The expert view

I’ve been putting it off, but I finally booked a hire car for a trip to Italy in a week’s time. Why procrastinate? Because, as highlighted in these pages over the past few weeks, this is the area in which we get more complaints from readers than any other.

The system is effectively broken. Car rental companies and brokers quote what look like bargain prices on their websites, but exclude the cost of waiving very high insurance excesses. When you arrive to pick up the car, you are then charged exorbitant amounts to reduce the excess to zero. If you don’t, you have to deposit the amount of that excess on your credit card and then, on return, face a potential battle over whether you have damaged the car. We’ve also had reports of readers having their cards mysteriously rejected at pick-up, so they have to pay the insurance charges.

At the booking stage, it is very hard for consumers to compare like with like.

For my booking, I hoped to avoid having to pay a big deposit and have the potential stress of arguing about whether the car was “damaged”. I wanted a rate which included a zero excess for theft and for damage, and to know what the total bill was going to be.

I tried four websites. The overall charge for a similar, medium-sized car rented from Florence airport for the same week in May varied from £156 to £343.13.

These are the details of what I was quoted – in brackets are the excesses: first for damage, second for theft.

Holiday Autos This is a broker offering deals from several different companies. I selected a Citroën C3 with Sixt at £117.24 (€1,000, €1,900). For £39.69 paid in advance I could add an insurance policy to refund the excesses if charged, though I would have to leave a deposit on pick up. Total: £156.93

Sixt The same car with same excesses as above, direct from the rental company was £101.33. Reduction to a zero excess: £20.19 a day, paid locally. Total £256.32.

Hertz A Ford C Max cost £112.62 (€1,800, €2,600). Super Cover to reduce the excess to zero: £215.16, paid locally. Total: £327.78

Avis A Renault Clio was £103.73 (€700, €1,330). I found that Super Cover to reduce excess to zero cost between £21.02 and £34.20 a day, paid locally. Total: £250.87-£343.13

Verdict I decided on the Holiday Autos deal. It involves buying insurance and leaving a deposit, but since the broker is selling the policy, I feel I will have enough leverage to sort out any problems.

For a complete guide to potential car hire pitfalls see telegraph.co.uk/ tt-carhireguide. our son’s surname was missing. His passport name is Kiani Jay JeanDenny Purcell (my partner’s surname is Jean-Denny and mine is Purcell). Unfortunately the “Purcell” was missing.

We immediately phoned Sunmaster which said it would cost £100 to correct the name on the ticket. But its terms and conditions say: “It’s really important that any errors are identified as early as possible and it’s important to point out that if we are not notified of any inaccuracy in any documentation (including tickets) within the next 14 days, we are unable to accept any liability for any cost incurred to correct any error.”

When we bought this term to Sunmaster’s attention, it said this term didn’t apply and that we must pay for the error. Is this correct? ROCHELLE PURCELL

AAs Sunmaster records sales calls, Ms Purcell asked for a copy of the booking conversation. To its credit, the company provided this auditory proof quickly and did not charge for it. (A number of travel companies are making a charge when there’s a dispute like this). We both listened to the recording and it’s clear that her partner – down a crackly line – does tell the agent that their son’s name ends in “Purcell”. The agent uses the phonetic alphabet to spell back the “Jean-Denny” part, which he had misheard, and then says: “I’ll check names on the contract. Don’t worry, we won’t get any of them wrong.”

Unfortunately he doesn’t confirm Kiani’s name before launching into a rapid-fire recital of the main terms and conditions of the booking.

Listening to the recording it’s easy to see how the mistake was made. The agent didn’t read back Kiani’s name and Mr JeanDenny didn’t ask him to. But the correct passport name was given initially so I didn’t see why a charge should be made for the correction.

Ms Purcell got back to Sunmaster to dispute its insistence that they’d never given their son’s name in full and asked that they listen to the recording again. Sunmaster has now accepted their argument and waived the charge.

While agents have their own terms and conditions covering contract mistakes, I thought Thomson Airways would probably have made this change free if notified quickly. Thomson tells me that if it is notified before close of business on the day after the ticket sale then no charge is made for changes to a name. If the change is made after this, there’s no fee for a mistake of up to three characters; the airline puts a note in the booking accepting it. For a larger mistake – or substituting another passenger – it charges £50 any time up to the day of travel.

If you have an unusual name, it is always best to spell out your full passport name using the phonetic alphabet (i.e. A for Alpha, B for Bravo, C for Charlie).

Questions should be sent by email to asktheexperts@ telegraph.co.uk. Please provide your name and nearest town and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your full address, daytime telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot answer all the emails we receive.