Can I get a refund if I cancel Van hire?

DVardysShadow

InsideInsurance wrote: »

From what I understand as providers of transport they are exempt from the DSR http://www.out-law.com/page-430#Partexempt

I don't think this applies. They are only hiring out a vehicle, not providing transport.

wealdroam

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I don't think this applies. They are only hiring out a vehicle, not providing transport.

I originally held your view, but did you read the text there which says...

Resolving a dispute between car hire firm easyCar and the UK's Office of Fair Trading, the European Court of Justice ruled in 2005 that car hire companies can take advantage of the exemption applying to "transport services". See: the ruling in easyCar v OFT.

To quote from the ruling...

...it must be held that that exemption covers car hire services, the essential nature of which is precisely the making available to the consumer of a means of transport.

Very interesting.

DVardysShadow

wealdroam wrote: »

I originally held your view, but did you read the text there which says...
To quote from the ruling...
Very interesting.

Indeed. There is something perverse about this judgement. Or indeed something perverse about the underlying law which is brought into view by this judgement.

For a transport contract you can see that because of the nature of the contract and the resources, there is an appointment made on which other business decisions may rest for the provider. So it makes sense to limit the cancellation options.

For car hire this is less obvious. To me the hire is of a tool for a period, the transport aspect is almost incidental and beyond the logistics of the hire, the nature of the business actually precludes other logistical considerations like return loads, onward loads, partial additional loads which for me are the justification for the transport exception.

Suppose you extend the argument to tool and plant hire. It seems to me that there is no commercial reason why vehicle hire is exempt but hire of a steam cleaner would have cancellation rights. Or would a digger be cancellable, because it digs holes, but a crane would be exempt because it moves things from 1 place to another?

kikboy10

McKneff wrote: »

Why did you keep shopping around when you had already booked a van

Hi i carried on shopping around because I actually needed a small van (which I had initially tried to book with them through the net but received an email next day stating that it was unavailable). So when I phoned them I was panicking that I may not get a van full stop. But then I found another one and booked that.

Now getting back to the issue, it is actually interesting the DSR do not appear to apply here but is there any other route or recourse?

Look I may not get any money back - its not the end of the world for me however if I can work out a solution then others may benefit before they hire a vehicle or possibly if they are in the same predicament. That may be useful for someone.

Had I known this would happen then I would not have shopped around and just stuck with the original booking.

kikboy10

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Indeed. There is something perverse about this judgement. Or indeed something perverse about the underlying law which is brought into view by this judgement.

For a transport contract you can see that because of the nature of the contract and the resources, there is an appointment made on which other business decisions may rest for the provider. So it makes sense to limit the cancellation options.

For car hire this is less obvious. To me the hire is of a tool for a period, the transport aspect is almost incidental and beyond the logistics of the hire, the nature of the business actually precludes other logistical considerations like return loads, onward loads, partial additional loads which for me are the justification for the transport exception.

Suppose you extend the argument to tool and plant hire. It seems to me that there is no commercial reason why vehicle hire is exempt but hire of a steam cleaner would have cancellation rights. Or would a digger be cancellable, because it digs holes, but a crane would be exempt because it moves things from 1 place to another?

That is a very very interesting line of argument but I guess the European court managed to make that distinction between car hire and other forms of hire. However it makes me think - would there be a difference between car hire and van hire? Since car hire is coming under transport...would van hire be classed as facilitating carriage and be more akin to hiring a forklift for example?

wealdroam

kikboy10 wrote: »

...would there be a difference between car hire and van hire? Since car hire is coming under transport...would van hire be classed as facilitating carriage and be more akin to hiring a forklift for example?

You will probably have to go back to the European Court to get an answer to that question.
(unless of course the answer is in that link... I haven't checked)

Please report back on progress.

kikboy10

Yes I am afraid the Euro court is out of the question

But seriously is there any other licen that somebody can suggest in terms of taking action through the small claims court?

vicmorrow

kikboy10 wrote: »

Yes I am afraid the Euro court is out of the question

But seriously is there any other licen that somebody can suggest in terms of taking action through the small claims court?

How many kikboys are there?

Flyboy152

kikboy10 wrote: »

Yes I am afraid the Euro court is out of the question

But seriously is there any other licen that somebody can suggest in terms of taking action through the small claims court?

You could try for a chargeback from your debit card issuer.

stone7

kikboy wrote: »

I booked a small van on the i-net but the next day the company sent me an email stating it was unavailable.

kikboy wrote: »

I booked and paid on friday morning at 11am to pickup at 5pm the same day. But I cancelled at 11:20am.

There appears to be as many versions of what went on as there are kikboys(10).