 Poster: A snowHead
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In short, I've been done by Booking.com but it's really hard to figure out my rights here. I'll try and explain without it being too long winded!
Booked and paid for a hire car through Booking.com from Geneva via Avis. Booking made 27 Nov 23. I've got a copy of the terms and conditions of the booking and no cross border charge or airport surcharge is noted in the T&C (cross border travel to France is "permitted with approval"). I believe the cross border charge was only brought in by Avis on 1st Jan 24.
At the airport I was informed about the cross border fee and signed to accept it - it was mandatory - accept or they wouldn't release the car. When I got the final invoice from Avis (who obviously have my credit card details) - there is an extra CHF90.81 charge on there. It's impossible to figure out exactly what it is but seems predominantly the cross border fees (all in CHF):
Rental = 464.20
Discount = 46.42
Additional products = 75.67 (this is the cross-border fee)
Location surcharge = 98.70
TOTAL = 592.15
Less prepayment voucher - 501.34
AMOUNT DUE = 90.81
I could sort of understand if the additional cost was only for the cross border bit but it's just a random amount that seems to suggest the booking.com prepaid voucher was also insufficient to cover the basic rental.
booking.com are being incredibly unhelpful and basically saying "take it up with Avis" and of course I signed the rental paperwork in the airport so Avis as saying "well that's what you agreed to, regardless of what booking.com paid us". I have 2 transactions on my Barclaycard (one for booking.com and one for Avis) so I don't even know how to start with chargeback stuff.
Any help / guidance / advice on where to go with this one would be appreciated!
Kinda stuck in the middle
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Use your bank/card provider??
Why the hell should buying a service so fraught to be open to abuse/scams?!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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As Nick says. Your agreement is with Booking. They explicitly call out that Cross Border fees are included (as in no additional to pay).
If there's extras you'd chosen in the airport (e.g. Sat Nav) then fair enough but they've not provided you with the service you purchased.
Take it up with your bank if Booking don't honour it. You should be after the amount you paid booking back.
Edit: the Avis card charge is for a service you agreed to pay for. The booking.com charge didn't provide the service you paid for.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I’ll give Barclaycard a try when they open tomorrow and update with their position.
Had loads of rentals from GVA over the years - some direct and some through holidayautos / third parties and never been an issue. Lesson learnt - direct with hire car companies in future!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Dashed, ...I've had autoeurope sort an issue out when the hire company refused to even acknowledge the issue
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Platforms are a nightmare.
Playing devil’s advocate ‘permitted with approval’ could infer cost unless it specifically says no additional charges for cross border blah blah.
Cross border charges from GVA is a bloody joke - half the city goes back and forth daily. Just a rip off cost.
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| Nadenoodlee wrote: |
Platforms are a nightmare.
Playing devil’s advocate ‘permitted with approval’ could infer cost unless it specifically says no additional charges for cross border blah blah.
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It is indeed ambiguous, however, does go on specifically list costs associated with a number of countries - mainly Eastern Europe and details an additional insurance policy (and cost) required. No cost detailed for France.
In short, their T&C wouldn’t stand up in court one way or another but I’m pretty sure the cross border charges weren’t even a thing when I actually placed the booking
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Just a quick update - chargeback stuff initiated with Barclaycard. They'll investigate but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest as the booking.com T&C are so shoddily written you could literally drive a coach and horses through them, which I think will give them enough wiggle room to get away with it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I have had both good and bad experience with booking.com customer services.
Good were two occasions where booked and paid for accomodation became unavailable and booking.com let me choose something else and they covered the difference. The bad was when I booked a hotel with '24 hour front desk' for one night as a stopover and upon emailing hotel to say eta 2am they said 'not possible' you cant stay. Booking.com wouldnt refund and wouldnt listen despite the hotel cancelling on me, it was only £60 or so I didnt put too much effort into pursuing it.
Chargeback probably your best option if booking not accepting any responsibility.
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Just a quick follow up, Barclaycard declined the claim as I'd "redeemed" the voucher (i.e. the booking.com voucher provided to Avis) and the issue is a shortfall in the value of that voucher. After doing some more digging, the voucher they provided Avis is short of the cross border fee of CHF75 plus an additional CHF15 which no one has been able to explain to me. Even if the cross border charge is deemed to be an optional extra, they have still short changed me by CHF15 and can't explain why.
I've sent a letter before action to booking.com but suspect they'll ignore that too so I'll have to then decide if I want the hassle of small claims (with a company listed in the Netherlands).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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You might point them to this thread which has done more damage to their car-booking business than they might imagine.
Meanwhile Auto Europe’s standing has risen.
I know whom I won’t be using next time if they don’t sort this out for you. And I won’t be the only Snowhead making this decision.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I've placed 2 more bookings for hire cars from GVA in the last week - you can imagine how many of those are through booking.com!
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I don't like booking.com at all. Always try and avoid using them. Much prefer going direct with hotels. Never even considered them for car hire and I'm not shocked to hear your experience @Dashed. Hope it all works out.
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You know it makes sense.
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Another brief update, booking.com fobbed my off again and told me my complaint was with Avis (it's not!). I spoke to Avis (who were really helpful) and clarified the overall additional cost - this might be relevant to anyone booking cars at GVA - directly or through third parties.
