Charged extra at car hire pick up due to unclear Ts&Cs

tac1980

Just been charged £45 for insurance to reduce the excess on a car hire pickup due to not having sufficient proof of address evidence.

I'm from the South West and going for a weekend to see friends in the North East. We booked a hire car ahead of time through ebookers to get around for the weekend

When picking up the car the staff member asked for driving licence, passport, credit card and utility bill or other proof of address. I had the first 3 but not the latter, I offered to email a pdf of my bank statement or a utility bill, but was told only hard copies were accepted. I complained that this requirement was not clear from the information I'd been sent at the time I booked. He managed to produce a print out of some terms and conditions which did state that a hard copy of a proof of address was required.
He said the requirement was there because of the terms of their insurers, he could remove the requirement for the proof of address, but only through reducing the excess on the hire, for which there would be a fee of £45.

I checked my confirmation emails from the booking and there was 1 section relating to documents

"Rules and restrictions
The following rules and restrictions are provided by the car hire company.
The driver must present a valid driving licence and credit card in their name upon pick-up.... "

The rest of the text was other bits unrelated to ID documents. Also at the end of this section there was

" The total price includes all mandatory taxes, fees and insurance."

There was no link anywhere else in the email to any further terms or conditions or special rules.

The staff member said that if I had booked directly through them (Green motion) it would have been clear, but I should take it up with ebookers and there was nothing he could do.
I expect at the time of booking I probably did tick somewhere to say I accepted a very long list of terms and conditions which I only skim read, but no where in the confirmation information I was sent after booking was there any of these details (or links to them) other than what I've mentioned above.

I guess I will call ebookers tomorrow and kick up a fuss and try and get them to agree to refund the charge. Just wondered if this has happened to anyone else or if anyone has any advice, what are my rights here? Is there any legislation in my favour I can quote to back me up?

Aylesbury_Duck

Check through the ebookers Ts&Cs again to make sure you haven't missed anything. There may be a clause about them not being liable for any charges the actual hire company levies, for example?

If there isn't, I'd complain, but rather than "kicking up a fuss", try the polite and humble approach first. It just might work.

In future (and if you didn't do so this time), look into getting standalone excess waiver insurance. It is nearly always cheaper than the insurance the car hire companies offer themselves.

tac1980

Ahh,

Just noticed a link to some generic "Terms and conditions" in one of the emails

Ebookers "generalbookingconditions" which the forum is preventing me posting a direct link to.

This does have a section
"3.3.3. Collection / use of the vehicle"
Stating..
"Additional documentation such as a passport or up to two forms of proof of name and address may also be required. Customers should check the applicable Rules and Restrictions offering the car-hire for details of all applicable criteria for booking car-hire."

However..
1) It doesn't state that proof of address has to be hard copy, so can I reasonably be expected to know this? (I had electronic copies)
2) The booking email I received stated
" The following rules and restrictions are provided by the car hire company."
And only mentioned a requirement to produce a driving license. And
"The total price includes all mandatory taxes, fees and insurance"
No where in the confirmation email does it state you should contact the car hire company directly to confirm what documentation is required.

So I don't see how I can reasonably be expected to have known that I was required to bring extra hard copies of proof of address.

tac1980

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

In future (and if you didn't do so this time), look into getting standalone excess waiver insurance. It is nearly always cheaper than the insurance the car hire companies offer themselves.

Thanks, yes, I have the standalone excess insurance, but it made no difference here as only covers mine and not the car hire companies liability. I doubt I can claim on it for this.

As you say, polite and humble is the way to go. I'm just still worked up about it all. Should hopefully be calmer in the morning.

Aylesbury_Duck

tac1980 wrote: »

Ahh,

Just noticed a link to some generic "Terms and conditions" in one of the emails

Ebookers "generalbookingconditions" which the forum is preventing me posting a direct link to.

This does have a section
"3.3.3. Collection / use of the vehicle"
Stating..
"Additional documentation such as a passport or up to two forms of proof of name and address may also be required. Customers should check the applicable Rules and Restrictions offering the car-hire for details of all applicable criteria for booking car-hire."

However..
1) It doesn't state that proof of address has to be hard copy, so can I reasonably be expected to know this? (I had electronic copies)
2) The booking email I received stated
" The following rules and restrictions are provided by the car hire company."
And only mentioned a requirement to produce a driving license. And
"The total price includes all mandatory taxes, fees and insurance"
No where in the confirmation email does it state you should contact the car hire company directly to confirm what documentation is required.

