Trip.com car hire - saving reduced by 'late' pickup

herefordianaccent1

The car hire company giveth then taketh away! 

This is my first (rather long I know) posting, but I am pretty incensed by an injustice and would love some advice from forum members on potential next steps please.

If this post is too drawn out to contemplate, here are the headline findings:

- Do book refundable car hire;

- Check rates again before travelling in case of (dramatic) price reductions; BUT

- get the pick up time right to avoid (unjust imho) penalties!

Here we go for those hardy souls still with me:

 I booked car hire for an Italy trip about a month before travelling, this was extortionately expensive imho (£600 for the smallest car for a week), but I took good advice here on MSE and booked free cancellation just in case of any change in circumstances.

I checked prices again about a week before travel using Skyscanner and, miraculously, found a car for £300 through Trip.com (whom I'd not heard of before).

I booked and cancelled the more expensive booking. So far so good...

In my haste to book this saving of the century (for me anyway), I estimated the pick up time for the car...big mistake.

I estimated a 10:00hrs pick up but, on checking later, we didn't land until 11:40hrs so an estimated pickup time of 12:00hrs was more reasonable.

With still 6 days to go until travel I started the laborious process of amending the pick up time. First with Trip.com, who told me to contact the car hire provider in Italy, OK Mobility. They didn't respond to my emails in good time so I went back to Trip who, after some wrangling told me the car time pick was changed to 12:00hrs.

The Trip.com confirmation told me that the car pick up location at Pisa airport was within "walking distance" of arrivals. It was actually walking distance to a shuttle which only ran every 20 mins.

On final arrival at the OK Mobility car pick up desk at 12:04hrs (yep, FOUR minutes later than estimated) we were told our booked car was no longer available and that we'd have to pay 144 euros for an upgrade!

We argued the toss about this for a while but with two irritated kids in tow (one of which needed the loo on arrival at the car pick up location causing the crucial 4 minute delay!), we had no choice but to acquiesce, pay up and take it up with Trip.com by email.

At this point it's worth adding that, to add insult to injury, the involuntary upgrade on the Ok Mobility invoice was referred to as "upselling"!! The galling dictionary definition for this is "persuade a customer to buy something additional or more expensive."

Trip.com refuse to accept any liability at all for wrongly advising us to "change the pick up time with the provider", or that they wrongly state that the pick up location is in walking distance (which affected how long in took to collect the car). They have steadfastly refused to refund the additional 144 euros we were charged.

I know that, in the great scheme of things, that this rental is still £150 cheaper than my original booking, even with the 'tax' on being four minutes late, but it's the principal that's a big thing here (as well as the money of course).

I've now sent five emails to Trip.com laying out my stall but each has been batted back as being my fault and there's nothing they can do.

I'm not sure where I can go from here but would welcome any sage advice from more experienced forum members please?

Thanks very much.

brianposter

Presumably you paid by credit card ?

eDicky

herefordianacce kont1 said:

The Trip.com confirmation told me that the car pick up location at Pisa airport was within "walking distance" of arrivals. It was actually walking distance to a shuttle which only ran every 20 mins.

I've walked many times from the terminal to the car hire building, even towing a suitcase, it takes no more than five minutes. The shuttle is only useful if you have a lot of luggage.

onashoestring

 It’s not an uncommon tactic of car hire companies to try to upsell you a car of a higher category on collection either by trying to entice you to upgrade or by telling you that the car you paid for is not available.

 This has happened to us on numerous occasions, in Italy and in USA. If you encounter this you have to stand your ground and insist that you have paid for a car and they should honour the deal .
In our experience once they realised that we were not going to capitulate and pay anymore - the car we specified miraculously appeared or we were given a car of a higher spec for no extra charge . 

Using a third party -( Trip.com )always makes getting any kind of refund difficult . However I think it is irrelevant in this case since you agreed to pay the extra amount . So it will be you word against theirs that you were forced or pressured into it . 

herefordianaccent1

I did yes but, after booking, realised that Trip.com is a Chinese company. I have no idea if that has a bearing on consumer rights or not but I suspect it might. Also, trip.com seems to be aligned in some way with Skyscanner, which is presumably why they popped up as the number one choice when I used Skyscanner for options.

brianposter

The rational assumption would be that Trip.com failed to inform the car provider of the changed pick-up time, which would make them liable for the extra cost. However it looks unlikely that you could take Trip.com to court so you need - apologetically -  to take the matter up with your credit card provider.

