Beware - Goldcar Car Rentals Spain

abroct

I am writing to describe the unfortunate experience I have just had with GoldCar. We were on holiday in Lisbon (okay, I know it's not in Spain as per title of this thread!), which originally was for four days, although due to a TAP overbooking turned into three days.

We had booked the car through Arguscarhire.com, which delivered the ‘cheapest’ result of GoldCar. When we picked up the car we were several times offered to pay extra for the waiver of the €1200 excess, which I declined. The company then demanded and took a pre-payment deposit of €1200. We proceeded up to the first floor of the car rental multi-story car park where we were taken to our car. The three of us inspected the car as best we could and had to highlight additional scratches and dents to the company rep who hadn’t seen them in his inspection. It was relatively dark and difficult to see these and you had to look very carefully. The rep did not inspect the glass and on a brief look we identified no issue with the windscreen.

We had an enjoyable few days golfing and returned the car, to an well lit reception area where the receiving rep inspected the car and discovered three small, insignificant chips on the windscreen. At this point, I immediately got suspicious as I could see how this was likely to pan out. I made the rep aware that this could not have happened during the course of driving the car and would have been there when we picked up the car. You notice when stones hit the windscreen, and we had not done so whilst driving. He however responded that his job was to report what he saw, and that we had to talk to the office who he phoned.

The office claimed that because of the chip which was near the centre top of the windscreen that the entire windscreen would need to be replaced at a cost of €448.95. The office manager went and got a photograph of the chip which he presented as evidence, even though in was unclear and no scale was present in the photograph.

The manner with which this was handled was so sketchy that the only conclusion I can draw is that this is fraud committed on behalf of the car hire company. It appears that the company waits for customers who do not take the insurance excess and then seek aspects to add to the bill. The chip can and should be repaired and does not warrant replacement of the entire windscreen. At most, I believe the company will repair the chip although I suspect that they won’t even do that. They might even leave it for the next unsuspecting customer. It is sad that the company is so desperate for additional revenue that its staff have to resort to this kind of short-term illegal revenue generation. Unfortunately they have you over a barrel, as you have already paid the deposit and it is your word against theirs. I had also to raise the issue of the unused fuel refund (only available if renting for three days or fewer) and received ¾ of the approx. €100 that I had paid.

A number of aspects were particularly shady:

· The pick-up floor is relatively dark whilst the returns floor is well lit.
· The rep checking-out the car did not appear to inspect the windshield, whilst the returns rep inspected the windshield closely.
· The office rep was straight away onto getting a photograph to ‘prove’ his case.
· There was another customer who was in exactly the same situation as us.
· There was no discussion of potential for repairing the chip, something that is commonly done. It was totally discarded as an option.
· The company refused to provide me the check out/check in sheet for the previous driver of my hire car. I believe this would have shown the windshield chips that the company claims didn’t exist on checking out the car.

To all the people on this forum make sure that if you rent from GoldCar that you go with the excess waiver. Better still, avoid this company altogether and rent a car from a reputable firm that won’t go out of business in the next few years. I can only console myself with the hope that this kind of activity and lack of customer service will ultimately force them into bankruptcy.

thriftytracey

Well - now back from 2 weeks in the Algarve. Managed to get our bags quickly and rushed to office to be 2nd in queue. Booking took ages and the office was very hot. Long, long queue of people waiting after us. Paid 89 euros for the tank of petrol which when empty cost 66 euros to fill (and fuel went up considerably before we filled up the tank). Got really hard sell about the excess protection for the items not covered, even though we had paid for an excess protection when booking with the broker. Refused politely. Inspected the car carefully, got the rep too add a few more scratches to those already on the paperwork. Delivered it back - the rep looked at it and said it was "OK". Now wondering if we will be scammed for a chip in the windscreen (not aware of any chips). Awaiting credit card bill with trepidation. All too much stress even if we don't get scammed. Never use them again.

drpaulbailey

Here is an e-mail I've recently sent to GoldCar. I'm not holding my breath!

To whom it may concern,

I would like to complain about the selling of insurance by a member of staff during my recent trip to Menorca.

I insisted 3 times that I did not wish 1st party insurance. I was told that I was not allowed to have the car unless I took extra insurance.

I was told that I would be charged 200 Euro for any minor scratches that occurred to the paint work of the car underneath the car! He said that the roads in menorca are very bad and I would certainly have a scratch that would be charge. (Roads in Menorca much better than in the UK!)

I asked 3 times but each time I was told no. I just wanted to have 3rd party insurance and a holding amount added to my card. I was told that I could not have 850 Euro held on my credit card.

I basically WAS NOT GIVEN THE OPTION to have the car without being charged the extra money for insurance I did not want.

I consider this to be fraudulent.

Please could you also confirm if your staff are on commission to get as many people as possible to take out extra insurance.

I am seeking a FULL REFUND of the insurance that I was forced to take out.

The service from the company was poor - I waited over 30 mins to get served on arrival. I was also told that I would have to take a full tank of fuel.
When I returned the car, another family were also complaining that they had been forced to take out extra insurance they did not want. That family went as far as videoing what they were being told. They were told by staff it was illegal to video them in Spain and they called the Police!

