Click for Videos: 1. Mevagissey 2. Ode to a seagull 3. Our wild ride through Cornwall
To begin our trip to India, we stopped off in England for 10 days to visit our Oxfordshire cousins. Having rented a car (see below for my experience with a car rental car scam) at Heathrow ), we drove down to Cornwall to stay in their cottage in a spectacular village called Mevagissey, perched over the harbour for 6 days.
The photographs speak pretty much for themselves, but our days were filled with exploring Mevagissey harbour, walking around villages, visiting with other cousins next door and coastal walks. On one of those walks, Bruce slipped in some mud and fell backwards giving himself a good whiplash. For two hours he had no memory of where we were or how we got there. At the time of the fall we were an hour into the hike with an hour left to go. As we crossed a road, a car pulled over and offered us a ride. Thus, we were delivered from the perils of rural Cornwall by our cousins! On one of our countryside drives, we were entertained by pheasants running ahead of us. The females got out of the way by ducking in the hedges, but the males continued to run in panic ahead of us. They may for been more beautiful in their plumage – but a lot dumber than the females!!
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•Point to ponder: If the Scottish are “Scots” and the British are “Brits”, does that mean the Cornish are “Corns”?
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•Conclusions: Fishing villages rock! My Smith cousins are the best!
- Car rental Scam at Heathrow
Beware Rentalcars.com, Europcar (Alamo/National) Rental Scam!
This company (at least out of Heathrow) pushes add-ons, the need for which are clearly mis-represented, resulted in costs 2 to 3 times the amount you already paid for in my reservation.
For an initial quote of $244.00 Canadiian for an 11 day rental, a deposit of $80 was withdrawn from my credit card (upon registration, 3 months prior and the balance 4 weeks prior. In my previous experience, rental car standard has been a credit card hold (with nothing actually charged until the day of rental), never a deposit and certainly not a non-refundable deposit as the $80 was.
On the day of rental, two options were “highly recommend” somewhat forcefully:
1. Extra insurance to cover windshield and tire damage – presented as 50% off – 6 pounds (10 Canadian dollars) per day (added to the $20 per day rental.)
I am reasonably certain that these are already covered by my credit card insurance – (this fact was denied by the clerk)
2. “Highly (and again forcefully) recommended that we take the diesel car option “which would save us a large amount of fuel costs” over our 11 day rental – an extra 12 pounds (20 Canadian dollars) per day adding to the previously paid for rental.
Later research showed me that the actual savings of diesel engine consumption was between 10 and 15% and any savings were pretty much wiped out by the
higher cost of diesel fuel.
Totals:
Paid for 11 day reservation -$244
Extra insurance11 days – $110
Diesel option11 days- $220
Total with mis-represented options – $574 (original quote $244).
Add to this 2 items not mentioned at reservation. (Even the voucher stated at the top that “all local taxes were covered”.)
1. 1.36 pounds per day (approx. $25 canadian) for “Road License Fee”
2. 15% of total rental – est. 75 pounds (or $110 Canadian)
Grand Totals Original quote: – $244 – Canadian
Total with un-needed or unquoted charges – $709 – Canadian
ALSO BEWARE!
Full or empty gas tank scam:
Option 1 – Start with a full tank of gas, return with tank full. – Result: no gas charges. (This is a standard policy and one which I always take).
Option 2 – Start with a full tank of gas which you are charged for and if you return it empty, there are no further charges. However, “refunds are not given for unused fuel”. So, if you were return the car half full, you would be out approximately $40 for fuel you had paid for.
When you think about it, it is much easier to plan to return the car full than empty. They clearly have an advantage in option option 2.
Lastly
Be sure to fill up your “full tank” as soon as possible after you leave the rental place. You’ll probably find it will take anywhere from $10 to as much as $30 to top up.
Since they expect you to return it full, they’ve basically scammed you out of that amount when you do so.
Back to Grove for 2 more nights with Colin and Barbara and then “off to the colonies” (India)!