‘Car hire firm tried to charge extra £840 after I was 30 minutes late for pick-up’

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Dear Katie,

In May I booked a hire car to pick up at Pisa airport through Booking.com. It cost €369 (£315) including insurance. Pick-up was supposed to be on June 12 at 8pm. 

On the pick-up day our BA flight was delayed at Heathrow due to adverse weather. While sitting on the plane, awaiting a take-off slot, I realised that we would not make the pick-up time.

I phoned the car hire company, OK+ Mobility, from my plane seat to tell it we would be delayed. 

I was told the depot closed at 10pm but they would wait till then. During this conversation I said that if I could not make the deadline I would come in the morning to collect the car, only to be told that that would not be possible as it was company policy to record a “no show”. 

When I got off the plane I ran a kilometre to the rental car building as fast as I could, but it was 10.30pm and it had shut. 

In order to reach my destination that night I hired a car from another company, as most other car hire companies in the building were still open. I returned the following morning to collect the original booking. 

I was horrified to be told that as I had done a “no show” it would not be possible to give me a car unless I paid for a new contract. 

As you can imagine I was very upset and tried to insist that I should not be made to pay twice. Then OK+ Mobility really took the biscuit by offering me a car for an inflated price of €983. 

I contacted Booking.com while I was at the desk and was callously told that the entire situation was my own fault. I was distraught. Who in their right mind would refuse to hand over the car I had paid for when I was standing right there?

When I got home I again complained to Booking.com. It refunded the £48 I had spent on car hire insurance, but not the rest. I feel this is ridiculously unfair. 

AH, via email 

Dear reader,

Let me be clear about one thing here: none of this was your fault in the slightest and the treatment you received here was completely ridiculous. 

The flight delay was completely beyond your control and there seemed to be no good reason why you couldn’t just pick the car up the next day. You cannot be the first person to have been delayed on a Sunday night flight. 

The attempt to make you pay another €983 for another car was utterly scandalous. 

You booked this car hire through travel website Booking.com, so although OK+ Mobility’s behaviour was not within its gift to control, it was still ultimately responsible for your refund.