What is the hard sell?
If you’ve ever hired a car, been at the pickup desk and had a rep tell you forcibly that you need their extra, super expensive insurance. Then you’ve experienced the hard sell.
It’s a tactic used by some less reputable car hire providers and even encouraged by some brokers, where the car hire provider rep will be pushy about the customer taking out their expensive insurance right there at the desk. Sometimes even going as far as saying that the customer will be charged if they don’t take the insurance. Reps can be rude and relentless when doing this, refusing to give the customer the car until the customer gives up and pays for the extra insurance.
This hard sell is a problem and it’s something we want to raise awareness of.
Why does the hard sell happen?
To explain why this happens, we have to look at the price of car hire with companies that typically do this. You’re far more likely to experience the hard sell if you were to book with a seriously low priced company. For example, companies who advertise car hire for 2.06 EUR for a full 7 days. Goes without saying that no customer will ever end up just paying 2.06 EUR for that hire. This is where the hard sell comes in. To make up for the absurdly low prices, car hire companies forcibly upsell extra insurance. The company can then try to make up more money with damage charges and extra fees. Car hire companies charge a really low headline price and make up their profits by charging the customer for extras, we also call this the budget airline effect.
If you’ve not booked stupidly low priced car hire and still experience the hard sell, it could just be a bad habit on the side of the provider. We never encourage this behaviour and because we’re always monitoring the providers we work with, we’re quick to stop working with companies that do it.
How to say no to the hard sell
Although it can feel like you’re being pressured to say yes, you can always politely decline the extra products. There are some small caveats to this which we’ll explain below, but for most people, it is ok to just say a firm no to any expensive extras you’re being offered. As long as you’re polite and firm with your answer, you should be ok. If a rep is being persistent, we’re always available to help out if you get in touch.
The hard sell and Zest
Unlike most car hire brokers, we actively discourage this sort of behaviour. We’re always monitoring the service of the providers we use and we will stop working with any who continue to do it. By default, booking through us ensures that you have everything you need to drive away. Of course, if you feel like you want the extra protection we do offer optional Top-Up Insurance but you can take out the provider’s local insurance if you so wish. In our experience, our Top-Up insurance offers complete protection but which cover you take out is completely up to you.
This is sometimes why our prices are not the lowest in the market. We’d rather offer a comprehensive, simple package to our customers, instead of bargain basement prices with hidden charges and hard upsells.
Some caveats about the hard sell
Sometimes, a rep can be really pushy about extra insurance for a valid reason. Of course, these will always be made clear to you when booking so there are no surprises at the desk.
- Young and old drivers are often required to take out extra insurance.
- If a security deposit is required and you don’t have a valid credit card in the driver’s name. The local insurance can sometimes waive the need for a deposit.
- Out of choice, some people simply prefer to take out this insurance and not leave a deposit. Which is fine if that’s what you prefer.
The other way I have been caught when I hired from Goldcar in Portugal was that they then picked on a very small scuff mark on the wheeltrim and made me pay 150 Euros when I took the car back. I was about to catch a flight and wasn’t in a position to argue too much, although I told them what I thought and refuse to book with them again. I was able to eventually get the money back through my worldwide excess insurance but it was a pain. I have no idea if the mark was there originally as I picked the car up when it was dark and nobody went over the car with me.
It’s not just the hard sell that’s a pain but the fact that if you don’t take it they act like the Gestapo before releasing the car by taking up to 90 to process your hire. It is equally bad on return in that if no extra insurance is taken out they advise you to allow up to 2 hours to process the car’s return. This is because they may you ‘pay’ for not taking out the insurance and give priority to those returning their vehicle who have taken out the insurance. They go over every inch of the car including using a mirror underneath the vehicle and accusing you of making any scratch or imperfection during the hire.
This adds stress to not only defending your position but also the time taken is in addition to the 2 hours needed before check in at the airline.
They get you either way and I now factor in the cost of the extra insurance.
Thank you for this very helpful advice.
What does it mean when you say ‘we protect your excess as standard’ ?
Hey,
All we mean by this is that excess protection is included in every booking with us and is included in the price of the booking.
We’ve explained how we do this in a different blog here: https://www.zestcarrental.com/blog/2018/06/08/insurance-differences/
Hope that helps!
Very good, sound advice on Insurance. I always take the full insurance with Zest because I know I am covered for all unexpected incidents, It is good to know that Zest are policing the hard sell and are there to advise if necessary. I trust Zest always, may pay a little more but worth it for peace of mind with no hassles.
Only really experienced the hard sell in America. In Croatia and Portugal the reps were great and recognised we had everything we needed. I guess it might depend on how commission the individuals get for selling unnecessary insurance.
In general the experience we’ve had booking through Zest has been first class
Goldcar is the worst for this, in 2012 I booked a car through your company (under a former name) and the rep was horrible. After 20 minutes I contacted your company rep who said she was the most abusive rep he had ever spoken to. He cancelled the booking and rebooked me with Sixt where a charming lade rep said that it happened every day. Goldcar has now become the most complained about hire company in the EU
Read with interest re the hard sell, and yes I have always politely said no to the insurance offered by almost every rental company.
Generally all goes well if insurance booked with zest .However be aware if u don’t take out local insurance a v small minority of companies used by zest will look way too hard for damage to car when it’s returned . This happened to us in Malaga. A tiny scuff on an alloy wheel trim def not made by us – the staff even had the audacity to say that we should have took out insurance with them.Luckily we were covered on that occasion with zest extra protection.
Always take photos and report any damage at rental depot. That same company tried also to charge us for a broken interior vanity mirror but we’d spotted it and reported the breakage as well as took photos.