Personal opinion only as an ordinary consumer and occasional traveller.

I don’t believe there is a car rental ombudsman as such in Australia. There is the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service run by AFIA (Australian Finance Industry association) which may be an option to take before lodging the issue with xCAT in your state or territory and prior to taking it to court.

AFIA I understand is an industry membership body and the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service I understand assesses things according to their own “code of conduct” which may or may not necessarily align with Australian Consumer Law in all areas.

Read the ACCC PDF in relation to “Fair Trading in the car rental sector” to understand the rights and remedies available to car hirers under Australian Consumer Law.

It is also important to note car rental hire agreements do not override Australian Consumer Law provisions.

As an aside and to be honest, the car rental industry in Australia I feel in my opinion overall has not been overly upfront with some of their conduct. Some of these less than honest business tactics I feel are more pronounced with some of the independent franchises for some reason.

It is also important to understand that Car rental agents as friendly and helpful as they may appear are not your friends. Many of them are trained up as salespeople (coerced by management along with being offered monthly bonus incentives) to upsell extras to hirers and again the upselling aspect appears to be more pronounced with certain outlets run by independent franchises. It is important to carefully check the hire agreements to ensure they haven’t snuck on any unwanted adds ons.

Car rental horror stories examples (with a happy end for the car hirer concerned)…

• Post on Whirlpool – A case of a hirer involved with an at fault traffic accident where the car rental company tried to wiggle out of their responsibilities.

• Post on Reddit – SIXT Australia expensive windsheild replacement.

I’ve even had my own spat (though a lot more benign than the two examples above) with a large Dandenong based independent car rental franchisee (formerly Thrifty, now Sixt) whom I caught sticking on charges that were clearly outside of the written hire agreement and who I also caught writing their own 5 star testimonials.

Some of the stories regarding SIXT Australia I feel are pretty disappointing considering the network crows about being a division of the NRMA Motoring and Services group (I have my own thoughts about the NRMA brand and believe they’re now a far cry from their hay days having simply turned into another for profit focussed corporate these days, but that is for another post)

The Issue is that quite a few companies “try things on” in order to turn a profit (and hope people don’t challenge it or take it further) and rental car companies in Australia are no exception.

Many car rental companies I feel try to cut their headline pricing in order to get customers through the door and then attempt to turn a profit through upselling extra and at times with other less than upfront antics (suspicious damage claims). I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that quite a few car rental places turn most of their profit through damage repair fees, selling extra “peace of mind” add ons and other ancillary revenues as opposed to the actual hiring out of a vehicle.