Enterprise Car Rental - Charging more than agreed onto CC

SpanglyTrews

Hi all,

I have a long and painful story where we hired a car from Enterprise in Nice (France) using a company code which gave us a discounted rate. On collection, the local team weren't happy about the rate and wanted to charge us full price. We held firm. Eventually we signed the contract with the discounted price and included a €200 refundable deposit, paid on Barclaycard. All fine and dandy. I could see the charge on my CC online statement.

We returned the car and around 5 days later I saw an additional charge to my CC - this being the difference between our discounted rate and the full price. After a period of time, this charge disappeared, and instead the original charge CHANGED VALUE to the full price they had wanted to charge. Needless to say we did not agree this.

Enterprise Car Rental never reply to anyone. We contested with Barclaycard. After many many months without any word they (Barclaycard) have advised the charge cannot be contested as the contract was an estimate not actual charges. Given we had a fixed charge per day for the car, returned it with expected amount of fuel, no damage etc - surely this cannot be right? They can't just change the charges unilaterally on a contract we've signed?

Barclaycard are effectively saying case closed. Enterprise don't speak to us (but would say the same thing they've said to Barclaycard I am sure). We are beyond livid. Can we go to the ombudsman, or what else does anyone suggest?? The cost difference is ~£350 so not a small amount.

Many thanks for your help!!

Alderbank

Hire car is an estimate and not actual charge at time of booking because they cannot calculate the total price until the car has been returned and they have checked for any damage and whether the amount of fuel actually is as expected.

Aylesbury_Duck

Your only option is to sue them, but if your contract is with a French-registered entity, you'll need to understand some French consumer law and what the process is for legal action.

You're fortunate they let you hire the car in the end. With the dispute over the price, they could simply have sent you away to look elsewhere.

Alderbank

SpanglyTrews said:

We are beyond livid. Can we go to the ombudsman, or what else does anyone suggest?? The cost difference is ~£350 so not a small amount.

Many thanks for your help!!

Yes you can.
The one for car hire is the Médiateur du Conseil national des professions de l'automobile,

50 Rue Rouget de Lisle,
92158 Suresnes Cedex.
 (mediateur-cnpa.fr)

Enterprise subscribe to and are bound by this ombudsman

SpanglyTrews

Thanks for your replies! I do understand that they can charge more due to unexpected things such as damage or fuel - however the contract we had with them states €31.82 hire charge per day whilst they've come back to Barclaycard stating a charge of €76.57 per day. Surely they can't just arbitrarily change this fixed cost which was contracted? 

Aylesbury_Duck

SpanglyTrews said:

Thanks for your replies! I do understand that they can charge more due to unexpected things such as damage or fuel - however the contract we had with them states €31.82 hire charge per day whilst they've come back to Barclaycard stating a charge of €76.57 per day. Surely they can't just arbitrarily change this fixed cost which was contracted? 

Without seeing the contract, or knowing about French consumer law, I doubt anyone can answer that.

born_again

You could try this group, which offer a binding agreement on car hire disputes

https://www.ecrcs.com/

Ectophile

SpanglyTrews said:

Hi all,

Barclaycard are effectively saying case closed. Enterprise don't speak to us (but would say the same thing they've said to Barclaycard I am sure). We are beyond livid. Can we go to the ombudsman, or what else does anyone suggest?? The cost difference is ~£350 so not a small amount.

You would start off by making a formal complaint to Barclaycard.  If they cannot resolve the complaint, then you can go to the ombudsman.