I rented a car from Easirent Heathrow while I was back in the UK over Christmas 2014.
I have rented cars many times before when I go back to England to visit family, usually from Enterprise or Hertz, however I decided to go with Easirent as they were offering the lowest price for an automatic over two weeks. BIG mistake.
What seemed like a bargain to start with ended up costing me nearly £1000. The rental itself was £492, however the £272 rip-off charge they stung me with upon returning the car was something I had not budgeted for. Just after Christmas as well. Nice.
Upon collecting the car, my wife and I both stayed with the guy who was checking it over. At no point did he examine the underside of the car - in fact, we were joking with him about how cold a day it was to be doing his job. The entire check of the car took no longer than three minutes.
We went back into the office to sign the check sheet (and confirm that there was nothing wrong with the car), however I noticed that he had in fact been using the check sheet for a Toyota Auris, when the car we were taking was a Yaris. A quick scribble changed this into a check sheet for the Yaris, which I was given along with the keys then left to get on with it.
At no point during the rental period did I damage the car in any way. When you've paid almost £500 for a rental car, you're going to be extra careful. If I had damaged the car at all then I would have been honest with Easirent and paid for what I had done.
So, you can imagine my shock when - upon returning the car - the guy checking it over started muttering with his colleagues after performing the initial check. All four of the staff behind the desk were talking in an Eastern European language that I don't speak, so I asked if everything was OK. The blonde girl we had been dealing with told me there might be a problem, and that the guy would check again. I found this strange - surely he had just been out to check the car?
He went out to 'check' again, came back in and got a colleague to go back out with him - still talking in another language. I insisted I check the car with them, so we all headed outside to the car. The 'problem' was something I still cannot quite believe.
UNDERNEATH the bumper, there was a scratch. When I say underneath, I mean you had to crouch right down and look right up to see it. At no point during the initial check of the car did the guy even bend down, never mind look underneath the bumper. How he magically managed to do so upon returning the car and - hey presto - find a scratch is nothing short of a miracle.
I attempted to explain that in no way had I scratched the car as I had obviously been extra cautious driving a rental, but the four staff were not having it, carrying on their own conversations in another language and staring at me blankly when I spoke.
They knew that my wife and I were due to catch a flight out of the UK - after all they were to drop us at the airport - so they had me backed into a corner. After attempting to argue my point that I had categorically NOT damaged the car, and that the underside of the car hadn't even been checked when we took the car in the first place, I just had to pay up and leave or we would have missed our plane.
The cost for a scratch - on the sheet I had signed - was £150. On top of this, there was a £50 "admin" fee! Concerned that my plane would be leaving soon, I begrudgingly signed and handed over my card, only for the girl behind the counter to charge me £272. Apparently, this was the correct fee all-inclusive, the £150 stated on the "old sheet" was no longer the right amount for a scratch. I explained to her that, having signed the document on both our sides this was legally binding and she was breaking the law by charging a different price. However, after a brief word with her colleague - again in a language I do not speak - she said she had to charge me that or it would "come out of their wages".
With literally an hour now left to get our flight there was no other way out. They knew this, and used it to their full advantage.
I cannot even begin to express how DISGUSTED I am by the way we were treated, the amount we were forced to pay, and the fact that in absolutely no way did I even damage the car to start with. I can't help believing that the shady way they carried out the return inspection, with the getting-right-underneath-the-car scratch check, we were well and truly ripped off. An absolute scam - meticulously planned to make sure they got as much out of us as possible.
I am currently investigating my options to take this matter further with the official trading regulation bodies as in no way at all could this experience be considered 'fair trading'. While I don't expect the absolute crooks at Easirent to even offer refund the money I paid for something I didn't actually do, I will be doing everything I can to make sure that as many people as possible avoid using this atrocious company. read more