Europcar charges

brianposter

Sorry Tightauldgit, I read your opinion as nonsense. Car hire collection times are not precise and the T and C"s usually say that within 2 hours is good enough.

Not answering the phone when necessary does constitute a breach of contract, and you are also wrong about the legal effects of breaching a contract.

The important thing is that the OP rang the correct phone number, or alternatively that the OP had no reason to suppose that the office would close at 5pm..

tightauldgit

brianposter said:

Sorry Tightauldgit, I read your opinion as nonsense. Car hire collection times are not precise and the T and C"s usually say that within 2 hours is good enough.

Not answering the phone when necessary does constitute a breach of contract, and you are also wrong about the legal effects of breaching a contract.

The important thing is that the OP rang the correct phone number, or alternatively that the OP had no reason to suppose that the office would close at 5pm..

Well you can read my opinion as nonsense if you want but just asserting things to be different doesn't really make it so, does it?

Yes some car hire contracts have (discretionary) leeway built into them. Does this one? And in any case, it doesn't change the fact of the opening hours of the branch which also form part of the contract. By not coming at 4.30pm as agreed the poster was already in breach in any case. 

Not answering the phone does not constitute a breach of contract on it's own. Try it, phone up your broadband provider customer services, wait for 10 minutes on hold then email them and say since they didn't answer the phone you consider them in breach of the contract. See how long the shrift they give you is. 

I'm willing to bet my house there is NOTHING in the terms of the rental contract saying that they will answer the phone to help you within X minutes. 

Yes, an important point would be whether the poster was told the office would close at 5pm when they booked. Which I said in my very first response to them. If they were told otherwise then that would certainly make their case a lot stronger which is why they should be checking what they were told by Europcar and what they agreed to in the terms that they signed up to. Not what some random on the internet speculates they might have agreed to. 

For sure a random note in a window after the event isn't part of that contract that they signed up to unless it relates to something that was in the agreed contract. So for example if the contract said service would be available until 6 and that note indicated that the service was obtained by the number and the number was unavailable after 5 THEN you'd potentially have a breach. 

What matters are the actual terms. So for example we can get from the Europcar website: 

8.3 Flight / Train delay

At airport and railway rental stations, the reservation is guaranteed for one (1) hour after the actual flight/train arrival time if the reservation has been quoted with a flight or train number.

In the event of a flight/train delay beyond the guaranteed period, we serve up to 1h after the actual time of arrival, and at some airport /railway rental stations may remain open up to a maximum of 2 hours after the normal closing time. In such a case, an after-hours charge may apply.  

So you can see 2 things there, first have they provided the train number as part of the booking? if so it would seem that Europcar should have waited for an hour (provided these terms are what the poster agreed to) and it would appear they haven't. Second the use of the word 'may' suggests that anything beyond an hour is discretionary 

ETA: Reading that term it would also strongly imply that if you HAVEN'T given them your train number as part of the booking then they would close on time  and you would have no comeback. 

brianposter

There seem to be 2 OPs on this thread and neither of them have displayed much interest in the replies. It doesn"t seem to be worth further argument unless one of them reappears.