I would be interested to know how you got on. Car rental agreements are complicated. You have to read the small print. My opinion is that Fifteen02 were in the right. Your agreement was with the renter. Renters have different terms. Fifteen02 show each renters terms on their website and you affirmed that you had read the agreement. When Fifteen02 offered you a change of renter and you agreed to the change I think it would be reasonable for them to assume you had read the agreement for the new renter.

kiwikarl

For your credit card company to get involved I think the 2nd driver cost would have to be £100 or more. If it is less than £100 I don't think you will have any joy.

Your complaint is with fifteen 02, so you should check full details of all communications you had with them. I have checked the Alamo site and they are currently offering a free second driver in North America, saving up to $49 per week.

If I were you I would go back to Fifteen 02 and ask to speak to the Customer Services Manager. If they do not repay the fee incurred for 2nd driver if you advised this was a requirement, then advise them you will add poor comments on every single consumer internet forum. This may lose them potentially thousands of pounds worth of business. Just make sure any comments you add are factual, as otherwise they may take action against you.

huckster

KiwiKarl:

I can't offer you a magic wand to force 'Fifteen 02' or indeed Virgin (or MBNA).

However what you need to do is (what you have done) give and document 'Fifteen 02' one opportunity to remedy the issue and failing that give Virgin (or MBNA) one opportunity to remedy the issue, then failing that invoke the formal Virgin (or MBNA) complaints procedure.

Its a fairly accelerated procedure initially. Ask the adviser, if you don't agree ask for a manager and if you still don't agree contact in writing the address stated in the complaints procedure. If you remain disastisfied after 8 weeks regardless of further progress, ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to accept the complaint.

I cannot promise an outcome in you favour, and it certainly won't be quick, could be up to a year, but it's free to you and costs MBNA a hefty case fee regardless of outcome. If that doesn't focus Virgin (or MBNA) then nothing will.

That's it. Get on with it!

Sorry about the formatting... looked fine before I clicked 'Post'.

I purchased a rental car package through the firm 'Fifteen 02'. The package was for a booking with Budget and included two drivers and was an all inclusive package (of all the annoying rental car company costs). The package came to a total of £362 (including £5 cancelation insurance). A day or so after placing the order, I was contact by a 'Fifteen 02' representative explaining that Budget did not have a suitable vehicle available, but for a slight increase they could provide me a vehicle from Dollar for £374.I replied back agreeing to the price and stating (in writing) that I was happy to go ahead with the order assuming it was an all inclusive price and still had the same terms and conditions.The next email I got from 'Fifteen 02' was a rental confirmation with a note on there stating that they couldn't secure the vehicle with Dollar, but had secured one with Alamo for the same price. The price charged was actually £374 + £5 cancelation insurance, so a total of £379.Shortly after that email, I then recieved my rental voucher. I read through both the confirmation and the rental voucher and everything seemed in order.When I arrived at the Alamo counter to pick up the vehicle, I was informed that the rental agreement did not include a second driver and also required me to purchase of a full tank of petrol.The Alamo manager very kindly provided me with her details and outline what was and wasn't included in the rental agreement, as this information was available on her system, but not listed on my rental voucher.I then paid for the additional driver and the full tank of petrol, as I was in at Savannah International Airport and didn't have many other options.I have since been in discussion with 'Fifteen 02' about the situation. I managed to return the vehicle on empty, so luckily wasn't out of pocket for the full tank of petrol. I am however out of pocket for the cost of the second driver.'Fifteen 02' argued that the terms and conditions with Alamo state that they only provide one driver and include the purchase of a full tank of petrol. They also state that is information was available on their website for me to read.I pointed out the fact that I had read the terms and conditions at the time of my original booking. As the original booking was for a budget rental, the Alamo terms and conditions were not shown. I also pointed out that at no point throught all the email correspondence did they inform me that the terms and conditions had altered. I finally pointed out that the statement in my email agreeing to the new price with the same terms and conditions should have alerted them to notify me if they had changed.'Fifteen 02' have refused to refund me the cost of the second driver, claiming that since the information was available on their website, they are in the right.As I have failed to come to satisfactory resolution with 'Fifteen 02', I notifed them that I would make a claim with my credit card company (MBNA / Virgin Money MasterCard) as they have failed to provide the goods and services agreed and documented in the transaction.So... now on ot MBNA...I contacted MBNA and explained the situation the customer services rep. He said that this sounded like a 'MasterCard Regulations Standard Dispute No Receipt of Service'. We were all ready to run through the dispute process. At this point he asked me for the cost of the additional driver. I provided him with the price that it cost me at the time. He stated that this was not sufficient and that I needed a breakdown of the original £374 showing the second driver component.'Fifteen 02' did not provide a cost breakdown. I explained this to the customer service rep. My theory was that we put the dispute in with the value I paid and they could counter offer with their internal cost. The customer service rep. stated that we could not do this. We had one opportunity to dispute (through MasterCard) and if they rebutted this, the dispute would be thrown out.I questioned this 'one chance' process, and was told my other option was to take it up directly with MBNA (Billing Disputes, PO Box 1441, MBNA, Chester, CH4 9ZE).So, after that long story... does anyone have any advice.I've been stuffed around by 'Fifteen 02' and now my fallback with MasterCard doesn't appear to be very hopeful.Thanks,Karl