I was charged per day for cross border fees (capped at 7 days) - CHF75
I was also charged an additional Location Surcharge as the overall cost of the rental had changed - CHF15
All bookings (direct or third party) include an element of Location Surcharge, it's what the airport charge Avis to operate out of the facility, but it's charged on a percentage of the overall booking. You wouldn't normally notice it as it's just part of the overall cost you are quoted. Effectively a tax. I added an extra to my booking in Avis's eyes so I pay for both the extra and tax on the extra.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I think I'd want to really get stuck into booking.com. Do you have the will and energy for a rather small sum is the question?!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Legend. wrote: |
| I think I'd want to really get stuck into booking.com. Do you have the will and energy for a rather small sum is the question?! |
I'd love to and enjoy nothing more than this kinda stuff (I do my fair share of contract dispute stuff at work!) especially as I feel really aggrieved at this one but in all honesty, it's not worth it as:
a) it's an unclear contractual position with 2 contracts in place - my original booking with booking.com and the rental agreement I signed with Avis.
b) their T&C are very unhelpful to the consumer but also ambiguous enough to be very hard to enforce - they almost look amateurish in their drafting and jump around all over the place but I suspect it's quite cleverly done. I read them when booking and checked for "hidden extras" but no one had heard of the cross border fee from GVA at that time so it wasn't even on my radar. Had it been a thing then I would probably have sought absolute clarity before booking.
d) they trade out of the Netherlands - small claims possible but just another buggeration factor.
Hopefully they've lost >CHF90 in hire car bookings from this thread but I suspect it's such a small amount to them as to make not a jot of difference!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Dashed, from an accommodation owner's point of view, if they can screw you over they will. A friend advertised an apartment on there with a maximum occupancy of 5 people. The family booked in 8 people, including 3 children. Despite there being no room for them all, and not enough beds, when she cancelled the booking, she was forced into paying Booking.com £350 towards the cost of the alternative accommodation. Her listing on there was quite clear, as was mine for a maximum of 4, but it was possible to potentially make a booking for 4 adults and 2 children.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Wow!! Definitely never them using again.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Dashed, i only advertise late availabilty on there now and for a couple only.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Booking.com win, sadly. Knowing full well no one eventually sues them.
But based purely on this tale, I’ll never use them for car rental or anything else beyond accommodation. Even then sometimes it’s just for research as their website is user friendly, then booking with the hotel directly.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There's been lots of internal changes at booking.com in recent years so it's now more difficult to get anything from them. I still like booking through them as often it's cheaper and more flexible but for any car rentals I just use general (Car rental specific) search engines.
Re additional charges, I think many companies have additional charge of "up to" for premium location that isn't included until final contract is provided but it's often that they don't apply it. I've found it strange with goldcar that even though they could have charged me a lot they didn't.
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Goldcar - literally the nicest bunch of people I've ever hired from.
Goldcar's tripadvisor reviews - literally the worse hire company in the world that will charge you for every biscuit crumb and invent car damage.
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100% agree with both. It really depends on a branch and luck. Their prices are often below cost so they need to make it up by aggressive sales tactic or by finding a reason to bill for a damage to the car.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Never had a problem with Booking.com, Goldcar, Buchbinder, Italycheaporent.com, Ryanair, etc etc.
Every time I have taken a car across a border, there has been a cross border fee. It is charged at the desk, not at the point of booking, no matter which platform I use for booking a car. It's one of the local charges to pay.
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| Klamm Franzer wrote: |
Every time I have taken a car across a border, there has been a cross border fee. It is charged at the desk, not at the point of booking, no matter which platform I use for booking a car. It's one of the local charges to pay. |
Not been a thing at Geneva before and I’ve had a lot of hire cars from there (there’s a separate thread on it somewhere on the forum).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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As I am about to book a hire car from Geneva, any recommendations for which company to use.
Budget is coming up with a reasonable looking option and say they are in terminal. I can't find any mention of cross border fees (will be going into France).
Alamo also have good offer but they appear to be offsite?
Many thanks
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Budget, europcar/kaddy, avis, hertz or sixt, unless there is a significant price difference I avoid companies like alamo even though I have car hire excess insurance.
They all are in a walking distance from terminal.
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Thanks @snowyc, we wont touch Europcar after the scam pulled by the Italian branch and despite us sending evidence of damage already on car they refused to accept that. Hope they enjoy that money they have got from us, as they will never get another penny
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You know it makes sense.
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Italy and Spain have different mentality when it comes to car hire companies, I use the local cheap ones given there is no difference in quality. I've never had issues with europcar when used them in UK or Swiss but in Italy they were no different to goldcar.
Also had a great experience with Hertz apart from 1 case in UK when the tank wasn't full so i returned it in the same state, provided pictures and proof of refueling 3min after collection of the car and Hertz ignored me and charged £3/l so I raised it with my bank and it was successful.
Some companies will let you provide evidence of damage in form of pictures but some of them require you to go back to office immediately to note it.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| NickyJ wrote: |
As I am about to book a hire car from Geneva, any recommendations for which company to use.
Budget is coming up with a reasonable looking option and say they are in terminal. I can't find any mention of cross border fees (will be going into France).
Alamo also have good offer but they appear to be offsite?
Many thanks |
Alamo are onsite, they share a desk at the usual hire office with Enterprise and National
Rented with them at half term, all good
Also no cross border fee
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Poster: A snowHead
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@NickyJ, we rent directly from Europcar every time now - joined their loyalty scheme and now get free second driver, easy check ins, no cross-border charge, a decent selection of EVs with no premium and no minimum charge % on return (so as we go to Morzine it’s effectively free fuel and saves cCHF40 compared with a petrol).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I've just booked car with sixt and there was a paid option to add travelling abroad (incl France) for around £30, I've looked at europcar website and it's as extras for similar price. I can't see anything similar on my old invoices.
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FAQ
