Over the christmas period I decided to rent a vehicle to visit my family in Scotland so I picked up the yellow pages and rang few companies to get a quotation, the best offer I recieved was from eurodrive.

The offer was 12 days hire for f160.00 all inclusive so I went a head and booked the car for Christmas eve.

I arrived and was greeted in friendly manner by a young gentleman at the desk, he went through the booking with me and confirmed everything as discussed. I confirmed everything rented the vehicle paid f160 plus f500 deposit on my credit card.

Upon return of the vehicle another gentleman was on duty, he checked the car in the he said there was new damages on the car, I disputed but at the end agreed on it as he had my signiture so small mark costed f50 plus vat.

When we came inside he told me the vehicle is over due by 5 days as the rent period was only for 7 days to my estonishment I asked him to check his papers and he said the other gentlmen made a mistake and we had to charge another f160 as 5 days cost is equivilant to 7 days, at this point I was so upset I told him no way I will pay this as I have valid contract which confirmed everything.

I requested to speak to his managment and told me to ring the head office so I went a head and called them, after long discussion with lady the lady mentioned this is franchise and they have the right to charge me according to the terms. to my estonishment she did not even listen to a word I said and ordered me to pay the relevent charges.

After a long argument I decided enough is enough and agreed to pay the f160 for the extra weeks rent and all I wanted to do at this point is to go home.

So far my charges totaled to f378.75

I requested rest of my deposit to be refunded, he got up and said the that is not all the charges, he brought out a folder and said the following penalties were recieved while I hired the vehicle

1. Congestion charge 72.50 including admin
2. Parking fine f80.00 including admin
3. 1/4 fuel 15 plus VAT.

At this point I have reached my limit into how far I can sit here and listen to all these rediculous charges so I got up and demanded that I see everysingle proof of eveidance that I commited all these offences. He got up and said we are still waiting for the papers to come through from the relavent authorities but will be in contact in the next week.

I went home with huge headache and possibly lost f660 to a fraudulent company.

I decided to wait for a week until I here from them. in the meantime I called my credit card company to dispute the charges but I was informed it will take upto several months to resolve the issue.

After several weeks I recieved a letter detailing the charges

Car rental f320
Car damage f58.75
penalties f150.50
Fuel f17.63

Total charges f538.63

And small apology letter stating our credit card facility is down we will refund the rest of your money in the next 2 weeks.

This experience had given me a huge wake up call to the kind of environment we live in.

What happend to fair trade? good customer service? and all the ethics behind business practice?

I just don't know but one thing is for sure I would reccommend that you always check double check before you hire a vehicle.