Our Stansted rental started ominously when we arrived at the salubrious portacabin outside the Holiday Inn to see a very dissatisfied customer in front of us. We got there using the hotel's bus as transport, as heaven forbid Drivilia could find the budget to pay for the official rental centre. Having been fleeced for every penny we have once we got to their office as far away from Stansted as possible, you'd have thought budget for Drivilia transport wouldn't be an issue. We were delayed by 2.5hrs, through no fault of our own as delays in airports are fairly common occurrences, to be told that our booking had been listed by Head Office as a No Show. There is a 1hr hold limit for cars buried in the T&Cs, which is completely unreasonable given that we were travelling into an airport that has run-of-the-mill delays all the time. We were threatened with the possibility of having to pay more for an automatic car, before funnily enough the exact car ordered was found with no further mention of being late or changing cars. I'm surprised an excuse wasn't found to scrape more money from the bottom of the barrel for this particular swindle. The T&Cs are also full of extra charges (£60 admin fee per anything, and a £27 refuelling charge plus a trebled per litre fuel cost if you don't return the car as per the received fuel level, which was typically not full) which creates the impression of money extraction in as many ways as is humanely possible. We were then informed of the next money extraction policy from the Highwaywoman behind the desk - the old credit card trick... I did not have the physical credit card with me, and despite us running through options including Apple Pay, adding my wife to the booking or changing the name, the computer provided only one option for us (quelle surprise) and that was parting with more money. The fanciful sum of £204 was plucked from thin air (compared to the initial rental cost of £100) and was requested for payment. Weird that the same card that wasn't accepted for the deposit, was then accepted for means of earning Drivilia more cash. It appears that profits are prioritised above all else, and any semblance of customer service or pragmatism has been shunned for simply extracting as much cash for unsuspecting customers as possible. I have no issues with companies making money, but the sheer braziness of Drivilia to formulate all their T&Cs and general culture for the pursuit of additional charges is verging on dishonest and left a very bitter taste. We will never be darkening the doors of this village operation again, and will go with more honest and reputable operators that are located in the allocated car rental sector, as opposed to the bins behind the back of a hotel.
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