Ryanair and car hire company - who is my contract with

[Help needed please]

Hi All

 

Wondered if somebody could help me with a basic contract question?

 

I booked a flight to Ireland via Ryanair on their app, adding car hire at only 68euro with Budget Car Rental.

 

There were two of us travelling, it is a regular monthly trip to see family.  What usually happens is, we get to the car hire desk, tell them my partner is the driver for the booking (I'm disabled), do all of the documents and drive away.  We have never used Budget before via this method although their prices are always in the options but this was the first time we selected them.

 

We got to the desk, they said the car was booked in my name as the driver (it wasn't, because adding the car to the flight does not ask at any point who is driving of the two passengers).

 

They would only 'change' it to my partners name if we paid and extra 120euros, almost 200% more.

 

We explained that we have not designated a driver, I am disabled and my partner was the driver and no booking had been made identifying any driver.

 

Long story short, they were hostile, uncompassionate and refused to budge.  We asked for money back and they said our contract was with Ryanair not them, as we had booked and paid to Ryanair.   Tried to contact Ryanair for two hours t no avail, so we declined the 200% extra payment, were stranded at the airport until we could arrange a car with another company and continued our travel.  We had to pay more as booked at the desk, but not the extortionate 120 euros more. 

 

Came home, contacted Ryanair to ask why they booked a drivers name when none had been asked for and none given.  They said they will not respond as they are just booking agent and will not deal with our complaint or refund, we must contact Budget.

 

Contacted Budget who say our contract is with Ryanair.

 

Now in a catch 22, who is our contract with and how do we get our money back for the car hire that never happened?  It is a small amount but it is the absolute principle of the situation after the treatment we received, which was hostile to almost aggression at the car hire desk and then each blaming the other and fobbing us off? 

 

Thanks all

[Homer67]

Did you pay by credit card? If so do a section 75 chargeback.

[Help needed please]

Thanks Homer.  Unfortunately not, I don't have a credit card which was part of the original issue above, it was paid by debit card around 3 weeks prior to flying and had already well cleared my current bank account.

[dx100uk]

wait for @Kyosanto to pop in

 

dx

 

[Kyosanto]

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not very familiar with car rentals... might be best moved to the motoring threads?

But from my best-guess perspective, ultimately Budget provided you with the service (or lack thereof) so I would think you would be correct to claim this with budget rent a car directly. (for example if airline 1 sells you a ticket flown by airline 2, usually it's airline 2 who is liable). I also remember stories of people buying Evri postage via a 3rd party booking tool, and they can always hold Evri directly liable.

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Kyosanto

[Kyosanto]

Some further random thoughts:

 

• Even if you paid by debit card, you could try a charge back with your bank. Before that make sure you line up your written evidence that you are being denied your refund, or that both companies are playing ping pong with you.
• Have you saved the original email/contract from your reservation, and does that say anything about naming the driver?
• Personally I've always rented cars for myself, didn't know you could actually rent a car for someone else, BUT THEN:
• Budget rent a car website itself doesn't mention anywhere in the booking process that the payer is also the driver. It just says that driver needs to be over 30 and have valid documents, that you need to present at checkin. So hopefully, this is what your reservation will also say, in which case I think you have a good case for chargeback.

[Help needed please]

Thank you so much @Kyosanto for your help.  I am absolutely certain that there were no terms and conditions attached to the booking via Ryanair on their downloaded app, so no emails involved in the booking itself.   I booked the flight for two passengers, then clicked 'extras' and chose car hire.  A list of cars and their prices came up, I clicked 'book' on the one I wanted and it added it to my flight with no additional 'click here to agree to T&Cs' or anything of that nature.    We do this regularly, and when we arrive at the rental desk, they ask who the driver will be and we complete the paperwork.

 

This is the first time we have selected Budget from the list and expected the same, but on arrival at the desk, they wanted 120euro extra to change the driver that we had never named.  They claimed that Ryanair said I was the driver, I don't believe them as Ryanair have never named me as the driver with any other car rental company before so I don't think that this is the process.  However, I can't get a straight answer from Ryanair either to confirm or deny whether they did book the rental with my name as a driver - so I can't say for certain which company decided to pick a driver from the two flights passengers without authority.

 

All communication with both has been by email since we returned, so lots evidence that they are fobbing us off and playing ping pong.  

 

I called my bank from the airport at the time and asked them to refund the debit card payment as we had not been given the service, but they said I needed to try to resolve with the companies myself and come back to them if I had no joy after 14 days, which will be by this coming Friday so I will go back to my bank and try again. 

 

Thanks again for your help, it is really appreciated.