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Car hire firm removes false claim from website
Europcar has been ordered to remove from its website a false promise to customers who hired a vehicle from its prestige range that they were guaranteed to get the model they chose.
Advertising watchdog the ASA received two complaints about an advert on europcar.co.uk on May 30, which said ‘…To book your Luxury or Fun vehicle just enter your destination above and remember, the model you choose is the model you get. Guaranteed’
The complainants challenged whether the claim was misleading because they understood that Europcar could not guarantee that the chosen model would be available and in the event that it was not, customers would be given a substitute.
In its defence, Europcar said it had operated the guaranteed service for over two years with a considerable uptake, yet had ‘very few issues’ relating to service, because the guaranteed models were monitored closely in terms of returns, repairs and service issues.
It said that if it could not supply the reserved model it would cancel the reservation well in advance. Also, its website stated that the guarantee only applied to reservations made at least 24 hours in advance.
However, the ASA ruled that the advert was misleading because Europcar had been unable to provide the vehicle the complainants had reserved, despite the reservation being made more than 24 hours in advance.
"Because ‘guaranteed models’ would not always be available to those who booked, we concluded that the claim was likely to mislead," said the ASA.
"The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Europcar not to claim that models were guaranteed in future if they could not ensure that they would always be available."
The wording in Europcar’s ‘Selection’ section now makes it clear that the choice of vehicle is not guaranteed.
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Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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