No show refund policy for car rental

purplehead66

We recently hired a car and pre paid the rental for five days. We were an hour late picking it up and were told that our order had been cancelled and that no refund was due to us. The company cited its T&Cs which stated that there are no refunds for no shows. Is it reasonable for them to have this clause in their conditions, after all, we had fully paid for it and should have been allowed to pick up that day? How can they justify retaining all of our payment? Furthermore, in reminder emails, no mention was made of this policy, which doesn’t seem very ethical. Is there an onus on them to remind consumers of this charge? 

eskbanker

It's not uncommon, based on various other similar threads, but which company (both hire company and booking agent if different) and location were involved?

born_again

Did you check the T/C?

I'm guessing this is a european hire co?

https://www.ecrcs.com/

purplehead66

The booking agent is Holiday Autos and the local company in Italy is Noleggiare. They are both in a blame game as to whose fault it is and why it was cancelled. What I’d like to understand is their justification and right for retaining all of the money - it would’ve been more acceptable if it was an admin fee, but they have totally profited from our entire pre payment. Also, is there an obligation on them to alert us to no show, no refund policy in emails reminding us to pick up the car on time. 

purplehead66

Yes, we read the t&c’s briefly months ago at the time of booking but like most consumers didn’t refer back to it. For something as critical as not refunding any of the money, I would have thought there would be an obligation to remind us of this no refund policy. We were only an hour late. 

pinkshoes

1 hour late isn't a no show. Quite normal with traffic, especially if you don't know the area!

If their T&Cs didn't state the time frame you needed to arrive in and made it clear you would lose all your money then this would be an unfair T&C.

How did you pay? 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

purplehead66 said:

How can they justify retaining all of our payment?

Generally speaking under UK law they can't, have you checked the T&Cs to see what law is governing the agreement OP? 

RefluentBeans

pinkshoes said:

1 hour late isn't a no show. Quite normal with traffic, especially if you don't know the area!

If their T&Cs didn't state the time frame you needed to arrive in and made it clear you would lose all your money then this would be an unfair T&C.

How did you pay? 

Their terms are messy, but it is clear in Noleggiare‘a terms:

Noleggiare undertakes to honour bookings that are accepted if customers arrive at the desk at the confirmed date and time, with a maximum tolerance of 1 hour. In the event of a customer arriving beyond the agreed period of tolerance, Noleggiare will no longer be required to deliver the vehicle.

Preceded in the previous paragraph by:

Sums paid online for rentals will not be reimbursable in the event of booking cancellations being made less than 48 hours prior to the agreed collection time, or in the case of a booking with collection time in the 48 hours following the request, or in the event of a “no show” (failure by the Customer to collect a vehicle at the agreed pick-up date/time), or in the event of access requirements for rental not being satisfied. 

Holiday Autos have a more flexible policy:

If you make a booking but do not pick-up/use the Transportation (and have not cancelled such booking in accordance with the cancellation policy set out below), no refund will be given.

Please be advised that in the event that you expect to arrive late to pick-up/avail of the booked Transportation it is your responsibility to contact the Transportation Supplier to inform them.

So assuming OP contacted the OP told them they running late, the agent should be refunding, and sorting the mess out with the Italian car company.  

I also would say that 1 hour after the booking is late. When you are given a collection time, it’s on you to turn up at that time. If this was 15 minutes then yes, some grace period. But an hour after the time is late. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RefluentBeans said:

pinkshoes said:

1 hour late isn't a no show. Quite normal with traffic, especially if you don't know the area!

If their T&Cs didn't state the time frame you needed to arrive in and made it clear you would lose all your money then this would be an unfair T&C.

How did you pay? 

Their terms are messy, but it is clear in Noleggiare‘a terms:

Noleggiare undertakes to honour bookings that are accepted if customers arrive at the desk at the confirmed date and time, with a maximum tolerance of 1 hour. In the event of a customer arriving beyond the agreed period of tolerance, Noleggiare will no longer be required to deliver the vehicle.

Preceded in the previous paragraph by:

Sums paid online for rentals will not be reimbursable in the event of booking cancellations being made less than 48 hours prior to the agreed collection time, or in the case of a booking with collection time in the 48 hours following the request, or in the event of a “no show” (failure by the Customer to collect a vehicle at the agreed pick-up date/time), or in the event of access requirements for rental not being satisfied. 

Seems they want to have their cake and eat it, no refunds after 48 hours would imply they need longer than 48 hours to find another customer but then be 65 minutes late and what, they've rented the car to someone else? 

Noleggiare says governed by Italian laws and the EU appears to have a Directive (Unfair Contract Terms Directive) with the same situations as the CRA including

(d)permitting the seller or supplier to retain sums paid by the consumer where the latter decides not to conclude or perform the contract, without providing for the consumer to receive compensation of an equivalent amount from the seller or supplier where the latter is the party cancelling the contract;

(e)requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation;

But of course that would depend upon interpretation which has been given as guidance here by the CMA and by the time you find what the EU think and try and enforce that through an Italian court I doubt it's worth the trouble. 

