Ripped off?????How to complain about car hire companies via Spanish consumer complaints offices

The advice applies to all Spanish airports and any car hire company although the specific complaints we received related to Corvera airport in Murcia

This summer has seen a large number of dissatisfied customers airing their views on social media after hiring cars from the companies operating at the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera, with Goldcar, a subsidiary of Europcar, coming in for particularly scathing criticism.

“Apart from the rip off to get you to buy expensive insurance cover and petrol scams”, one Murcia Today reader said, “it appears that they are now resorting to actual fraud”, referring to a charge for 400 euros “to cover non-existent damage to the car”. The issue also made the national press in the UK, with the Sunday Mirror quoting a representative of a complaints website as giving the opinion that “Goldcar is the worst for ripping off customers in an already tarnished industry”.

Complaints about being charged for alleged damage to a vehicle which was already dented or scratched when the hire contract was signed are the most common, and readers report being charged hundreds of pounds in some cases for damage which existed when they hired the car. Other “rip-offs” include charging for fuel despite the vehicle being returned with a full tank, and during the summer the company appears to have hit upon another lucrative source of rip-off revenue: sand!

Several readers were astonished to find that they have been charged 30 euros or more for a “special clean” as a result of sand being found in the footwells and boots of their hire cars on return: hire companies expect to have to clean a car when it is returned in order to give a pristine vehicle to the next customer, but this latest "special clean" sparked outrage amongst clients.

Many pieces of advice are offered to those hiring vehicles at Corvera airport (and indeed at other locations throughout Europe), including taking photos and video footage of the car on receiving it to cover the “non-existent damage” claim, taking out a car hire excess insurance policy, refusing to use the same company again and spreading the word on social network sites, and of course registering an official complaint.

However, this last course of action is by no means an easy one, as the unique nature of the services offered by car hire companies at airports makes it difficult to do so.

In theory, the desk at the airport should advertise the fact that customer complaint forms (“hojas de reclamación”) are available, but of course most customers are unlikely to ask for one either when they pick up their car or when they return it, because they are not notified of excess charges until they arrive home, most of them in the UK.

In addition, many cars are picked up and dropped off outside of main office hours.

In fact, a regional government complaints form in Spanish can be downloaded here (three copies, one for the claimant, one for the respondent and the other for the administration), but again it is likely that those attempting to press a claim in this way will face difficulties. For example, the respondent is obliged to complete the part relating to the “reclamado” before handing the sheet to the claimant, identifying the person who will deal with the matter in the company: remember, these sheets are made available for businesses where customers can request them over the counter.

In addition, the consumer complaints office in the city of Murcia informs Murcia Today that it can only process claims made by people registered on the “padrón” as resident in the municipality. This practically shields the car hire companies at Corvera from having such complaint forms investigated: the airport is within the municipality, but of course only a few of those hiring cars live in Murcia, as they are generally visitors from outside Spain, the only exceptions perhaps being those who are registered as residents in second homes on golf developments such as El Valle Golf Resort and those in the outlying district of Sucina.

So for the largest group of victims of fraudulent car hire practices, those living outside Spain and renting vehicles during a stay in the Costa Cálida, what solutions can be offered?

The advice offered by the consumer complaints office in Murcia is twofold, the first option being to register the complaint at your local consumer rights office. It can then be processed and directed through the right channels, although the likelihood is that this will be a long. drawn-out process.

Consumer rights offices are known as Oficina Municipal de Información al Consumidor or Oficina del Consumidor or Oficina de Consumo, or often they will appear simply as "OMIC".

Click here for a full list of consumer offices in the Region of Murcia listed by municipality

Alternatively, the European Commission offers an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) service, catering for those who have already attempted to press a claim relating to purchases made online (as is the case with almost all airport car rentals) through conventional channels (i.e. through the company concerned, in the case of Goldcar the website offers the chance to do so here).

The ODR platform allows you to either contact the trader to resolve the dispute directly, in which case you have 90 days to reach an agreement, or get a dispute resolution body to solve your dispute for you: this option establishes a limit of 30 days to agree with the trader on the dispute resolution body to use.

Click here to start registering your case on the ODR platform, and here for information on how the tool works.

However, another problem looms on the horizon for visitors from the UK hiring cars while visiting Spain. This is that you can only use the ODR platform if you live in an EU country or in Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, and should Brexit go ahead those who are resident in the UK will therefore be excluded.

Another possiblity, recommended by the EU's ODR platform, is to contact one of the European Consumer Centres: click link for further details (the UK centre is located in Basildon, Essex).

Of course, disregarding individual claims, the best solution in the long term for the problems related to car hire fraud at Corvera airport is for the companies which persist in charging excess amounts to go out of business or be forced to mend their ways. This can only be achieved if customers refuse to use firms which have cheated them in the past and spread the word about genuine instances of unfair charges to other users and potential users.

In other words, those readers who “name and shame” the offending companies on social media are, as long as their claims are valid, doing the right thing by enabling other customers who have an option to make an informed choice regarding the car hire firm they use.

Although this article specifically relates to car hire rip-offs, the use of a "Hoja de Reclamaciones" complaints form and the regional network of OMIC offices are powerful tools to assist those who feel aggrieved about any aspect of consumer services, so if you feel you are being badly treated by a company supplying a service or selling a product, remember that a legal company is obliged by law to supply you with a complaints form should you request one and that filing a complaint is your right as a consumer.

Foreign nationals living in Spain often wrongly assume that there is little protection for them here, but the system is rigid and fair and the Ed. has successfully used this mechanism in the past to obtain a refund on faulty goods from a company reluctant to give one.

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