Please help me with my complaint to Budget car hire - Really, really cross

[BumptiousandBustly]

I have written the below email. What do you think? Any changes you can suggest? I am so cross and really want them to take this seriously.

I am writing to complain about the service we recently received from Budget Ireland.

I booked in advance a compact 4 door as well as two car seats at a total price of 166 euro (80 euros of this was for car seats) and understood that there would be a surcharge of 23 euro for picking it up at the airport.so a total of approx £164 british pounds

When we arrived at the airport we were told that the total price was 332 euro. When I questioned why the price had more than doubled I was told that it was because we didn't have a credit card. and we were therefore being charged 21 euros a day for fully comprehensive insurance.

There was also apparently tax at 14 euros (I can only assume that this was on the fully comprehensive insurance) and a euro a day for the road fund. (which I do not see mentioned anywhere in your terms and conditions)

Now firstly, we have a visa debit card, which was accepted by your system so would expect to be able to use that and not have to pay for fully comprehensive insurance.

Secondly, in your terms and conditions it states that for a group 1-6 car the fully comprehensive charge is 13 euros + VAT at 13.5% - which is 14.76 euros. ( I would assume that a small 4 door car is in the group 1-6, especially as I was told that this was to cover our excess of 1200 euros - which is the excess for the group 1-6 cars)

When I queried this we were told that as we had flown with Aerlingus he could reduce the daily charge to 16 euros and charge us the weekly rate for the car (which we were only hiring for 6 days, thus reducing the cost slightly) We were specifically told that this was the cheapest possible price he could offer us)

We were eventually charged £338.38 and were refunded £74 when we return the car - as apparently we had been overcharged by a day- and for the fuel surcharge)

This means that we were ultimately charged £264 (sterling) for something that when we booked it cost approx £164. This means that for six days we have been charged an extra £100 pounds, or £16. 67 day - which is certainly higher than your stated excess cover.

I am also writing to complain about your car seats you provided, and which we paid 80 euros. We were given two car seats, one of which was broken as it was missing an essential safety clip. I took this back in and was given an alternative car seat (and the broken one was put back in with the others, and I shortly after saw someone else leaving with it, to put in their car). The alternative car seat I was given I attempted to fit and realized was also broken and took it back in to attempt to get a fourth car seat.

I was told that I was mistaken and was not given an alternative at that time, some time later as we struggled to fit this car seat a passing employee stopped to help and informed us that it was indeed broken and that we needed an alternative. We were then finally provided with a fourth car seat - this was not broken. However all four of the car seats we were variously provided with were in a poor condition, did not come with the fitting instructions, were very old, and very poor - and I would say that this is very poor product to provide for 80 euros, especially where the safety of children is concerned.

In conclusion we were were badly misled by the initial price quoted on your web site. I am totally unable to see how you can justify the totally excessive price were were eventually charged, based on your terms and conditions. We were also provided with very poor car seats for the children, and told at one point to use a broken car seat was fine and should be used.

Our booking reference was XXXXX

I will be sending a copy of this to the Irish Tourist board as well as the national consumer agency in Ireland.

I await your response.

Regards

Personally I would make it shorter and put your booking reference at the top so they can immediately see what they are dealing with. I think it needs a bit of rephrasing to sound snappier.

What shoddy service!

I agree that it was awful customer service, especially the car seats. I would have been too.

But the insurance is standard when you hire a car. You don't need it if you pay by credit card because nearly all credit cards include insurance in their terms & conditions - if you rent a car the card covers the insurance. If you don't pay by credit card you need to buy the additional insurance, otherwise you are liable for the full cost of the car if it is written off in an accident - and you're not covered for third party liability either.

But this should have been pointed out WHEN YOU MADE THE BOOKING, not when you were picking up the car.

Okay, I hope you don't mind but I've rephrased the letter and deleted some repetition. You should sign off as faithfully/sincerely depending on whether you're writing to a person as it is much more professional.

