Car hire - beware Algarve Driver

[pickwick]

Hi all

This is a warning not to take even a written quote from a car hire company at face value. As you can see from the e-mail trail below between Steen and I. I asked for a quote to hire a car to go to Granada and back. As you can see he clearly understood my requirement yet this morning his delivery people demanded an extra €50. Needless to say I sent them packing!! You have been warned!

Pickwick

On 09/02/2012 4:25, Pickwick wrote:

Hi Steen

We are now booked for our break in Granada so would need a car delivered to Caramujeira late PM (say 5) Tuesday 28th February and collected late PM (say 4.45) Sunday 4th March. We have Insurance4carhire so what price could you do for a decent group C vehicle?

On 10/02/2012 07:21, Steen wrote:

Hi

Thanks for your mail, I have forwarded a quote on the amount of 80 euro for your car rental (it would be cheaper if you booked for 6 or 7 days as delivery and return outside Faro airport then is free).

I went to Granada in November and really enjoyed it; please be aware that you might need to prebook entry tickets at the Alhambra; http://www.lovegranada.com/alhambra/tickets/

Kind regards,

Steen

[Macherts]

I booked a hire car last week with Algarve Driver, and I seem to remember in the small print it stated if you took a car to Spain there was an additional charge of 50 euro's. did you inform them you would be taking the car out of Portugal to Spain when booking?

If not this could be the additional charge.

Extract from e-mail I recieved

The hire includes unlimited mileage within Portugal. If you wish to go to Spain you will need a bail bond and green card from our insurers. There is a charge of 50 euro.

[pickwick]

Hi Macherts

Read the post!! I specified the destination in the request for a quote!!!!

Pickwick

[Farol]

Why didn't you use the booking form on the web site at least to get a quote? If you felt it too expensive then you still could have contacted Steen to see if he could reduce it. At least that way there would be absolutely no confusion on what the price was and how it was made up. There is a specific tick box for taking a car to Spain and it is clear there is an €50 charge for it.

In all the years I have been using Algarvedriver/YOR several times a year I have never had a problem, including when I included the option to go to Spain.

The quotes and booking system seems to work fine. I suspect your problem was down to using emails so perhaps that is the warning to be given.

[pickwick]

Hi Farol

I used e-mail to avoid any confusion. My request for a quote was clear as was the reply. I do not doubt that the €50 charge is in the small print but my point is that I got a quote to hire a car to go to Granada (in Spain!!) and back for €80. There was no mention in the e-mail of an additional €50 so clearly I expected to pay €80 and not €130. I have paid charges of €5, €15 & €25 for going to Spain with other car hire firms so a total price of €80 in February did not ring any alarm bells and I assumed the border crossing element was included.

I am now left with having to make other arrangements or drive my own Navarra which consumes 12l per 100km (Granada is 1100km return hence the hire) and costs almost twice as much going through the tolls on the A22!!!

It is not the end of the World but it is annoying to be in this position.

Pickwick

[Steen Jakobsen]

I am sorry but at the time I read the mail as a booking had been made for Granada and now the dates were sorted a car was required for the remainder of your vacation in Carvoeiro.

Quotes by email leave room for error, I can not guess on the intended use of a rental car - getting a quote via http://www.algarvedriver.com/pricelist.php will specify all costs and any questions can be clarified via email.

[shanagarry]

A sorry tale which carries the warning - get all the relevant detail in writing before placing the reservation. I use hire cars every week while traveling and am very familiar with the process and can see what's happened here.

Cross-border car rental is an area many rental companies are wary of and usually devote significant column inches of their Terms and Conditions to.The reasons are plain to see - getting a €20,000 car for €80 and doing a runner being one - not that this was the case here as I know Pickwick. It follows that an additional cost will be levied - which should have been spelled out in all the correspondence exchanged between the parties - it appears it was not.

Professional rental companies and brokers have fairly sophisticated websites to make sure they avoid any misunderstanding and when a client goes 'off-piste' to e-mail or worse still to telephone - something they want to avoid as they do not have the resources to deal with that media (ryanair style) - it is unfamiliar territory and opens the way for mis-communication as happened here.

Pickwick - give him another go

[Michael Crane]

All credit to Steen for allowing this 'negative' post to remain.

[shanagarry]

Michael

Presumably by negative you are alluding to the impact it could have on Steen's business?

It's a positive public interest post and will hopefully alert others to the best practice needed to ensure an incident free and transparent car hire reservation process.

[pickwick]

All

Steen and I did further correspond and I told him I was happy for him to remove the post but he declined as he felt it might help others and he would not have removed it had it been about a competitor. I did in fact offer to reinstate the booking at €25 (half the €50 demanded) for the cross border part as there was perhaps fault on both sides but as luck would have it there were no cars available so I took my own! I did look at other rental sites and some charge €0 for going in and out of Spain but as it was such short notice I could not get the guarantee of a car delivered in time for this particular hire. Alas it is not always possible to determine the cost of going into Spain as some hirers simply state there will be a charge and then go on to say the amount will be determined at the point of car collection/delivery.

Does anyone know why this issue exists at all? I regularly hire in Scotland and drive to England and vice-versa without issue and as I said some rental companies charge €0???

Pickwick

[shanagarry]

Does anyone know why this issue exists at all?

Algarve Driver is a broker and probably doesn't know at the time you make your reservation who he is going to place the reservation with. As different rental companies have different Terms and Conditions and fees - that cost will vary.

With regard to the UK, and for now Scotland is still part of it, we operate on a level playing field. All our vehicles are covered by the same registration process and can be moved between countries without restriction. Should it be necessary to repatriate a Portuguese registered car from Spain back to Portugal there are certain protocols to be followed. While most are fairly straightforward - matters like proving ownership and ensuring the move isn't a way to circumvent the import regulations are matters some customs agencies can get excited about.

As you will be aware I know a little about such matters. How was Granada? I don't suppose there are too many tapas left

[e-richard]

...Algarve Driver is a broker and probably doesn't know at the time you make your reservation who he is going to place the reservation with.

I think you'll find that, in this case, AlgarveDriver are actually an agent for YOR cars only. Otherwise the rest of your explanation is helpful.