Easirent refund

KDown

Hoping someone can help on this one.

Long story short:

• turned up at Easirent Gatwick to hire a car for a few days
• tried to use boyfriend's credit card for the excess (don't worry, he was there and prepared to sign for the use of his card)
• was told we couldn't use his card for a car that I'd be driving because "it's fraud"
• didn't want to pay the excess waiver as it was 3x the rental cost
• therefore rental was refused.

Lots more to the story, such as the abuse hurled at us by delightful manager Chris Hamilton (whose name I had to look up on their website as he refused to give it to me), but won't go into that here.

My main gripe is that we weren't told when booking that the credit card had to be mine. I hired a car with Budget the week before and we used my boyfriend's card, and they were absolutely fine with it (didn't use Budget the next week only because we couldn't get the same offer; nothing to do with their service, which was great). As far as we could tell, it's just him offering to pay for something for me. There's nothing on my confirmation email and nothing on their website saying that the credit card would have to be mine. I obviously would not have booked with them had I known that.

Maybe it's common knowledge and I'm completely at fault for not knowing it? - but we'd certainly never heard of it, and neither - apparently - had the car hire company we used the week before.

So I wanted a refund for the rental cost we'd already paid online. The manager wouldn't do that (saying it was impossible for him to put it through, or even to send a request to the relevant department to put through a refund on my behalf, because "it's a web payment" and "that's not how it works") and eventually gave me a customer services email address (that being their complaints procedure, apparently). I've emailed them as well as the bookings address (since that's the only one we could find on their website; the customer services address didn't seem to exist) to ask for a refund. Nothing back at all except from the bookings email address who replied within a day to ask me to forward it on to the customer services one; I did, again, and that was over two weeks ago. I've chased up with the bookings email address since that's the only one that seems to be responding, and they haven't replied.

Since being refused that rental, I've looked at other people's reviews of Easirent that make me quite relieved I didn't rent the car after all; stories of scratches magically appearing on cars when being handed back, with £250 fees attached, seem standard. Still, I've paid for something that wasn't provided; it might have been withheld due to a requirement that I didn't meet, but I wasn't informed of that prior to trying to collect the car and the information wasn't anywhere to be found. I want my money back. Not to mention a whole lot of hell for the rudest, most obnoxious, offensive staff I've ever come across, but that would be a bonus.

Are there any regulatory bodies I can go to? I think I can apply to the Financial Ombudsman after 8 weeks of non-response, but is there anywhere I can go in the meantime? I'd really love to kick up as much of a stink as possible. Seems petty but that's just how badly we were treated at Easirent, and it really did leave me up **** creek when it came to getting to work that week.

Alan_Bowen

Normally I would suggest a dispute with the credit card company you used to pay for the car but I think you are in some difficulty, I have just looked at their website and this appears;

You will need to have your full driver’s licence (both parts if a UK Licence), credit card/debit card in the Driver’s name

and clearly you didn't. This is not unusual when renting a car as the rental company want the contract and the possibility of charging extra if necessary to be in the name of the driver. If a third party card is used, the owner of the card could legitimately argue he had no contract, and get any charges reversed. I think you may find they treated your inability to provide a card in your name as a cancellation and as such you may not be entitled to any refund.

Lesson to be learned, read the terms before ticking the box, the same goes for any internet purchases...

KDown

Hmm. I'd argue that this isn't in the best place, as it's under "What documents do I need to bring?" (which was already in my booking email, sans the bit about the credit card, so I didn't need to read that) rather than the bit about cards. It's also in FAQs, which isn't the same as T&Cs, and I didn't check FAQs as I didn't have any questions (again, I'd rented a car from another location - in fact booked through the easirent website, as they were out of cars and somehow brought up a deal with Avis instead - the week before and had no reason to believe that there would be any difficulty). I'm still not sure that this was something I should have been expected to read prior to booking.

Can't raise a dispute with credit card company as I paid for the booking with my debit card online, not my boyfriend's credit card. Or can you do the same thing with debit card payments?

Also, don't see how my boyfriend would be able to argue that he didn't have a contract with Easirent, as he would have had to sign a contract - as would I if it had been my credit card - so can't see the justification there.

Not being difficult, I appreciate your comments and will bear them in mind, particularly with regard to that statement on their website. I did read the T&Cs presented to me during booking and couldn't see anything about credit cards needing to be in my name. Chris Hamilton told me it was on my booking email; I'd brought a printout so could show him that it wasn't, at which point he said it was on their website, but couldn't say where. I said "are you really telling me that I am expected to read every page on your entire website before making a booking?" to which he said "yes". Maybe that really is the case...!

KDown

Oh also, point of interest: What happens when a company arranges car hire for an employee? Wouldn't they be in the same position?

sallybdx

Have an outstanding issue with Easirent, though not necessarily specific to them, I don't know as it's never happened to me before.

I hired a car from Easirent in April and a lorry ran into the back of my hire car. Fortunately there were no injuries as we were in a traffic jam and moving very slowly. I had not taken the excess insurance with Easirent as I have an annual policy with Insurance4carhire so I had to pay £450 to get the car repaired, even though the accident was not my fault. However, five months on I'm still waiting for the claim to be resolved and to get my money back. The lorry was Bulgarian and when I last heard his company hadn't yet accepted responsibility. I can't of course claim from Insurance4CarHire because I expect to get the money from Easirent via the Bulgarian insurer. On the face of it my contact at Easirent has been very helpful and pleasant but everything is being done by e-mail and I feel helpless.

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions as I'm frustrated but also almost forgetting about the matter as it's been so long - which is perhaps what Easirent is counting on!

christaitfife

I worked in car rental for some time and in the situation of a foreign vehicle (from a non 'core' Eu country) hitting a rental car from behind we would likely take the financial hit if the renter had our insurance. I know the third party excess policies are good value, but in circumstances like yours it may be a challenge to get your excess back - if the company has foreign insurance that will not admit responsibility it could be treated as either an uninsured driver (which might not be covered) or immediately be put down to 'partial blame'.

I would recommend just keep trying to chase them up and keep every piece of paperwork. Remember that these companies make money by not paying out.

christaitfife

Oh, I should add that although the accident was not your fault, your insurer may not agree. Some years ago speeding car crossed white lines and drove directly into the side of me and then he drove off at speed... my insurance company at the time was convinced by the other company that I was to blame & there was very little I could do.

Eve's_Dad

Hi, just came across your post. Did you get your money from Easirent?
I have a similar issue with them - In August, my hire car was damaged in a car park but I got insurance details etc from the driver. I've spoken to their Claims Dept on numerous occasions and been told that the driver has admitted liability but haven't been sent a refund. I'm current chasing them up using the MSE Resolver app.

Mexinao

I rented a car from them which was damaged on all sides. Then they charged me for damage which was already there. I had the car for one day and had the car parked in my driveway.

Now I had a call from my credit card company that my card has been used fraudulently online. I hardly use this one and the last time I used it was with easirent!

Voyager2002

KDown wrote: »

Can't raise a dispute with credit card company as I paid for the booking with my debit card online, not my boyfriend's credit card. Or can you do the same thing with debit card payments?

Contact your debit card issuer and request a "charge-back" on the basis that you paid for a service that was not provided.

pelirocco

When ever we have hired a car , its always been the rule that it has to be the drivers credit card, (all different hire companies ) However i agree its not made particulary clear, and we learng the hard way too