CDW on carhire

PacerFacer · 9 July 2020 at 11:31PM

Hi folks,
I have hired from Easirent on a number of occasions over the last couple of years. I am aware, based on the rules, that they're not that well thought of, and I have had a couple of weird experiences (late car arrival, refusing legit documents, having to be transferred between depots). But... they are significantly cheaper than most and they're the easiest firm to get to from where I live. Last week I booked a Ford Focus for eight days for around £75. I have excess insurance for car hire.
Anyway, when I arrived at the desk the Easirent employee asked if I'd booked through their American website, as bookings through that site don't include the CDW (collision damage waiver) whereas their UK site does. He offered a variety of further payments to make up the difference, the lowest of which was £150 and the standard larger excess charge held against my credit card being a bit bigger.
Now, obviously by the time you get to the desk they know you've got a place to be and that if you walk away you also likely lose the booking. So ultimately I paid. But I'm still really confused and trying to establish whether I've got any cause to take this up with their complaints team. I replicated my journey to their website (Googling "Easirent", hitting the first non-sponsored link) and it does redirect to a URL with "us.easirent" which I hadn't noticed - there's nothing else on the site to indicate you're on a US version, the prices come through in pounds. But regardless, on both the US site and if you go to the menu, hit UK and Ireland and then make the enquiry, the price for eight days of Ford Focus hire costs exactly the same as my quote above. And £225 for that time period puts Easirent at the top end of the market, when they're definitely not that. And it's inexplicable that there'd be that much differential in price between US and Europe too.
They did upgrade my car, but I'm suspicious about this. Any advice would be gratefully received!