I rented a car over new year for a trip to Wales. I rented it through easycar, and they put the wrong address on my voucher. In order to find the right address I had to phone a premium phone line, and then had to make my way accross Birmingham City Centre to get to the new location, before it shut.
I wrote to them asking for compensation for sending me to the wrong location. You may find the conversation interesting: ( names deleted out of respect for privacy - I've also had to change the pound signs into the word equivalent )
Customer (xxxxx) - 04/01/2006 18:36
Hello.
I am incredibly dissatisfied with the service you have provided me, and feel I am due a partial refund.
I rented the car from you for a trip on new years eve, and arrived in Birmingham to collect the car. The address was clearly shown on the voucher as being St Chads Queensway, Birmingham.
Upon arriving at St Chads Queensway, I was suprised to not find any Alamo/National garage what-so-ever.
I went into a hotel on St Chads Queensway. They hadn't ever heard of it.
I walked around the area. I still couldn't find it.
I made several calls to my girlfriend at home. Not being able to find the car rental location was very stressfull as I needed the car that evening for plans I had made for new years eve. As I had booked the 12 - 1 pickup slot, and the agency closed at 1, time was running out.
So then I called your telephone help line.
It turns out that the reason I was having problems was that there was no branch in st chads queensway - it had in fact long since closed down, and moved to Bristol street.
So after booking with you I had to pay for you to tell me that you sent me to the wrong location.
As I didn't have a lot of time left to get to Bristol Street I asked the operator if they would pay for a taxi. Despite having to pay 60p a minute for an issue that is clearly down to your organisations lack of competance I was informed that I cannot complain via telephone, and that I should visit the website and view the website and study the FAQs for possible answers to my query, or submit a complaint via email on the website.
So there I was stuck on the wrong side of town with approximately 20 minutes to get to Bristol Street and Collect the car and thats the best your operator could do. Tell me to look at your website.
I'd be laughing if the situation didn't irritate me so much.
In short, I would like:
1) An apology, in writing, delivered by the postman. I believe you have my address.
2) A refund to compensate me for being told to go to the wrong location and spend my money to cater for the incompetance of your organisation.
I look foward to your reply.
Yours Sincerely,
xxxxxx.
Response (247GK) - 04/01/2006 19:05
Dear Mr. xxxxx,
Thank you for contacting us.
I am sorry to learn that you felt let down by the quality of service you received at Birmingham on 31/12/2005.
It was therefore disappointing that you felt the need to contact us about your experience and so I must ask you to please accept my apologies.
I hope that you will be reassured to know that we take your comments and complaints seriously and that we inform our Country Management Team of any problems that are reported to us. This enables them to identify and address any shortcomings nd ensure that high standards of customer care are maintained.
Our customers are normally very happy with the service that we provide and often come back to us. I can certainly appreciate however, that it only takes one unsatisfactory example of service to prevent you from doing the same. I hope that, should you need to rent a car again in the future you will give easyCar another opportunity to offer you the sort of service we are keen to provide.
I would also like to inform you that I am currently investigating the matter and I will contact you again once the issue has been resolved. We will endeavour to have an answer for you sooner.
I hope that this meets with your approval and that this isolated incident will not discourage you from renting with us in the future.
Response (xxx) - 05/01/2006 14:59
Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for your patience whilst I investigated your experience.
I sincerely apologise for any confusion caused by the incorrect information on your rental agreement voucher. The Alamo location was only temporarily available to help provide vehicles for us at the holiday period and is not normally used by easyCar. At the time, the "Our Locations" page of the website provided the correct address and I sincerely regret the error on your rental agreement voucher.
By way of further apology, I would like to offer you 15 pounds worth of free car rental, to be taken off your next rental at your convenience from any of our locations within the next six months. To take advantage of this offer please book your car hire on-line at in the usual way. When you have done this, please reply to this email with details of your new rental agreement number and I will issue a refund of 15 pounds to your credit card immediately.
Once again, my apologies for your inconvenience. I appreciate that you have a less than favorable view of easyCar at this time and trust that this goes some way to restoring your faith in easyCar.
