The car hire experience
You rarely hear people give good reviews about their car hire (rental) experiences. The common issues people have are that they feel tricked into purchasing extra add-ons for their reservation. A reservation starting out at say $300 quickly becomes $500 some how. The other common issue people have is getting charged for damage on a car they did not create. I am usually very diligent, and have luckily never been charged for damage to a car I hired (knock on wood). However, I have been tricked once or twice into purchasing a few add-ons that I didn’t need or want.
When you travel internationally and rent a car, car rental companies often will try to get you on the fine print. They know you are out of your element and they want to pry on you like the helpless confused traveler that you are. Now, that being said, many companies are upfront with their add-on fees. I am on board with that. If a company is going to charge me for insurance because its the “Law” and the “Law” doesn’t recognize my valid insurance, then that’s fine, just be upfront about it. No one likes to show up expecting to pay one price and be hit with a price much much higher. Its the sneaky, dishonest, and down right predatory companies like Easirent that are the ones a traveler needs to be aware of.
Car hiring should be easy and straight forward, Easirent is neither
On our most recent trip to the UK, Easirent showed me everything a car hire company could do in its power to be dishonest, difficult to work with, and plain rude. The story begins before even arriving at the car hire location, or even the UK for that matter. I made a reservation through Fox rent a car a few months before heading to the UK. I have rented from Fox in side the USA several times and have always had an excellent experience. However, this time, Fox used EASIRENT to handle the reservation. I had reserved a car for 10 days and had a quote price inclusive of all taxes and fees at $291.62.
Now as you may have guessed by now, I really dont like getting caught with add-on fees so I read the fine print. What stuck out to me was the portion about insurance. It read as follows:
CDW is optional providing the following conditions are met.
Written proof of coverage in the U.K. from a third party is presented at time of rental. If you have purchased or are relying on third party collision damage waiver any damage to the vehicle will be charged to your credit card and the renter will need to seek reimbursement from the third party policy. The presentation of a credit card or personal auto insurance is not proof of UK coverage. A GBP/1,250 credit card authorization is required at time of rental.
Upon reading this information, I obtained a letter from my credit card company which stated they would cover my CDW while in England. They provided a phone number that could be used if the company wanted to call and verify the coverage. To insure that this letter would satisfy the CDW coverage require by EASIRENT I emailed them to verify that the letter would be enough to exempt me from the need to purchase CDW through them.
The Email
When I arrived to get my car rental I presented all my information as well as the insurance letter. Easirent then proceeded to place a 1250 GBP deposit on my card. I was then charged around 300 gbp for the rental. Initially I didn’t realize this was an issue because my quoted price of $291 USD appeared close to what was printed on my receipt. I thought maybe there was just a small extra fee in there. However, I quickly realized the price was in GBP and I was paying over $160 more than what I was quoted in the confirmation email. I asked the young lady that was helping me, “Why is the price more then the quoted price?” She told me I had to pay for CDW insurance which was not included in the quote. I told her that I had CDW insurance and again showed her the letter stating I was covered. She said it didn’t have a stamp (what ever that means) and so I could have just made it up. I told her “there is a number attached to the letter, if you call it, they will verify the authenticity of the insurance.” She then refused to call. I found that extremely rude. It was an international number, so it wouldn’t have cost the company anything, and would have only taken a moment. I then asked what she could do to take off the insurance. She said I could pay a deposit for the value of the car. I told her, “Alright, lets do that.” She then told me the deposit was $25,000. $25,000 seems ridiculous for a Ford Fiesta, but after some research I found out it is actually the value of the car in the UK. Anyways, the issue with paying a $25,000 deposit is that I only had around $20,000 of credit available on a given card. I asked if I could put a deposit of $20,000 or split $25,000 between two cards. She told me no because I might steal the car. This response is so irrational for so many reasons. Just to name a few reasons why it doesn’t make sense for me to steal a car while I’m in England.
First, I don’t live in England, what would I be doing with a stolen car. When I expressed this thought to her, she responded, “You could sell it or ship it somewhere else.” Lets address selling it. How am I supposed to sell a car that’s not mine, in a country in which I don’t know the process of selling a car. Furthermore, if I were to sell it, I would have to sell it for more than $20,000 (my deposit I could pay on a single card). Also, who would buy a used stolen car from someone for more money than they could buy the car legally for? Lets think about her second response, I could ship it somewhere. Again, the cost to ship it somewhere, plus the $20,000 deposit would be a hell of a lot more than the car sells for in the United States, which happens to be around $17,000.
Second, I have proof of a flight home. I had clear indications that I was dropping the car back to them. I imagine I wouldn’t get too far through customs after I stole a car.
Lastly, and this is a real big one, their CDW insurance doesn’t cover theft. So, if I were to steel the car wouldn’t they rather have $20,000 instead of $160 they were charging me for the insurance?
After making several of these points and again asking if I could put a deposit of $20,000 or split $25,000 between two cards, she told me “no, there is nothing I can do.” At that moment I remembered, I had an email from Paul stating that I didn’t need insurance from them. I asked her if she knew who Paul was. I believe she said he was a manager. She at least knew who he was. I pulled up the email, showed it to her, then she called someone. She then said ok, we can remove the insurance from your charge. I said great, then she said we just need to put a $25,000 deposit on your card. You may imagine how annoying this was because I just had this conversation with her. I again said, “I have documentation from a representative of your company saying I don’t need your insurance and he gave no indication that I need to pay a $25,000 deposit.” She then told me that they were busy and that there was nothing she could do at this time, and I could dispute it when I returned the car. When I returned the car, I spoke with another person, and they did not allow me to dispute the charge.
At the end of the day its only $160. I’m not upset about $160. I have gladly paid for add-ons from other rental car companies in the past. The reason why this instance is so irritating and highlights the dishonesty of this company is the pure fact that I had documentation that contradicted what they were telling me in person and they refused to honor it. A person looking to rent or hire a car in the UK should stay far away from Easirent. For every bad story you hear about them there has to be 100 more not being told. So if you are asking, should I rent a car from Easirent? The answer is NO.
