I am a British citizen living overseas. On August 29th I rented a car from Car Hire UK at Gatwick Airport for 4 weeks. I had to pay an additional 670 pounds deposit on my visa at the time of booking to cover excess and fuel. They have no location at the airport so all transactions take place in the car park. When it was time to return to Grenada I was instructed to leave the car in the long term car park & leave a voice mail with its location, which I did at 6 am on September 25th 2008. It was full of fuel and in the same condition as when I rented it – I was therefore expecting a full refund. To date my visa card has not been credited. I have managed to contact them by phone a few times 0870 922 2839 or 0844 445 7754 and they have said that the refund was processed on September 29th; that the car was fine & they are investigating why I didn’t get the money. They did not reply to my subsequent e-mails to customer_servicesATcar-hire-uk.com & the phone usually goes to voice mail to which they do not respond. If they do answer they now hang up on me or I am on hold for ages until it goes to voice mail. I disputed the charge with Barclaycard Northampton however they can do nothing without a refund voucher which I do not have as I left the car in a car park & Car Hire UK have not supplied. I had wondered if this was just my bad luck or if others were falling into the same trap however I have today found other complaints about the company at http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/car--hire--uk-c39148/page/0.html
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Is there anything I can do to get my refund back? Is there a way that the public can be warned – their web site is offering cars as I write this letter www.car-hire-uk.com Do they need a licence to operate? And if so, can something be done to let that authority know what they are doing. It is now impossible to get through to the Company by telephone; Its always the same message –you are next in line several times and then it goes to voice mail or my personal favourite – Customer Service is closed! I have spent a lot of money on calls and credit card interest apart from wasting so much time. This problem has caused me a lot of anxiety and everyone should be aware of this company and their lack of customer service.
If there is any advice that you can offer I would be extremely grateful. I am 4000 miles away and I think they feel that because of that there is nothing I can do about the situation – I would love to prove them wrong!