‘A car hire company lost my booking – then forced me to pay nearly £300 extra’
Gill Charlton has been fighting for Telegraph readers and solving their travel problems for more than 30 years, winning refunds, righting wrongs and suggesting solutions.
Here is this week’s question:
Dear Gill,
Last November, I booked a rental car with Sixt, for Bodrum in Turkey, through the Holiday Autos website. The week’s rental cost £371.28 and I was issued with a voucher and supporting documentation. Two days before I was due to travel, I received an email from Holiday Autos confirming my booking.
However, when I arrived at the Sixt desk to pick up my car on September 28, the agent had no record of my booking. I eventually managed to contact Holiday Autos by phone and handed my mobile to the Sixt agent to try to resolve the problem. Yet both eventually gave up: the computer continued to say “no”. In the end, there was no alternative other than for me to pay Sixt directly for the week’s rental.
As a walk-up customer it was significantly more expensive, though, and I was charged £658.59. I complained to Holiday Autos on my return, but my claim for a refund of the replacement car rental has been refused. I have now challenged the original payment through my credit card provider, so I should get that back, but I will still be out of pocket. Can you help?
– Marc Wotton
Marc wrote to me on October 16, and a few days later, before I had had a chance to take up his case with Holiday Autos, a refund of the original booking was made to his account. The case he had opened with his bank under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act – asking for a refund due to the failure of Holiday Autos to perform the contracted services – had been resolved in his favour. But he remained £287.31 out of pocket through no fault of his own.
I contacted Holiday Autos, which uses CarTrawler to fulfil its car-rental reservations and customer service, to ask for further compensation due to its failure to resolve the issue with Sixt on the day.
CarTrawler confirmed that the problem had arisen due to a processing error. It has now apologised to Marc for the inconvenience and frustration it put him through. Its first offer of compensation proposed refunding the difference between the cost of the two rentals. However, within hours, its customer relations agent wrote again to say that it would refund the total cost of the new rental, £658.59, in addition to the credit card chargeback, as a gesture of goodwill.
These IT glitches do occur from time to time and are difficult for low-level call centre agents to resolve, especially at weekends. It is always best to pay for a new contract with the same rental agent, as it makes it easier to argue your case after the event.
Your travel problems solved
Gill takes on a different case each week – so please send your problems to her for consideration at asktheexperts@telegraph.co.uk. Please give your full name and, if your dispute is with a travel company, your address, telephone number and any booking reference. Gill can’t answer every question, but she will help where she can and all emails are acknowledged.
