Economy Bookings - didn't present voucher help

errlloyd

Hi all

I booked a car last month with Enterprise through EconomyBookings. It was late and I think I fucked up, but I am quite confused about it all.

Basically, I paid 121e for the car through economy bookings. The next morning I showed up at the desk and asked did they have my reservation, they did. They didn't take any payment from me other than a deposit and we hit the road. A few days after my journey I got my deposit back, less 121 euros (or it's Sterling equivalent). So I paid Economy Bookings and I paid Enterprise for the same car rental.

Now it seems (which was my mistake) I was supposed to present an Economy Bookings voucher at the rental desk when I got the car. And that would have covered the booking. I didn't, and they didn't ask despite having the booking on their system as having come from EconomyBookings. And because they didn't try and charge me upfront (other than the deposit) I didn't think anything was amiss.

Does anyone have an experience with this? I paid on my CC for the voucher, so I could dispute it with AIB, but to be fair to EB I don't think they actually did anything wrong other than having a stupid and convoluted system. But they also have no customer service so they're making it hard to sort out.

10-10-20

Sounds like you have fallen into a deep crack between these two messers.

EB appears to be a car rental aggregator based in NYC with a European office in Latvia which has a loose relationship with any and all car-hire companies, taking a cut of probably 20% on bookings. It effectively creates the booking on Enterprise's front-end system and you're then provided with a voucher by EB to match up with the Enterprise system at the hire-desk. It's highly likely that that booking contains exactly the same details as if you had made it directly with Enterprise, except maybe a tag or name indicating that it's an EconomyBookings booking.

Hence when you arrived at the Enterprise desk it suited the staff to overlook the EB flag and take direct payment from you as this moves the customer into a direct relationship (rather than being indirect) and means that the full cost of the hire hits Enterprise's books, rather than triggering a payment (less the commission) from EB's systems. That way the desk agent gets their commission too and there isn't any dispute from Enterprise's side as you failed to show the voucher as per EB's terms. So while this would seem slightly dishonest from a customer perspective, it's probably all above-board as per Enterprise's employee handbook.

So in my opinion, your beef now is with EB as they have your cash for the unclaimed voucher because the payment wasn't triggered by Enterprise. I'd go through their escalation process with the knowledge of getting a full refund is nil, I'll guess that the most you will receive is a "Compensation Voucher" as mentioned in the FAQ for a value of EUR 112.

This is a unique voucher code that can be applied to future bookings. The voucher:

Will be equal to the full value of the charged amount upon the initial booking

Will be valid for 24 months from the date it is issued

Will be applicable to any car rental location and car rental type of your choice

Can be used more than once in case Compensation Voucher amount exceeds the value of your next car rental payment

Maybe others have a different opinion here.

errlloyd

Great answer thanks. Do I've a leg to stand on using credit card charge back or no?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119415079#Comment_119415079

Chargebacks against hire firms are almost always rejected by the operators as so many are outright fraud. Regardless, Enterprise are going to have the signed docs agreeing to the charge here.

Car hire aggregators are bad news and should really be avoided at all costs (literally) - book direct with operators when you can.