Ad description
The website www.car-hire-uk.com, seen on 9 October 2016, contained a box on the home page where enquirers could input their required pick-up and return locations and dates to receive a price for car hire. Text adjacent to the box stated "All inclusive rates - Unlimited mileage and all tax's [sic] included - No hidden extras guaranteed - No credit card fees - The price you see is the price you pay". Large text at the bottom of the screen stated "The best car rental deals, all inclusive with no hidden extras! The price you see is the price you pay".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that a parking fee was payable to release the vehicle from the airport car park before hire could begin, challenged whether the claims "No hidden extras guaranteed" and "The price you see is the price you pay" were misleading.
Response
CarHireUK said that, if customers collected vehicles from them, there were no additional parking charges. If customers chose the ‘meet and greet’ service, their vehicle was brought into the car park outside the airport terminal for them. The member of staff bought a parking ticket which was timed from their arrival. They would hand the ticket to the customer with the car keys and it would typically have half an hour left on it. The expectation was that the customer would drive away almost immediately, in which case there would be no additional parking fee to pay. If a customer chose to stay in the airport for a longer time, there would be a fee to pay for additional parking. The FAQ section of their website warned that parking charges might apply for the meet and greet service.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered consumers would interpret the text on the home page which stated "All inclusive rates - Unlimited mileage and all tax's [sic] included - No hidden extras guaranteed ... all inclusive with no hidden extras! - The price you see is the price you pay" to mean that there would be no additional costs to pay for their car hire other than the price they were given by the calculator when they input their pick up and return location and dates and, if desired, chose the meet and greet option for airport collection.
We noted CarHireUK's expectation that customers who had chosen the meet and greet option would drive away from the airport almost immediately, in which case there would be no additional parking fee to pay. We considered that an all inclusive/no hidden extras pricing structure was likely to be very appealing to potential customers, but that it was quite possible that they might want, or need, to remain in the airport for long enough for them to incur additional parking costs. We considered that, if the cost quoted by the calculator depended on the customer needing to leave the airport almost immediately, the claims "All inclusive rates - Unlimited mileage and all tax's [sic] included - No hidden extras guaranteed ... all inclusive with no hidden extras! - The price you see is the price you pay" went against the expectations customers were likely to have, and were likely to mislead. We therefore concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told CarHireUK to remove the claims "All inclusive rates - Unlimited mileage and all tax's included - No hidden extras guaranteed ... all inclusive with no hidden extras! - The price you see is the price you pay", or to amend their ad so that it did not suggest there would be no additional costs if that might not be the case.
