Here is the latest complaint letter, this time to Sixt Holiday Car rentals, who with an hour and a half before pick up decided to call me and say that I could only have one of the cars I ordered !

On Tuesday this week I booked two 7 seater cars from your office over the phone. The order number is 6xxxxxx. When I called I was told that it was possible to have these two big cars on Friday, and that they were available.Today approximately 90 minutes before I was due to pick up the cars, I received a telephone call from your offices in Munich, on Einsteinstrasse. They were calling to tell me that you no longer had a second car for me. And they couldn’t offer another one anywhere else in Munich today. So with 90 minutes to go I get this news that I would possibly have to cancel my weekend trip. And all your customer service agents could say is that “If someone doesn’t return their car to us, we cannot give it out to you“.

Putting it so simply was nice, but not offering me any alternative or a discount for being put like this really disappointed me. I have used your services over the last few years, and my company has uses you very often indeed. But still Sixt wasn’t able to offer me anything that could have helped me today. I was left in the situation of trying to call other car rentals companies frantically looking for a similar car within the next hour. And on a Friday evening, this was certainly something I would have wanted to avoid.

When I book a car, I would expect that my order would be granted and that you would do everything that you could to provide me with a car that I could use. But the best I could get out of your service agents was that they couldn’t do anything about it, and that it happens sometimes.

I feel very disappointed with the way I have been treated. And I am looking forward to hearing from you to clarify my points.

Sincerely,
Paul Savage

EDIT: Today (wednesday 23rd May) I got a reply from them today and they offered me a 30% reduction on the cost of one one of the cars. They always wanted to know if I had to get a replacement car and what was the costs, but seeing as we used two other cars instead I don’t think I will get any other money back. So all in all it pays to complain when you are not happy with the service. At least now the money will help towards a broken light on the rental car (don’t ask !)