Kind regards,
xxxxxxxx
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Customer (xxxxxxxx) - 06/01/2006 08:31
Hello.
Unfortuantely there seems to be some level of misunderstanding here.
Allow me to revisit what I asked for in my first email:
1) An apology, in writing, delivered by the postman. I believe you have my address.
2) A refund to compensate me for being told to go to the wrong location and spend my money to cater for the incompetance of your organisation.
You have so far failed to address these points.
At the moment, I am extremely unlikley to do business with your organisation again, therefore 15 pounds off my next booking is meaningless.
I can understand that you may wish to offer me an incentive to retry your services - I however do not consider this compensation asked for above - please refer this complaint to someone authorised to grant refunds rather than discounts off future purchases.
To simplify my point: I understood that the voucher represented an agreement between my self and easyrentacar - I would pay money, and in return a car would be provided for me at a rental location in St Chads Queensway. Upon arrving at the promised location, I discovered that there was no car, and no rental location in St Chads Queensway.
I cannot see how anyone could consider this as anything other than a failure on the part of your organisation to fullfill your side of the agreement?
I then incurred expense, and substantial inconvenience to get to the actual location of the car, having had to pay a premium rate number
to find said location.
Therefore, I feel that as your organisation failed to keep its side of the agreement, and as a result of which, I incurred expense and inconvenience, that I am due a refund of some of the monies paid.
May I also add that I am confused by a statement on your last mail:
At the time, the "Our Locations" page of the website provided
the correct address
Are you somehow implying that I should assume partial responsibility
for you sending me to the wrong place because your data is inconsistant - please clarify?
I look foward to your swift response on this issue.
Yours Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxx
Response (xxx) - 06/01/2006 08:43
Dear xxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for your further email.
As we are an internet-based company, that is how we contact our customers when correspondence is required. It was for that reason that the written apology was sent to you by this method.
We refer you to the Terms and Conditions of the easyCar Rental Agreement. As clearly stated, unfortunately we do not accept responsibility for the type of loss suffered in the circumstances you have described in your recent correspondence. The car was allocated within the hour it was booked and we have both corrected the error and apologised to you for your inconvenience. This has already been escalated to the highest level for this matter. We can therefore confirm that we will not be making any payment to you in respect of your claim.
None the less, as an exceptional case, we were offering you a 'goodwill gesture'. Whilst we understand the inconvenience that this situation caused and aincerely apologise for it, we regret that we are unable to provide you with any further refund as requested.
We are offering this again to you and do hope that you will accept it.
Kind regards,
xxxxxxxxx
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
Customer (xxxxxxxx) - 06/01/2006 13:35
I cannot see anywhere in your agreement which refers to the conditions
on which you state. Looking at your website, I have just copied and pasted this little snippet:
easyCar is responsible for losses you suffer as a result of easyCar breaching the terms of the rental agreement or booking voucher (as applicable) if the losses are a foreseeable consequence of easyCar's breach.
I have begun the process of informing my friends about your shoddy service. I have contacted trading standards, and will in due course follow the advice they have given me.
I hope you will take this opportunity to rectify the situation.
Yours Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Response (xxxx) - 06/01/2006 13:52
Dear xxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for your further comments.
This was an error on your rental agreement only and the correct information was available on the 'Our Locations' page of the website before, during and after your booking was made. easyCar has not breached the terms of your rental agreement because the information was available there and it is generally accepted that a customer would loook at the 'Our Locations' page to select the address of the location most convenient to him or her.
Your car was available and collected from the location you requested. The vehicle was provided to you in the hour you selected to collect it. Therefore, you did not suffer any consequential loss. The paragraph you have quoted also states; "Losses are foreseeable where you and/or easyCar could contemplate them at the time our agreement was formed. easyCar is not responsible for indirect losses that are not foreseeable by you or easyCar." There was no forseeable loos by either party when the booking was made. You have had no loss as the vehicle was collected on time.
A goodwill gesture has been offered for your inconvenience, and as previously explained there will be no further offer made, although the previous one remains. We are offering this again to you and do hope that you will accept it.
Kind regards,
xxxxxxxx
easyCar Customer Care Supervisor
