Foreign car rental - damages

[Martyn]

SO many scamming b**tard companies out there. Goldcar fraudulently sold me excess insurance I neither needed or asked for in Tenerife South Airport. Total cost of my hire was meant to be around £80 and ended up at over £300 by the time they applied all these charges that at the time they assured me were deposits I would received back, but on returning claimed it was extra insurance, which I already had via a 3rd party. Forged my signature on documents I had not signed too, and refused to issue me any documents in English and said their systems were down so it was Spanish only

Absolute fraudsters. Holidays Autos were the broker and were no use at all in resolving it

Another avoid Goldcar and Holiday Autos RMS member here!

What a complete bunch of scammers. I refused to take their extra insurance after waiting 2 hours to get to the front of the line at the airport (I had my own excess insurance - and a copy of the policy) After a further 1hr of high pressure insurance selling tactics, with the counter salesperson screaming and yelling at me, he gave in. He wouldn't let me take the car without a 3000 euro swipe on my credit card. The really bad thing was they didn't just put a hold on the money - they withdrew it from my account!

They gave me a black car which was collected from the underground car park - it was the only car there. When I drove it up a floor the car was dented and damaged on every panel. You would never have seen the damage in the dark.
Yet another 3 hrs waiting to get the damage recorded before I left the airport, lovely start to a holiday.

Returning the car was even more stressful. They wanted me just to return the keys into the box. I insisted that some would come and check the car over with me and sign off that all was ok. They insisted I would just have to wait. In the end I stood 2hrs in the office and it got to the point I was going to miss my plane.

I asked repeatably if someone would come check the car. In the end they ripped the car keys out of my hand, threw them on a bundle of over 100 keys and forcibly threw me out of the office. When I threated to call the police they got even more aggressive - time was up and I needed to catch my flight.

Upon returning home I emailed Holiday Autos and Goldcar - but never received any response.

The final icing on the cake was when they returned my deposit - it currency transfer charges and with the change in the exchange rate it cost me over £200.

Lesson learnt - never again book though Holiday autos and Goldcar.

 

[ace275]

Another avoid Goldcar and Holiday Autos RMS member here!

What a complete bunch of scammers. I refused to take their extra insurance after waiting 2 hours to get to the front of the line at the airport (I had my own excess insurance - and a copy of the policy) After a further 1hr of high pressure insurance selling tactics, with the counter salesperson screaming and yelling at me, he gave in. He wouldn't let me take the car without a 3000 euro swipe on my credit card. The really bad thing was they didn't just put a hold on the money - they withdrew it from my account!

They gave me a black car which was collected from the underground car park - it was the only car there. When I drove it up a floor the car was dented and damaged on every panel. You would never have seen the damage in the dark.
Yet another 3 hrs waiting to get the damage recorded before I left the airport, lovely start to a holiday.

Returning the car was even more stressful. They wanted me just to return the keys into the box. I insisted that some would come and check the car over with me and sign off that all was ok. They insisted I would just have to wait. In the end I stood 2hrs in the office and it got to the point I was going to miss my plane.

I asked repeatably if someone would come check the car. In the end they ripped the car keys out of my hand, threw them on a bundle of over 100 keys and forcibly threw me out of the office. When I threated to call the police they got even more aggressive - time was up and I needed to catch my flight.

Upon returning home I emailed Holiday Autos and Goldcar - but never received any response.

The final icing on the cake was when they returned my deposit - it currency transfer charges and with the change in the exchange rate it cost me over £200.

Lesson learnt - never again book though Holiday autos and Goldcar.

I don't get how companies like this are allowed to operate, but it seems some countries let them get away with it. Holiday Autos is a branch of Ryanair I believe, as my dockets said 'Ryanair car hire' and not holiday autos

I'm now extremely wary of hire car companies, so much so, that I will only use Enterprise if they're available, and hire from non-airport locations if it's not too much more hassle. I haven't had any issues with them at all (Fingers crossed)

The first time I went to Tenerife I hired off a company in a nearby industrial estate and got an old Skoda Fabia covered in marks, engine management light taped over, running a little weird but on all 4, bolt for an antenna, chunks out of the steering wheel and an apparent only 30k miles on it. It was brilliant, I love a good scrapper. They basically said unless I stove a panel in they don't care about damage. Easy process and cheap too. I'm just as happy in an old car. All I ask is working A/C.

Anyway, this was alot of years ago and I still make it my mission to put people off using them when I pass their hire desks and tell people about to use them my story about them, and suggest they look the company up on Trustpilot. Must have cost them half a dozen hires by this stage and I'm not finished with them yet

 

[gav525]

We hired a wee Fiat 500 in Italy a few years back. I was raking through the narrow streets trying to find the Airbnb and trailed the wing mirror up the wall.

Car was black so the white scuff marks were obvious.
Bought a black marker, coloured the scratches in and handed it back and never heard a word

Though they did get a speeding fine out of me months later ffs

 

[gpaevo]

Goldcar was your downfall. Only ever go with the mainstream names. Holiday Autos are just a broker so don't give a *** about what dealings you have with the hire company.

I've a car at the moment here in France with Avis. Guy at the desk asked would I like insurance, nope I have my own. OK Sir here's your keys.

 

[CharlySkunkWeed]

 

[ace275]

Goldcar was your downfall. Only ever go with the mainstream names. Holiday Autos are just a broker so don't give a *** about what dealings you have with the hire company.

I've a car at the moment here in France with Avis. Guy at the desk asked would I like insurance, nope I have my own. OK Sir here's your keys.

Same with me at Enterprise at Toulouse train station. Said I had my own and they were cool with it. The only negative about the whole experience was being in Toulouse.

 

[Ruairi83]

National tried to do me the last time I got a hire car for work. Had the hard sell on a £30 upgraded car which I was clear I didn't want or need, and ended up with it anyway, so that was me annoyed from the get go. Was already running late, so just jumped in and went without checking the car.

Got to my destination and noticed a big scuff on the front bumper, which definitely wasn't my fault, checked the documents and no sign of damage recorded. It was only a scuff, not through paint, so I found a motor factors on my way back, bought a bottle of G3, and buffed it out.

On returning the car, same guy went to check it, and headed for the corner which was damaged first, stood looking at it for a while, and then called over a supervisor. 2 of them stood scratching their heads, while I tried not to laugh or carry the heads of them.

 

[HairyPotter]

Avis were rife for it too, dunno if they still are
pushed me to get a "free upgrade" Pug RCZ, landed into heathrow, and the guy went straight to the wheel and discovered a 'nic' in the rim protector of the tyre. didnt even check the rest of the car
#130 quid later i was on the plane, got work to challenge it as it was booked through them and we had an account, low and behold after investigation they discovered it had been flagged on a previous damage report.
scamming B@stids

 

[AMG]

That is brilliant. Not sure I could've held the laughs back.

If it wasn't for the fact that I felt I was deliberately being set up when he went to look at the damage I probably would have laughed. Was the day we went to Hillhead, so only had the car a few hours, so I'm sure he wondered how we "fixed" it.