and were stung with a 80 Euro pay in advance fuel charge against their expected 50 Euro charge. Apparently our Ford Fiesta was "larger than usual"...

In my experience car hiring is getting worse and worse.

italiastar

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Recently booked with AutoEurope and were stung with a 80 Euro pay in advance fuel charge against their expected 50 Euro charge. Apparently our Ford Fiesta was "larger than usual"...

In my experience car hiring is getting worse and worse.

That's not AutoEuropes fault, although if your contract with them stated 50 euros, take it up with them. I've always asked them to book me with Europcar, and never had a problem - i know that in some countries such as spain some companies ask you to pay for fuel up front did you use it all or had to return it full.

Equaliser123

italiastar wrote: »

That's not AutoEuropes fault, although if your contract with them stated 50 euros, take it up with them. I've always asked them to book me with Europcar, and never had a problem - i know that in some countries such as spain some companies ask you to pay for fuel up front did you use it all or had to return it full.

It is their fault when they say "expected fuel charge 50 euros" and then it works out at over 50% more than that.

We managed to return the car with a 'range' of 26km so apart from paying a great deal for the fuel, at least we used it all.

Frankly, can't really be bothered taking it up with them but once bitten twice shy.

italiastar

Equaliser123 wrote: »

It is their fault when they say "expected fuel charge 50 euros" and then it works out at over 50% more than that.

We managed to return the car with a 'range' of 26km so apart from paying a great deal for the fuel, at least we used it all.

Frankly, can't really be bothered taking it up with them but once bitten twice shy.

To be fair, it's not - it does say "expected"

It's down to the agreement - out of interest what company supplied the car and where was it.? I believe in Spain it is common practice to pay for the fuel up front - if you don't want to pay it, you don't have to ........you can walk!

This is he reason I pay a bit more in Italy, and don't go for the cheapest option - They offered me one that had a 1500 euro excess and reviews on the net was full of stories about them charging for damage on the car which wasn't caused by the hirer, so I didn't choose them.

Equaliser123

italiastar wrote: »

To be fair, it's not - it does say "expected"

It's down to the agreement - out of interest what company supplied the car and where was it.? I believe in Spain it is common practice to pay for the fuel up front - if you don't want to pay it, you don't have to ........you can walk!

This is he reason I pay a bit more in Italy, and don't go for the cheapest option - They offered me one that had a 1500 euro excess and reviews on the net was full of stories about them charging for damage on the car which wasn't caused by the hirer, so I didn't choose them.

Yeah but you kind of expect the broker to have some idea what the hire company are going to charge - particularly as you get the terms once you select the car.

Goldcar in Spain. Never again with them. Even our "all inclusive insurance" wasn't all inclusive apparently.

italiastar

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Yeah but you kind of expect the broker to have some idea what the hire company are going to charge - particularly as you get the terms once you select the car.

Goldcar in Spain. Never again with them. Even our "all inclusive insurance" wasn't all inclusive apparently.

Next time do a quick search on the company -

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews236975.html

I agree, the brokers shouldn't deal with poor companies, but they're trying to keep prices low - as I said, stick with the big names and you should reduce the problems - I say reduce because even that vary.

Equaliser123

italiastar wrote: »

Next time do a quick search on the company -

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews236975.html

I agree, the brokers shouldn't deal with poor companies, but they're trying to keep prices low - as I said, stick with the big names and you should reduce the problems - I say reduce because even that vary.

I usually would. But one would expect that an all inclusive insurance, 'expected' charge of 50 euros for the fuel and going through an established broker would be ok.

What annoyed me the most is the 'persuasion' that my zero excess, all inclusive insurance was actually not adequate protection and for 20 euros a day I could protect everything. Reading the policy documents, it actually only provided tyre cover as an extra.

Anyway, next holiday is in South Africa where we had huge problems previously with Sixt.... Would avoid them like the plague.