My car hire woes (Enterprise France)

cpennington87

I think I've got an extremely egregious example of a car hire company (Enterprise France) pushing the boundaries with the Ts and Cs, and wondered if anyone has any thoughts on how to proceed.

I'll summarise;

• Pre-paid car hire for 7 days, cost £435.
• Flight delay 1 hour 3 minutes.
• Arrived at Enterprise Marseille 44 minutes late; it was past 10pm at this point, but the branch not closed and other customers were being served.
• Told me there was no car.
• Told me they tried to ring me at a time when they couldn't have known I would be delayed, while in the air. I couldn't answer the call.
• Told me that I wouldn't be charged.
• On this basis, I left the premises and rented another vehicle from Sixt for a similar amount of money.
• Two days later, the pending charge on the credit card goes through and the whole amount taken.
• Submitted complaint to Enterprise customer services.
• After to-and-fro, the final outcome is that the car hire was terminated and money was taken in line with T&C, and they suggest claiming against travel insurance.
• I have asked for phone records and CCTV from the branch to prove what was said, and I have been fobbed off by their customer services at every opportunity, telling me to claim on my travel insurance.
• I have contested the amount on my credit card under the Consumer Credit Act.
• I have described the case to the European Car Hire Ombudsman, and am yet to get a reply.

My questions are;

• What are the 'industry standards' on delayed flights? I would have expected a 1 hour delay to be quite reasonable. I have confirmed on the phone that they consider 1 minute as a delay, and they claim the right to cancel the booking. I would expect them to tell me that a vehicle would be available the next day.
• Why was I charged for the whole rental period, and not an administration fee or a 1 day hire? This seems very unfair, and puts people with long bookings, perhaps families, in a vulnerable position.
• Are pre-paid customers disadvantaged here? What are the benefits of pre-paying, if it puts the ball in their court with no advantage to me. The prices did not seem to be any cheaper depending on when I paid.
• How are cancellations decided? There were people behind me in the queue, on the same flight as me, getting their cars after me.
• Do I have a case to pursue with the fact they rang me before they knew I was delayed? I have demanded the call record from Enterprise, and my request has been refused.
• Do I have a case to pursue with the fact they told me I wouldn't be charged, at the time when my charge was pending? I have demanded the CCTV to prove they said this to me, and my request has been refused.

I am utterly outraged that Enterprise France think they can get away with this.

I fortunately don't 'need' the money, and I have good travel insurance that will pay out, but the very principle of how they have gone about this is absolutely scandalous.

I'm willing to put a lot of time and effort into proving that I have done nothing wrong here, and Enterprise France has acted unlawfully.

Thanks for your help, everyone!

RefluentBeans

Welcome to the forum. 

Firstly, I will caveat by saying there are no UK consumer rights associated with this transaction - it's a French outfit, governed by French laws. I am not familiar with French consumer rights so unable to go off that.

Based on the 'Pay Now' terms and conditions - if the car was collected from Marseille airport, then the following terms apply:

For airport bookings - If you have included a flight number with your booking, a vehicle will be held until the flight has landed and cleared. If a flight delay results in your arrival after the branch closing time, a staff member will wait for the flight to land and clear. If the delay is in excess of 1 hour after the branch closing time, an out of hours fee may apply. If you have not included a flight number with your booking, we will hold a vehicle for a period of up to 2 hours after your specified pick up time or until branch closing time, whichever is earlier.
If you arrive at the rental branch 1 day or more before the date shown on the booking, we may not have a selected vehicle available. The rental branch will honour your booking subject to the availability of the selected vehicle.
If you fail to collect a vehicle on the specified pick-up date or if a vehicle was unavailable due to your late arrival as provided above, you will not receive a refund of your booking.

So - if you put a flight number in, then the vehicle should've been held until you landed and cleared. A rep should've also stayed until you arrived. The website says Marseille closes at 9:00pm (local time) so if you arrived at past 10:00pm (local time) then you may have been charged an out-of-hours fee. 

However, if you didn't enter a flight number then they are only obliged to hold your vehicle until closing time (9:00pm). Also states that if you turn up late (past the time that they said they would hold the car for), you wouldn't be able to get a refund. 

From their T/C it looks pretty certain that unless a flight number was included in the booking they followed the protocol. If you did include a flight booking then they didn't act according to their T/C, and you should get a refund (and potentially any difference in price between what you paid them and what you had to pay to rectify the solution).

To answer your questions (to the best of my ability)

• What are the 'industry standards' on delayed flights? I would have expected a 1 hour delay to be quite reasonable. I have confirmed on the phone that they consider 1 minute as a delay, and they claim the right to cancel the booking. I would expect them to tell me that a vehicle would be available the next day.

If you included the flight number at booking they should've held the car; if not they hold the car for 2hrs or until closing time (whichever is shorter). You arrived after the official closing time, and thus they are in their rights to give car to another person (if you didn't provide a flight number). 

• Why was I charged for the whole rental period, and not an administration fee or a 1 day hire? This seems very unfair, and puts people with long bookings, perhaps families, in a vulnerable position.

Not sure where you got the idea of a 1-day-hire admin fee - not in the terms and conditions. I agree, long booking customers are at a disadvantage, but more than likey get a discounted daily rate. 

• Are pre-paid customers disadvantaged here? What are the benefits of pre-paying, if it puts the ball in their court with no advantage to me. The prices did not seem to be any cheaper depending on when I paid.

Benefits are that you are guaranteed a car, but not if you turn up late (from their T/C). 

• How are cancellations decided? There were people behind me in the queue, on the same flight as me, getting their cars after me.

If you didn't put your flight number in, they may have given the car after closing time to someone. If the other passengers put their flight numbers in, they are reserved. 

• Do I have a case to pursue with the fact they rang me before they knew I was delayed? I have demanded the call record from Enterprise, and my request has been refused.

Can ask for it - but a call is not required before they deem you late. So even if a call didn't occur, they are still within their T/C.

• Do I have a case to pursue with the fact they told me I wouldn't be charged, at the time when my charge was pending? I have demanded the CCTV to prove they said this to me, and my request has been refused

This is your best bet if you didn't provide a flight number. It provides you negotiating power. But the CCTV probably doesn't have audio. You can request the CCTV of you in it via a SAR under GDPR, but they could just blur the persons face and/or beep everything they say to you. 

FWIW - I agree that the terms seem anti-consumer. And there may be French laws that support your case, but I wouldn't be able to provide any info on them. 

Tl;dr:

• If you provided your flight number with booking - then they acting in the wrong. You are entitled to a refund (and potentially additional costs if the other booking was more expensive to match the costs) as they breached their contract. 
• If you didn't - I'm afraid they acted according to their T/C. You can try and use what the guy at the desk said to you about not being charged. But I doubt you'll get the CCTV. 

Okell

@cpennington87 -  so as above.  If you provided your flight number with the booking it looks as if they should have held the car for you.

If you've already started a s75 claim against your credit card provider make sure you supply them with the analysis above from @RefluentBeans.

born_again

https://www.ecrcs.com/

Good place to dispute the transaction. As they make a binding decision to the hire co.

S75 is going to rely on their T/C for the booking that you will need to supply.