Are Budget Car Rental Ireland A Bunch of Gobshites Or Not? Time Will Tell.
Feb 12th, 2009 | By Bock | Category: BusinessWhen Peter Donegan, the gardener, hired a car from Budget Car Rental, he thought he was getting it for €34.
Why did he think that?
Well, it was because he believed this ad:
Euro €34.00
Price includes all compulsory Insurances, Government Tax, Unlimited Mileage and 24hr Breakdown cover.
Full Size 4 Door e.g. Toyota Avensis or similar
Please take a moment to read the Terms & Conditions of rental before making your booking.
Reasonable enough, you would have thought. What a good price for a 4-door Avensis!
But of course, that’s not what Peter ended up paying.
After he brought the car back, he discovered that the following additional charges would be applied:
€25 levy because they have to park the cars in the airport.
€10 levy for fuel.
Sundry insurance charges and tax.
Here’s the “estimated bill†he received.
Let’s have a look through it.
Quoted rate: €30, not the advertised €34, so that looks like a bit of good luck. But then you read down and you see that they’ve charged €22.03 surcharge for something called APT which stands for Airport.
Here’s what it says in the small print:
In common with many car rental companies a standard airport surcharge of EUR € 28.00 will apply to your rental when picking up from an airport location.
EXW, which stands for excess waiver is €11.50. I don’t know if Peter chose this optional extra or not, but he was charged for it.
Third party insurance 1 day, €3.52.
According to the small print,
The following insurances are included in your quotation:
- Third Party Insurance: – covers against damage or injury to a third party.
- Theft Protection: – covers against losses arising out of theft or attempted theft of the vehicle.
- Collision Damage Waiver (CDW): – this cover reduces your financial liability for damage caused to the vehicle from the full value of the vehicle to the value of the excess.
They estimated a cost of €75 for fuel.
So let’s look again at the breakdown, adding in the 13.5% tax.
| tax | total | ||
| rental | 23.33 | 3.15 | 26.48 |
| 3rd party insurance | 3.52 | ||
| Sub total | 30.00 | ||
| Airport surcharge | 22.03 | 2.97 | 25.00 |
| Total | 55.00 | ||
| Excess waiver | 11.50 | 1.55 | 13.05 |
| Fuel | 75.00 |
Now, let’s be kind and accept that some of these charges are estimated. Peter was in fact charged €10 for fuel, and according to Budget Car Rental, he accepted the excess waiver and signed for it. All well and good.
So let us look at the remaining items.
Rental including insurance is €30, and the compulsory airport surcharge is €25. Therefore, the very least Peter could possibly have paid for his car hire was €55. In spite of what the ad says, there is no possibility, ever, of getting an Avensis for €34.
Therefore the ad is misleading.
Peter wrote about this here, a full year ago. And then, a few days ago, he received a very intimidating call from somebody purporting to be a lawyer acting on behalf of Budget Car Rental. This individual gave Peter 48 hours to take down his post, causing him great worry and distress in the process. He wrote about it here.
I thought it would be a good idea to follow this up, because I hate bullshit legal threats, so I asked one of our people to write to Budget Car Rental, asking them for comment, and this morning they wrote back.
This is what they said:
Just to confirm that we are the Budget Licensee for Ireland we have NOT enlisted a solicitor or anybody else to force Mr Donegan to take down the blog. If possible, I would like to get the details of this person purporting to be a solicitor engaged by us.
Curiouser and curiouser.
You would have to ask yourself why a third party would take it on themselves to contact a blogger and threaten them with legal action for a post about a car rental company. Why would anyone do that?
It strikes me as bizarre, and if I were Peter, I’d be contacting this caller to demand evidence of their bona fides. I’d be naming them in public, and shaming them. I might even turn up on their doorstep. If the answers I received were not satisfactory, there might even be legal action.
By the way, Peter is a landscaper who strikes me as a thoroughly decent and honourable fellow. Why not call over to his website and have a look at the kind of services he offers? Who knows – you might even decide to hire him. He strikes me as the sort of man who would agree a price with you and stand over it.
Men like Peter don’t do small print. They look you in the eye as they shake your hand, and that’s why they’re so bewildered when they meet the likes of Budget Car Rentals.
_______________________
Previously
The PC world one is the business.I’m getting great mileage out of it.God bless Blitzen his little heart.One of the funniest people I have ever read about.
Can’t wait to read Budget’s reply if’n when it arrives.
Looking forward to the response from Budget. A “corporate Zorro” lmao.
Joe
@ Bock
Your Mayo Echo link leads to the other crowd.
I’d hate the public to be deprived of reading your actual Mayo Echo post which shows up that crowd of tabloid shites for what they are.
Thank you. Fixed.
Re the main post:
Well done. There was a time when even (?) the mainstream media didn’t offer those they criticised a contemporaneous right of reply.
I remember occasions when even Hibernia, which was the only real opposition/investigative press of its day, didn’t even bother to pick up the phone and confront its subjects with what it was about to publish and give them a chance to put their side, even if that were to be subsequently ignored by the publication.
That got them into a lot of needless trouble and no doubt diminished their coffers.
Play it slow, play it cool, then publish and be damned.
