National Car Rental - price quoted via website for Irish national was almost twice that of US national

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on June 7, 2002:

From:

RE: National Car Rental - price quoted via website for Irish national was almost twice that of US national I live in Ireland and will be travelling on holiday to Greece soon. Friends in the USA who we will be meeting there told us that they had hired a full size van from National Car Rental at a certain price. I logged on to National's website and typed in my requirements after typing in my country of residence as Ireland.

The quote I got seemed expensive and so I made the exact same enquiry but this time I stated that my country of residence was the USA. Amazingly, the quote that was returned was about half that of the earlier quote!

I notice that most car rental sites ask you to detail your country of residence and it would appear to me that this is used to discriminate against consumers based on their country of residence (which equates to national origin!). In my own business if I charged clients different rates based on their National origin then I would be breaking the law.

I have asked national to provide a response but they have sop far failed to reply.

Tony O'Malley