Suckered – Beware the Midnight Hour

 A tale of idiocy and loss at the car hire counter

W. C. Fields said, ‘Never give a sucker an even break’ – a mantra that car hire companies in Spain have thoroughly embraced. I know this only too well as I’ve just been the idiotic sucker and am a couple of hundred euros out of pocket as a result.

Let’s start with the idiocy. I had booked car hire with OK Mobility online for collection at Málaga Airport. Our flight arrived at 11.35 pm so I had booked for collection at 12. But my inner idiot (my wife would say, it’s not well hidden) had not noticed that the 12 was actually noon not midnight.

On arrival at the OK Mobility counter, there was some confusion. Once I gave the booking reference, all was revealed. I stupidly assumed that I’d still have a car, after all I’d paid for its use for 12 days so missing out on 12 hours didn’t seem that big a deal. I was swiftly disabused of that notion.

There were no cars. The booking was lost after 4 hours and ‘my car’ like an unfaithful lover had run off with another.

At this point, I had nothing to complain about. It might have been nice if OK Mobility had thought to email or message me, along the lines of ‘where the heck are you’, while I was still eating lunch at home or had looked at my many previous bookings which are mainly for late arrivals. But, apparently, that was too much to hope for.

I ask the young woman at the counter what I can do. Can I have a car sometime the next day? She tells me that I have to ring the head office in Palma Majorca and, when I suggest that it would be better if she rang because my Spanish is poor (especially at midnight), she tells me that I have to do it. I reluctantly ring the head office and my call is answered by a man who speaks excellent English. He tells me that my booking can still be honoured but, as there are no cars, I will need to return the next day to get a car. I’m quite happy with this – even though it means a 50 euro taxi ride to our apartment and a trail back the next day, that’s the price of my stupidity.

When I recount this conversation to the lady behind the counter, she is not happy. Apparently head office cannot know that a car will be available and she doesn’t accept the arrangement. She rings the head office – yes, dear reader, the very thing that she couldn’t do five minutes earlier. A long conversation ensues with a woman at head office and I can catch only a few Spanish words.

I wasn’t surprised to be told that the first solution was no longer on the table. If a car was available the next day, I would have to pay extra and there might not be a car. I asked how much extra I would have to pay and was told ‘at least 50 euros’, although I had the distinct feeling that this was a figure pulled from the air. How would I know if a car was available, I asked, could I ring the desk at the airport to find out. I was told that I had to ring head office. At this point, Kafka wants a word – I was asked to get the vital information from the people who, I had just been told, didn’t actually have it. At this point, my patience was thin and it got thinner as the young woman at the desk made it clear that she really didn’t think that that a car would be available. When I made it clear that I really had to have a car no later than the next day, she suggested that I might seek a refund if I booked elsewhere.

So, exhausted by now, I took the taxi and booked a car with another company for the following day.

On contacting OK Mobility customer service and explaining that I was a regular customer and that I had made a silly mistake. You can probably guess the reaction. I was not entitled to any refund and not so much as a credit was offered even though they had cancelled the booking, had all my money and their new customer’s money too for that same car. I was even more out of pocket and they had double profits. In England, this might be considered unconscionable and a breach of consumer rights but I know very little Spanish law and have no appetite for a dispute over £150 or so.

I’d be interested to hear views. Obviously I am partly the author of my own misfortune but is that the sort of ethical customer service you would expect? I suspect you will say that I am a hopeless idealist in expecting ethical behaviour from a car hire company. After all they have quite a reputation for selling overpriced insurance and finding scratches that drivers failed to photograph before driving off.

So, beware the 12 o’clock booking, whether noon or midnight. We live and learn. Except, my wife insists that I add, in my case.

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