Rental car troubles

[Siemi]

I thought I did well and booked my rental car well in advance, already in April. I thought I used a reputable company, booked it thru the Thaivisa website (as a small gesture to this excellent forum which will sure get a fee out of it). After our arival in Juli, we went to the rental counter, with the printed confirmation in my hand. The rent was already deducted from my credit card in April, so it would be easy without any hassle after our 21 hour journey. I was shocked to be informed that the rental company at the airport had no confirmation for my rental. According to them, the request was not honored by them, since the requested car was not available. They could not help me at that time, since there was simply no suitable rental car available.

Of course I tried to contact the rental company on the spot, but I didn't manage to get anyone on the phone, although the calls to the UK have cost me over 10 euros. I managed to pursuade a friend to come get us. The next day I informed the rental car company about what happend and I was counting on, apart from appologies, to get a refund. Well, the apologies were there. The refund would be on its way. That was the 13th of July. Until now, I still didn't get my refund. According to them, because they have to confirm that I didn't collect the rental car after all.

When I look out of the window, I see a much more expensive Avis rental car which I had to arrange myself. Since the 13th of July the Thai visa forum affiliated company failed to pick up the phone to confirm whether I have collected the rental car and they keep me waiting. I am complaining on a daily basis and the mails get answered with the same answer every day.

I hope Thai Visa forum can assist, since I am unable to persuade the rental car company to pick up the phone and make a simple phone call.

[cumgranosalum]

Personal appearance is good - and make an "appointment" with the manger......in say the next 124 hours.

Explain how this is going onto all the main expat and tourist websites togwther with n=ames etc unless he makes a satisfactory offer there and then.

If he s=doesn't point out that he is clearly does not have the authoritiy to sort this out and say you will dome back in an hour when he has sorted it out or ask to see his boss ASAP.

I try and be as polite as possible through all this, keep smiling and point out thay his time is running out on this and he leaves you no option but to "go public" as much as you can to get advice.

When you send him any emails make sure that you fill in the CC to sometihng like the Nation or Bangkok post....that often stirs them to action.

[Sviss Geez]

"I thought I used a reputable company, booked it thru the Thaivisa website (as a small gesture to this excellent forum which will sure get a fee out of it)"

Good to see the "excellent" Thaivisa leaping into action on your behalf. A forum operator that clearly does not give a flying fart.

As you booked and paid for the car using a credit card you should be speaking to the card issuer. I think you'll find that they have an obligation to help you out.

Forget about advice from anyone telling you to go there in person and to start threatening them.

[richard_smith237]

Thanks for the heads up...

This is now one method I'll avoid when booking rental cars in Thailand.

I'll go straight to Avis & hertz... I can't risk this hassle and careless service when traveling with an infant to other areas a flight away from Bkk (Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai etc).

[Sviss Geez]

I don't know whether the OP booked his car this way but maybe this should be taken as a serious warning to anyone considering booking a car through the Thaivisa Rent-A-Car forum search.

I've just done a search and was offered several Camrys at very low prices, the equivalent of less than 1,500 baht per day for a 7 day booking from companies that are not usually known to offer low prices, Hertz for example.

[cumgranosalum]

"I thought I used a reputable company, booked it thru the Thaivisa website (as a small gesture to this excellent forum which will sure get a fee out of it)"

Good to see the "excellent" Thaivisa leaping into action on your behalf. A forum operator that clearly does not give a flying fart.

As you booked and paid for the car using a credit card you should be speaking to the card issuer. I think you'll find that they have an obligation to help you out.

Forget about advice from anyone telling you to go there in person and to start threatening them.

i agree if you can get redress via credit card that is the way to go...I'm also not suggesting "threatening" - I believe in being VERY polite and making my case quite clear at the APPROPRIATE stage in the negotiations.....

unfortuntely the concept of true customer service is very rare in Thailand and there are few consumer protection laws....... the "normal" reaction by many companies faced with a customer complaint is to do nothing and hope that the problem will go away......if they do this you have to make it clear that THIS problem is not going anywhere........I've found on several occasions that I get results by being persistent......I will concede that this is a skill...learned or intuitive and I see many people cock up in these circumstances - I've been very successful in getting redress in these situations to the tune of thousands of baht .....

