My husband and I, both aged 78, booked an Avis hire car for our holiday to Portugal this summer. Two days before we travelled, I was asked to hand over my credit card number to cover unexpected expenses.
We were also offered insurance to cover the excess in the event of an accident, but declined as it was very expensive.
We took out a standalone policy with the RAC at a fraction of the price. At Faro airport we were delayed and made it to the Avis desk just before closing. We got the car keys and off we went.
After our holiday, I discovered that Avis had charged us €340 for the insurance we had declined. The cost of this was more than the car hire itself.
Why on earth would I agree to that? I am dumbfounded that a company like Avis is up to such dirty tricks.
M.M., Scotland.
Taken for a ride: Avis charged a couple €340 extra for hire car insurance they did not ask for
Sally Hamilton replies: We’ve all been there. Tired and hungry at the airport, fatigued from queues and longing to get to the hotel or villa to crash out.
The last leg of your journey was to collect the hire car and hit the road.
After two hours of queuing at passport control, you were lucky to have made it to the Avis desk before it closed at 11pm.
You say that the office lights were already dimmed and the woman behind the desk barely acknowledged you, speaking only to another member of staff in Portuguese while you stood waiting. Not the warm welcome you were hoping for, I suspect.
You were handed some paperwork and eventually the keys. The copy of the rental agreement that you hold on file is unsigned.
You also have a copy of the insurance policy document from RAC confirming that you had bought a standalone insurance policy in advance of your holiday for just £33.15 – a savvy move to avoid the expensive alternative imposed by car hire companies.
Indeed, the fee charged to your card by Avis for the insurance at around £320 totalled more than the hire charge which was around £220.
Avis told me it had a signed rental agreement on file, which displayed the charges on the paperwork, and on this basis would not budge on refunding you.
You confirmed to me that this is your signature, but you don’t remember seeing the charges at the time.
Nor did the Avis representative, busy chatting with her colleague by all accounts, flag the charges and check all was in order.
I got straight on the phone to Avis to highlight that since you had taken the trouble to buy the cover before your holiday, it cannot possibly have been your intention to double up and buy the same cover again – and at a considerably higher price.
Avis refused to refund your charges. I asked my contact there to escalate it further. They still wouldn’t budge.
An Avis spokesman says: ‘At the time of rental, they agreed to and signed for additional coverage.’
It’s extremely disappointing that Avis couldn’t show some discretion over this case. You feel disappointed and deceived. Your situation serves as an example of how easy it is for car hire companies to load up your card with extras you haven’t asked for.
While booking car hire is necessary for travelling to some holiday destinations, the process is still riddled with pitfalls that can be very costly.
While checking paperwork isn’t always at the forefront of one’s mind at the hire car desk, it’s important to go over the list of charges applied when you collect the keys.
Ticketmaster won’t refund disabled ticket
My brother booked two tickets for a Def Leppard concert via Ticketmaster. I am registered disabled, and after providing the relevant proof, was accepted for accessible seating.
We filled out the appropriate form for disabled accessible tickets. Under the arrangement this means I should pay for just my ticket, and my companion goes free, with the second ticket purchased and then refunded.
Ticketmaster will not refund us. Please help.
P.B., Glasgow.
Sally Hamilton replies: You explained that when you bought the tickets, you were shown a list of disability options. You ticked ‘accessible companion’ and ‘mobility accessible’.
This took you to the disability seating plan, and you chose two seats. You initially clicked on an area that had three seats, which it wouldn’t let you book, so you picked another area with two seats and paid £456.
Ticketmaster refused to give you a refund, saying you had purchased non-accessible seats. You thought you had done everything correctly, but it appears you had booked standard seats in error.
I was sympathetic because you had followed the instructions, and understandably thought you were being shown disabled access seats.
An accessible seat is a special ticket for those with disabilities and their companions, designed to provide them with suitable viewing positions and access, which may include wheelchair friendly platforms or step-free access.
Buyers who are able to purchase online for an event (not all venues enable this, and they may need to go to the box office instead) usually need to select the ‘accessibility’ filter on the booking page.
This is what you did. So something had clearly gone wrong. I asked Ticketmaster to put things right. On my intervention, it did this quickly and you were soon refunded £228 for your companion ticket.
A Ticketmaster spokesman says: ‘The seats she selected are usually located within an accessible area at the venue, but for this event, they were not classified as accessible and should not have been available to choose in that way.
‘As a result, the tickets were processed as standard rather than accessibility tickets. We’ve now offered her suitable alternative seats within the designated accessible section, and her free companion ticket will be honoured.
‘Our priority is always to make sure fans with access requirements are properly supported, and we’re pleased to say this has now been rectified.’
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email [email protected] – include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
