Car rental charges

--Tony--

Hi,
Hope for a bit of advice on what anyone thinks I should do.
I have  a car rental with Sixt in Spain from Girona Airport on 24/04 which will never happen now, the rate I used had payment on collection but a cancellation fee of €59.97.
They have told me:
"At the moment, the only active branches to offer service are the airports of Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga."
And have now said  they can only offer a voucher valid for a year for €59.97, which they will take from my credit card if I agree.
I can't see how they can take this stance when they are unable to fulfill their obligation of supplying a car at the Airport and taking it back at the same location.
Insurance will be no good due to the excess.
I have tried to call my credit card for advice but Santander have a recorded message they are only accepting calls for fraud and lost cards until further notice.
I assume if I do nothing they will take their full rental of €89.96 or I can accept their offer and take voucher for €59.97, is there anything else I can do? It does not appear right to me they can do this if they are unable to fulfill their part of the rental, even if I could turn up, they would not be there to hand over the keys.

eddddy

In your position, I guess I'd....

• Ask them if the car will be available for collection at Girona Airport on 24/04
  
  
• If they say "No", but they insist you still have pay a fee of  €59.97 (and get a voucher), ask them which clause in their terms and conditions allows them to cancel a rental, and charge you a fee.

The issue may be that they don't yet know if they can make a car available for collection at Girona Airport on 24/04. So as far as they are concerned, they are not cancelling the rental yet.

But if you want to cancel it, there will be a fee of €59.97 (but as a goodwill gesture, they will give you a voucher).

If that's the case, maybe you could take a risk and wait to see if they cancel the rental nearer to 24/04 - so you don't have to pay the fee.

--Tony--

eddddy said:

In your position, I guess I'd....

• Ask them if the car will be available for collection at Girona Airport on 24/04
  
  
• If they say "No", but they insist you still have pay a fee of  €59.97 (and get a voucher), ask them which clause in their terms and conditions allows them to cancel a rental, and charge you a fee.

The issue may be that they don't yet know if they can make a car available for collection at Girona Airport on 24/04. So as far as they are concerned, they are not cancelling the rental yet.

But if you want to cancel it, there will be a fee of €59.97 (but as a goodwill gesture, they will give you a voucher).

If that's the case, maybe you could take a risk and wait to see if they cancel the rental nearer to 24/04 - so you don't have to pay the fee.

Thanks Eddddy,
I have written back saying that they should cancel without penalty if they can't supply the car as agreed (they have already said the office is closed at the airport).
If they still insist on this nonsense, I may call their bluff and say I will meet them at the airport for my collection as agreed, claiming I'm currently living in central Girona.

I agree, if they don't offer anything else, I will leave it and see how they react, I can't be the only rental they have to contact closer to the date.
I did not know if there was anything else I could do, I know my credit card is my best contact but with the lines closed down they can't offer help. A friend, I was talking to on the phone said I should cancel my credit card so they can't take the money, I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that won't help and they can still claim the money as we have a contract and I believe I'm right in saying the CC company will still pay the bill even with a cancelled card.

I think they would be in their rights to bill me if I could not turn up due to the virus, but it's outrageous when their office is closed.

The hotels have all refunded, Ryanair are refunding, it's just Sixt who are being so bad about this, I went for Sixt because I did not want to deal with one of those small local car rental operations that have such a bad record!

--Tony--

@eddddy

I have a success story to report (thank you!)

To update:

I initially asked them to reconsider but they stood their ground and said my only option was to cancel and pay a 3 day rental penalty, they did however say I would get it back as a voucher to use within 12 months.

This afternoon I called their bluff and told them I was living in Girona and even though I did not need the car as my family can no longer visit, I would come and collect it anyway and make what use of it I could under the lockdown rules, I told them I may not be on time but would be within the allowed 1 hour grace period.

I knew full well their office was closed in Girona airport and they would not want to deliver a car from Barcelona and collect it again at the end of the rental, not to mention having to wait at an empty airport for me to turn up and try to conduct business on a street during lockdown.

Within an hour I got a reply:

Dear Mr. XXXXXX,

We inform you that our branch in Girona Airport is provisionally closed. In your case, we have refunded the full prepaid amount as courtesy.

I think I should take up poker with play like that!