Priceline Group - rentalcars.com (UK) rentalcars.com (UK) Warning - rip off merchants, United Kingdom Internet

I feel very strongly against the treatment I received from Rentalcars.com UK, which I understand is part of the Priceline Group. By way of an explanation, I made a booking on line, a week later I decided to change the booking to a different date. I was dealt with by a lady called Helen Kitsnik, who seemed somewhat junior but willing to help nevertheless. She had to cancel my current booking and make a new one which all went fine.

She then mentioned that there was a duplicate booking of the one I had just cancelled, obviously I had not booked the same car twice and told her it must be a system duplication and to please cancel it, she said she would send me confirmation for the two cancellations and also for the new booking. When I received what was the duplicate booking cancellation she said I was going to be charged a cancellation fee unless I could "prove" I had not been sent a confirmation (how one does this is beyond me!). I called immediately and got put through to Brooke, who agreed with me that something was not right.

After being on hold for 20 mins she came back to me and said, yes there are two bookings and I am going to be charged a cancellation fee for the duplication. I explained to her that there is no way I would book the same car twice, but she said as a confirmation had been sent for the "duplicate" booking (I acknowledge one, but not two - had I have received two I would have sorted it out immediately) she said there was nothing she coud do. I asked to speak to her manager, she put me through to Chris Walker the so called reservation manager, who was incapable of straying from the script and proceeded to repeat what Brooke had said,

except he was stroppy and argumentative and did nothing to help my situation - only aggravated it! I was told I would be charged a cancellation charge and if I wasn't happy I should write to customer services. My point is clearly there is an error here, why would I book two cars for the exact same dates for just me to drive, he wouldn't accept that the error could be on their side and basically called me an idiot (he didn't use the words but his tone implied it). Chris Walker seemed not to get that point and refused to waive the fee given the circumstance.