Letter of complaint to car hire company. CENTAURO AND AUTOEUROPE

Belenus

How late was your arrival time at Malpenso Milan airport?

Do you have any comeback from the airline in terms of delay compensation?

MyRealNameToo

Jrterror said:

Hi everyone

I am looking for advise on what to write to the car hire company that we recently attempted to use earlier in August. We were terribly let down by these companies and im formulating a letter of complaint. 

Before I do this, I want to gain a better understanding of some of the financial details how how brokers interact with the actual car hire company. 

I will try and keep the detail to a minimum for now. Im more than happy to give a more detailed account if necessary.

So, here we go!

Whilst still in the UK, through the AutoEurope web site, we booked seven days car hire, picking up from Milan Malpensa Airport and returning to the same place. The actual care hire company was CENTAURO. 

Whilst filling out the form to hire the vehicle, there was a box into which we were supposed to enter the flight details. We supplied the flight number. One would assume that this was so that they could monitor the flight and take any necessary actions.

One the day, on our way to the airport, we learned that our flight was delayed slighlty, but not enough to push us past the pick up time of the hired car. We did the who security bit and got on the plane and settled into our seats, ready to take off. As routine dictates, we were told to switch phones off etc. However, we didn't take off and we were told that we would be delayed further. At this point its vital to add that whilst we waited, permission was not given by the pilot to use our phones. Therefore we could not contact the car hire company.

Upon arriving late to our destination of Malpensa Airport, we waited for the shuttle bus that was supposed to take us to the car hire depot. It didnt arrive. I tried calling various numbers stated in the documentation provided by CENTAURO, most of which were met by no answer. Eventually I did mange to get through to someone who said that they would investigate. Whilst still in the phone to this lady, upon seeing a shuttle bus for a different company, I chased it down and asked the driver where we should be waiting for our shuttle bus. To cut that part of the story short, he very kindly offered to take us to the depot. As we pulled up to the depot, a large yard situated behind a clump of trees, I was thinking it looks to be closed. The driver hurried us out of his minibus and I tried to communicate that that it looked shut. To no avail. He instead pointed us to the gates and gestured to go to the gates. At which point he drove off. In hindsight, I should have tried and asked him to stay whilst we checked if it was indeed open. But language barriers and the haste of the situation stopped me from doing so. The hire company was closed. Another conversation with a less than helpful individual from either AutoEurope or Centauro (I cant remember who) forced us to realise that were were now in the middle of nowhere, around an hours walk from the airport and 30 miles from our hotel in Milan. And no one was going to aid us. We called for a taxi, knowing that it was going to cost a fortune. An hour later and at a cost of €99 we finally arrived at our hotel. 

I called CENTAURO the following day to not only complain, but to try and organise the pick up of a car, only to be told that we couldn't pick up a car and that the hire had been canceled. Obviously, I tried explaining that the situation was out of our control. They said, we had not contacted them to say that our flight had been delayed. I countered by saying that we couldn't contact them, phone use had been prohibited. I also asked why do they take your flight details if they are not going to use them in situations such as this. Obviously, I received no answer to this. 

They then said that because I booked through a broker, I need to take it up with them. There was the suggestion that CENTAURO had not received payment from the broker AutoEurope and that is why they had canceled the booking. I don't know how and when the transfer of funds takes place, so couldn't pursue that at the time. I called AutoEurope and they just 'washed their hands' of us.we ended writing it off and going with a different car hire company and picking up from mmilan central.  

So, a number of questions

1. When one makes a booking through a broker (in this case AutoEurope) at which point is the money transferred to the actual car hire company? (CENTAURO)

I paid AutoEurope. If my booking was canceled by CENTAURO, did they receive my payment from AutoEurope? Or have AutoEurope still got my money?

To me, (especially if CENTAURO did indeed receive my payment via AutoEurope) then that vehicle was hired for an entire week. I'd paid for a weeks hire and just because I didnt use it for one of those days, shouldn't mean that I can no longer use it. Its absurd. 

