Netflights car hire - small print makes the price 8 x more

srulikuk

Hi All,

I made a booking with netflights.com to pickup a car in JFK airport and return the next day to Newark airport, the total price on the website was £49.03, this was also in the invoice. the invoice and voucher both clearly stated the pickup and drop off locations i selected, when I got to the car hire they wanted an additional $545 (approx£360) for the one way rental, I argued that the voucher and invoice clearly states this selection and included in total price. I ended up taking out a new contract with the hire company directly and paid $125 (approx £80) in total for the exact same thing.
I wrote to netflights.com asking them to refund me the £80 which I ended up paying as there were many other sites offering a similar deal to theirs and they had screwed up the booking, netflights pointed me to the end of page 6 of the small print where it states 1 way rentals have an additional charge of $399 + local taxes ($locally that worked out $545).
Netflights also stated the charge was nothing to do with netflights but was the hire companies price for 1 way rentals, this is not the case as I ended up paying 5 x less taking it from the hire company directly, this must be something in the contract between netflights and the hire company.

My question is can they do this? I searched for a specific rental they showed it at £49.03 and I paid them £49.03, although they make you tick a box that you have read the terms and conditions can they reasonably expect a consumer to read reams of small print on a relatively small transaction?
Furthermore can the small print contradict / override the main article in the advertised price / invoice / voucher, namely collect at JFK return to Newark for £49.03?

Thanks

Caz3121

You do not need to go to page 6....it is all dealt with on the first page with links to the detail further down
It appears that you chose to tick the box that states "I agree to the car rental Terms & Conditions" without reading them
If you select "terms & conditions" there is a breakdown of what is included and excluded
Excluded from our Rates
Roadside Assistance Plus
Fuel
Special Equipment
Child and Booster Seats
GPS
Ski Racks
Toll Pass
Additional Drivers
One Way Rental fees
Young Driver Surcharge

selecting "one way rental fees" will give you the breakdown of the charges

Car hire is certainly one area where you do need to read the T&Cs to understand what you are buying
I doubt you are going to get very far with this as you did tick to confirm that you agreed with these T&Cs

srulikuk

Yet the main article, the advertised price, the invoice and the voucher clearly state a total price and the services the price is for, the price was for the car hire from location A to location B, misleading and deception is not what a consumer must expect in a contract!

duchy

Reading the terms and conditions before ticking to say you accept them is usually a good idea.

Presumably you lied when you ticked the box as you hadn't read them so who was committing deception ?

srulikuk

Is it reasonable to expect a consumer to read 10 pages of small print for a £49 transaction?
Is it reasonable / legal for a consumer contract small print to exclude what is specifically included in the advertised price / invoice / voucher?

Caz3121

Although there may be 10 pages of print, there is 1 page of headings. You select the sections from the first page that are relevant to you and select them to read. With a one-way hire it is pretty important the know whether there will be any additional costs.

I often hire cars to pick up in Gatwick an return to Heathrow and have never seen the one-way fee included in the base cost, when I do the calculations on the cheapest options I add the one-way fee to the rental cost and compare them that way. Often the cheapest rental has a higher one-way fee so may not end up the cheapest over all

I agree that when you ask for a pickup in one location and dropoff in another it is obvious that you are doing a one-way hire so it would make sense for this cost to be included in the displayed price...but car hire companies don't appear to work this way

srulikuk

I have just checked the following sites:
1. lastminute.co.uk - clearly different price for one way rentals (price difference for 1 day was about £12)
2. expedia.co.uk - clearly different price for one way rentals (price difference for 1 day was about £14)
3. alamo.com - was £1 cheaper for daily price on 1 day rental but clearly stated Additional Charges "One Way Rental" before selecting the car.
4. easycar.com - has a big note warning that the price does not include one way charge (many other sites i checked have the same warning)
I just double checked netflights there is no warning at all!

Caz3121

srulikuk wrote: »

I just double checked netflights there is no warning at all!

However it is clear in the T&Cs, link on the page when you open them and you cannot progress the booking without ticking to say you accept them
Interesting that some of the other companies do include it, the ones I use don't seem to...I can see £48 for an Alamo car for a random date in May on netflights, the same car with Alamo for the the same details is £144 on Expedia

Alan_Bowen

I have booked one way with Netflights, although it didn't calculate on the page what the one way fee was, it did make it clear there was one, and I think that it was payable to the car rental agency not to Netflights. By clicking on a link, I got the cost, I cannot see any reason why they would try to hide it. Clearly in your case, a fixed fee for a one way rental makes no sense at all, frankly I cannot see the point of a car in New York at all, but that is a personal issue. In many airports in the US, the rental station is a franchise and not centrally owned, so they want 'their' cars back at their station.

srulikuk

If the rental is £49.03 and the one way charge is $545 (inc taxes) they hide it!

Caz3121

srulikuk wrote: »

If the rental is £49.03 and the one way charge is $545 (inc taxes) they hide it!

but you said it was in the T&Cs which you chose not to read so not really hidden...ok not splatted across the front page but it does direct you to the T&Cs