Netflights car hire

A question about : Netflights car hire

Hi All,

I made a booking with netflights.com to pickup a car in JFK airport and return the next day to Newark airport, the total price on the website was Ј49.03, this was also in the invoice. the invoice and voucher both clearly stated the pickup and drop off locations i selected, when I got to the car hire they wanted an additional $545 (approxЈ360) for the one way rental, I argued that the voucher and invoice clearly states this selection and included in total price. I ended up taking out a new contract with the hire company directly and paid $125 (approx Ј80) in total for the exact same thing.
I wrote to netflights.com asking them to refund me the Ј80 which I ended up paying as there were many other sites offering a similar deal to theirs and they had screwed up the booking, netflights pointed me to the end of page 6 of the small print where it states 1 way rentals have an additional charge of $399 + local taxes ($locally that worked out $545).
Netflights also stated the charge was nothing to do with netflights but was the hire companies price for 1 way rentals, this is not the case as I ended up paying 5 x less taking it from the hire company directly, this must be something in the contract between netflights and the hire company.

My question is can they do this? I searched for a specific rental they showed it at Ј49.03 and I paid them Ј49.03, although they make you tick a box that you have read the terms and conditions can they reasonably expect a consumer to read reams of small print on a relatively small transaction?
Furthermore can the small print contradict / override the main article in the advertised price / invoice / voucher, namely collect at JFK return to Newark for Ј49.03?

Thanks

Best answers:

• You do not need to go to page 6....it is all dealt with on the first page with links to the detail further down
  It appears that you chose to tick the box that states "I agree to the car rental Terms & Conditions" without reading them
  If you select "terms & conditions" there is a breakdown of what is included and excluded
  Excluded from our Rates
  Roadside Assistance Plus
  Fuel
  Special Equipment
  Child and Booster Seats
  GPS
  Ski Racks
  Toll Pass
  Additional Drivers
  One Way Rental fees
  Young Driver Surcharge
  selecting "one way rental fees" will give you the breakdown of the charges
  Car hire is certainly one area where you do need to read the T&Cs to understand what you are buying
  I doubt you are going to get very far with this as you did tick to confirm that you agreed with these T&Cs
• Yet the main article, the advertised price, the invoice and the voucher clearly state a total price and the services the price is for, the price was for the car hire from location A to location B, misleading and deception is not what a consumer must expect in a contract!
• Reading the terms and conditions before ticking to say you accept them is usually a good idea.
  Presumably you lied when you ticked the box as you hadn't read them so who was committing deception ?
• Is it reasonable to expect a consumer to read 10 pages of small print for a Ј49 transaction?
  Is it reasonable / legal for a consumer contract small print to exclude what is specifically included in the advertised price / invoice / voucher?
• Although there may be 10 pages of print, there is 1 page of headings. You select the sections from the first page that are relevant to you and select them to read. With a one-way hire it is pretty important the know whether there will be any additional costs.
  I often hire cars to pick up in Gatwick an return to Heathrow and have never seen the one-way fee included in the base cost, when I do the calculations on the cheapest options I add the one-way fee to the rental cost and compare them that way. Often the cheapest rental has a higher one-way fee so may not end up the cheapest over all
  I agree that when you ask for a pickup in one location and dropoff in another it is obvious that you are doing a one-way hire so it would make sense for this cost to be included in the displayed price...but car hire companies don't appear to work this way
• I have just checked the following sites:
  1. lastminute.co.uk - clearly different price for one way rentals (price difference for 1 day was about Ј12)
  2. expedia.co.uk - clearly different price for one way rentals (price difference for 1 day was about Ј14)
  3. alamo.com - was Ј1 cheaper for daily price on 1 day rental but clearly stated Additional Charges "One Way Rental" before selecting the car.
  4. easycar.com - has a big note warning that the price does not include one way charge (many other sites i checked have the same warning)
  I just double checked netflights there is no warning at all!
• I have booked one way with Netflights, although it didn't calculate on the page what the one way fee was, it did make it clear there was one, and I think that it was payable to the car rental agency not to Netflights. By clicking on a link, I got the cost, I cannot see any reason why they would try to hide it. Clearly in your case, a fixed fee for a one way rental makes no sense at all, frankly I cannot see the point of a car in New York at all, but that is a personal issue. In many airports in the US, the rental station is a franchise and not centrally owned, so they want 'their' cars back at their station.
• If the rental is Ј49.03 and the one way charge is $545 (inc taxes) they hide it!
• caz3121 - do you work for netflights?
  When the price includes drop off to other location and the t&c's exclude what conclusion is reasonable to arrive at? even reading it now it seems that if you don't book to drop off at a different location and do so there is a fine to pay, this is a normal way for car hire companies to operate! what is not normal is including it in the price and excluding it in the t&c's
• of course I don't work for netflights but I do book cars and the industry is rife with fleecing you for "extras" so if the front page does not tell me whether the one way fee is included I always check so I read the T&Cs....
  I agreed with you that it would make sense for them to be transparent when it is obvious that you are doing a one-way hire
  I sometimes use auto-europe which does have a banner
  Important One Way Information
  Certain restrictions may apply when picking up and dropping off at different locations, including additional fees. If the one way is permitted, we will contact you to advise of any restrictions and/or applicable fees. A voucher will also be sent for your review. You may cancel your reservation and receive a full refund if done so with 48h advanced notice.
  or rentalcars.com
  Please Note: Additional one-way fees may apply for this rental. Should this be the case we will contact you after you send in your request & advise you of the relevant fees, which will be payable to the supplier locally.
  With netflights it would be indeed a fair assumption to make that the one-way fee is included - (after all you have stated you are picking up in one place and returning to another) until you read the T&Cs
• All the sites i checked today (more then 20) at least have a warning, and I repeat what I wrote before when the terms excluded 1 way rental the most reasonable assumption one can make is that if you do not book a one way and end up returning to a different location.
• Am I missing something, or has the OP been charged Ј360 for a 33 mile one way drop off, on a one day hire ??
  If so, I'm absolutely staggered.
• At the hire location the kind rep serving me told me there is a very big one way fee for this rental and she cannot figure out why, in the end I dropped that rental and she gave me a new one directly without this crazy fee!