Europcar - Late Return

leespot

Just a heads up really for any car hirer's on the forums!

I was running late dropping hire car off back at the airport, tried to call and got no response on the number I had.

They apparently give a 'grace' period of 29 minutes (yes, 29 minutes - I have it in writing from them!) and after that they will charge your card with another full days hire (including any insurance waiver if you had it originally)

I was 26 minutes over their grace period, and charged over £36 for the privilege. I know returning it on time is the way to avoid the charges, but for any smart !!!! reponses we can't all be perfect!

stevemLS

This is from their T&Cs:

5.1 Principle and Calculation
You undertake to return the Vehicle to Europcar at the agreed place, on the date and at the time indicated on the rental agreement.
The maximum duration of a rental agreement may vary from one country to another. The rental duration is calculated on the basis of indivisible periods of 24 hours, starting from the time the Vehicle is made available. However, a 30 minute grace period is applied at the end of the rental before the start of a new 24-Hour period.
If you return the Vehicle to any other Europcar rental location than the agreed location, repatriation costs will be charged to you.
Europcar strongly recommends that you carefully read this information available at counter

leespot

stevemLS wrote: »

This is from their T&Cs:

5.1 Principle and Calculation
You undertake to return the Vehicle to Europcar at the agreed place, on the date and at the time indicated on the rental agreement.
The maximum duration of a rental agreement may vary from one country to another. The rental duration is calculated on the basis of indivisible periods of 24 hours, starting from the time the Vehicle is made available. However, a 30 minute grace period is applied at the end of the rental before the start of a new 24-Hour period.
If you return the Vehicle to any other Europcar rental location than the agreed location, repatriation costs will be charged to you.
Europcar strongly recommends that you carefully read this information available at counter

I know what they say - I was making people aware of it, as lots of people don't read them. Stronly recommending reading them doesn't allow for the unforeseen circumstances that people sometimes encounter, and this is where some discretion might be appropriate.

The 29 minutes was quoted to me in an email from their customer services.

Nodding_Donkey

Surely most people accept that if you take any hire back late you will get charged for another period?

leespot

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Surely most people accept that if you take any hire back late you will get charged for another period?

If we are talking several hours rather than minutes, then probably, yes. Although taking into account the fact that they had lost my booking on arrival at the airport, which meant my hire being collected late...

stevemLS

Fair enough for warning people, but tend to agree with Nodding Donkey.

So, it was actually 55 minutes late (29 + 26)? What in your view would be reasonable?

leespot

It was a heads up - not a debate.

geerex

leespot wrote: »

It was a heads up - not a debate.

Unless you're the owner of the forum, you don't get to dictate what others choose to respond with. You do, however, have the right not to reply to their comments.

Just out of interest, how long do you feel a "grace" period should be? Or, do you feel like a phone call to tell them that you're running late should automatically run ceive an "okey doey, no problem" response?

meer53

why would you need a heads up about charges for taking a hire car back late ?

ThumbRemote

leespot wrote: »

Just a heads up really for any car hirer's on the forums!

I was running late dropping hire car off back at the airport, tried to call and got no response on the number I had.

They apparently give a 'grace' period of 29 minutes (yes, 29 minutes - I have it in writing from them!) and after that they will charge your card with another full days hire (including any insurance waiver if you had it originally)

I was 26 minutes over their grace period, and charged over £36 for the privilege. I know returning it on time is the way to avoid the charges, but for any smart !!!! reponses we can't all be perfect!

Out of interest, what time did you book the car to collect, and what time did you book it to drop off?

Presumably the same time on both days, as their terms suggest that if you collected at (say) 2pm, and had it booked to finish the rental at 10am, you'd actually have 4.5 hours grace.

bod1467

You say they'd lost the booking, so it took time to get things sorted. Was your required return 24 hours from booked time or 24 hours from actual signing of paperwork time?

If the former then I'd suggest you'd have a case for rejecting their claim; if the latter then tough.