[sirineou]

as others said

Call your Credit card company, it should had being the first thing you did after you did not receive a refund.

You ordered a product or service, you paid with your credit card , and you did not receive said product or service, this is fraud and your credit card has a fraud protection department. Call them immediately.

[WarpSpeed]

Wish I could agree that customer service is very lacking just in Thailand, it seems to be a rather lacking skill EVERYWHERE now.. This is a Thai based forum so I'll refrain from a rant about the service here now, it seems the monopolies have it all their own way anymore and competitive or regulative recourse, it's the bane of the capitalist system anymore.

[cumgranosalum]

Wish I could agree that customer service is very lacking just in Thailand, it seems to be a rather lacking skill EVERYWHERE now.. This is a Thai based forum so I'll refrain from a rant about the service here now, it seems the monopolies have it all their own way anymore and competitive or regulative recourse, it's the bane of the capitalist system anymore.

I didn't say it was just Thailand......

BUT

Thailand is quite different from most countries in the "west"- - as they have a legal system and consumer laws that wronged punters can make use of.... in Thailand these things are relatively new, have only vestigial powers and compensation is often not worth the effort.

It even seems many individuals would rather have you killed than admit to their own fault.

[WarpSpeed]

Yeah you can hire a lawyer to sue them and pay the lawyer 3 times more then the company or business screwed you out of and then make your point IF you win, and that has become a regular part of doing business now that the company's and businesses have learned it's profitable to give it a try since most will just walk away instead. In Thailand often you can call the police (in this case tourist) and many times they'll help you work it out right there and then, or at least you can file a complaint with them which will aid in future pursuit of the company and refunds, in the west they'll tell you to slog off because it's a civil case and your only recourse is an expensive and time consuming law suit.

[NanLaew]

When using the TV car rental search engine, you are using a broker that probably uses cartrawler search engine. The ultimate place for making a complaint and getting redress is the broker that the TV car rental search engine directed you to and you eventually selected. It has NOTHING to do with TV or the car rental agency that the broker's software pre-selected for you. Consequently, it does take longer to close out any loops when something goes amiss.

From my personal experience: I needed a car urgently for a late evening pickup at Manchester airport (UK). I had a BMW 5 series pre-paid for 10 days but when I got to the Thrifty office (off airport around 11 PM) they only had a 3-series. They had asked the brokerage to confirm with me if this was acceptable but I was airborne by that time so never got the message. I had to take the 3-series and pursue the refund via the brokerage only AFTER the rental was completed. This took about a month to clear after the end of the rental and was subject to renegotiation as the original partial refund offered by Thrifty (via the brokerage) was too small. It took about 2 months before the agreed credit appeared in my credit card account.

Forget about lawyers and contact the brokerage. They will need to sort out their communication issues with the actual rental agency first but don't expect a fast resolution any time soon.

And once again, it has NOTHING to do with TV.

[stevenl]

When using the TV car rental search engine, you are using a broker that probably uses cartrawler search engine. The ultimate place for making a complaint and getting redress is the broker that the TV car rental search engine directed you to and you eventually selected. It has NOTHING to do with TV or the car rental agency that the broker's software pre-selected for you. Consequently, it does take longer to close out any loops when something goes amiss.

From my personal experience: I needed a car urgently for a late evening pickup at Manchester airport (UK). I had a BMW 5 series pre-paid for 10 days but when I got to the Thrifty office (off airport around 11 PM) they only had a 3-series. They had asked the brokerage to confirm with me if this was acceptable but I was airborne by that time so never got the message. I had to take the 3-series and pursue the refund via the brokerage only AFTER the rental was completed. This took about a month to clear after the end of the rental and was subject to renegotiation as the original partial refund offered by Thrifty (via the brokerage) was too small. It took about 2 months before the agreed credit appeared in my credit card account.

Forget about lawyers and contact the brokerage. They will need to sort out their communication issues with the actual rental agency first but don't expect a fast resolution any time soon.

And once again, it has NOTHING to do with TV.

Since I presume the OP followed the link in the header of the forum, rent-a-car, which leads to a website with the Thai Visa logo on it Thai Visa for sure gives the impression they are involved with this. I would presume only on commission basis, but with their logo on the website 'it has nothing to do with Thai Visa' is IMO not correct.

