Expedia.com car hire fiasco

dav8t

Hi,

Is there anyone who can advise on how I can reclaim costs incurred due to this botched Expedia experience:


I booked car hire, packaged with flights using Expedia.com. When I arrived at Dublin Airport I was told that I could not drive the car that I had booked as there was no level of basic insurance on the car in order to make it legal to drive on the roads. I was presented with three options by the vendor, Europcar: (1) pay €5000 and sign an unlimed liability document for the total value of the car of €25000 - summarised by the sales assistant as 'if you so much as scratch it you own it', (2) pay €560 in insurance fees €56 X 10 days (to place this in context, the total car hire booking was approx €130), or (3) abandon the Expedia.com booking altogether and open a new sale direct with Europcar at rack rates for €460.

Expedia had a 40 minute call queue. I got through to an agent who billed a further $100 to my MasterCard for alternative insurance which would fix the problem. When I returned to the car hire desk, the insurance I had paid for was null and void.

I was left stranded in the airport and an Expedia 'expert' cut me off on the next call by transferring me to a Payless.com representative who I was told had a solution but in actual fact she told me that there was 'nothing she could do'. It was approaching 1.00am at this point. The rental desks then all closed for the night.

Luckily this all happened in Dublin, Ireland, a familiar and safe city but I would have been in a potentially quite dangerous situation if this was Nairobi. I received no further contact from Expedia but will look to my card providers to recover the fees. However I have also incurred costs for alternative travel, one way fees to hire the car from a different location, overnight hotel accommodation food and drinks, all generally fairly expensive as things were rebooked at the very last minute.

It seemed to be all too common with Expedia.com bookers - there were two other customers in the Europcar office alone and the staff said it was a recurring issue.

Are Expedia.com protected and regulated? What is my legal position should I decide to visit the small claims court?

Needless to say this all ruined the start of my trip!

Much appreciated.

baza52

how much are you claiming for with a breakdown of costs.
Are you over 25 years old?

agrinnall

I'd try to find a way that doesn't involve attempting to sue Expedia uness you fancy your chances in the American courts:

https://www.expedia.co.uk/p/support/general-booking-conditions

'Expedia' means Expedia, Inc. and/or Expedia Travel.
'Expedia, Inc.' means Expedia, Inc, whose registered office is at 333 108th Avenue NE Bellevue, WA 98004, USA.
'Expedia Travel' means Travelscape LLC, a company incorporated and resident for all purposes in the USA whose registered office is 10190 Covington Cross Drive, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV 89144.

dj1471

agrinnall wrote: »

I'd try to find a way that doesn't involve attempting to sue Expedia uness you fancy your chances in the American courts:

It sounds very much like the OP is from the US given they keep referring to expedia.com and mention a charge in $.

In any case the first step is to review the terms of the hire in detail to confirm exactly what Expedia were contracted to provide and any requirements you had to adhere to (e.g. minimum age as previously mentioned). The next step is a written complaint to Expedia describing what happened and your itemised list of costs incurred as a result.

baza52

dj1471 wrote: »

It sounds very much like the OP is from the US given they keep referring to expedia.com and mention a charge in $.

In any case the first step is to review the terms of the hire in detail to confirm exactly what Expedia were contracted to provide and any requirements you had to adhere to (e.g. minimum age as previously mentioned). The next step is a written complaint to Expedia describing what happened and your itemised list of costs incurred as a result.

OP only uses the $ sign one and uses the euro sign all other times (local currency in Dublin) They also say its a familiar place.

dav8t

Hi,

Thanks for your responses.

- The booking was made on the US site, expedia.com, and was therefore charged in dollars.
- I live and work in the UK, hence my use of this forum
- Dublin is in the Euro zone, euro is the local currency

At this point the car hire charge was refunded (£96), the car hire insurance which proved to be null and void is in dispute (£70). I had to (1) stay in a hotel in Dublin Airport that night as I got stuck there when the booking fell through = £100. I then had to (2) take a train to the south west of Ireland rather than drive because I could not access my booked car = approx £30. I rebooked the car at a higher rate and paid one-way fees for picking up and dropping off at different locations = approx. £50. Therefore the total I need covered is about £250.

dav8t

Yes, obviously I was old enough to take the car out and had all of the minimum documents set to pick up the car. The issue preventing me from being handed the keys was that Europcar said that it was illegal for me to drive on Irish roads without any car insurance and Expedia.com had put the booking through with absolutely no insurance on the car in order to make it roadworthy.

unholyangel

agrinnall wrote: »

I'd try to find a way that doesn't involve attempting to sue Expedia uness you fancy your chances in the American courts:

https://www.expedia.co.uk/p/support/general-booking-conditions

'Expedia' means Expedia, Inc. and/or Expedia Travel.
'Expedia, Inc.' means Expedia, Inc, whose registered office is at 333 108th Avenue NE Bellevue, WA 98004, USA.
'Expedia Travel' means Travelscape LLC, a company incorporated and resident for all purposes in the USA whose registered office is 10190 Covington Cross Drive, Suite 300, Las Vegas, NV 89144.

However further down that page it says this:

Article 9. Applicable Law
These General Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The Customer agrees that the English Courts shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any dispute arising from the interpretation of these terms. However the Customer may choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Ireland if that is where the Customer resides.

However if OP didn't book through expedia.co.uk, thats unlikely to be of use to them.

dav8t

Thanks Unholy!

I have spoken with an Agent and waited for a Supervisor. It took 1 hour and 55 minutes to get that far. Both were unable to address any requests for compensation so it required a further wait to speak to a 'Corporate' agent. I was told that this would take 30-60 minutes to get through but as a one-off gesture the Supervisor agreed to request a call back from Corporate on my behalf.

When I spoke with the Corporate agent, we had a circular conversation where he trotted out a multitude of lines designed to send us into further circles. There was absolutely no way they could compensate for any losses whatsoever in relation to the failed car hire booking. I asked for further escalation of the complaint and was told initially that he was the most appropriate agent to judge (and subsequently refuse) the request for compensation. No one else was available to speak to at that particular time so I was asked to call back on the main phone number again, speak with an agent and pass through the same sequence of queues again, on the hope that I someone more senior in Corporate would be available to speak with the next time, though this could not be guaranteed.

1. I am confident of getting the £70 insurance fee back from MasterCard
2. I have no clear way of getting my incurred costs back (hotel, train fare, extra car hire costs)

Reading through Expedia.com's procedures for dispute resolution on their web site, they receive written complaints via an address in Washington State, but only once 60 days have elapsed. This can then be considered for arbitration via an external agency which charges a $200 fee. Expedia say that they will reimburse that fee if you have a legitimate claim but that if it is deemed frivolous by the arbitrator that you are liable for the arbitration fees.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to proceed?

Elasticmoney

When you booked your flights and car hire did you remember to add the car insurance to your booking?

Unlike on the UK site where insurance is automatically included when booking through the US site you have to select car rental insurance as an optional extra normally between $9 and $11 per day.