Make NO mistake. The person who dealt with me spoke very good English - he understood perfectly and knew exactly what he was doing.. There was no language barrier problem here. I was blackmailed into taking the extra insurance. It was FRAUDULENT, and I wonder if the Spanish authorities who police this kind of activity are aware of it - it is clearly a systematic and regular occurrence within the company not a one off.

I have copied this e-mail to Auto Europe who hopefully will remove you from their list of Car Hire Firms if they consistently get bad feedback about your company.

I look forward to your response,


Please find enclosed the documents I completed at the time.

Many thanks,

Kind Regards,

NiftyDigits

mrs_scrooge wrote: »

I recently booked a car though rentalcars.com. When I found out it was with Goldcar I googled Goldcar as I'd not heard of them. I didn't like what I read so cancelled the booking online the next morning and was refunded instantly. Then booked direct with Hertz who were the cheapest of the big names for that booking.

When we got to Malaga some of the rental companies had no queue, some had 3 or 4 in the queue (including ours) but the Goldcar queue was literally like nothing I'd ever seen before. We overheard one lady say she'd queued for 2 and a half hours to get to the front.The queue was growing as well...

We've been hiring cars in Europe for many years but I've now come to the conclusion that you get what you pay for. Last year we queued for an hour and a half in Italy with Auto Europa. Never again, my holiday time is too precious.

No problems with Hertz, professional service, full to full and speedy return.

So my advice would be - book direct or book where you can see who you are hiring from or book where you can cancel without charge if you don't like the company you've been allocated.

Was almost exactly the post I was about to write. Booked direct with Hertz. Walked off with the keys to a new BMW within ten minutes. Had already checked in online with them before I left. Can't argue with just over £20 per day. Full to full policy(or any policy you prefer).
The Goldcar queue was ridiculous, across the floor and back up the ramp.

nickcc

Booked with Avis this year and joined their preference scheme so should be no queues and fuel is full/full plus already taken out the extra insurance with UK company, unlike 2 years ago with different rental company where waited 90 minutes before reaching front of queue then charged the extra for insurance and the usual full/mt fuel charge. Nice to learn from previous mistakes.

carcon1

We had problems at Mercia airport. We pre booked a with Goldcar via Doyouspain. The total price should have been 37.12E (inc basic insurance) plus any fuel costs. The lady at the desk said they would give us a Golf as they did not have the Clio that we wanted. She got us to sign for the car and then took what we thought was a deposit.

Not a deposit but they had added a load of extra charges including upgrading the car (something we did not ask for or wanted).

When my Credit card bill arrived the cost of the car (not fuel) was charged at 133.56E.

Never use Goldcar Spain unless you have spare money to waste!

woffle99

I went with Centauro in the end after cancelling Goldcar and am very glad I did.

The queue for Goldcar at Alicante airport was very long - over 20 or so people waiting, whereas it was two people at the desk for Centauro, and I had paid the extra 9 euros for the quick check-in which meant I could walk straight up to the car pick-up where there was no queue at all.

Very friendly service, the car was in A1 condition and the model I'd booked, and the full to empty requirement was no problem for me as I used the entire tank, just about. No unexpected charges since I returned it 5 days ago (so far anyway) . I'd happily use them again.

nico26

I used Centuro as well Goldcar customers were waiting up to 2 hrs to pick up cars It was horrific. I booked through Carjet. You can pick who you want to hire with.

milton19700

Looking at booking carhire through Holiday Autos but keen to avoid Goldcar ... from notes above ..

pompeyrich wrote: »

You can see who you are booking with on the Holiday Autos website before you commit to a rental.

Get a quote, then click on car details, just below the picture of the car, then click on "further information" and finally "picking up your car". The first word or two states the car hire company. On the "fuel conditions" the fuel policy is clearly stated too. Some of the insurance excesses are high though so be sure to check them out or organise excess insurance beforehand.

If you have a discount shoppping "reward" site at work, Youatwork or similar, using the link from there drops the price 10%, around £65 a week in June or £95 a week in August with Hertz.

But I am lost - cannot see the "further information" section or the "picking up you car" bit ... can anyone help

Will Holiday Autos advise if I call them ?

Tom246

Agree with all written already.

I was assigned a car from Goldcar via rentalcars.com
2 hour wait to collect car at airport. 1 member of staff - friendly but overwhelmed. They reported that they hated working for for the company because they were ripping customers off and that every customer became angry with them.

Various hidden and small print charges that amounted to more than what I had paid online. Full tank of petrol for a fiesta charged at 100 euro. It cost me 45 euro at the pump.

Made me purchase expensive fully comprensive insurance because I had paid with a debit card and they reported that they could not take a deposit from a debit card.

The car was awful. Had already been in an acident and the front was damaged. It was old and the air con did not work (very unpleasant in mid-summer Spain).

The drop off point was not at Barcelona airport, rather it was some way up the motorway and required a bus back.

Avoid Rentalcars.com and Goldcar.