Credit Card reclaim for car rental..?

ernie-money

Hi, I'm hoping that someone wise will have something to say about this 🙏

My son went to Crete with his friend and I helped hiom find the cheapest hire car for the holiday, but he then found another, more expensive car. It was an Abarth 500 (a petrol performance car) and he argued that they would have so much more fun driving that, so it would be worth the extra money. 

When they picked the car up at the airport, they were instead given a Peugeot 208 diesel and were told that the company has never had any Abarth 500's. We tried to complain to the hire company, but with no success at all and therefore raised a claim with the credit card company instead, stating taht we were only looking for a partial refund, for the difference in cost for the car provided. The credit card company have come back and said that a car was provided and accepted, so they have declined the claim. I have tried arguing with them and said that just providing a car shouldn't be enough. What if you pay to hire a Ferrari and are provided a Skoda - is that still classed as service provided? And also, not accepting the car would have meant trying to hire a different car at the airport, for an even higher cost, so that wasn't an option, but it's a point blank no from them. I realise the rental agreement says "or similar car", but surely a diesel car, should not be classed a suitable substitute for a petrol performance car?

I'm trying to decide whether to bother with the financial ombudsman and was hoping that someone may have experience from a similar situation.

soolin

Check the advert again and any booking confirmation to see if both guarantee  the exact make and model of car. We hire cars abroad and find it’s usually by categories. We find they show an illustration of a car but that’s an illustration of a category, along the lines of ‘VW golf or similar’ , the similar being number of passengers it can hold and how many doors etc. 

If it was by category then you would need to argue that the car you expected and the car you received were in different categories.

Do check your advert and booking though as I have found some car hire companies that will guarantee you a certain car if you pay slightly more when you book for that service.