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Hello,
First time poster hopeful of some guidance on my consumer rights;
I recently hired a camper van from a from a recognised car hire group, albeit the rental was through a third party site. From start to finish the service was abysmal but concerning of all, the camper van we were supplied with must have had the refillable drinking water tank filled with diesel fuel by the previous rental customer, which was not checked by the hire company after the last rental, meaning we were unable to use a major facility of the camper. We only noticed this upon arriving at our destination and hooking the van up to clean water services - as soon as we ran the water from tap the overwhelming smell of diesel flowing was unbearable and the water coming out of the tap was clearly contaminated with fuel. We reported this to the hire company and they asked us to buy 4 litres of Coca-cola to wash the system out, which did nothing to improve the situation and furthermore, we were not going to use the tap for drinking/washing knowing there had been diesel present.
Our biggest concern is, what would have happened is a child had taken a drink from the contaminated water, not knowing the diesel was present in the drinking water tank - it could have been fatal, surely!
There were other issues of poor service throughout the 4 day hire period and after returning the campervan we promptly requested a full refund as we were not able to use the van as we should have. Eventually the hire company's 'Customer Service Manager' responded with the following:
"To confirm we can agree to refund £327.27 in full and final settlement for this matter. To be clear this would mean an assurance that no further action, including any online posts or reviews regarding this matter. Once I have written agreement of this we will be able to process the refund."
My question, are they allowed to do this as this feels like bribery, or I'm being held to ransom... they will only process the refund if I confirm not to write a review regarding this matter. Personally, I feel I am entitled to a full refund but also as a consumer, I am also entitled to write a review to warn others of this situation.
Clearly this hire company have a duty of care to their customers which they are not taking seriously. We were fortunate to have noticed the contaminated water before using/drinking the water, other may not have been so lucky.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
First time poster hopeful of some guidance on my consumer rights;
I recently hired a camper van from a from a recognised car hire group, albeit the rental was through a third party site. From start to finish the service was abysmal but concerning of all, the camper van we were supplied with must have had the refillable drinking water tank filled with diesel fuel by the previous rental customer, which was not checked by the hire company after the last rental, meaning we were unable to use a major facility of the camper. We only noticed this upon arriving at our destination and hooking the van up to clean water services - as soon as we ran the water from tap the overwhelming smell of diesel flowing was unbearable and the water coming out of the tap was clearly contaminated with fuel. We reported this to the hire company and they asked us to buy 4 litres of Coca-cola to wash the system out, which did nothing to improve the situation and furthermore, we were not going to use the tap for drinking/washing knowing there had been diesel present.
Our biggest concern is, what would have happened is a child had taken a drink from the contaminated water, not knowing the diesel was present in the drinking water tank - it could have been fatal, surely!
There were other issues of poor service throughout the 4 day hire period and after returning the campervan we promptly requested a full refund as we were not able to use the van as we should have. Eventually the hire company's 'Customer Service Manager' responded with the following:
"To confirm we can agree to refund £327.27 in full and final settlement for this matter. To be clear this would mean an assurance that no further action, including any online posts or reviews regarding this matter. Once I have written agreement of this we will be able to process the refund."
My question, are they allowed to do this as this feels like bribery, or I'm being held to ransom... they will only process the refund if I confirm not to write a review regarding this matter. Personally, I feel I am entitled to a full refund but also as a consumer, I am also entitled to write a review to warn others of this situation.
Clearly this hire company have a duty of care to their customers which they are not taking seriously. We were fortunate to have noticed the contaminated water before using/drinking the water, other may not have been so lucky.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
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