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#11
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
wrote in message om... "Errol" wrote She didn't understand the impact that would have in the US. If her rental operation was a franchise or agency then they would be under the gun from her US head office. As I said, she phoned around to get support for not giving me the car, but her management seemed to pass when she said "he's got paperwork", until a senior manager told her to comply. Errol What was the company? How much was the rate? Had you managed to bppl some sort of special deal which is not generally available and with which the operating staff were not familiar? Don't want to get into the details because I might get someone fired. The rate was an internet special given by the company that she worked for, not a 3rd party consolidator. It was a large and well-known rental agency headquartered in the US. The rate was a good one but still somewhat higher than the US rates. Errol |
#12
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
"Errol" wrote in message ... Don't want to get into the details because I might get someone fired. The rate was an internet special given by the company that she worked for, not a 3rd party consolidator. It was a large and well-known rental agency headquartered in the US. The rate was a good one but still somewhat higher than the US rates. On a point of interest. I'm hiring a car myself at the weekend. From Newcastle (NCL) airport. Even tho I'm local to it and not flying there. Weekend rate for a medium size car e.g. Ford Focus 1.6 Alamo - £123 National - £66 Which is interesting considering they are the same company with the same staff and the same cars! |
#13
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
"Errol" wrote in message ... So here's an example for January 10-11 Avis at Philly base rate is $31.98 while for LHR it's 40 quid or $71. That's a significant difference to start with. Also, remember that a lot of US people have insurance for their own vehicles which automatically covers them so they don't need the addtional. UK insurance doesn't cover you for driving hire cars, or usually any car rather than your own. Neither do credit cards provide coverage. I would guess your US insurance wouldn't cover UK rental anyway. So I say again, you need to compare the price inclusive of insurance. You are comparing the USA base price which doesn't include insurance with the UK price that does! It's not uncommon for US rental companies insurance to more than double the base price. If you compare the real cost, inclusive of everything, and excepting one off special deals, I doubt you would see much difference at all, despite motoring being considerably more expensive in the UK. As I said, a report to the FTC and Better Business Bureau in the US will make any corporate headquarters drop their coffee and run for the phones. Once you have a franchise or agency you can also expect spot checks of a covert nature. I know this because I was in franchise management. I did spot checks on petrol/service stations as well. This may well be so. But I would guess someone working on the desk of a UK hire company wouldn't have a single clue what the FTC or the Better Business Bureau is! I merely mentioned the options open to me while she phoned everyone. The truly idiotic thing was that she seemed to have plenty of cars that would have been idle for the weekend, but didn't want to part with one of them for less than what she thought she should get. In the end she folded, but it illustrates a good point $9 a day to get idle stock rolling vs a manager who would prefer to have idle stock than charge a lower rate. Clearly she didn't understand capitalism. Yes and no. You see hire companies in the UK (don't know how it works in the USA) don't really make much money at all from hiring cars out to people. They make the majority of the cash from buying cars in bulk from the manufacturer at a reduced rate, running them for ~13k miles and then selling them for *more* than they pay for them. Customers hiring the car are there to put the milage up, and make a bit of money too of course. The point being every time a customer hires a car they are putting more miles on the clock and bringing the car closer to the time it needs to be sold. From their point of view they would rather run the car for a high rental amount rather than a small one, even if that means the car sitting idle over the weekends. |
#14
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
Mark Hewitt wrote:
"Errol" wrote in message ... "Mark Hewitt" wrote in message ... You're wrong. Our base prices are way down, and the insurance is not that bad either. For example, a recent weekend rate for car rental (obviously a special deal) from a branch near me, for their bottom of the range car was $9 a day. Reason being that the branch was normally used by business people so, lots of cars idle on weekends. I haven't found your base prices to be "way down". They are slightly down, and then go up massively when you add in all the insurance. I don't generally add in the insurance on a domestic (US) rental since liability is generally included and I have collision protection through my own insurance. Additionally, secondary coverage is also offered by my credit cards. I was in Costa Rica recently and not only did they want an absurd amount for CDW, but there was still about a $1000 deductible even if you took the coverage. Taxes and insurance were more than the base rental price of the car. |
