Do you spain .com and ok rent a car

Lee_barnes

To whom it may concern

I booked a hire car (Peugeot people carrier) through do you Spain. On arrival at Alicante I collected a Renault traffic from ok rent a car. This already cost us more money as the fuel tank was larger but as we had four tired children we just agreed to take it.

On the 21st of July the vehicle broke down in Altea due to a gear box failure. We rang ok rent a car who said they would send recovery within 40 minutes. An hour and a half later still nothing, I rang to ask why and they said nothing had been reported. As they said this three recovery vehicle's arrived from ok rac Alicante. They booked us a taxi which was a further wait with four young, tired children.

On return to the villa I rang and asked for a replacement vehicle to which they said I would have to collect from their office in Alicante the following morning. While I was on the phone they tried to insinuate that I caused the damage. I googled Renault traffic and it states gear box failure is a common fault so how could I have caused the damage, I was merely changing gear when it happened.

I went the following morning and they took me into a back office and told me if I wanted a replacement vehicle I would have to pay 2097.69 euro and 250 euro. As I didn't know what to do and I knew I needed a replacement vehicle because of my children I was on the spot and felt intimidated. The lady took my card while it was in the machine so I couldn't see and told me they would hold the money until the car had been examined on Monday.

When I returned to my villa I checked my new and old contract which stated recovery would be at a cost of 14 euro and 900 euro would be held in the event of an accident or damages. There was no explanation on the new invoice as to why they took this money, therefore in my opinion they are in breech of contract. They never once told me they would take the money

The following day I rang do you Spain who described what ok rent a car had done was disgusting and they would email them to ask why they had acted this way and ring us back. She also told me I'd be covered by insurance.

On Monday I contacted my insurance company who said I was not insured. I rang do you Spain who were now saying it was my fault. I rang ok rent a car who said the vehicle was being checked this afternoon and they would ring us to let us know the outcome. Both companies also said they would send confirmation emails in regards to procedure, phone calls and otherwise. I never received any phone calls back or emails and I have recorded all phone calls between them and myself.

In my opinion they have broken their own contract and have fraudulently took money they should not have done as there was already 900 euro being held so why take another 2098.69 euro with no explanation. Also the contract clearly states 14 euro for recovery so why was I charged 250 euro. I am therefore informing you that I did not give permission for this money to be taken I was told it was on hold. I would appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Kind regards

Lee Barnes

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richardw

Delete this post, it identifies you and is searchable by google.

Re-join and post generally not using an identifiable user name.

AlexMac

Sympathies.

Raise a formal dispute with your credit card company as I suspect you will get little joy from appeals to OK RENT A CAR, who you used as rental operator, or to Do You Spain (the agent or broker)

And next time, check reviews on the local operator (not just the broker) and if the operators' names don't show on the agency website, go to another one.

For example if you search OK RENT A CAR on the Tripadvisor Spain Forum you get about 500 threads, each with up to dozens of posts, many of them with criticisms similar to your own. Which implies many thousands of aggrieved customers.

They are not the worst however- GOLDCAR in Spain get 250,000 complaints on Google! Significant thet Goldcar are being bought out by Europcar, who, as you will read in the Telegraph and Mail newspapers, are being investigated by the serious fraud office in the UK for £30million of similar scams.

So it really is Caveat Emptor- buyer beware!

Good luck trying to get your money back; in future, follow the excellent advice by someone from Kent on Tripadvisor; post #1 at
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187435-i317-k10395502-Tips_for_Car_Hire-Costa_del_Sol_Province_of_Malaga_Andalucia.html#83951907

And it's not necessarily a jungle out there; by using trusted renters, I have never been scammed or let down in over 50 hires in Spain and Italy

Afterthough- if all else fail you could also try the CEO of DOYOUSPAIN UK; Jose Maria Gayet Fort on jose@doyouspain.com (from the excellent consumer website; ceomail )