2. Why would AutoEurope at the time of booking take the flight details, if they were not going to use them to the advantage of its paying customers? If my flight had been delayed in flight, which incidentally has happened to us once before because of local thunderstorms, there would have been no way of contacting the car hire company, because phone use is prohibited in flight, and may possibly not connect anyway. Surely the car hire company should have been monitoring the flight and take the necessary steps to ensure that their valued and paying customers can pick up their vehicle without any added stress?

3. Who should I be contacting first regarding this issue. AutoEurope or CENTAURO. Or should I infect be reaching out to a third party of some description? 

Many thanks for takingbthe time to read this.

DG

1) You'd need to ask someone at AutoEurope,  no one outside will be able to read the contract. Brokers can operate in many different models and anyone sensible dealing with multiple currencies would settle things off net so if your hire was £350 but Centauro was at the same to pay a £500 refund on a cancelled arrangement then the actual flow of money would be £150 from Centro to AutoEurope so when would you argue that yours was theoretically paid over?

2) Presumably AutoEurope deal with lots of different hire car companies not all will want the same information or have the capability to ingest the same information. For example in my world, Confused.com asks how many years NCD you have on Home insurance, we as an insurer didn't operate NCD on Home insurance so whilst the customer answered the Q it wasnt passed to us because we didnt use it. 

Having the flight number is one thing second thing is what they promised to do with it... if they say you can be 1 hour late and your the last customer of the day then when they serve the penultimate customer and see your flight is now 5 hours late the chances are they will simply go home then rather than waiting to 1 hour past your slot and then leave then. 

On the flip side our preferred taxi company uses it to turn up at the right time but you still get extra bill if you are later than 2 hrs past agreed time, another firm we used to use cuts you off at 2 hours. Again both are clear in their terms. 

Phones, or at least internet, can be used on some flights and the hire car company isnt going to be googling to find out your plane, what class you are travelling in and if it does or doesnt have internet. 

3) Read your contract, deal with the firm that you are in contract with

Grumpy_chap said:

born_again said:

https://www.ecrcs.com/

Read the T/C of hire agreement. Many have a part that if you are late, then the hire is cancelled & wanting a car would be a new booking.

It does not seem fair to me that a "no show" results in the loss of value of the full reservation period.  

The OP hired the car for 7 days.
Assume £50 per day.
That's £350.

EITHER THIS:
The OP was a "no show".
The reservation (in full) was then cancelled by the hire firm.
It seems reasonable that the first day of hire cost is chargeable to the OP.
However, for the other days, the car has been released and can be hired to another customer.  Hence, the final 6 days should be refunded to the OP.

OR THIS:
The OP was a "no show".
The reservation remains valid and the car remains reserved for the OP.
The OP can collect the car on day 2 and make use of the car for the remainder of the hire period.

It seems unfair to me that the whole period of the car hire can be cancelled (day late collection not allowed) yet the whole period of car hire fee is forfeited by the consumer.  I am not the forum expert on unfair contract terms.

There are some potential complications that would detract from the simple "refund 6 of 7 days fee":

• Standard fee might be reduced for a longer booking, so it would have to be a proportion of the actual rate, or adjusted for rate had the booking been only 6 days in the first place.
• Did the OP obtained a bargain rate in return for "no cancellation".  That brings us to a complexity that was recently discussed at length (in the context of a hotel reservation) but I assume the same arguments would apply for car hire:  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6601716/non-refundable-hotel-booking-what-are-my-actual-rights/p1

Another thing to check is that the OP has actually paid for / been charged for the car hire in full.  I assume they have - paid (via CC) when making the booking.  Just worth verifying as sometimes, charges might only be taken when the booking is fulfilled.

With regard to S75, if there was no breach by the car hire firm, then there is no breach to pursue via S75.

Does the OP have travel insurance that covers their loss?

Its possible the contract is with the hire car company and so will be under Italian law so what is acceptable and not may well be very different to the UK.

The OP states it was an offsite car hire company in the middle of nowhere, what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? If they have a booth at the airport then the odds go up slightly but based on the presented facts there is a reasonable prospect no further hire would happen so why should the company have to return 6 days of hire? Do you think their finance company will allow them off 6 days of rental because the customer was a no show?

