Goldcar car hire spain scam

harthillfoxes

Anyone heard of anything as ridiculous as this ? In Sept we hired a VW Toran from Goldcar rentals Malaga from 18th to 21st sept , we needed 6 seats and this was cheaper than getting taxis from and to the airport . We returned the car and the fuel consumption was checked then 6 or 7 Goldcar reps got in the car and drove off . Back in England my friends credit card bill arrived , as well as the charge for car hire and fuel there was an extra charge of £1861.66 , the company claim we STOLE the 2 rear seats . We travelled with Ryanair and really struggled to keep our luggage under 15kg as it was never mind taking car seats home with us ! We have asked them to check cctv to show we were all sat on a seat when we dropped the car off but the company wont have any of it . The credit card company are not being very helpful either . Goldcar have changed the price to £883.39 after several calls and emails but this is still an alarming amount when we have not removed any car seats . HELP ANYONE !

Lynsey

Glad it's not me - good luck.
Did you not get anything signed when returned??
Credit card company should really help, this is fraud if what you say is correct and I don't doubt you.
Hope you get the advice you deserve and get it sorted.

Lynsey

harthillfoxes

Thanks Lynsey . Car hire in spain is very lax , they just hand you the keys and send you out to the car park to find it , likewise on return we asked if they would like to check the vehicle but they only checked the fuel . I do believe this is a scam , new seats were purchased within a couple of days, a receipt was provided just printed on plain paper that anyone could have printed , that was when the price was changed . Credit card co wont help as when you sign for car you agree that they can take payment for any damage from your card . Why would we remove seats that we needed to sit on ?

pinkshoes

I would phone the credit card company and harass them to do something, as this is blatantly a scam!! Why on earth would anyone take the car seats?!?!

I would also write to the hire car company stating that they have 14 days to refund the money, and in the mean time you have reported this as fraud and the matter is being investigated.

missile

Goldcar are quite a large company and I would hazard a guess that it is a scam by a less than honest employee.

It is not only in spain where you need to be careful. We hired a car at Heathrow and returned it full of petrol, but still got a bill for a tank of fuel.

Lynsey

Google "goldcar scam" and you'll find enough reading until your next holiday!!!

Here's one of the first http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Europa_Rent_a_Car__Review_5868830

Maybe emailing a few to your credit card company might be helpful, then again maybe not.
I really feel sorry for you and your friends, hope you get a happy ending, but looks like a fight.

Lynsey