Added hidden costs

Easirent Vehicle Rental www.easirent.com
★★★★☆
3.8
75.0% of users recommend this
  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

Penny1688's review of Easirent Vehicle Rental www.easirent.com

“Added hidden costs”

★★☆☆☆

written by Penny1688 on 06/12/2016

I booked a small car for just over two weeks, so that I could get around easily, while I was house-sitting for my parents as they went on holiday. Due to the location of the house, a car was necessary. Bare in mind, this car was being hired from Easirent at the Edinburgh Airport.

The booking process was very easy, a positive point in some respects, although I can't remember which website I went through now, but an email conformation came through very quickly.

However, I received an email to suggest I write a review (before even collecting the car) so that I can add an additional driver on to the hire car free of charge. Which, is rather annoying as it encourages people to write reviews before they have even experienced any other aspect of the car hiring experience. So I wrote a review based on what had already happened only, and made sure readers understood that I hadn't even got the car yet.

A few days before I was due to pick up the car, I decided to ring up to see if the car I was due to receive had a Sat-Nav, as I didn't want to bring my own Sat-Nav if it was not needed, after a rather difficult conversation trying to explain a simple question, I realised that if the car doesn't have a Sat-Nav, I was told I could have a Sat-Nav with my booking, at an extra cost, £11 a day. I don't think he really understood my dilemma.

I also noticed, that when I rang up the company, I was told on the phone that I had to 'book a shuttle bus', knowing that communication was difficult on the phone, I tried to email instead; asking about booking a shuttle bus. I know most people have mobile phones these days, but I am one rare person in which I do not have one, so was concerned about getting stuck or lost. I received no reply back from my email.

On a whim, I decided to just go ahead and hope that I find the car hire office, and luckily it was easy enough to fine, after picking up my friend from the airport. However, waiting to simply pick up a set of keys to a car, the ease of such was quickly diminished after I realised I was being penalised for not having a credit card. The company wanted to take a deposit of between £1000-1500 on a 'credit card' for insurance. I do not have a credit card. So instead, a car hire that was supposed to have been £160 turns out to be a total of £460. £160 for the total amount of days I have the car, £25 on a half-tank of fuel, and the rest on the insurance. I was stuck having to pay this in order to have a car for two weeks. And no, no money was refunded after I took the car back. If you get caught out like I do, also bare in mind, that the insurance does NOT cover windscreen and wheels (or it might have just been tires).

I ended up with an automatic, in which I will not complain about, because they did ask me if I was okay with an automatic, and it didn't bother me, but it is worth to double check you are getting the car you want or booked (automatic/manual). And, apparently automatics are more expensive to hire with this company, so bare that in mind too. However, I did notice that the service light was on, on the dash board, the whole time I was driving the car. When I returned the car after the 2+ weeks, I was told this is because they do the services themselves, so again, bare that in mind when hiring a car with them.

Also, when I returned the car back, I was asked for a slip of paper, where they noted down any pre-damages and mileage of the car, I was not asked to bring this back with me. Luckily it wasn't an issue.

Overall, I will not be using this company again, and I am extremely upset by the hidden costs, the company will simply say 'every company does things differently' or ' it does say here...' and point it out in correspondence which is in the small print. So be careful! I do not hold companies that deliberately hide things, but put it in small print, in high regard, I prefer to use honest and reliable companies!

  • 11/2016

    Date of hire (month/year)

  • Edinburgh Airport

    Country & City of hire

  • Average

    Condition of vehicle

  • Poor

    Choice of vehicles

  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

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