Upon return home I raised the issue of what I considered to be an excessive winter tyre charge in this journal and the reaction has left me speechless with admiration for Sixt Car Hire.
I have experienced the best customer service experience that I have ever had with a response from the Customer Services Manager in the United Kingdom who provided me with a clear explanation of the law relating to winter tyres and the company policy in respect to additional charges. He also promised to raise the matter with the Company’s Commercial Director.
I have to say that although I paid too much for them I was really glad of the winter tyres as I am sure they made driving a much safer experience in quite tricky driving conditions and hopefully the Commercial Director will be as good as the Customer Services Manager and will give full consideration to my comments.
Have Bag, Will Travel 
Hi Andrew,
I am the Customer Services Manager for Sixt U.K
I can certainly understand your annoyance with the additional cost that you have had to pay for equipment that you consider to be fitted at this time of year as standard. However, winter tyres are not mandatory, but the way the law is written means that there is a requirement that correct tyres are fitted according to the conditions.
The driver is required to make normal progress in inclement weather. If a vehicle does not have tyres suitable to the conditions then a fine can be issued and in cases where an obstruction is caused on the road and unsuitable tyres are fitted then this fine can be doubled.
The winter tyres and the fitting of tyres is an additional cost to Sixt and we, like other car rental companies, unfortunately have to pass this on to the customer.
The agent website that you placed your reservation with do stipulate that a charge will be made additionally for winter tyres under the show local terms and conditions tab. An extract of which I have pasted below.
“During winter season our local partners will charge you extra for winter tyres (if you do not book them online with us), as they are required by law in Germany.”
I do empathise with you over the additional cost and would be more than happy to look into this situation for you. Perhaps, you would like to forward some details to me on my personal e-mail address. gary.coughlan@sixt.com and I will do all I can to help.
Best Regards
Gary Coughlan
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This on the other hand derserves a mssive thumbs up! What great Customer Service.
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Dear Andrew
I’m Gary’s colleague and Commercial Director of Sixt UK.
Firstly I’d like to thank you for your objective comments about Sixt and I must say that your extensive blog is not only very interesting, but has also great depth.
I would like to give you an honest explanation about our European products, services and pricing and we have some suggestions how to improve services for our British customers.
Car hire services and pricing vary unfortunately in different destinations and source markets.
Car hire in Germany, Austria and Switzerland includes usually only a basic product. The majority of extras such as additional wavers and winter tyres are excluded from our standard rate. Local customers are often looking for the cheapest possible option and only want to pay for services they actually requested.
British customers are at the same time frequently looking for an all-inclusive product. They expect all extras and insurance to be part of their initial reservation quote. Brits mostly prefer not to be sold any extras at the start of the hire and they certainly don’t appreciate additional charges.
Our challenge is to offer for each destination a service that meets and exceeds the expectation of our customers and we are working on offering for each destination a product that is tailored to each source country.
For example: Sixt UK (www.sixt.co.uk) started last year to offer British customers a “winter special” for the destinations Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The product included all relevant extras, insurance and also winter tyres. The rates were slightly higher than our basic product, but customer satisfaction increased and complaints reduced significantly.
This year we are planning to increase the number of such offers on our UK website. I’m in close contact with all our major European destinations to improve the international Sixt services and pricing for UK customers.
Dear Andrew, I really appreciate your comments and we take them very seriously, but please be assured that we are working hard on improving our customers experience.
Kind regards,
Per Voegerl
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Thanks Per, I really appreciate this. If I can help then please ask. Sixt is now my preferred hire car provider and I will always recommend the company.
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Dear Andrew
Thank you for your offer. In fact I would like to ask you straight away for a big favour.
We’ve started in the UK some months ago a blog (sixtblog.co.uk) and really welcome every contribution from great bloggers such as you. Our aim is to entertain and to give honest advice. We would be very happy to promote your excellent blog, so please email me if you are interested in possibly working together.
Finally please let me personally know, if and when you need cars in the future. I’ll try my best to support some of your trips.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Per
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Hi Per
Thanks for your comment. Of course I would be happy to help just let me know how.
Regards
Andrew
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The car rental service you are offering is really good. Car rental services today offers a lot of convenience to people. Hopefully more people will avail rental services.
Nice blog post and Thanks for sharing
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