A likely story

"If any car rental company offers you a lower price, pre-payable in the UK, for a seven-day car rental ... just tell us and we won't just match it, we'll beat it by pounds 1." (the Hertz Price Promise in the leaflet Hertz Leisure Rates).

Co-op Travelcare of Manchester offered me a Group A car from Alicante for pounds 103.50 a week in August. I trotted along to my local travel agent, with my Price Promise leaflet showing a Hertz rate of pounds 135 a week for the same group.. But Hertz said they would not match the price because it was not direct from a car rental company but through an agent.

I had one more trick in my pocket: a Hertz upgrade voucher. This time the small print wouldn't let them out; "This voucher entitles the bearer to a free one-car group upgrade in conjunction with any one of the European destinations included in the Hertz Leisure Rates programme... upgrade code PC 70792."

Hertz's reply: that upgrade code does not apply to the Hertz Leisure Rates programme. I gave up.

Mike Stace

Correction:

In Dr Steve Ray's story last week on beach safety, an error meant that the figure for human body temperature was misquoted. It is, of course, 37 Celsius.