Firefly Car Rental Too Cheap???
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vipergrm
Posts: 95 Forumite
Hi guys,
I booked a rental car from Malaga Airport for 5 days through a company called Firefly. I found them on a comparison site so they seem to be legit alright. The problem I have is that it seems way too cheap and I just want to make sure I don't arrive with either no car, or they ask me for more money. For 5 days rental the total charge is 41.05 Euro. This is for a Ford Focus Estate or equivalent.
I've actually printed off the E-Voucher and the price is definitely 41.05 Euro for 5 days. I did try calling their desk but the number has been constantly engaged this morning. According to their website they do advertise cars from £5 a day but it just seems way too cheap! Would really appreciate if if anyone has had similar experiences or can confirm if this is now legally binding? Thanks guys!
I booked a rental car from Malaga Airport for 5 days through a company called Firefly. I found them on a comparison site so they seem to be legit alright. The problem I have is that it seems way too cheap and I just want to make sure I don't arrive with either no car, or they ask me for more money. For 5 days rental the total charge is 41.05 Euro. This is for a Ford Focus Estate or equivalent.
I've actually printed off the E-Voucher and the price is definitely 41.05 Euro for 5 days. I did try calling their desk but the number has been constantly engaged this morning. According to their website they do advertise cars from £5 a day but it just seems way too cheap! Would really appreciate if if anyone has had similar experiences or can confirm if this is now legally binding? Thanks guys!
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Comments
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Hi guys,
I booked a rental car from Malaga Airport for 5 days through a company called Firefly. I found them on a comparison site so they seem to be legit alright. The problem I have is that it seems way too cheap and I just want to make sure I don't arrive with either no car, or they ask me for more money. For 5 days rental the total charge is 41.05 Euro. This is for a Ford Focus Estate or equivalent.
I've actually printed off the E-Voucher and the price is definitely 41.05 Euro for 5 days. I did try calling their desk but the number has been constantly engaged this morning. According to their website they do advertise cars from £5 a day but it just seems way too cheap! Would really appreciate if if anyone has had similar experiences or can confirm if this is now legally binding? Thanks guys!
Yes but for 5 days you will 'fall into' their full > empty fuel policy ie be charged an excessive amount for the fuel in the tank when you collect and no reimbursement for anything left. You will also be given a very hard sell on the excess insurance provision and indeed in some cases you will find it nigh on impossible (even with your own excess cover) to rent the car. Beware of any damage recorded (if at all) on the car you hire (bet it is not a Focus) and thoroughly check the car over before you leave the rental office - again when you return make sure you get a check signature. Finally watch what you are signing! Sorry to be pessimistic but firms such as Firefly quote a very competitive rate then make up the shortfall by introducing additional costs once you are 'hooked' ie at the rental desk.0 -
Yes but for 5 days you will 'fall into' their full > empty fuel policy ie be charged an excessive amount for the fuel in the tank when you collect and no reimbursement for anything left. You will also be given a very hard sell on the excess insurance provision and indeed in some cases you will find it nigh on impossible (even with your own excess cover) to rent the car. Beware of any damage recorded (if at all) on the car you hire (bet it is not a Focus) and thoroughly check the car over before you leave the rental office - again when you return make sure you get a check signature. Finally watch what you are signing! Sorry to be pessimistic but firms such as Firefly quote a very competitive rate then make up the shortfall by introducing additional costs once you are 'hooked' ie at the rental desk.
Thank you for the reply. I appreciate the pessimistic approach as I really do need to know all the negatives. I am going to call them and see what their fuel charges are. I am going to purchase insurance waiver cover which I found on this site. Think it was around £10 for the 5 days which is excellent. I've got until the end of today to cancel so I may look for a more suitable alternative. Thank you!0 -
Make sure you've got sufficient limit on your credit card as they'll take a large reserve on your limit - possibly the whole excess. Check what the excess is. Don't believe any bull they give you about them not recognising the third party excess you've bought - they don't need to - it covers you not them. In fact it's probably best not to even tell them you have third party excess insurance, just refuse theirs (and as above make sure they don't con you into agreeing to it by checking carefully what you're signing). Check the third party insurance doesn't have any nasty exclusions like negligence (most accidents are caused by negligence!).0
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Thanks guys. I've actually now cancelled. I found some horrifying reviews and it's not worth the risk. I've opted for doyouspain.com and got a VW Passat or equivalent for £160 full/full. This seems pretty decent to me for 5 days. The rental company is Enterprise. Thanks for the help once again guys!0
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Guys, just wanted to thank you once again. As above, we ended up using Enterprises and they couldn't be any nicer. Ended up with a brand new Opel Insignia (literally just off the lorry) with built in sat nav etc and they never once pressurised us for any extras. They also gave us the car seat for free as we had to wait 30 minutes whilst they prepared the new car. They were excellent and I'll most certainly be using them again. :-)0
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Yes but for 5 days you will 'fall into' their full > empty fuel policy ie be charged an excessive amount for the fuel in the tank when you collect and no reimbursement for anything left. You will also be given a very hard sell on the excess insurance provision and indeed in some cases you will find it nigh on impossible (even with your own excess cover) to rent the car. Beware of any damage recorded (if at all) on the car you hire (bet it is not a Focus) and thoroughly check the car over before you leave the rental office - again when you return make sure you get a check signature. Finally watch what you are signing! Sorry to be pessimistic but firms such as Firefly quote a very competitive rate then make up the shortfall by introducing additional costs once you are 'hooked' ie at the rental desk.
I just wanted to re-iterate what was posted above, as this was exactly my experience with them. I was told by the woman at the desk that you could bring the car back with a full tank to avoid the charge for a tank of fuel (as is the policy most places outside Spain) When I got home, there appeared a new charge on my card . I queried this with Holiday autos, now part of cartrawler, who were no help at all, apart from saying fuel policy.
So not only did I get charged a massive price for a tank of fuel, I never even used the fuel, so I paid twice, - again at the pump. And Firefly got a free tank of fuel from me! Hard sell on insurance etc. Luckily my credit card company did a chargeback as they agreed I was charged for something I did not use despite the T's & C's showing their policy, and I could prove I had bought fuel before I returned the car. I was also lucky not to have been charged for bodywork damage as nobody would inspect the car and check it over when dropping it off. I had to leave the paperwork for them to do another day so they could have made up anything about damage. I have heard stories of them doing this. I got off lightly.
AVOID Firefly they are a bunch of fraudsters, as are Holiday Autos/ car trawler equally as terrible and in cahoots with firefly over this..0 -
I used FIREFLY via Holiday Autos they charged my card for £158 of un requested extras so beware when signing for the car on pickup, it was a ripoff deliberately carried out to make more money from the hire0
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I used FIREFLY via Holiday Autos they charged my card for £158 of un requested extras so beware when signing for the car on pickup, it was a ripoff deliberately carried out to make more money from the hire
Exactly. They're just dangling a carrot to try and lure poeple in with the low price, then go to town on you! I supposed the old (annoying) saying "if it's too good to be true then it probably is" comes to mind.0 -
Doyouspain is very unpredictable. We had a good experience using them in Granada and renting through Hertz. But we just had a very bad experience in Madrid renting through Firefly. We rented for one day at an advertised rate of just over €17 supposedly all in. We didn't take any extras (insurance, GPS, etc.) or upgrade the car. We returned it on time in perfect condition with a full tank of gas. We were charged €60 plus. Firefly said that's the cost and if we have an issue we need to talk to doyouspain. doyouspain doesn't reply to emails with anything other than a form message. I will never use them again and warn others to do the same.0
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