#15
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
Errol wrote:
Don't want to get into the details because I might get someone fired. This I don't understand. So, rather than complain about a problem, you don't want the person causing the problem to get into trouble????????? You actually want them to continue to give bad service? |
#16
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 19:33:11 +0000, Mark Hewitt wrote:
"Errol" wrote in message ... So here's an example for January 10-11 Avis at Philly base rate is $31.98 while for LHR it's 40 quid or $71. That's a significant difference to start with. Also, remember that a lot of US people have insurance for their own vehicles which automatically covers them so they don't need the addtional. UK insurance doesn't cover you for driving hire cars, or usually any car rather than your own. Neither do credit cards provide coverage. I would guess your US insurance wouldn't cover UK rental anyway. But credit cards do. So I say again, you need to compare the price inclusive of insurance. You are comparing the USA base price which doesn't include insurance with the UK price that does! It's not uncommon for US rental companies insurance to more than double the base price. If you compare the real cost, inclusive of everything, and excepting one off special deals, I doubt you would see much difference at all, despite motoring being considerably more expensive in the UK. But compare with Germany for instance. Why do rentals cost twice as much in the UK, and why do they often try to trick you into buying insurance that you don't need? |
#17
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message ... On a point of interest. I'm hiring a car myself at the weekend. From Newcastle (NCL) airport. Even tho I'm local to it and not flying there. Weekend rate for a medium size car e.g. Ford Focus 1.6 Alamo - £123 National - £66 To test the theory US cars are cheaper I looked up the price for the same period and a similar car from National (same company as UK) from Washington Dulles Airport. Total price £114. Bit different from the £66! The insurance, taxes, etc etc amount to around 3/4 of the price of the rental! My point again being, these are all included in the UK price, but not in the US price. Compare like with like ;-) |
#18
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message ... "Errol" wrote in message ... So here's an example for January 10-11 Avis at Philly base rate is $31.98 while for LHR it's 40 quid or $71. That's a significant difference to start with. Also, remember that a lot of US people have insurance for their own vehicles which automatically covers them so they don't need the addtional. UK insurance doesn't cover you for driving hire cars, or usually any car rather than your own. Neither do credit cards provide coverage. I would guess your US insurance wouldn't cover UK rental anyway. So I say again, you need to compare the price inclusive of insurance. Ok. As of now the Philly base price has gone down to $15.99 + Taxes and Surcharges of 4.49 and 1.24 + Insurance of Loss damage waiver at 20.99 + Personal Accident of 3.00 + Personal effects protection 1.59 + Additional Liability of 11.95 (This is way more cover than you need btw) you get to $59.61 Now for Thiefrow: all in with the same options for 73.91 quid which is $132.55 at the interbank rate. $59.61 vs $132.55 - I rest my case m'lud. Errol |
#19
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
"mrraveltay" wrote in message ... Errol wrote: Don't want to get into the details because I might get someone fired. This I don't understand. So, rather than complain about a problem, you don't want the person causing the problem to get into trouble????????? You actually want them to continue to give bad service? Well, the incident was settled after she kept me waiting for two hours. In my terms that's a huge waste of my time. If she hadnt settled it, I certainly would have. It was merely one of a number of incidents I have had with car rental agencies in the UK for 5 years running. All different agencies, all of whom I use in the US without mishap. In fact, the one that I had a problem with on the 20th didnt have a booked category car for me in Chicago a year ago. They let me have a brand new Lincoln with Voicestar GPS to use at the regular base price. Now that's service! Errol |
#20
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Car Rental at Heathrow SUCKS!
Errol said:
Ok. As of now the Philly base price has gone down to $15.99 + Taxes and Surcharges of 4.49 and 1.24 + Insurance of Loss damage waiver at 20.99 + Personal Accident of 3.00 + Personal effects protection 1.59 + Additional Liability of 11.95 (This is way more cover than you need btw) you get to $59.61 Now for Thiefrow: all in with the same options for 73.91 quid which is $132.55 at the interbank rate. $59.61 vs $132.55 - I rest my case m'lud. I don't know how you're calculating the costs and what days you're after, using but a very quick Travelocity search gives prices from GBP11 per day picking up and dropping off at LHR. Even Hertz is GBP19. Cheers, Howard |
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