Hire car additional charges

Mutley99

Hi
Has anyone else experienced unexpected "additional Charges" after they have returned the hire car?
We had previously booked a manual on site at Gatwick airport but on arrival, decided to take the hit and upgraded to an automatic. We were told it would cost an extra £20 p.d for our 9 day hire. (Totaling £180) . On returning home I was checking our credit card statement and found that we have been charged £278.63.
The hire car company insist that we would have been told about the "additional charges" but we most certainly were not, as we wouldn't have upgraded had we known. I finally obtained a breakdown foe the extra costs, which are for Premium Station Surcharge and Licence and Fees.
???
Unfortunately. There is a scribbled total on one of the three documents signed by my husband so legally, we probably don't have a leg to stand on but I am very keen to know if this has happened to anyone else. We often hire a car but have never experienced this extra charging before. Thanks.    

amanda1024

I’ve twice been charged an extra charge but this was because they claimed I’d returned the car late so they were charging for the extra day. In both cases I was able to get a refund, but the second time it took quite a lot of back and forth to persuade them.

In one case the extra charge was a certain amount for the daily charge, plus extra percentages of this for an ‘airport fee’ (which I think applies to all goods/services within the airport) and a ‘LAF road fee’ (for the costs if operating a car in Switzerland, apparently), as well as VAT.

It sounds like the £20 they quoted you didn’t include these sorts of automatic percentages - but you’re probably stuck in a bit of your word against theirs.

mexican_dave

My experience of car hire anywhere is be alert, if they want to "upgrade" your car it should be free, possibly offered because they hadn't got the car you ordered. Instead they pulled a fast one, and with their fingers crossed, asked if YOU wanted an upgrade - result gotcha!
Car hire is murky business, full of dodgy practice, even from the big names, does it arrise from a franchising model I wonder? I don't know.