Car Trawler- Avoid at all costs

Alan_Colville

What a dreadful experience. Booked a car for a three week holiday and paid the full amount to car trawler up front, 8 months before my holiday started, only to turn up in Venice with my young family, late in the evening and be told by the car rental company that we can't drive the car out of Italy (we were going to Slovenia) and therefore they can't release the car to us. The car company said that this happens frequently and customers are unaware of Car Trawler's small print (on the 14th page of the rental agreement). The car company had received none of our booking fee so they advised we take the matter up with car trawler who had our money.

After trying to source another car on the spot for a three week holiday and paying above the odds for the short notice and high season we thought it would merely be a matter of contacting car trawler to get a refund, after all we couldn't take the car, we weren't aware of the small print, the car company didn't have our money and they could rent the car to a new customer. No such luck! I have just received a bog standard response from Car Trawler's laughable 'customer care' to say that as it was in the fine print that the car could not be driven out of the country, they would offer zero refund!

Please beware of these cowboys masquerading as a legitimate company. Avoid their website and save yourself from a truly awful experience at the start of your holiday, not to mention a loss of the entire cost of booking without enjoying the car for even a short time!

Alan

dj1471

That's a pretty common term in rental agreements, taking a car out of the rental country is an additional service that needs to be specifically requested.

It's hardly the company's fault you didn't read the contract you agreed to.

PeacefulWaters

Strangely enough I hired from Avis in Chile intending to drive into Argentina.

Three months before collecting the car I checked I could actually make good on my intentions. I couldn't.

Slovenia has excellent public transport, predominantly buses. It's also a fabulous country. You'll enjoy it.

malkie76

Late at night, what makes you think they could rent your car to someone else? You could have taken the car - nothing was stopping you from doing so.

richardw

Years ago I wanted to drive from Trieste, through Slovenia to Croatia.
Some car hire brokers wouldn't allow the car out of Italy, some out of the EU. It was a pain but I found a great price with hertz after checking all the small print.
Anything slightly out of the ordinary and a car hire broker won't include it.

Biggles

malkie76 wrote: »

Late at night, what makes you think they could rent your car to someone else? You could have taken the car - nothing was stopping you from doing so.

He would have been driving uninsured once he left Italy.

Janeward

We rent cars a lot and haven't come across this before. It was in the contract but we only received the contract the day before we flew and it was 14 pages long and the restrictive clause was on the 14th page. Guess we were distracted with flight checking in and packing etc to read the entire contract! It's shoddy that such a restriction is not made in bigger and bolder writing and that it is a search engine rather than the car company that keeps the money!

QUOTE=dj1471;72991742]That's a pretty common term in rental agreements, taking a car out of the rental country is an additional service that needs to be specifically requested.

It's hardly the company's fault you didn't read the contract you agreed to.[/QUOTE]

Janeward

Didn't specifically mean that the car would be rented that night, but in a three week period it is likely it would be booked at the height of the summer!

richardw

It's also under Terms and Conditions - Travel Restrictions, before you book.

Car hire broker and supplier websites just don't ask questions to clarify your needs, they'd be too many permutations.

Car hire and bed bank brokers keep monies in these kind of situations and the supplier and customer loses out, it's one way they make money.

malkie76

Biggles wrote: »

He would have been driving uninsured once he left Italy.

Not the fault of the car hire firm (if you understand my point). The car hire firm kept their side of the deal.