AMIGOAUTOS - how can this be fair???

ourgrandpa

TO ALL MEMBERS, FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF THIS GROUP


On a recent trip to Spain, I rented a car through AMIGOAUTOS. They, in turn, placed the booking with GOLDCAR.

Inadvertently, I left my DISABLED PARKING PERMIT in the car on it's return. There was no-one at the office so I was unable to retrieve it from the car.

I returned to England and immediately contacted GOLDCAR who claimed no knowledge of it and claimed "IT WAS NOT IN THE CAR!"

Eventually after emails and phone calls, they finally admitted they had it in their office at the airport. However, when I phoned again, their comment was "Yes, we have your badge here in the office and NO! we will NOT send it to you. IT IS NOT OUR POLICY TO SEND ANYTHING ON TO CUSTOMERS".

I am disabled, having difficulty walking and the car was rented simply as a necessary aid to mobility. In fact it was returned after 11 days with three quarters of a tank of fuel - showing the low usage - despite having paid up front for a full tank. Result ? – A very healthy profit for GOLDCAR. The cost for the permit to be returned to me by post would be minimal.

The female with whom I spoke on the phone told me the only way I can get it back is to fly out from England to Spain specially to retrieve the permit. I cannot possibly afford to do that. Later, they condescended to give it to a representative but he would also have to go to their office at the airport and collect it personally. I do not know anyone in Spain who could represent me and cannot afford to employ an International Courier Company.

I am appalled at the attitude of both AMIGOAUTOS and GOLDCAR, as are all the people I tell, and cannot understand why they show such disregard for paying customers.

Particularly, I find AMIGOAUTOS' unwillingness or inability to help and arrange the return of my permit appalling and subsequently damaging to their reputation.

So much so that I recommend all renters to give business to other agencies who show care and consideration for customers…….Further, that I find AMIGOAUTOS be totally unethical and uncaring in their attitude to customers.

I hope you'll all note and keep away from AMIGOAUTOS. There are many, many car rental agencies who will and do offer service and respect to renters. Give your business to them instead. I will happily recommend agencies with whom you can arrange car rental and receive a good service.

lincroft1710

Ourgrandpa - pity you can't contact Spanish police and report them for THEFT!

MarkyMarkD

Yes, apart from the fact that would be completely stupid.

If you leave your property in someone else's car, only a muppet would consider it theft.

marleyboy

Have you asked if you can send prepaid postage for the return, that may work

jon77777

My wife and I hired a car from Goldcar (Amigo Autos) for 3 days from Malaga airport.

On day 2 the car broke down and I called their helpline. This was a recorded message and asked me to leave my number and they would return my call. I received no call that evening so the next morning I called them and managed to speak to someone.
They then arranged for a truck to collect the car from Benahavis. I then spoke to the main office and they informed me that they could not get a new car over to me and that if I took a taxi to the airport that they would pay for it and arrange another car.
When I arrived at the airport in the taxi and asked the Goldcar reps to pay the taxi fare, they refused. This resulted in a stalemate as I also refused to pay as they had verbally agreed to pay for the taxi during the telephone conversations. The police were called (by myself) and a heated debate over who was to pay followed. In the end I paid and the police told me that I would need to claim the money off Goldcar on my return to the UK.
This is proving to be impossible as they are very unhelpful: when I call the main office in Valencia they said that they cannot reach the Malaga office on the phone as they are so busy! I called the Malaga office and they said that I need to email customer services (no telephone number!). I have emailed and received no reply.

I guess I may need to consider legal action to recover the 100 Euro taxi fare.

ruthcp61

Hi

Exactly the same has happened to me with regards to the rental of a van.
They took the money and subsequently told me they could not fulfil the contract.
Now they are saying that they have issued a refund but so far nothing has been received into my account.
I am considering legal action for breach of contract.

Anyone with a telephone contact for them?
Can't find one and I really, really want to call them!

jon77777

Hi there: re: contact for Goldcar you can try the Alicante 'head office' on 965 65 24 82. They are without any doubt the rudest and most obnoxious company I have ever come across and I am now proceeding with legal action against them.
Forget about emailing them as you will not get a reply.

J

lalamb77

I would also like to add that we had a terrible experience with Goldcar while out in Reus. We hired a nine-seater van for a week. The car had not been cleaned and even had broken window glass in the door tray where it had obviously been repaired before. This was liveable and we just put it down to no time to clean it between hires.

One day into the hire the drivers window would not wind up (obivously fallen off its shelf) so we called and were told to drive the one hour back to the airport to change it over. This would cost us half a day of our holiday and the petrol. So I mentioned petrol reimbursement and they just said no they would not give us a refund for the petrol we used. When we said this wasn't good enough they said we could pay for the repair ourselves and they would refund us.

Obviously, a little reluctant to trust this company we said we still weren't happy. At which point the woman said she would get the supervisor to call in an hour or so. He never called back.

In the morning we called again and was told the supervisor would not be in until Monday (This was Friday) and we were told to call the S.O.S helpline. They informed us there were NO 9-seaters availble in Reus and reiterated for us to get it fixed ourselves and be reimbursed. We weren't happy but we really needed the window fixing if we were to enjoy our holiday So that morning we got a quote.

The chap in the garage said he could do a temporary fix for 41 Euros (just less than £40) So happy with this we called goldcar Reus to get the final go ahead. We were then told by a different guy that we were NOT to get it fixed but bring it in and they would give us another car. When I tried to explain they had no cars he told me to call back in an hour when he was in the office.

I called in an hour and explained everything to the woman who asked if she could call me back in a little while. I said okay. She never called, so I called again and this time the man put me on permanent hold. I could hear him picking up the phone to see if I had given up. I called about 6 times, each time the phone was either not answered or I was put on permenant hold.

I have never received such awful service before and I will NEVER be using this, or any other local company again - no matter how cheap. In fact the car wasn't cheap it cost us £530 including the tank of petrol.

I wrote an email to head office to voice my complaints and guess what... we haven't heard back.

In the end we never got the window fixed and just made local journeys and left nothing in the car including our own car seats. This meant we returned the car with nearly a half a tank of petrol - so a nice tidy profit for a under-hand and obnoxious company.

Hope my story helps others when choosing who to hire with.

AirCooledHeaven

Presumably you booked the car in euros not GBP. So when they refunded you in euros your CC company coverted it back at the current exchange rate, hence the loss. Of course the converse could have been true, you could have got back more than you paid. Not unfair I'm afraid, just unlucky.

mike-e_3

I booked a car on the basis of a quote of 63 euro and have been and have been charged one hundred and sixty eight for car hire plus extras! The extras weren't clearly outlined at all. Any tips on how to persue this?:mad: