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Hiring a car (Case 2) |
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John Snell and his partner set off to their holiday home in Spain. As a regular customer of Europcar UK, John had used his Privilege Plus membership and pre-booked a hire car to get a discount. But a serious fire at the holiday home mean this two-week trip had to be extended by eight days. Unable to contact the Privilege Plus enquiry number, John rang central reservations. It said car hire couldn’t be extended by phone, even though it had all his booking and credit card details. He’d haste to go to Malaga airport - a five-hour round trip. The staff in Malaga did extend the booking. But it wasn’t until the transaction was complete that they told John the pre-booking, discounted rate didn’t apply to the extra week. No one at Europcar central reservations had told John this. The Malaga staff had even agreed that the extra week was an extension of the original contract - they’d made no mention of a new contractor of higher rates. John objected but took the car under protest and decided to pursue the matter back in England. He wrote to Europcar UK claiming a refund of the excess charges. Their
reply was swift but short -the extension was a new contract with Europcar Spain, so
he’d have to take it up with them. |
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John contacted Which? Personal Service. We agreed that he’d been overcharged for the extra week and set about recovering his money. But Europcar UK denied all liability. The extended rental was, it argued, a new contract with different terms and at a different price. We contacted the head office of Europcar Spain. We pointed out that
John had pre-booked the original two-week hire and paid in advance. As he was extending
that original contract, the rate should have been the same. A refund of £103 arrived with
an apology. |
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Suppliers
of goods or services must make the price and terms clear before any transaction is
complete. If there are no written terms, or they“re unclear, the court will try to
establish what the parties intended when they made the agreement. |
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Report made by MAG according to information
taken out from WHICH magazine. |
