Car Hire Cancelled by Provider

H

Hurling Fan

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Posting this for a friend. Last December he booked a car at Milan airport with a large car hire company. They deducted the amount due from his credit card. Then with no warning DELETED the online booking and failed to deliver the product - with no apology. He was left high and dry in Milan airport and had to use another Car rental company to relieve the situation.

He has now discovered that they never refunded the money. before he contacts them is there any consumer law governing this situation that gives the consumer some protection. Can someone just decide not to deliver the product booked? He wants to know his rights before he approaches them about the non refund issue.
 
What did the contract provided state about the operator's entitlement to cancel? It'll all come down to those details.

Did he book the rental directly with the provided or through one of the many intermediaries?
 
I had an issue with car hire in SA a few yrs ago. I complained to the company and got nowhere, but then I took it up directly with the credit card company, in this case, Visa. I wrote to them detailing the complaint and asking them to reverse the charges. It took a while but it worked, and I got all my money back. The facility is called 'chargeback' and here's a link to some info on it. https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/shopping/disputed-card-transactions-chargeback/
 
Make a charge back claim to the Credit card company; don't waste time with the car hire company at this stage.

You'd want to get cracking on. There's a time limit of 120 days from when you first become aware of the breach of contract.
 
Thanks everyone for replied. I know I was surprised too when I heard he only discovered it now ... and its a sizeable sum! Four figures!! Obviously he doesn't read AAM or he'd be more clued in! Have asked him to send on the email when he booked it to see what it says about cancellations!
 
If it was cancelled by the car hire company, it shouldn't matter what the conditions are in the mail. Those are about if you cancel. If they cancel, then they can't claim payment as well.
 
Seagull said:
If it was cancelled by the car hire company, it shouldn't matter what the conditions are in the mail. Those are about if you cancel. If they cancel, then they can't claim payment as well.
Click to expand...

Well, it would have a bearing on whether the OP's friend is entitled to pursue the company for breach of contract and receive compensation for any additional costs incurred in the last minute rental with the alternative provider.

The matter of returning their payment should of course have been concluded long before now.
 
Hi All

I've got more information from him and it looks like the booking wasn't confirmed. This is the email he received the car hire company.

Thank you for your reservation request for a rental on 01/02/2018 at 11:00 at the Milan Airport Linate branch. We will process your request as soon as possible and send you a binding confirmation within 48 hours.

He then emailed them twice for confirmation of the booking but they didn't reply to either email. when he arrived at the airport to collect the car, he was told the booking had been cancelled from the system and they didn't have that model car to give him.

So I presume he hasn't a leg to stand on - other than complain about poor customer service - and try to get his money back asap??
 
Is it possible that the cancellation might have been applied automatically because your friend arrived late rather than being due to a non - confirmed booking? This has been a pretty common occurrence recently and is attracting quite a lot of adverse press. Explained more fully in this link https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/hire-car-cancelled-after-flight-arrived-late/

(The article is in the free bit of the Telegraph. It may prompt you to sign up to a free account, but if you just close the sign up request pop-up, the article should open).

Paul
 
Hurling Fan said:
Hi All

I've got more information from him and it looks like the booking wasn't confirmed. This is the email he received the car hire company.

Thank you for your reservation request for a rental on 01/02/2018 at 11:00 at the Milan Airport Linate branch. We will process your request as soon as possible and send you a binding confirmation within 48 hours.

He then emailed them twice for confirmation of the booking but they didn't reply to either email. when he arrived at the airport to collect the car, he was told the booking had been cancelled from the system and they didn't have that model car to give him.

So I presume he hasn't a leg to stand on - other than complain about poor customer service - and try to get his money back asap??
Click to expand...
If they cancelled the booking surely they should have refunded the card? As mentioned earlier, apply for a chargeback on the card.
 
Are you sure they actually charged his card in the first place? Might be worth checking again.
 
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