Higher car charge row

Check terms and conditions carefully to avoid paying more for motor rentals

Financial worries or just looking for better value for money? Consumer champion Fergus Muirhead can help

QI ENJOY reading your column every week but almost fell off my chair when seeing your latest article as I was just about to contact you regarding a matter with worryingly similar details. My wife and I recently travelled to Mallorca, arriving on Saturday, September 8 for a two-week break. Prior to arriving I had booked and pre-paid £456.35 for a vehicle with Europcar, which was meant to be a “guaranteed car choice”. On arrival at Palma airport, the member of staff at the Europcar desk told us that the car I had booked was not available but they could offer us another vehicle instead. At no time was it intimated that this would cost us any more money and we accepted this as the vehicle we drove away was slightly bigger that the one we had pre-booked. At no time did I agree to pay any more money or believe that the vehicle was anything other than a courtesy upgrade due to their inability to provide the agreed vehicle. As with all foreign hire car I was obliged to give my credit card details to cover any excess in the event of an unforeseen accident.

I was then horrified on returning from holiday to see that my credit card had been charged a further £532.72 for additional charges relating to the change in vehicle.

On contacting Halifax bank to discuss what to do next I was told to contact Europcar direct and see what their response was.

Having done that, Europcar are insisting that I signed paperwork agreeing the charges. Having contacted them again to say that the paperwork is in Spanish (a language that I do not understand) and that I believed that I was signing for the excess on the vehicle, they are now ignoring my emails. I find the actions of Europcar to be an absolute disgrace. Who in their right mind would pre-pay £456 to get the best value deal for car hire and then willingly pay another £532 extra for a different, slightly bigger vehicle?

The fact they are now ignoring my communication having requested the case is looked at by a customer service manager is dreadful and I cannot believe such a huge company are resorting to such practices.

My only hope is that you are willing to contact them on my behalf and hopefully get a result as you did for the other readers. The fact that the stories are eerily similar speaks

volumes to me as it would appear that this is some kind of unfair policy they are operating and is, in my opinion, not only unacceptable but misleading.

AAS David suggests in his email this is the second letter I have received about Europcar in the last few weeks.

As last time, they were very quick to reply to my email and, in a statement, they told me: “Europcar are sorry for the additional charge made for a vehicle upgrade to Mr Hunter for his rental in Spain this September.

“On investigation it appears there was an administrative error based on the fact that the vehicle category Mr Hunter had booked was not available.

“The company can, therefore, confirm that we have been in contact with Mr Hunter and a refund for the vehicle upgrade is being processed.”

That’s great for David, and I know that he is delighted to have his money back – but I am starting to wonder if Europcar have some issues they need to resolve.

Two problems of exactly the same type within the space of a few weeks don’t point to a well-trained workforce on top of their jobs.

Either that or Europcar staff are trying to increase revenue from holidaymakers by persuading them to upgrade and pay more for the cars they hire. I hope it’s the former. Holidays are supposed to be a relaxing time for all of us, and it’s not a great start if you get off a plane and immediately have to have an argument with your car hire company about something that you thought you had sorted out before you left home.

So if you are hiring a car soon, it might make sense to check your terms and conditions and if you face the same situation as our readers have recently then just put your foot down and tell them that you’re not paying a penny extra.