Easirent Edinburgh Airport

For the most part, the car hire was fine. Brand new clean Toyota Aygo, £20 of petrol in the car on pickup to be returned with an empty tank, no problems upon returning the vehicle.
There was, however, one major flaw with Easirent Edinburgh Airport.
After making a booking in advance for ten days car hire of a small vehicle, I thoroughly read the terms and conditions which stated that a £500 deposit would be held on my partner’s credit card (the name on the booking). However, when I arrived at the Easirent office to collect the car, we were informed that the actual deposit was £1250, considerably more than what was stated in the contract. We could reduce this by paying a surcharge of approximately £15 a day, which added up quickly for a ten day lease. This charge was non-​refundable. If I had known this in advance we could have made sure that £1250 was available on the card. Due to it being 9pm we had no way to clear the funds on our card so were left to pay the £150 charge.
What surprised me the most was the friendly sales assistant who told us about this excess. He said that this happens on a regular basis, customers expecting a £500 hold and finding out when they pick up the car that it is actually far dearer. After reading reviews online for other Easirent offices around the UK I know that I am certainly not the only one to experience this. This could easily be resolved by stating these terms clearly in the contract in the first instance. This particular sales assistant mentioned that he has tried calling and emailing the head office about this several times but has yet to receive a response.
This seems like a shameless way to make customers pay an extra charge. The fact that Easirent have been made aware of this, yet refuses to act on it, is simply beyond me. It seems like a sure-​fire way to lose out on customers returning or recommending to friends and family, which will most certainly be the case for me.