Crumbs! Car hire firm bills for cleaning

Crumbs! Car hire firm bills for cleaning

SM, London

Cleaning vehicles should be part of the hire cost - no one expects hotels to charge extra for washing sheets. But there is no discipline over the extra charges that car hire firms impose. Worse, they do not allocate the exact cost of cleaning, or accident repairs, to the customer responsible. It is, at best, guesswork.

Europcar now accepts that the dirt it claims you left behind could be due to an accumulation of factors rather than just your mucky behaviour. It has refunded the £50 and added £50 for your inconvenience.

Trainline booking system not quite the ticket

A ticket I had booked through Thetrainline had not arrived the day before we were travelling. The helpline said it would be available at Reading station on the morning of travel. Despite their best efforts, the Reading staff could not find it, so I had to buy another ticket.

The next day, the ticket arrived at our home. Whether this was the original ticket much delayed,.....continued below

DK, Burghfield Common, Berkshire

Thetrainline says the original ticket was sent to your home and that a replacement was then sent to Reading. They know this because the Reading staff returned the ticket saying you had not collected it. We will never know why the staff couldn't find it in the first place but, as a goodwill gesture, Thetrainline has refunded £36.30.

Npower muddle held up

gas account switch

I have been trying to switch from Npower to Southern Electric since October. Npower claimed I had not given enough notice. Apparently we have been paying for gas as business customers, who have a longer notice period. I made it clear that we were domestic customers and was told the correction could take up to eight weeks. Eventually we were welcomed as domestic customers, but were told it would take another six to eight weeks to transfer us.

CS, Romford

Npower says your account was opened for a commercial property in 2002, but does not know why and no longer has a copy of the contract. It checked your bills and found that, because you use little gas, you have paid less as a business customer than you would have done on the domestic tariff. It is not asking for any more money and has speeded your transfer.

Troublesome travellers made us miss our flight