Money taken from account by car hire company

Midgwit

My partner and I recently hired a car from a well known car-hire company (Budget) at Belfast airport, and have noticed today that an additional £19.20 has been taken from his debit account a couple of days ago (three days after the rental was returned). We're assuming this charge is for petrol, as we cannot think of anything else which would be a relatively low amount. When we hired the car, we were told the tank was three-quarters full so should be returned the same, which it was. When we returned the car, no mention was made about petrol, the car was only given a cursory glance when we returned it.

The T&C's state that the car will be provided with a full tank of fuel so should be returned as such or a charge will be incurred. It would seem they have charged us for this, despite the car not being full to begin with. We've already had an issue with the company as we could not pay a deposit on the debit card (despite doing this previously) so had to pay an extra £100 for insurance, and were told this was because pre-authorisation could not be done on a debit card. If this is the case, can it be legal for them to charge the debit card without my partner's permission?

I plan on calling them tomorrow, when the offices open, to complain about this and ask for a refund, but wanted to know my actual rights before I called. I would presume with the car being rented to us without a full tank, and with nothing being mentioned about petrol when the car was returned (is it not their duty to check the car in the customer's presence and make them aware of any faults?) then this payment should never have been taken? Sorry if this is long but wanted to explain fully.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Apples2

Every time I have hired a car the delivery agreement lists not only the current marks/dents/scratches, it also indicates the fuel level (crude as it is, either full, half or empty).
What did yours say (you should still have it)?

meer53

You'll spend more than £19.20 trying to sort this out if it is for fuel. There is probably a difference in opinion as to what three quarters full means ! Do you have proof that you were told to return the car with three quarters of a tank ? Your t & c's will state that they can charge you for any further costs once you've dropped the car off. Good luck when you call them.

shaun_from_Africa

Just don't take a hire car back to Paris airport (CDG) without ensuring that the tank is full to the brim.
I had a hire car there earlier this year and I filled it up about 15 miles from the airport (I had a Peugeot 206 so probably used less that 1/2 gallon of petrol getting from the garage to the airport), and the extra charge was €29.
It was probably €4 for fuel and a €25 service charge.

Midgwit

@Apples2

It was stated on the delivery agreement that the car was 3/4 full. Also, would they not have had to mention the fuel to us at the time, otherwise how could they prove it wasn't brought back with the right amount of fuel in (which is what I'm sure they will say)?

Apples2

It's good that you have your copy which you can go into bat with.

You can argue that the car must have been at least 3/4 full or it would have cost a LOT more than £19.20 to fill it the rest of the way.

kazzah60

we once hired a mondeo estate car from Budget rentals

we had lots of large boxes to transport so hubby took the removable parcel shelf thingy out and put it safe behind the dining room door.

we had hired the car as our mondeo estate died the day before our buisness trip - we got back took the car back, had it checked over, no problem left the building.

a week later we got our mondeo back from the garage and hubby got the removable parcel shelf out from behind the dining room door to put it back into our car.................................
and of course, our car still had it's parcel shelf in !!!!!!!!!!

mindful that we might get a whopping charge onto our credit card we rushed down to Budget and very apologetically explained what had happened - we had completely forgotten to put the shelf back into their car

they laughed with us and said NO-ONE had even noticed !!!!!!
they were grateful to us for taking it back

GlynD

If you haven't filled up the fuel tank then they'll charge you a service charge in addition to the cost of any fuel. Been there and been caught by it. No way out of it I'm afraid, just bite the bullet and don't let it happen again. Sorry.