No show No refund policy

Sjp700

I booked a flight with easyJet and at the same time added a hire car.  I didn’t notice that the collection time was before the flight arrived, it must have been system generated.  I did however register with the hire company in advance in response to their email.  When I turned up at the Alamo desk I was told that the car had gone to another customer and because I was 4 hours late I was considered a no-show.  Despite arguing that the flight number was on the voucher I got no traction.

I emailed easyJet’s car hire provider CarTrawler and was told to read their terms and conditions which indicate no refund was due.  £442.97 was paid upfront 4- months earlier.

There seems to be no tolerance on a no-show.  A few minutes late for pick up and you could be considered a no show.  We did show up but just later than on the voucher.

We had paid up front so my expectation is that we reserved a car 2 weeks and at their earliest convenience they should provide another vehicle but they refused. The same car for the same 2 weeks has been paid for twice.  How can that be fair?

No other service I can think of treats customers like this.   Surely this practice must infringe consumer rights.  I would be prepared to take this to small claims court.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

born_again

If you look at it like this. If you turned up late for the flight, would you get a refund?

Voyager2002

I suggest you attempt a dummy booking and note down the information displayed and any choices that you make. On the surface, the fact that you booked a car together with a flight, with the flight number printed on the car hire voucher, suggests that the web site design was negligent. Again, since you bought a package of flight and car hire, the package that was sold to you was not fit for purpose since it included an impossible collection time. 

Sjp700

So if the website is at fault, how do I progress a claim?  

The analogy with turning up late for a plane is completely different.  The car has been booked and paid for a 2 week period.   It should be available to me anytime during that period minus any holding fee if applicable.   

The payment in advance should be sufficient to guarantee that under consumer rights?  Selling it on immediately and retaining the initial booking fee feels like robbery to mr

brianposter

The lack of control over how much can be charged for a car hire no-show is one of the most obviously missing consumer protection regulations, and the absence of any control does not reflect well on the whole industry.

If you can find some way to go carefully over how Easyjet populates their car hire pages by default you might be able to ascribe some responsibility to Easyjet but I cannot see a way to do this without booking another flight.

user1977

born_again said:

If you look at it like this. If you turned up late for the flight, would you get a refund?

That analogy works if it's a no-overbooking airline which flies with your seat empty, less so if the car hire company has swiftly found an alternative customer for your car.

NoodleDoodleMan

"It should be available to me anytime during that period minus any holding fee if applicable."

What are the care hire company T's&C's in respect of late pickup ?

Sjp700

CarTrawler terms are if you are late you are a no-show, if you didn’t contact them before the pick up time to let them know.   Late isn’t defined so in theory could be 1 minute late!

saajan_12

born_again said:

If you look at it like this. If you turned up late for the flight, would you get a refund?

How is that analogous? The OP couldn't just use half a flight once its already in the air. If they were given another later flight, they may be taking the seat which could have gone to another paying customer if OP was on time. . 

Whereas with a car hire, if the OP was on time the car would be out of use for other customers, so the company isn't losing anything by leaving it 'reserved' for OP. Provided OP comes at a time when the rental company is open and staffed, it is entirely possibly to use it half way through the booking. 

Usually with a contract if a party breaches one term, they have to recompense any loss but the rest of the contract can continue. I don't see how a term saying the whole this is lost can be seen as anything but an unfair term. 

Upsidedownandaround

Did you provide the rental company with your flight details or was it simply on the 'voucher'?

Sjp700

Flight details were on the voucher.