The most important evidence is copies of your emails and particularly whatever Trip.com sent to confirm acceptance of the changed time. Forget about the distance to the pick-up.

herefordianaccent1

brianposter said:

The rational assumption would be that Trip.com failed to inform the car provider of the changed pick-up time, which would make them liable for the extra cost. However it looks unlikely that you could take Trip.com to court so you need - apologetically -  to take the matter up with your credit card provider.

The most important evidence is copies of your emails and particularly whatever Trip.com sent to confirm acceptance of the changed time. Forget about the distance to the pick-up.

Ok thanks, I will do that. I think you are right, had Trip changed the pick up time to 12:00hrs we would have had a bit of leeway but, as they didn't, we were left with the two hour buffer period from the original booking and were 4 mins passed this time. I'm not completely without blame as I should have booked the right time in the first place but I did spend a week trying to sort that out! Thanks for your help.

herefordianaccent1

Update from Trip.com (spelling/grammar issues not mine):

"As we verify with supplier, the 144EUR is upgrade fee but not late picket up fee. In this booking, you original pick up time is 2022-08-09 10:00 but due to the fight delay, you have request to pick up the car on 12:00, then car rental store extend to pick up time to 12:00, but you have still late to pick up the car. 

Due to the late pick up, the original car was rented out, so the car rental store have provide you a better SUV; However there is no extra charge for late arrival. 144 euros is not a late arrival fee, but an upgrade fee (upselling).

We are sorry about this unpleasant experience . If I were in your position, I would feel the same way. This issue was due to reasons beyond our control, however we'd like to do our best to provide the best possible level of service. We would like to offer you 25 GBP goodwill gesture as we value you as our Trip.com customer. Your understanding is highly appreciated and please simply reply to this email to confirm if you accept the compensation"

My view is that they didn't change the pick up time with the rental company even though I'd been trying to do this for a week.

A £25 brush off is better than nothing but I really don't think I should have been charged the 'upselling' 144 euros. Also, I find it difficult to believe that they rented out the car I had ordered and had to 'upsell' a bigger one to me in four minutes! When we arrived at the counter there were no other punters there and the staff were not dealing with other customers.

brianposter

herefordianaccent1 said:

Update from Trip.com (spelling/grammar issues not mine):

"As we verify with supplier, the 144EUR is upgrade fee but not late picket up fee. In this booking, you original pick up time is 2022-08-09 10:00 but due to the fight delay, you have request to pick up the car on 12:00, then car rental store extend to pick up time to 12:00, but you have still late to pick up the car. 

Due to the late pick up, the original car was rented out, so the car rental store have provide you a better SUV; However there is no extra charge for late arrival. 144 euros is not a late arrival fee, but an upgrade fee (upselling).

We are sorry about this unpleasant experience . If I were in your position, I would feel the same way. This issue was due to reasons beyond our control, however we'd like to do our best to provide the best possible level of service. We would like to offer you 25 GBP goodwill gesture as we value you as our Trip.com customer. Your understanding is highly appreciated and please simply reply to this email to confirm if you accept the compensation"

My view is that they didn't change the pick up time with the rental company even though I'd been trying to do this for a week.

A £25 brush off is better than nothing but I really don't think I should have been charged the 'upselling' 144 euros. Also, I find it difficult to believe that they rented out the car I had ordered and had to 'upsell' a bigger one to me in four minutes! When we arrived at the counter there were no other punters there and the staff were not dealing with other customers.

The fact that they do not have a suitable car is their problem, not yours. 4 minutes late at an airport is not late in legal terms.

Perhaps I should add that the fact that you signed for an upgrade is irrelevant. Once things have gone wrong you are expected to mitigate your loss, and signing for an upgrade is a perfectly acceptable means of doing so.

herefordianaccent1

Trip.com have now offered to pay half the amount I have been overcharged 'as a gesture of good will'. I have not accepted this as I do feel I should be entitled to a full refund for the 'upselling'. I have initiated a section 75 as per the advice (thanks) and will see where that gets me. It might be difficult as I used a broker to hire the car and was charged extra by the rental company because the broker didn't change the pick up time. This means that the broker is at fault but the rental company charged me so would be chased for the refund. Needless to say,  I will not be using a broker again!