UKC

Arrived 3 hrs late at MAN on Monday with my son, we just missed Europcar. We had attempted to contact them from Torp and upon landing. No answer. The following  morning we couldn't pick up the wheels and were forced to find the cheapest "walk-out". Europcar insisted the Ryanair voucher had expired and had been returned. I queried this after a massive chase yesterday and Ryanair just blanked me. Any suggestions or previous experience recommended! Note to self: book directly w carhire firm next time. 

Interesting, was your flight with Ryan Air and you had booked your Car Hire through Ryan Air?
I wonder if this constitutes a package?
Did you pay with a credit card?
Have they charged you a day as a no show?
How much extra has the walk in cost?

Also be aware that booking direct isn't always great. I stupidly booked a car from the wrong airport once. Flying into Malaga, flying home from Grenada. I booked to collect from Grenada by mistake. 

We arrived 3hrs 10mins after the time we said (still within opening hours etc). They had a 3 hour collection policy which they wouldn't budge on despite us calling ahead and knowing that we would be late. The car was sat there waiting for us, fully paid for, but we had to take out a new hire contract due to being "late".

The whole booking was through Ryanair, although I doubt they define it as a package. The walk-in was about twice the price, but I was obliged to take full insurance which is about half of that (there is no option on that type of booking apparently). The whole booking disappeared so the whole fee went (booked by debit card, another lesson learned!). Thanks for response. 

I feel your pain. The poxy thing was sat on the asphalt at MAN (we were there early doors after unnecessary hotel). I asked the guy if he couldn't just pretend that we were given the keys the night before(!). Received better service at another desk, but the damage was done. 

Be grateful you get steps and didn't have to departed the aircraft jumping off the wings. 

Ryanair are the logical conclusion of pursuing a "I will always buy the cheapest and I don't care about anything else" policy to its limit. The cheapest only became the cheapest by working out every possible way they can extract extra money from each customer. Sure, it's the cheapest if you spend the extra hours to research the invisible hoops you need to jump through not to get screwed _and_ are lucky enough not to get screwed by something you can't control.

I don't know how much money you are chasing here but if the people you are trying to get it out of are Ryanair, I wouldn't bother wasting your time, you've got more chance of personally negotiating a peace deal in the middle east.

After a particularly bad experience, I made a resolution never to use Ryanair again. It's been a couple of decades now and I can confidently say that I regret nothing!

I would say you have a good legal case to get your money back.  Your contract appears to have been 'frustrated' by external events beyond your control.

I started a case against Ryanair in June 2020.  Flight to Agadir in late March 2020 was 'frustrated' by Morocco closing its airspace (as the world went into lockdown).  Ryanair dragged their heels for three months, regarding the refund.  Got tired of waiting for my £700, so I initiated a court case in Dublin.  I received a snot-ogram from their legal team outlining 30 reasons why I wouldn't win.  And then they gave me a full refund a week before the court case was due!

Notes.  You can't claim incidental expenses in the Irish 'small claims' court.  And you have to turn up, or you risk losing by default.  But I figure the Ryanair solicitor's expenses will be much greater than mine.  So they'd prefer to settle out of court.

Dave

Of course Ryanair is the only option for some destinations 

Remember that your phone has call records to support the fact that you tried to call Europcar to tell them of the delay, several times.  It's their fault that they didn't respond to your calls.  Sounds like it's a ploy to get a more profitable contract.  I'd be looking at the Europcar Ts and Cs as to what they reasonably require you to do in the event of a delay.  Ts and Cs must be fair to both parties.  So there will be reasonable requirements on them to be able to receive your communications and take appropriate action.

All good advice.

Organizations seek to external cost, and on initial contact, will just if not ignore will just say no. Most big organizations are the same NHS, Police, Airlines, and in my opinion the people working within are complicit.

What the OP could do is be persistent and maximize the cost to Ryan Air by being in the small percentage who are prepared to go all the way. What's the worst that can happen, a weekend break in Dublin and the court fee, if he loses. If he wishes to fly to Dublin for the court case, Ryan air do some good deals.

Also have look on Money-saving expert forums, there are people there who live for this.

Very frustrating. I’ve had a fair few small claims cases with car hire companies over the years and have won them all (or they’ve paid up). Scamming is part of the business model.

Two main reasons not to book through the airline are firstly it’s never the cheapest and secondly they use one company and you’re in the same queue as everyone else on the flight.

I doubt it.

And if such a place does exist, I'm sure I can deal with not going there.

Doesn't necessarily mean you need to give up on chargeback options with the card company. The companies aren't legally obliged to offer as much protection on debit card purchases as on credit cards, but they can still do chargebacks.

Rzeszów.

We're flying back from there tomorrow with Ryanair.

As Bob Kemp says they are often the only carrier who go to the places i want to travel. 

I use them all the time without drama but i've never booked cars or hotels with them. Much better to seek it out independently. 

Other airlines do fly to Rzeszów, but it may be you only see the Ryanair flights because they are more direct and cheaper.

But that's a bit nit-picky. My main argument would be that flying to Krakow and travelling the last bit to Rzeszów by land would be a perfectly reasonable option.

I recently had to break my "Never fly Ryanair" rule because there was no other option to fly Gatwick to Dublin. Last time I went I used Aer Lingus, but they no longer fly the route. I guess all the semi-reputable carriers have abandoned the route because most people aren't willing to pay a few quid more to use a company that aren't total c***s.

Not sure why I'd want to add an extra 3h return train journey to my itinerary for no good reason? 

But if that suits your principals thats up to you.i guess.

I think I'll just stick with a carrier who goes where i want to

Thanks Dave. Have trawled these to the best of my ability and they (obviously) don't cover the "what to do if we don't answer the poxy phone". The guy on the desk had blatantly got out of bed on the wrong side too, irrelevant though that is. The bummer now is this cash is just floating around in the ether. Think if all this missing money that people (rightly or wrongly) just give up on could automatically funnel to Save the Children or Oxfam or similar. Will return this current car w time enough to pick an argument at the Europcar desk and unload on the missed calls log.  

Interesting to try to gauge how many asterisks are acceptable. 

More likely the "missing" money is sitting in one of Europcar's slush fund accounts, less Ryanair's cut which will be sitting in one of their accounts ditto. All eventually contributing to each company's bottom line. 

We are reluctantly flying Ryanair to Seville in the autumn.  No other operator offers direct flights from our local airport, and every indirect option took twice as long, minimum, and cost more.  Other carriers are doing direct flights to Málaga but that then requires a bus transfer to Seville which takes longer than the flight (and adds cost). Bottom line: it's not always solely cost that causes people to use Ryanair, although this will be only the second time I've ever used them.

You can get away with just two. 🙂 You used to be able to edit your post and it didn't swear-check edited posts. But that doesn't work any more.

I can't. 

I flew to Seville in February this year with Ryanair. As you say, direct flights from your local airport. No brainer.

Its a simple business model and if you follow the rules works perfectly for everyone.

Can't comment on Europcar. We always use Carflexi for cars and that seems ok.