RefluentBeans said:

Holiday Autos have a more flexible policy:

If you make a booking but do not pick-up/use the Transportation (and have not cancelled such booking in accordance with the cancellation policy set out below), no refund will be given.

Please be advised that in the event that you expect to arrive late to pick-up/avail of the booked Transportation it is your responsibility to contact the Transportation Supplier to inform them.

This is likely unfair as well but again governed by the laws of Ireland to back so the above.

Pretty shady way of doing business but hey in an environment where travel is often delayed why not impose a tight timeframe and then keep the money for nothing

Grumpy_chap

pinkshoes said:

1 hour late isn't a no show. Quite normal with traffic, especially if you don't know the area!

RefluentBeans said:

I also would say that 1 hour after the booking is late. When you are given a collection time, it’s on you to turn up at that time. If this was 15 minutes then yes, some grace period. But an hour after the time is late. 

I would agree with @pinkshoes and not with @RefluentBeans
I think the 1 hour in the terms is unreasonable.

It is a car hire booking for a week.
The OP has travelled to their holiday destination and all sorts of factors could delay things totally outside the OP's control and it is quite plausible that the OP may not be in a position to make contact with the hire company at the time the delay becomes apparent.
There is an element at which time of day makes a difference - if a car is booked for collection 30 minutes before the hire depot closes, then an hour is significant.  Outside of that, it really makes no difference to the hire company.
Even in that case of arrival after the collection point closed, the car has been paid for and should remain available for the remainder of the hire period if the OP turns up the following day.
Obviously, arriving late may mean that the depot staff have a glut of people collecting at the same time so the OP may have a bit longer delay than collection at the scheduled hour but I have never experienced a car hire company operate such precise processes.
The matter of the collection point closing may be moot if this is an airport or similar site all set up for 24-hour collection and drop-off.

Given the car is fully paid for in advance for the week, it really should make no difference when the car is collected in that period.  Maybe the OP wanted to pay for a car to sat parked in a compound.

What would be reasonable would be if the car is collected late there is no refund for the lost time, but the remainder of the time should still be available to take advantage of.

RefluentBeans

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

RefluentBeans said:

pinkshoes said:

1 hour late isn't a no show. Quite normal with traffic, especially if you don't know the area!

If their T&Cs didn't state the time frame you needed to arrive in and made it clear you would lose all your money then this would be an unfair T&C.

How did you pay? 

Their terms are messy, but it is clear in Noleggiare‘a terms:

Noleggiare undertakes to honour bookings that are accepted if customers arrive at the desk at the confirmed date and time, with a maximum tolerance of 1 hour. In the event of a customer arriving beyond the agreed period of tolerance, Noleggiare will no longer be required to deliver the vehicle.

Preceded in the previous paragraph by:

Sums paid online for rentals will not be reimbursable in the event of booking cancellations being made less than 48 hours prior to the agreed collection time, or in the case of a booking with collection time in the 48 hours following the request, or in the event of a “no show” (failure by the Customer to collect a vehicle at the agreed pick-up date/time), or in the event of access requirements for rental not being satisfied. 

Seems they want to have their cake and eat it, no refunds after 48 hours would imply they need longer than 48 hours to find another customer but then be 65 minutes late and what, they've rented the car to someone else? 

Noleggiare says governed by Italian laws and the EU appears to have a Directive (Unfair Contract Terms Directive) with the same situations as the CRA including

(d)permitting the seller or supplier to retain sums paid by the consumer where the latter decides not to conclude or perform the contract, without providing for the consumer to receive compensation of an equivalent amount from the seller or supplier where the latter is the party cancelling the contract;

(e)requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation;

But of course that would depend upon interpretation which has been given as guidance here by the CMA and by the time you find what the EU think and try and enforce that through an Italian court I doubt it's worth the trouble. 

RefluentBeans said:

Holiday Autos have a more flexible policy:

If you make a booking but do not pick-up/use the Transportation (and have not cancelled such booking in accordance with the cancellation policy set out below), no refund will be given.

Please be advised that in the event that you expect to arrive late to pick-up/avail of the booked Transportation it is your responsibility to contact the Transportation Supplier to inform them.

This is likely unfair as well but again governed by the laws of Ireland to back so the above.

Pretty shady way of doing business but hey in an environment where travel is often delayed why not impose a tight timeframe and then keep the money for nothing

Oh I 100% agree - I think there should be more than 1 hour grace in things like this (like you said with the new city, new bearings etc). 

A quick Google shows that this isn’t the only time that Holiday Autos have pulled this trick. As you say - basing your company in a different jurisdiction puts off a lot of people from pursuing a lawsuit. 

If paid in credit card - is there any travel protection from those regs? I’m not sure with credit cards regs?