Car Hire Rip Off - Malaga Airport, Spain

Monty14

My wife and I arranged this hire car on the internet through Argus Car Hire (broker) who placed us with Marbesol Car Hire. We opted for the Insurance Purchase Damage Refund for an extra £54-46. This was a complete waste of time! When we collected the car, Marbesol confirmed that their insurance for all their cars was not with Axa Insurance (which the damage refund policy was)and therefore was unacceptable to them. We had the choice of a £1,200-00 excess, no roof/underside or glass cover and no BREAKDOWN cover!! OR pay an additional 260-00 Euros (£200-00) to have full cover and breakdown. The fuel policy was unfair - out Full & return Full. As the vehicle was a 3&1/2 year old Hyundai I10 with 55,000km on the clock we felt we needed breakdown cover. We tried ringing the contact number on the Axa policy (which stated "if you are required to purchase additional insurance etc")but there was no reply. Looking at various reviews on different websites, this type of thing is happening all the time AND MUST BE STOPPED!! Any ideas what to do next? Write to my local MP & MEP? I expect it will be virtually impossible to recover the "full cover" cost of £200-00 but as the Axa Damage Refund Policy appeared to be a waste of time who can I recover the £54-46 from? Is it Argus Car Hire Broker, or Axa direct? Your comments/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you. Monty 14.
PS - I have been to the USA on 14 occasions & various states across the country and never had this problem. Their pricing is clear and there is none of this "paying extra" when you collect the car.

Keep_pedalling

You should have opted for the £1200 excess option, as that is what the Axa policy covers you for. If you had an accident you would have paid the excess and then claimed it back from Axa. It would have also covered you for glass and undercarriage damage.

Monty14

What about breakdown? No mention of that on the Axa Policy.

z1a

As said, you didn't have breakdown cover anyway with AXA. Why do you think the fuel policy was unfair? Cheapest way of paying for fuel.

Keep_pedalling

I think I would have risked that, you still have had £260 spare to cover that eventuality by not paying the rip of insurance upgrade.

Forgot to ask way do you think full to full fuel policy was unfair?

Monty14

Other firms offer full tank of fuel on collection & return empty or if any fuel left, you get a refund for the fuel unused.

EssexExile

Monty14 wrote: »

Other firms offer full tank of fuel on collection & return empty or if any fuel left, you get a refund for the fuel unused.

I've been renting cars since the 70s & pick up full return full is the norm.

I must say I didn't realise car hire was such a minefield until I started frequenting this forum. It appears to me that getting the cheapest price gets you just what you paid for, the cheapest service. I'll stick with paying a bit more & using a reputable company.

Keep_pedalling

Monty14 wrote: »

Other firms offer full tank of fuel on collection & return empty or if any fuel left, you get a refund for the fuel unused.

Yes, but you pay more that way because the hire company has to send someone out to refuel the car before it is hired out again, full to full you just pay pump prices for the fuel you use.

benjus

Monty14 wrote: »

Other firms offer full tank of fuel on collection & return empty or if any fuel left, you get a refund for the fuel unused.

So you're buying the fuel from the rental firm. At what price?

Typical car fuel gauges will only give a rough idea of how much is in the tank, so the refund will be approximate.

Anyway, the norm in Spain in recent years has been to offer a full tank of fuel to be returned empty, with NO refund for unused fuel.

Full/full is cheaper for the customer as you only pay for exactly what you use and at petrol station prices rather than whatever inflated price the car hire firm uses. The only issue is if you're rushing back to the airport at the last minute and don't have time to refuel before dropping off - in that case the charges can be quite steep.

boatman

With the basic hire which includes cdw etc, surely it already includes breakdown cover does it not?

Moto2

For future reference - malagacar.com are a good local company without any silly rules or nonsense
Not to be confused with malagacarhire.com