Last year there was an article in the Daily Mail ( Ok yes, I know!) which was quite enlightening and as there seems an abundance of complaints regarding the bigger global car hire companies lately, we thought we would resurrect the article as a warning of what appeared to be happening in 2017 and probably still is today.
The headline was….
“Car hire sharks caught red-handed: Mail’s undercover probe reveals the ruthless tricks of airport rental desks to add charges onto bookings”
** Europcar, Goldcar and Firefly ( which is owned by Hertz) all added charges to bookings made by a reporter in Spain. The findings come after they revealed how tourists are being billed hundreds of pounds/euros for repairs on hire cars which firms admitted they do not always carry out.
** An undercover reporter from MoneyMail flew to Malaga Airport in southern Spain and found rental firms are cynically penalising drivers who buy cheaper insurance policies.
** James Daley, of consumer website Fairer Finance, said: ‘Car hire is like the Wild West. It is impossible to know exactly what has been charged until the car’s returned and even then customers end up holding their breath to see what the final credit card bill will be.’
**Customers were being caught out by the exchange rate ploy and charges were doubling the online prices.
The story is lengthy but here is the link.