[NanLaew]

When using the TV car rental search engine, you are using a broker that probably uses cartrawler search engine. The ultimate place for making a complaint and getting redress is the broker that the TV car rental search engine directed you to and you eventually selected. It has NOTHING to do with TV or the car rental agency that the broker's software pre-selected for you. Consequently, it does take longer to close out any loops when something goes amiss.

From my personal experience: I needed a car urgently for a late evening pickup at Manchester airport (UK). I had a BMW 5 series pre-paid for 10 days but when I got to the Thrifty office (off airport around 11 PM) they only had a 3-series. They had asked the brokerage to confirm with me if this was acceptable but I was airborne by that time so never got the message. I had to take the 3-series and pursue the refund via the brokerage only AFTER the rental was completed. This took about a month to clear after the end of the rental and was subject to renegotiation as the original partial refund offered by Thrifty (via the brokerage) was too small. It took about 2 months before the agreed credit appeared in my credit card account.

Forget about lawyers and contact the brokerage. They will need to sort out their communication issues with the actual rental agency first but don't expect a fast resolution any time soon.

And once again, it has NOTHING to do with TV.

Since I presume the OP followed the link in the header of the forum, rent-a-car, which leads to a website with the Thai Visa logo on it Thai Visa for sure gives the impression they are involved with this. I would presume only on commission basis, but with their logo on the website 'it has nothing to do with Thai Visa' is IMO not correct.

Thai Visa also has advertised links to the best hotel rates worldwide but they have absolutely no partnership with agoda. It is all about click-through revenue generation. Read the small print.

Back on topic, the OP needs to hold the car rental brokerages feet to the fire on this and forget about any TV involvement.

[Siemi]

As advised over here. Upon arrival at home (after our too short 1 month holiday) I filed a credit card claim with my bank. After 2 days the claim was honored and the refund was made final. I guess the credit card payment at Avis the next morning made it quite obvious.

As for rentalcars.com. The last response I received was at the 11th of August:

Please accept my sincere apologies but the supplier has not yet confirmed that you did not collect this car.

Can you please allow a few more days to receive this confirmation?

After a month they still didn't manage to call the thai rental company. Haven't heard from them since then (other then lots of Spam regarding superdeals and so).

I will never rent a car thru them again. I guess that if things go well, all is ok, but their unability to fix their own mistake is enough for me to blacklist them.

[stevenl]

When using the TV car rental search engine, you are using a broker that probably uses cartrawler search engine. The ultimate place for making a complaint and getting redress is the broker that the TV car rental search engine directed you to and you eventually selected. It has NOTHING to do with TV or the car rental agency that the broker's software pre-selected for you. Consequently, it does take longer to close out any loops when something goes amiss.

From my personal experience: I needed a car urgently for a late evening pickup at Manchester airport (UK). I had a BMW 5 series pre-paid for 10 days but when I got to the Thrifty office (off airport around 11 PM) they only had a 3-series. They had asked the brokerage to confirm with me if this was acceptable but I was airborne by that time so never got the message. I had to take the 3-series and pursue the refund via the brokerage only AFTER the rental was completed. This took about a month to clear after the end of the rental and was subject to renegotiation as the original partial refund offered by Thrifty (via the brokerage) was too small. It took about 2 months before the agreed credit appeared in my credit card account.

Forget about lawyers and contact the brokerage. They will need to sort out their communication issues with the actual rental agency first but don't expect a fast resolution any time soon.

And once again, it has NOTHING to do with TV.

Since I presume the OP followed the link in the header of the forum, rent-a-car, which leads to a website with the Thai Visa logo on it Thai Visa for sure gives the impression they are involved with this. I would presume only on commission basis, but with their logo on the website 'it has nothing to do with Thai Visa' is IMO not correct.

Thai Visa also has advertised links to the best hotel rates worldwide but they have absolutely no partnership with agoda. It is all about click-through revenue generation. Read the small print.

Back on topic, the OP needs to hold the car rental brokerages feet to the fire on this and forget about any TV involvement.

Thai visa is in partnership with Agoda and receives commission on every booking.

Some ads are click through, some are sponsors, others have a direct financial interest for TV.

[Siemi]

Same with the rental car, the TV receives commission on every sale. Otherwise they made a bad deal. I hope TV can keep its commission on my rental