If ever I’m being held in a Mexican prison and I only have one phone call..
I’m gonnae call Bock.
This is very interesting. Budget Rent-A-Car is my favorite company to rent(hire) a car from. They are always friendly, easy to do business with and their prices are considerably lower than the other national companies.
Bock – it sounds like misleading advertising at least. The sneaky airport charge is omitted from the sales blurb and buried in the fine print of the terms and conditions. Take the bastards on through consumer affairs, I’d say.
Nuts
How many of you are there now?
We are Borg. Resistance is futile.
huh??? am i missing something here? he has 48 hours to remove the post OR WHAT??? what do they think they POSSIBLY sue him for????
good god just think if ryanair was to sue every single person who highlighted their misleading advertising in a blog post…. o__O
There’s nothing they can sue him for. It’s the usual bullshit, attempting to frighten him.
I have a standard two-word reply to such threats.
I haven’t had a reply from David yet
Maybe then you should do him the courtesy of waiting for a reply before you label him an arsehole.
Bocktherobber.com doesn’t show up on the first 5 pages from google.FR with the words “Budget Car Rental” so if you’ll allow me;
L’agence de location des voitures Budget Car Rental ont menacé un ancien client avec des pursuites judicier après qu’il a écrit un article sur le net criticant leur façon de opérer.
That might help
Twenty — You’re showing a new softer side since your career break. If you read it again, you’ll notice that David isn’t labelled as anything.
You tend to use somewhat stronger language when labelling people.
David O’ Malley may not be authorised/be the right person to respond to this. He’s the Office Manager of Budget. That might be a variety of things but their Sales and Marketing manager – who you’d imagine is the person who should be responding – is a different person in a different office and, as far as I can see, has had no correspondence with Peter at all.
O’Malley *may* just be firefighting the only way he knows how – that’s not an excuse, or the right way at all, but you’re right – the need to engage properly is paramount. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Indeed. As I said, David is looking like an arsehole, but that doesn’t mean he is one.
Yet.
Here’s a hair for you, Bock – split it.
Don’t know if any of you noticed but the mention of tourists by P Donegan in his post resulted in the Tourist Board getting involved as Peter e mailed his stuff to Fáilte Ireland. My experience of that shower tells me that budget car hire have now a great ally so P Donegan had better watch what he does from here on in- I kid you not. The so called Irish Tourist Board has sweet fuck-all to do with tourists, little to do with tousism. As far as I can garner they exist to ensure that all and I mean ALL complaints are quashed, no matter the cost. Their usual route, as done here where they involved the Car Rental Council of Ireland who ever they are, probably the desk next-door, is to misdirect by sending your ‘concerns’ to various sundry others while not actually dealing with the subject matter at all, the purpose being to clog up your time with bundles of letters. Your entire effort, years later, grinds to a halt when you realise you’ve just being going round in circles, led there by experts in dross, ’till you just let it slide. After all there is no answer to an ineptitude that we have bank-rolled as tax payers by allowing quangos -(qu(asi)-a(utonomous) n(on-)g(overnmental) o(rganization) or qu(asi)-a(utonomous) n(ational) g(overnmental) o(rganization)) – in the first place. Budget car rentals have nothing to worry about. They’ll probably receive an award for exellence in business shortly from another tax funded quango!
Bock you are looking like a bunch of gobshites but that doesn’t mean you are one.
Is there a way to recieve a review of this?
Fuck off you spamming prick. Which spamming prick are you — Alastair Kay or Brian Kay?
Gobshite.
Thank you for your blog! You are my new hero.
I too have had a disappointing experience with Budget Ireland and they are totally ignoring my emails. Inspired by you and Peter, I have set up a blog about it.
Here is my blog if anyone is interested:
http://web.me.com/anguilla/IE_Budget_Car_Hire/Marys_Blog/Entries/2009/4/30_Don%E2%80%99t_rent_a_car_from_Budget_in_Ireland.html
If I am overstepping by posting this here please forgive me and delete this post.
Thank you,
MaryT
Just a followup on my trouble with Budget. It is resolved so I have taken down my blog above. I will never do business with Budget again. Ever.
Thank you,
MaryT
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
I recently hired a car through the internet prior to arriving at Dublin airport. My friend and i were treated dreadfully. After initial hassle got to my hired car the gear knob fell off. Took it back to Joe McCann in their rental cabin who told me a 60yr old lady that it would screw back on. I informed him I did not hire a car to do running repairs I wanted another car or my money back he told me to Alter my attitude. I did in the end get another car when I returned it to Dublin Airport Ii was refunded my petrol allowance in euros despite having paid in sterling. I also made a complaint to a supervisor – Joe McCann was present as I walked away he was talking with the supervisor and laughing. Do you think my complaint was taken seriously – i feel I was paid lip service. I have written a letter of complaint but so far have had not response. I will not let this matter rest.
What’s the name of the rental company?
Blogroll Links ist nicht so gro?: P aber ich bin nicht der admin …
Virgina is corect rammstin is a German Porn site.
P.S. a Crappy porn site not worth a visit. I suspect this Rammstein thing is also a nazi. It should be put down!