Easyjet Car Hire Under 1 Hour Late but Desk Closed and No Refund or Compensation

cafreem2

Can anyone help here, Easyjet are saying that because we were late to pick up the car they will not refund us and not compensate  us, here is the situation:

Our Easyjet flight EZS1492 was planned to leave 11:20 BHX and arrived at GVA 14:00, please find attached evidence of flight delay. The pilot said the delay was due to Easyjet staff shortages. The majority of this delay occurred once we were sitting on the plane with a small amount of delay while waiting to board. Our flight number was included on our car hire booking. A call to the number on the booking resulted in a looped voice message and ended the call. The booking contract stated that the car hire companies desk opening times were between 08:00 and 22:00 Saturdays, please see attached extract from contract still online and available.

We arrived at Geneva 14:33, we split up so my wife collected our baggage and I went to collect the car, I arrived at the car collection desk at 14:55

I found the car hire desk was closed with a temporary opening hours sign, we have a photo of this if it helps, it stated the desk would be closed at 2pm. Easyjet failed here to align it's car hire booking opening hours Sat – 08.00 – 22.00 with the actual opening hours of the car hire provider of until 14:00pm. We still arrived to collect the car within a reasonable period after planned collection considering the stated opening hours.

We found other people in the same situation, we are in contact with them.

We made many calls to different numbers to try and rectify the situation but we could only get in automatic voice mail loops with finally calls being ended, we finally looked at alternative options to travel to our accommodation, with the only alternative being to hire another car for 1 day and return the next day to collect our originally hired vehicle. The only available from Geneva was the Merc from Hertz Switzerland. We booked the car for 1 day with the intention of contacting Thrifty / Car Trawler on Sunday to swap.

We then discovered that the Sunday opening times for the Thrifty desk was not as advertised (08.00 – 22.30). They were closed on Sunday too. 

On Monday 21st Feb we finally made contact with Car Trawler, they advised us that there was no vehicle availability to return the vehicle and swap it for our original booking therefore we had no alternative but to extend the Hertz car hire for the rest of the week. The Car Trawler help desk person clearly asked us to keep receipts as we would be able to claim the difference in cost Between our Hertz car hire and our Car Trawler (Easyjet Car Rental) booking on our return.

I drove to Cluses taking 1/2 day of my holiday as it was required to extend the car hire booking until the end of our stay.

pinkshoes

cafreem2 said:

Can anyone help here, Easyjet are saying that because we were late to pick up the car they will not refund us and not compensate  us, here is the situation:

Our Easyjet flight EZS1492 was planned to leave 11:20 BHX and arrived at GVA 14:00, please find attached evidence of flight delay. The pilot said the delay was due to Easyjet staff shortages. The majority of this delay occurred once we were sitting on the plane with a small amount of delay while waiting to board. Our flight number was included on our car hire booking. A call to the number on the booking resulted in a looped voice message and ended the call. The booking contract stated that the car hire companies desk opening times were between 08:00 and 22:00 Saturdays, please see attached extract from contract still online and available.

We arrived at Geneva 14:33, we split up so my wife collected our baggage and I went to collect the car, I arrived at the car collection desk at 14:55

I found the car hire desk was closed with a temporary opening hours sign, we have a photo of this if it helps, it stated the desk would be closed at 2pm. Easyjet failed here to align it's car hire booking opening hours Sat – 08.00 – 22.00 with the actual opening hours of the car hire provider of until 14:00pm. We still arrived to collect the car within a reasonable period after planned collection considering the stated opening hours.

We found other people in the same situation, we are in contact with them.

We made many calls to different numbers to try and rectify the situation but we could only get in automatic voice mail loops with finally calls being ended, we finally looked at alternative options to travel to our accommodation, with the only alternative being to hire another car for 1 day and return the next day to collect our originally hired vehicle. The only available from Geneva was the Merc from Hertz Switzerland. We booked the car for 1 day with the intention of contacting Thrifty / Car Trawler on Sunday to swap.

We then discovered that the Sunday opening times for the Thrifty desk was not as advertised (08.00 – 22.30). They were closed on Sunday too. 

On Monday 21st Feb we finally made contact with Car Trawler, they advised us that there was no vehicle availability to return the vehicle and swap it for our original booking therefore we had no alternative but to extend the Hertz car hire for the rest of the week. The Car Trawler help desk person clearly asked us to keep receipts as we would be able to claim the difference in cost Between our Hertz car hire and our Car Trawler (Easyjet Car Rental) booking on our return.

I drove to Cluses taking 1/2 day of my holiday as it was required to extend the car hire booking until the end of our stay.

Well as your flight wasn't due to land until 14h00 and their desk shut at 14h00 then you would never have made it to the desk anyway.

As their opening hours were until 22h00, the mistake is entirely theirs so they need to issue a full refund and pay the extra cost due to the car STILL not being available on Monday. 

If you couldn't collect it Saturday, and they were closed Sunday, surely the car should have still been available? It indicates they didn't have the car in the first place.

TELLIT01

pinkshoes said:

Well as your flight wasn't due to land until 14h00 and their desk shut at 14h00 then you would never have made it to the desk anyway.

As their opening hours were until 22h00, the mistake is entirely theirs so they need to issue a full refund and pay the extra cost due to the car STILL not being available on Monday. 

If you couldn't collect it Saturday, and they were closed Sunday, surely the car should have still been available? It indicates they didn't have the car in the first place.

If I am interpreting the OP correctly, the car rental desk was normally open until 22h00 but for some reason had closed early.  Assuming the car hire was arranged via Easyjet, and EJ hadn't informed the passenger of the new hours, EJ have failed to provide the service and a refund should be made.  If the car hire was a separate direct booking, it's not EJ's problem.

Jenni_D

The way I read the OP, they made the hire car booking within the same process as booking their flight. (It's an option that EJ offer, to try and drum up more business - hotel and hire car bookings). Whether that's one contract or separate contracts is another matter - I've never done it so I don't know.