Booking Ref. XXXXX
I would like to complain about the service we recently received from Budget Ireland.

I booked a compact four door vehicle in advance, plus two car seats at EUR80, at a total price of EUR166 and understood that there would be a surcharge of EUR23 for picking it up at the airport. This came to a total of approximately £164 sterling.

On arrival at the airport we were informed that the total price was EUR332. When I questioned why the price had more than doubled I was told that it was because we didn't have a credit card and were therefore being charged 21 euros a day for fully comprehensive insurance.

There was an additional unexplained tax of EUR14 per day and a Euro a day for the road fund, which is not mentioned in your literature.

Our visa debit card was accepted by your booking system so we would expect to be able to use it upon payment and not be financially penalised for lacking a credit card.

Secondly, in your terms and conditions it states that for a group 1-6 car the fully comprehensive charge is 13 euros + VAT at 13.5% - which is 14.76 euros. Our excess was EUR1200, as for Group 1-6, so ours fell into this category.

Upon querying the charge we were told that, as Aerlingus customers, we could have it reduced to EUR16 and be charged weekly, not daily, for the car which reduced the costly slightly. We were specifically told that this was the cheapest possible price.

We eventually paid £338.38 and were refunded £74 upon returning the car, for being overcharged by a day and for the fuel surcharge.

Our final expenditure was £264. We were charged £100 more than expected. At £16.67 day this is higher than your stated excess cover.

Finally, the car seats were of inexcusable quality. We were given two, one of which was broken as it was missing an essential safety clip. I was given an alternative but the defective one was put back with the rest and later given to another family. The replacement was also broken and I took it back in to attempt to get a fourth car seat.

I was told that I was mistaken and was refused another. Much later, as we struggled to fit the seat, a passing employee told us it was broken and arranged a replacement. All four of the car seats we were variously provided with were in a poor condition, did not come with the fitting instructions and were very old. This is a disgraceful product to provide for EUR80, especially where the safety of children is concerned.

In conclusion we were badly misled by the initial price quoted on your web site. Having read your terms and conditions, I am unable to see how you can justify the excessive price we were eventually charged. We were also provided with poor quality car seats for the children and told at one point to use a broken and unsafe product.

I will be sending a copy of this to the Irish Tourist board as well as the national consumer agency in Ireland.

I look forward to receiving your response within ten working days.

Yours sincerely/faithfully,

Did you tick a terms and conditions box? If you did you'll be told the "must have a credit card" was in there.

RE: the car seats, you are totally correct to complain. Same happened to a friend of mine and in the end he went with the branch manager and made them buy new car seats.

You need to put your booking ref. on the letter and I would copy in the CEO of budget. www.ceoemail.com/

You should also ask for specific recompense say the difference between your original quote and what you paid, ie your're asking for a refund of £98.

Actually, I don't think that insurance is included in most credit cards. This particular insurance will be to waive the excess (very expensively). If you give them a debit card they won't be sure they'll be able to recover the £1,200 if you damage the car. If you have a credit card they can block this out when you take the car so can be sure of getting their money. If you had given them a credit card and had a smash you would still have had to pay the £1,200.
I agree this is shocking service though. The car hire companies are notorious for this type of lack of transparency. If you do this type of thing in future it is worth looking at taking out separate insurance which is usually cheaper for a year than it cost you for a week. V bad re the car seats too.

RoseC's version of the letter sounds great. Good for you for complaining at that sort of service.

snoop is right: at the end of the 'in conclusion' paragraph you should ask for what you want to be achieved, whether it be a refund or explanation of policy or assurance re: car seats.

I used to work in the complaints department of a large car hire firm. Unfortunately this sort of experience is not unusual, especially with regards to car seats.

My advice from the companies side is to keep the letter as short as possible and state firmly what you would like the company to do about it. Also ask for a telephone call, not a reply letter. I would not put in about notifying the tourist board though, it comes across as agressive and the person dealing with your complaint will be less likely to help if youre seen to be a troublemaker (pathetic, but true). If they have not responded within 10 days (standard SLA timings) call the careline (and demand your money back for any call charges). If this still doesnt help, ask for a contact address for the CEO. Stuff usually gets sorted after this but dont do it in the first instance.

