Rental car did not show up

Cicely_Palmer

I booked a rental car in June using Arguscarhire.com for pick up at Porto airport in July. I rent cars frequently and use several rental 'brokers' like Argus. This was the first time that I was only asked for a deposit always before we had paid in full. When we arrived at the airport at 9.30pm the rental guy did not show. We called the number we were given but no answer. As it happens after this we stopped someone from another car rental company who new this person and rang him on his personal mobile - he was told they had no cars so he was not coming! The rental had gone through Thrifty car hire via cartrawler.com. So we called the help line (a foreign call centre) who were no help, said to call the unanswered number and that they could NOT arrange a replacement. We asked them to call the number, which they did with no answer - still would not help us. Consequently we were left stranded at Porto airport. We went to all of the onsite rental companies but none had a car without pre booking. We had to take a taxi to our house in a very isolated village. We called again the following day but they still could not arrange a car for us. We are still in dispute with cartrawler they have not even returned our deposit and are saying that we did not show even though we called them at the time!!

My point is:- I will never go through Arguscarhire or cartrawler again and I will never make a booking without paying in full. The broker gets the deposit and obviously the local car rental company had a better offer!