Car Hire Nightmare!!!

brianposter

Most people probably pick up their car without a problem but the law is there to cover matters when things go wrong. It is quite ridiculous that a car hire company should be able to pocket hundreds or thousands of pounds as a consequence of a chance event that has cost them nothing.

brianposter

"The phone number left on the door went straight to an answer machine."

And re-reading the original post it sounds like the OP did comply with the relevant contract term, and should therefore have a good read of the "Consumer Protection from unfair trading act" before taking further action. .

thegreenone

OP, I think you should write to AutoEurope and press the point that the original 1 hour 40 minutes timescale to disembark, collect luggage, round up 'little monkeys' ( ) and, if you landed at Billi, walk to the terminal* where the car hire desks are and do all paperwork before 8pm was pushing it in the first place.  @soolin said similar above.

There is very little, if any, factor for delayed arrival.

*I will add that I've never been to Bordeaux airport just googled, so if anyone has been and would like to step in, please do.

brianposter

Looking at the Goldcar T&Cs for France I can see no mention of late collection.

On that basis it appears that the OP has fully complied with the relevant requirements and should be going for 3 X £1225 compensation.

sammynunes

brianposter - the relevant T&Cs are not the Goldcar one's but the Auto Europe ones and if you read them you will realise that you are falsely raising the hopes of the OP as to their rights to a refund.

The contracts are quite clear about the 2 hour limit and it's a fairly standard thing to state. If the OP had been in a situation where they were unable to contact the company due to being on a plane then it may be different but I cannot see how they could not have foreseen the delay BEFORE they boarded the plane in the UK. Phoning when they were already late does not absolve them from their contract terms especially when they were outside office hours.

This system DOES work if you follow the instructions of the voucher. We were 25 minutes late last Sept. for a pickup at an office which closed in Madrid at 8pm. We ended up being stuck in a passport queue....we phoned the agent (coincidentally Auto Europe) and they arranged for the office to stay open until we got there. There was no out-of-hours fee either.

brianposter

You are quite correct that both Autoeuropes and Goldcars T & Cs are relevant, but I repeat that the blanket 2 hour condition is nonsense. There are plenty of examples of people who are simply unable to comply with that condition - perhaps the most obvious is when a plane gets diverted.

The Hertz rep. at Prestwick once waited an hour for me having deduced which plane I was likely to arrive on.

In this particular case the OP apparently attempted to use the telephone within the 2 hour window and I suspect that that would be good enough to convince a court that he complied with the T & Cs. As I have said the OP should read the regulations carefully and probably claim for 3 X £1225.

I have not said that that is what he will get.

brianposter

sammynunes said:

brianposter - the relevant T&Cs are not the Goldcar one's but the Auto Europe ones and if you read them you will realise that you are falsely raising the hopes of the OP as to their rights to a refund.

You also highlight an interesting point. The OP describes Autoeurope as a broker but somehow it is the Autoeurope T & Cs which are most relevant.

In reality A-E operates more like a principal in the deal and the OP would have to be careful with his language if he makes a claim.

Westin

This might all be mute.

The OP logged back on on 15 July and presumably read the first two posted remarks but didn’t comment further. They haven’t been back to MSE since.

_neil1980_

Thanks for all your help/advice/comments.

Just to keep you all posted AutoEurope have taken up the case and are speaking to GoldCar on my behalf. They have said they cannot do anything about the direct hire agreement that i ended up having with Gold Car but hope i can get back the cost of the original booking.

I will keep you posted on the outcome.

brianposter

It will be clear that I would find this response unacceptable (and I am a regular user of Autoeurope). In the meantime two questions.

Did you inform A-E of your flight number ?

What time was your scheduled pick-up ?