Argus car hire / cartrawler

aitch-aitch

Have booked a car with this co in August for Bulgaria and am now starting to panic as have read several bad reviews on here.

Has anyone had a good experience with this co or should I be cancelling my car now and booking elsewhere to save any hassle / extra expense?

dmg24

CarTrawler, please ask permission from the MSE Team before posting. You can contact them by clicking on the red triangle on your post.

aitch-aitch

Thanks Paul - that gives me some reassurance anyway. I will defo be back onto post my experience - good or bad.

Would still like to here from anyone who has had a good experience with cartrawler though!

aitch-aitch

Just got back from Bulgaria and pleased to report that absolutely no problems with the car hire.

The agents were there to meet us at the airport. Brought a choice of kids car seats for us. Only took the payment amount as per the original agreement with CarTrawler. Arrranged a specific meeting place for the end of the rental and were there to greet us. They spoke fantastic English and am really pleased, despite all my original fears which were completely unfounded!

CloudChaser_2

I'm glad you ended up having a good experience with cartrawler. In my experience it would still be a good idea to avoid them since if anything does go wrong you will be left waiting by their customer service.

We arrived in Palermo, Sicily last month to find no car available - forcing us to rent with avis on the day at a much higher price. It has now been one month since the issue was logged with cartrawler upon our return to the UK and they have still not resolved the issue – despite being told that 20 working days was their deadline to resolve all complaints! I’ve also not been contacted by email when I was told I would.

Their customer service call centre told me they have a very high level of complaints they are dealing with at the moment…

I’m sure the majority of rentals organised with them still go well – but this is a warning for any that don’t.

walkerbout

I wouldn't recommend Car trawler. I had my Car hire cancelled and now I am trying to get back a refund they are not very helpful. The emails I receive back from them are negative and when I call the only phone number I have, all I get is the sales team that are not helpful and wont give out the number for the customer care team.

iain32

Hi,

I have just concluded dealings with Car Trawler customer support with a very negative result that I thought I should share, it will maybe serve as a warning to others.

I arranged car hire through Car Trawler and received the Car Trawler voucher as normal. The purpose of this voucher is to make things easy when you get to the rental desk in the airport, it details exactly what you have pre-arranged in terms of the car, insurance options etc. and means you should just be able to sign for the car and leave - especially good in foreign countries.

However in my case Europcar completely ignored the voucher and added unnecessary extra insurance despite the fact the same type of waiver was already detailed on the voucher. This extra insurance amounted to about 80 euro. Admittedly I did sign for this, but as I was using a voucher I was completely unaware of this extra charge, believing everything was pre-arranged and all I had to do was sign.

When I highlighted this to Car Trawler they stubbornly refused to consider a refund as I had signed the rental agreement. This is despite the fact that their voucher is supposed to stop this kind of thing happening.

A very frustrating experience, I personally don't see the point of Car Trawler and would not recommend them. In this case any savings I made using them were undone by this erroneous overcharge. I will deal directly with the Rental companies in future, that way I'm in control of all the options and not relying on a voucher which they are free to ignore anyway.

walkerbout

just make sure you book with a credit card as its the only way you will get a refund.

Pokka

Car trawler booked a manual nissan micra car instead of an automatic (the form said mercedes a class automatic or similiar), I have sent my booking page to them as proof. Am awaiting a reply. I feel very anxious now. Anyone had any luck with this company?

SacreVert

I have used them several times. Dublin, Faro and Reus. No problems getting the car or with extra charges. The last time I was given the car and told to bring it back empty. By my reckoning the cost of a full tank of fuel was more than I paid for the entire rental! (I didn't have time to drive that far) I have never had the actual car booked but always an equivalent or better. e.g. a Ford Galaxy people carrier instead of a Focus Estate, or a brand new Seat Ibiza (1000km on the clock) instead of a Renault Clio.

The things to remember, I suppose, are
1 - If they got it wrong all of the time then they would not still be in business.
2 - If they get it right then not many people would post in this sort of forum saying so. Getting it wrong is news and angry people post. Getting it right is just them doing their job properly.
3 - Many of the problems seem to be the end supplier not doing what they were supposed to do. The agent takes the blame as they are our point of contact when they are at the mercy of their supplier.

Pokka

Thanks for your reply SacreVert. Car trawler got in contact and told me they would investigate the issues I have experienced, and if they conclude the website at fault they will refund the diffence between what i had originally been quoted (£140 + £50) and what i ended up paying (€305). I kept printouts of the booking page etc, which shows i booked an automatic car, and sent them off to them as proof. In the meantime, they booked me an automatic compact car, Mazda 3. They sorted it all out, just waiting on their investigation; i have seen the fastcarhire website has now been updated and changed a little though... so hopefully that means the issue has been rectified.