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