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Hi All,
I recently hired a car from a well known international company.
The vehicle was hired from Heathrow Airport.
Within a few minutes of entering the M4 motorway I needed to use my lights.
The front main and dipped lights did not work, I managed to stay close behind a lorry and managed to get to the next services where I rang the hire car company who told me to ring the AA.
This all happened within 15 minutes of leaving the hire car office.
Nearly three hours later the AA arrived.
According to the mechanic who checked the faults, the lights had not just blown and could have and should have been noticed on the pre-hire safety check.
As if this was not bad enough, it was impossible to see through any of the windows once it had got dark as the insides of all the windows were so badly smeared with what seemed like grease, during daylight it was reasonable, but not good.
Within a few minutes of driving, usually about 15 to 20 minutes, the inside of the car became so steamed up that I had to stop and try to clear the water that was running down each window surface.
The only way I could continue with my journey, (in the middle of winter) was to drive with all of the windows open because the blowers were not able to demist the inside.
The following morning I was then able to see the rest of the car properly. The inside was absolutely filthy, the back seat was covered in mess. I realise I should have seen this before driving off, but I was tired and had just arrived in the UK after a long journey and just wanted to get home.
I sent 5 emails to the company who completely ignored all of the above comments, they refunded the money I had spent on new bulbs and made the comment in an email that as far as they were concerned that this matter has now been concluded satisfactorily.
I decided that couldn't be bothered to pursue it any further and decided to forget them. There were a few other serious issues with the vehicle, but it is too long winded to go into here.
BUT, worse was yet to come..!!
The car was rented on the 20th March this year (2013).
Last week, May 2013. I noticed that the hire car company had taken an amount of £84 from my account.
I wrote again asking why they had done this and received a rather superior reply telling me that this is a standard charge for having to deal with renters who allow their vehicles to be given parking tickets and then not pay them.
I never did have a parking ticket.
They have also passed my personal and confidential details onto this cowboy organisation who are hounding me for huge amounts of money.
BUT, this is for parking on the public M4 services, whilst I was broken down 15 minutes after hiring the car, which they were informed about straight away and subsequently in 5 emails which they totally ignored.
I feel that they as a company who have taken my money for a service, have a duty of care towards me as a customer to protect me against spurious NON LEGAL private individuals who just write and ask for my private address and other information.
The Car Parking company in question have millions (a poetical exaggeration) of pages about them on the internet for their heavy handed and often illegal way of doing business and yet this international car hire company have seen fit to just behave in a 'gung ho' fashion and pass my personal details onto them for them to harass me when it was their fault in the first instance.
What do I do now please.
My apologies for the long screed above, but I thought that I should lay out the whole scenario for an opinion.
Gerry
I recently hired a car from a well known international company.
The vehicle was hired from Heathrow Airport.
Within a few minutes of entering the M4 motorway I needed to use my lights.
The front main and dipped lights did not work, I managed to stay close behind a lorry and managed to get to the next services where I rang the hire car company who told me to ring the AA.
This all happened within 15 minutes of leaving the hire car office.
Nearly three hours later the AA arrived.
According to the mechanic who checked the faults, the lights had not just blown and could have and should have been noticed on the pre-hire safety check.
As if this was not bad enough, it was impossible to see through any of the windows once it had got dark as the insides of all the windows were so badly smeared with what seemed like grease, during daylight it was reasonable, but not good.
Within a few minutes of driving, usually about 15 to 20 minutes, the inside of the car became so steamed up that I had to stop and try to clear the water that was running down each window surface.
The only way I could continue with my journey, (in the middle of winter) was to drive with all of the windows open because the blowers were not able to demist the inside.
The following morning I was then able to see the rest of the car properly. The inside was absolutely filthy, the back seat was covered in mess. I realise I should have seen this before driving off, but I was tired and had just arrived in the UK after a long journey and just wanted to get home.
I sent 5 emails to the company who completely ignored all of the above comments, they refunded the money I had spent on new bulbs and made the comment in an email that as far as they were concerned that this matter has now been concluded satisfactorily.
I decided that couldn't be bothered to pursue it any further and decided to forget them. There were a few other serious issues with the vehicle, but it is too long winded to go into here.
BUT, worse was yet to come..!!
The car was rented on the 20th March this year (2013).
Last week, May 2013. I noticed that the hire car company had taken an amount of £84 from my account.
I wrote again asking why they had done this and received a rather superior reply telling me that this is a standard charge for having to deal with renters who allow their vehicles to be given parking tickets and then not pay them.
I never did have a parking ticket.
They have also passed my personal and confidential details onto this cowboy organisation who are hounding me for huge amounts of money.
BUT, this is for parking on the public M4 services, whilst I was broken down 15 minutes after hiring the car, which they were informed about straight away and subsequently in 5 emails which they totally ignored.
I feel that they as a company who have taken my money for a service, have a duty of care towards me as a customer to protect me against spurious NON LEGAL private individuals who just write and ask for my private address and other information.
The Car Parking company in question have millions (a poetical exaggeration) of pages about them on the internet for their heavy handed and often illegal way of doing business and yet this international car hire company have seen fit to just behave in a 'gung ho' fashion and pass my personal details onto them for them to harass me when it was their fault in the first instance.
What do I do now please.
My apologies for the long screed above, but I thought that I should lay out the whole scenario for an opinion.
Gerry
