Who would not feel annoyed when you get to the counter and are told you must pay an extra upgrade fee out of nowhere? That is what happened to me in Larnaca. I had booked a Small SUV Volkswagen T ROC or similar through QEEQ and I was pretty happy, thinking that around the afternoon of April 2 I would be driving that car around the island. When I reached the Sixt counter at the airport the staff checked the system and told me that my booking in their system was for a lower car group and that I had to pay an upgrade if I wanted the T ROC. I felt confused. On my side the booking clearly showed T ROC or similar so I did not understand why I suddenly had to pay more. The woman at the counter sounded very sure. She even said this was not the first time this happened with this company. I stood there with my luggage next to me, checking my confirmation email again and again. It clearly said Small SUV and used the T ROC as an example. Inside I felt a bit stuck. My family and I had already planned our days. If I accepted a smaller car we might not fit well with all the bags. If I paid the upgrade I felt like I was paying for something I had already booked. In the end I decided to pay the upgrade so I could still get the T ROC. I told myself that at least the car would be comfortable and the space would be enough. The car itself was fine. It was in good condition and easy to drive and that part of the trip went well. Still during the next days every time I looked at the car I had this small thought in my head asking if that upgrade fee was really fair or if I had just wasted money because of some system issue. A few days later I returned the car around midday on April 9. The overall trip was nice but that upgrade charge was still like a small stone in my shoe. I did not forget it. I was glad that when I made the booking I had added the Worry-Free Service. After I got back to where I was staying I sat down and put together the rental agreement and the receipt that showed the upgrade. I uploaded the documents and hoped that maybe I could get some help. My feelings were mixed. I was a bit worried that in the end they would just say it was my own problem at the desk. At the same time I felt that since I had paid for this service I should at least try. The contact from their side came pretty fast. The way they spoke to me was calm and polite and I did not feel like they were trying to run away from the problem. That made me feel a bit better already. They checked the information I sent. When something was not clear they asked me simple questions so they could understand it better. It did not feel like some long and hard process. I could feel that they were really trying to figure out if the upgrade fee should be mine or not. I did not hear any empty lines. Instead I got the feeling that someone was actually looking at my case. After some time they told me that a Volkswagen T ROC or similar was in the same group as what I had booked in the first place. That meant that the upgrade charge I paid at the counter should not have been my cost. When I heard that I finally relaxed. That small feeling of unfairness I had during the trip started to fade. It felt good to know that my first understanding of the booking was correct. Then the most important part came. Thanks to the Worry-Free Service they refunded the full upgrade amount to me including the tax. The sum was not huge in absolute numbers but for a normal traveler it is still a clear cost. More important is that this was money I should not have had to pay. Getting it back made me feel that the situation was fixed in a fair way. I also liked that I was not sent from one side to another. The communication stayed clear and I always knew that someone was following my case. When I think about it now if I had not bought this service I probably would have just accepted the loss and complained a bit to my friends. With the Worry-Free Service I had someone on my side in this kind of problem where you get charged extra at the counter and you do not really know the local rules. For an overseas visitor that means a lot. You already have to trust both the platform and the rental company. Having that unfair upgrade fee come back to me made my whole online booking experience feel much better even if the moment at the counter was pretty frustrating at first.
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