S75 wouldnt cover the transaction as we know the OP used a middleman. 

sheramber

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? If they have a booth at the airport then the odds go up slightly but based on the presented facts there is a reasonable prospect no further hire would happen so why should the company have to return 6 days of hire? Do you think their finance company will allow them off 6 days of rental because the customer was a no show?

The OP wanted to collect the car the next day but was refused . 

MyRealNameToo

sheramber said:

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? If they have a booth at the airport then the odds go up slightly but based on the presented facts there is a reasonable prospect no further hire would happen so why should the company have to return 6 days of hire? Do you think their finance company will allow them off 6 days of rental because the customer was a no show?

The OP wanted to collect the car the next day but was refused . 

Which may be questionable but if so it would likely be under Italian contract law not English. Other than knowing it's not a common law system I know very little about Italian law. 

born_again

sheramber said:

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? If they have a booth at the airport then the odds go up slightly but based on the presented facts there is a reasonable prospect no further hire would happen so why should the company have to return 6 days of hire? Do you think their finance company will allow them off 6 days of rental because the customer was a no show?

The OP wanted to collect the car the next day but was refused . 

No doubt rented to someone else.

MyRealNameToo

born_again said:

sheramber said:

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? If they have a booth at the airport then the odds go up slightly but based on the presented facts there is a reasonable prospect no further hire would happen so why should the company have to return 6 days of hire? Do you think their finance company will allow them off 6 days of rental because the customer was a no show?

The OP wanted to collect the car the next day but was refused . 

No doubt rented to someone else.

More likely the terms are said that rental was forfeit, why put extra miles on the clock, risk customer damage etc if you can legitimately refuse the request? If you can double rent it thats even better potentially but they are in the middle of nowhere with 0 notice to get a rent that has to end at or before the original (assuming its booked for another customer after given people seem to assume they must be super busy and so oversubscribed they can rent something out instantly to someone else)

Grumpy_chap

MyRealNameToo said:

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? 

born_again said:

No doubt rented to someone else.

Well, that's what I was trying to get at in my post upthread.

EITHER
the car cannot be rented to another customer, in which case the car should remain available for the OP to collect.
OR
the car is rented out to another customer for the days after the day of collection in which case the OP should get a (partial) refund.

The business should not be able to profit from the consumer's misfortune, i.e. keep the OP's money and rent the car out - that seems like an unfair contract term to me.

brianposter

Unfortunately the current standard "no show" clause in car rental contracts is completely unsatisfactory but it needs legislation to get it changed. If you were renting in the UK it might be possible to convince a court that the Centauro clause is unfair.

However in this case you would need to use the EU claims system which (curiously) is not available to non EU residents.

MyRealNameToo

Grumpy_chap said:

MyRealNameToo said:

what do you think the odds of them finding another customer that wants it for 6 days or 5 days if on day 2 etc? 

born_again said:

No doubt rented to someone else.

Well, that's what I was trying to get at in my post upthread.

EITHER
the car cannot be rented to another customer, in which case the car should remain available for the OP to collect.
OR
the car is rented out to another customer for the days after the day of collection in which case the OP should get a (partial) refund.

The business should not be able to profit from the consumer's misfortune, i.e. keep the OP's money and rent the car out - that seems like an unfair contract term to me.

But do you know the Italian contract law well enough to know if it's illegal rather than just unfair? 

There are a vast array of things that are unfair but arent illegal, many much more fundamental than a few days hire car charges. Let's be honest, hire charges which were probably selected because they were the cheapest rather than the best T&Cs or most well known firm for customer service. 

We all know this site promotes price alone rather than value but there are plenty of occasions where paying more can save you money. Back in my claims days had hundreds of people saying it wasnt fair that we declined part of their claim but just had to point out they had bought the basic policy and it would have been covered had they bought the enhanced policy. Whilst they thought it wasnt fair we declined it also wouldnt be fair to the customers that didnt skimp on cover and paid the extra if we then gave the same benefit to those that bought on price and didnt pay for the extra cover. 

brianposter

Interestingly I have found one company - Dollar (presumably Hertz) who make a fixed charge for no shows.