Don’t fall for this car hire con
A holiday in Spain with her husband and five-month old baby turned into a nightmare for Rachel Lacey when the car hire company failed to honour its car seat guarantee. In her Moneywise TV blog, she shares her experience - and offers a word of warning to others.
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I would be interested to know who the supplier of the car was on arrival?
We had a similar type of experience with Dan Dooley Car hire in Dublin just over a year ago.
We collected the hire car, the baby seat was just left on the rear seat. Apparantly it was our responsibility to fix it.
It was seat belt attached but the instructions were unreadable, the staff did not know how to fix it and a mechanic was sent for.
Some three hours later the seat was fixed in position but was loose and still wobbled. It was decidedly unsafe for use on some of the most dangerous roads in Europe.
We managed to acquire an IsoFix seat from a friend and we installed that instead.
The experience spoilt the start of our holoiday as we travelled to our destination in the dark.
Dan Dooleys Car Hire were indifferent over the fixing of the child seat in the car saying it was the renters responsibility and that they did not provide IsoFix child seats - yet Ireland promotes itself as a child family holiday destination.
The rental cars are all less than two years old and come with IsoFix fittings.
On checking, this is standard practice amongst car rental companies in Ireland, they will not invest in IsoFix child seats and provide only the less safe seat belt attached seats.
Penny pinching, indifferent and dangerous. We survived the holiday but have never been back since.
She said it was Atlas car hire
Every time we've hired a car with littlies the hire company point blank refuse to fix the £$%^& thing. They bleat about the insurance company won't allow them.
It's completely stupid, the one person who can definitely be trained and learn how to fix them, ie the hire company employee, is the one who refuses leaving us the customer to struggle and guess, and perhaps do it wrong. Last couple of times we've acted completely dumb and in the end they drive round the corner with us and fix it "unofficially"
I'd really like the hire companies to be forced to fit them. If by some awful chance there was an injury and a medical bill involving a poorly fitted child seat I'd be mighty tempted to blame the insurer who has in practice made certain that the kiddy seat was fitted by an amateur in a hurry.
We booked the car through Atlas Choice - but they were just the middle man with whom we had the contract. The company that actually supplied the car at the airport was Avis.
Rachel Lacey is the group personal finance editor for Moneywise
Although not connected with child seats; we have also had terrible problems with Atlas Choice; to the extent that I would not contemplate using them again, WHATEVER the advertised cost might be. A key factor being that they have no control or interest in the actual charge for fuel used by the actual car hirer.
I can't help feeling I've been scammed by Avis, although my comment is nothing to do with child seats. Basically I returned a car with a small dent in it and have been charged £500 for the repair. Two letters of complaint have not even been acknowledged. My advice to everyone is to take your own car away with you if possible or use public transport. The attitude over car seats is symptomatic of an industry happy to feed off scamming the public and sticking two fingers up to concerns over child safety or anyone expecting half way decent customer service.
Some obvious words , but a must , of advice.Thoroughly check your car before you leave hirer.Take out independent excess policy making sure that underside,glass,tyres etc. are covered Own hire agents/companys policy often dont cover this and hence damage to your underside - which you probably wouldnt even think of checking could land you with a fictitious bill which could be dished out to every hire customer !!!These independent policies can be as low as £25 - a small price for peace of mind.
Hello,
Let me pose this simple question to you - if Hertz, Avis or Dan Gangooly fit a child seat to your rental car, and you have a crash or something awful and your child, through no fault of their own, is injured. What do you think happens? Oh yea, the company gets sued for millions because it didn't fit the car seat correctly.
Sorry, but car rental customers are just like everyone else - litigious and looking to play the blame game. They must insist on customers fitting their own seats else they'd be sued out of business.
I'm frankly amazed that the so-called experts on this site haven't figured this out yet.
If you damage your car, expect to pay for it. Hire companies should send you invoices with prices on to confirm exactly what work was done. They should also respond to your complaints.
Car hire gets an unfair deal. If I can offer you one piece of advice, from the inside - READ YOUR CONTRACT. Companies will put stuff on it that you've not asked for because they know that even the 'clever' people out there never read what they're signing. Once you've signed it you've legally agreed to it and you won't get refunded. Just look at the figures - it will show the amount that you'll have to pay over and above any prepayment you've made. READ THE CONTRACT, ASK QUESTIONS, MAKE NOTES OF PEOPLE'S NAMES. Simple stuff.
Durr is right, of course there is a reason why they don't want to fix the car seats themselves. I have been working in the car rental niche for years and the things you see would amaze you, people threatening to sue us for almost anything they disliked - but please you have to realize here one thing: the car hire company is renting an object of a tremendous value to you, for a very little percentage of its purchase price, and if god forbid something happens, we have to be ready for all alternatives.
So yes, read the contract, because everything is written there, and of course it your choice whether you sign it or not.
Of course I don't understand companies that try to save money and offer seats that are problematic to fit or even unsafe? That sounds almost unreal. And quite unexpected especially for Western Europe. My company does car rental in Romania and we have never had a problem with baby seats, even though the customers always fix them for themselves. We just always make sure that the car seat is compatible, I think that is the key.
A holiday in Spain with her husband and five-month old baby turned into a nightmare for Rachel Lacey when the car hire company failed to honour its car seat guarantee.vehicle wraps
Con artists will often target students, foreigners and those looking for a room or property in areas where things tend to go fast, such as large cities. They also take advantage of them by telling those who question practices that lead to a con, 'this is the way we do things in Britain or this area.http://www.bertelshofer.com