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Hi All,
Wasn’t really clear on my rights when I arrived to collect my car today at LGW and therefore didn’t feel like I negotiated properly, would appreciate some opinions.
Booked an economy car for 2 weeks – when I arrived was told that no economy cars were available. I asked directly if I could have the economy car and I was told to look around – only cars present were a fiat 500 and then a load of premium cars in their car park.
Was shown some cars with high upgrade prices, quoted £50 a day extra. I said I wasn’t really interested in a fancy car, hence why I booked the economy car. Didn’t really want the fiat500 – I needed to carry passengers and didn’t want a squeeze. In the end I agreed to a £10 a day “upgrade” to an electric car that is, to be fair, quite fun to drive and not bad value.
But I want to know for future, if I book an economy car and they do not have one, whether they should be offering me a free upgrade to the next available car? Or is it correct that I can have a downgrade for no extra charge or pay a modest fee for an upgrade? Have I finally been fleeced?!
I expect most would think it fair to be upgraded without charge, however when the rental car business is refusing to do so – you are between a rock and a hard place.
In terms of rights, which company was it, and what do their T&C’s say? I expect you could have walked away without penalty, but unsure if they have any obligation to upgrade or provide a vehicle in reality.
If you’ve got a decent level of upgrade at £10/day then sounds more like a win than being fleeced – not something I’d be feeling bad about anyway – don’t sweat the small stuff.
Not sure exactly how an economy car is described on the relevant website as they vary so much, but presumably it’s small/cheap. If you’ve then arrived and turned down a small/cheap car (the Fiat) at original price then they probably don’t have much obligation to offer you anything else at that price (and even more likely to work that way in reality) so the outcome you got seems reasonable.
If the office claimed to have this issue more than once though, that’s getting suspect and they’d go on my hit list not to be used again (Sixt in Alicante joined mine this year for exactly this reason 😀!)
when I arrived was told that no economy cars were available. I asked directly if I could have the economy car and I was told to look around – only cars present were a fiat 500
I don’t quite understand this bit of the story. Is the fiat 500 considered an economy car by this rental agency? If so, why would they say none were available when there were some available? If none were available, why would you “ask directly if you could have” something that isn’t available?
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