So I don't see how I can reasonably be expected to have known that I was required to bring extra hard copies of proof of address.

Aren't those two things contradictory?

I'm afraid that in my opinion, that undermines your argument. It is a little clumsy and unclear though, so worth politely asking (in all innocence) if they'll refund the charge.

tac1980

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Aren't those two things contradictory?

I'm afraid that in my opinion, that undermines your argument. It is a little clumsy and unclear though, so worth politely asking (in all innocence) if they'll refund the charge.

It's not clear at all.

The info provided in the booking email is below (there is also the logo of the company after where it says "Car hire policies for")
There is a section further below this called "Merchant rules" which is blank. The implication to me is that there is no special extra information related to this provider. I e. When it says below "The following car hire policies are provided by the car hire company." and then "The following rules and restrictions are provided by the car hire company." I expect that reading the information below that fulfils the act of the customer checking the applicable rules and restrictions as stated in section 3.3.3 of the full Ts and Cs.

"Car hire policies for

Mini Car
Pick-up : Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom (NCL Airport)
Fri, 15 Nov - Sun, 17 Nov
The following car hire policies are provided by the car hire company.
Rules and restrictions
The following rules and restrictions are provided by the car hire company.
The driver must present a valid driving licence and credit card in their name upon pick-up.
International rentals may have different driving licence requirements. An international driving licence is required if the driving licence is non-roman alphabet.
Additional charges or restrictions may apply for drivers under 30.
Charges for refueling, additional drivers, etc. are not included in the total price.
Some car hire companies may require you to prepay for a tank of fuel when you pick up the vehicle.
Special equipment, such as child seats and GPS, can be purchased upon pick-up (if available).
Car hire companies offer a grace period of 2 hours between the booked pick up time and the actual time the vehicle is picked up. If you are likely to be late, we advise that you contact the local car hire branch directly.
When returning your rental, Car hire companies typically offer a grace period of 29 minutes between the agreed drop off time and the actual time the vehicle is returned to the car hire branch. After this period has lapsed, an additional rental day may be charged.
Geographical restrictions may apply, even for rental contracts that feature unlimited mileage. Some car hire companies do not allow you to take their vehicles across certain domestic or international borders, or may apply an additional charge to do so.
An excess may be applicable if hire car is damaged or stolen. Optional insurance can be purchased locally to reduce this excess. ebookers is not liable for such excess or additional insurance provision.
The total price includes all mandatory taxes, fees and insurance.
Unless and otherwise specified, rates are quoted in British pounds sterling."

Aylesbury_Duck

All you can do is ask. If they say no and you're certain that the terms and conditions don't make the charge clear, it's up to you how legal and technical you want to get over £45. Ultimately, their argument might be that you accepted and paid the charge to the hire company voluntarily. If you disagreed with it you had the choice to make a new booking directly with the company there and then or go to another desk at the airport and hire from someone else.

tac1980

Just checked the print out the staff member gave me with the Ts and Cs in. It is identical to what I saw through my booking emails, except that under the section "Merchant rules" there is 8 pages of additional terms and conditions etc. Including the stuff on hard copies of utility bills.

My suspicion is that the Ts And Cs of your booking are generated by some automated system in ebookers at the time of your booking and some sort of problem at the time I booked caused the "merchant rules" section to be blank. (I get to this info through a very long link that includes my booking reference) I'll see what they say tomorrow.

Aylesbury_Duck

tac1980 wrote: »

Just checked the print out the staff member gave me with the Ts and Cs in. It is identical to what I saw through my booking emails, except that under the section "Merchant rules" there is 8 pages of additional terms and conditions etc. Including the stuff on hard copies of utility bills.

My suspicion is that the Ts And Cs of your booking are generated by some automated system in ebookers at the time of your booking and some sort of problem at the time I booked caused the "merchant rules" section to be blank. (I get to this info through a very long link that includes my booking reference) I'll see what they say tomorrow.

Good detective work! At least you have something to go to them with to explain why it was not possible for you to know about terms that were mistakenly missing from your booking confirmation.

davidmcn

Read the online reviews, Green Motion seem to have a habit of fabricating problems with hirers' documents to justify upselling insurance. (which wouldn't even make sense anyway, would it? If they thought you were committing some sort of ID fraud they'd hardly hand you the keys with any sort of insurance.)

Aylesbury_Duck

Exactly. And going back to the original post, how would reducing your excess provide them with extra assurance in lieu of your lack of address evidence in hard copy form? Surely they’d increase the excess to offset what they believe to be a higher-risk customer?