Car Hire Nightmare!!!

_neil1980_

Car hire disaster!!!! 

Hello folks, so we are just back from a family holiday to France but ended up having a bit of a nightmare with our hire car. 

I originally booked our hire car through the car hire broker AutoEurope who got me a deal with Gold Car – 2 weeks rental for a total of £483.34

Our flight with Ryan Air was due to arrive into Bordeaux at 6.20pm but was delayed by just under 2 hours and arrived into Bordeaux 8.07pm. Our baggage took some time to arrive at the belt and by the time we got through customs it was after 9pm. We arrived at Gold Car to pick up our car to find the office closed at 8pm.  The phone number left on the door went straight to an answer machine. It was at this time that I double checked our hire voucher which confirmed the office only opens 8am-8pm.

We were stuck with 3 kids and no car. We managed to get a hotel nearby which cost £130 and I arrived down at the Gold Car office the next morning to pick up my hire car. At this point Gold Car informed me that the hire car contract that I had in place was effectively canceled as I had not picked up the car the previous day. They suggested I try and claim compensation from Ryanair for the delay. I spoke to AutoEurope and again they were of no help and again suggested I claim of RyanAir.

I was now stuck with no hire car and a loss of £483 from the original contract and £130 from the hotel stay. The only option I had was to try and get a new car rental for the best price I could and unfortunetly the best price I could get was £1225 from GoldCar. So I had to rent a car from them on a new contract at an extra cost of £1225.

Can anyone give me advice on where I should start to try and claim back some of my costs? Am I entitled to compensation and if so who should I contact first – AutoEurope, RyanAir, GoldCar, holiday insurance or credit card?

Apologies for the length of the post – any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

 Thanks!!

Westin

As soon and I got to 'GoldCar' in your post I knew it would be an issue.   Cheap - Goldcar = not a great experience.

"At this point Gold Car informed me that the hire car contract that I had in place was effectively cancelled as I had not picked up the car the previous day."

 - well technically correct but that just shows poor customer service from Goldcar.  If you were able to collect the car up until 8pm and then the location closed for the night, I personally would expect the car to be still available the next morning when they opened again. Could they have sorted something out for you?  Probably. Could they be bothered? It seems not, especially when they could see an opportunity to milk you for more money.  That seems the Goldcar way. Incentives to frontline staff to upgrade and sell extras or take extra money from the renter at every opportunity. Makes up for the cheap headline rental I guess. 

 "They suggested I try and claim compensation from Ryanair for the delay. I spoke to AutoEurope and again they were of no help and again suggested I claim of RyanAir."

- They just wanted you gone.  Big buck pass.  I am afraid you have no chance of getting RyanAir to cover this.

I'd perhaps try contacting Goldcar's head office and see where that gets you. Perhaps open a discussion on their social media channels.  You could also write to AutoEurope to make them aware of your experience with Goldcar but like Ryanair I don't see any come back on them.

Avoid Goldcar in the future.  I would also carefully research car rental location operating hours in the future and before booking.  Small delays can impact other elements of your travel arrangements as you unfortunately found out.

brianposter

You deal with and claim from Autoeurope because that is who you paid. The contract probably says that the contract is terminated if you fail to collect the car within 2 Hours, but that is ridiculous at an airport location - which makes it an unfair contract term.

You cannot claim for the hotel as that is a reasonable consequence of the late arrival of the plane but the extra carhire charge should be recoverable.

Good luck !

brianposter

And please  tell us how you get on.

sammynunes

This is a very common term in agent-lead hire car contracts. It usually comes with an additional caveat that you are able to inform the car hire company of your lateness which will override the T&Cs.

I'm looking at an AutoEurope Goldcar contract of my own right now and it says that the contract will be cancelled UNLESS the customer informs the hire car company or the agent.....so not unfair. 

Goldcar are fine as well. You just need to be savvy with car hire.....and avoid being the easy mark that helps them turn a profit.

brianposter

How do you inform a car hire company that you are going to be late when you are on an aeroplane?

soolin

sammynunes said:

This is a very common term in agent-lead hire car contracts. It usually comes with an additional caveat that you are able to inform the car hire company of your lateness which will override the T&Cs.

I'm looking at an AutoEurope Goldcar contract of my own right now and it says that the contract will be cancelled UNLESS the customer informs the hire car company or the agent.....so not unfair. 

Goldcar are fine as well. You just need to be savvy with car hire.....and avoid being the easy mark that helps them turn a profit.

Did you miss the bit about the plane landing at 8.07 which realistically means no access to a phone call until at least 8.15 - after the rental place had closed?

OP, I hope you manage to resolve something, but it seems unlikely your costs are recoverable. It doesn't help but I have found that some places are cheap for a reason and perhaps paying a little more for a company with a better reputation might pay off. I also think allowing little over an hour to land , collect your luggage and pick up the car was a bit optimistic.

comeandgo

brianposter said:

How do you inform a car hire company that you are going to be late when you are on an aeroplane?

You know if your flight is delayed when you are at the airport.  You probably have a mobile phone, you call them then.

thegreenone

@soolin
Which realistically means the OP should have phoned Gold/AutoEurope from the UK airport to inform them there was a delay and they were going to be late.  Same with accommodation.

OP, I do hope you get a refund.

brianposter

comeandgo said:

brianposter said:

How do you inform a car hire company that you are going to be late when you are on an aeroplane?

You know if your flight is delayed when you are at the airport.  You probably have a mobile phone, you call them then.

Many people do not have a mobile phone and many of those that do have one will not have the Goldcar number available after they have checked in.

As it stands the standard late collection clause in car hire contracts is totally senseless.

comeandgo

brianposter said:

comeandgo said:

brianposter said:

How do you inform a car hire company that you are going to be late when you are on an aeroplane?

You know if your flight is delayed when you are at the airport.  You probably have a mobile phone, you call them then.

Many people do not have a mobile phone and many of those that do have one will not have the Goldcar number available after they have checked in.

As it stands the standard late collection clause in car hire contracts is totally senseless.

I disagree.  I think the majority of people going on holiday have mobiles.  Just look at the amount of travelers that check in using mobiles.  It’s also prudent to have the phone numbers of your hotel and taxi or whatever is waiting for you to arrive at a certain time.  It’s only manners to alert them to your late arrival.