Car Hire Nightmare

leylandsunaddict

Sorry OP. You signed a contract without reading it or understanding it, and it appears didn't even look at it afterwards. Presumably it was the Premium Plus insurance you agreed to, which covers for tyres, rims, mirrors etc?

I've not used a middleman for years but when I did I always used to read the T&Cs of the car provider in English on their website so I was aware of any extras that may be offered or had to be declined.

This has nothing to do with vehicle rent. It's between you and the car hire provider. I don't know if there is a governing body for car hire companies in Spain, and I don't know enough about Spanish law to say what they've done is wrong. I would have thought though that they have no need to explain your contract in your own language, otherwise they would have to have multi-lingual employees, or have a multi-lingual on site interpreter at every one of their offices.

I am surprised though their employees, or at least some of them, don't speak some English.

nickcc

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

What have Goldcar got to do with this thread?

Everything as they are probably the leaders in scamming car hire tourists. If you've not read their thread then I suggest you do as that will hopefully show you what my answer was based on.

Studogg

Thank you for all your replies! As I'm getting no where with vehicle rent I'm just going to let it go. I know they are the brokers but wanted them to know I think their supplier (dickmanns) are completely out of order in adding all the extras.

Sad times!

AlexMac

Sympathies OP. A lesson learned as you say.

As has been said many times before, here on MSE and many other review sites, the message is that you should either use a trusted, well-reviewed rental operator, or, if using a broker who scans a variety of providers on your behalf, use one who (like my old favourite rentalcars.com , formerly known as carhire3000) show the name of the operator and their fuelling policy (e.g. "full-full" or the potentially much more expensive "full-empty" etc) on their search results page so that...

... before you click "book", you can open up another tab on your browser and Google that rental company to see reviews.

The reference to "Goldcar" above is more than obliquely relevant because they are a company who seem to have an odd business model. If you enter their name on, for example, the Tripadvisor forum search bar, you get over 20,000 posts; mostly complaints about insurance, fuel or "damage" scams from people who feel they have lost sums comparable to the OP's. Google gives about 250,000 similar complaints about them. Surely a quarter of a million whingers can't all be naive idiots to be blamed and shamed for missing the T&Cs?

This is supposed to be a Moneysaving website, so why slag off the victim rather than offering constructive advice?

I fly-drive several times a year, mostly in Spain and Italy, and in 40-50 rentals, I've never been scammed nor even had to use the multitrip Excess Insurance which gives me peace of mind for £40 p.a. from insurance4carhire. That's because I tend to rent from majors; historically the broker above, earlier from Hertz via the cheap car hire partnership they used to have with Ryanair, latterly from AVIS/Budget who also have a cheap tie-in with BA and a loyalty scheme for freebies and upgrades. Only a few quid more than the cowboys, and cheaper in the long run; the cars are always new too.

So, OP, take the long view; if like I've already done, you now enjoy another 30 years of trouble - free rentals you can write off the £300 as a £10p.a. training experience!

pasty71

I had the same sort of thing, DOYOUSPAIN and DICKMANS. they get you when your tired in a queue. Charged me for INSURANCE when the rental agreement already had insurance ?!?! already paid for. So I had a FUEL deposit and a Insurance charge rather than the Insurance deposit . I took a credit card, they have just DUPED ME< pure and simple.