The first thing they will probably do is offer a courtesy voucher for further hires. Refuse this, and keep refusing until you get what you want. They'll do anything to get rid of you! And always ask to speak to a team leader if you can.

Hope this helps!

Thankyou very much for all the responses. I will definitely be taking RoseC's version of the letter, many thanks for that.

With regard to the credit card. Its not that the credit card carries its own insurance, but that, as bachsingingmum said, they can reserve the excess on your credit card, but aren't sure they will get it off your debit card, I am sure we did tick something that said we had read the terms and conditions, BUT - Firstly they charged us a much higher amount (and tried to charge even more) than the amount stated in THEIR terms and conditions for fully comp. Secondly it was very obscure that if you didn't have a credit card you would have to pay all that excess and thirdly they charged us MORE than stated in their terms and conditions.

I agree with the point various people made about saying what you want, but frankly I am not sure what to ask for. I certainly want the £100 back that we paid extra, I would also like the money for the car seats back, as they were so poor. In fact ideally I would like ALL our money back, but I suspect I won't get it.

Reeblebeeble thank you very much, I will ask for a call back, rather than a letter, wouldn't have occurred to me so thank-you.

I am interested in why you say that the person responding is less likely to respond if I am seen as a trouble maker, as I have always thought that in those situations, they are more likely to deal with you if they think you will create trouble if they don't?

Also will def refuse vouchers against future hire (NEVER want to use them again) and hold out for actual refund!

No worries, Bump! Glad I had some helpful advice :D I'll never be hiring a car from any car rental firms after the things Ive seen and heard.

Sadly, the person who handles your calls and letters is still a person who can have irrational responses.

I know when I got an agressive letter I felt personally under attack and would be less likely to fight tooth and nail for someone who was going to go to the press/trading standards/other authority no matter what I did. However if someone was pleasant and easy going in the first instance I'd move heaven and earth for them to ensure they came back to us. Companies want to keep your service but if they already know you're never going to use them again and will be reporting them to other people, they just wont be as enthusiastic to help you out.

Does that make any sense? I think I just wrote gibberish!

I couldnt have been handling the calls too badly though, dealt with 115 calls per day AND won awards for my customer service :D

I think copies to the CEO/HR dept & anyone else you can think of !!

Awful service & NO excuse for not having decent child car seats.

Hope you get a good response.

Hello. We're going to move this thread into Other Subjects

Your e-mail/letter is too long - no-one is going to read it properly

Don't tell them what you expect in return - leave it open-ended for them to respond

Sending it to customer services is a waste of time - go directly to the top - fin manager/ CEO/ board director

HTH

OK, sent the email to the CEO, got an out of office response - and then what was very obviously a standard reply - especially since he's out of the office until the 31st!

It said things like "Hope we give them a chance to try harder next time" -"They take my comments seriously etc. It was actually pretty insulting, the least they could do is actually pretend that someone had read my email! the upshot is that its being passed on to someone who will respond in 5 working days!

Email in full:
Thank you for your email and for taking the time to write to me about your recent rental experience.

I am disappointed to hear that, on this occasion, you have not been completely satisfied with the service provided by Avis. We value your feedback and will aim to use it to improve the service we offer our customers worldwide, so I can assure you that your comments will be taken seriously.

I have forwarded your correspondence to Karen Pollington, our Executive Customer Care manager, and asked her to personally investigate your case and respond to you on my behalf. Karen will contact with you within 5 working days, with a resolution or progress update.

I do hope that in future you will allow us the opportunity to "try harder" and demonstrate the service the Avis brand is renowned for.

ReebleBeelbe - I completely see your point. But unfortunately I think it would be hard to suggest that they would ever have my custom again after the experience we had.