End the "FULL/EMPTY SCAM" car hire rip-off NOW!

pompeyrich

Just back from Alicante, Goldcar could only provide me with a diesel, which I hadnt booked, charged me 2 Euros a day for the privelige and 64 Euros for the fuel. I had a puncture halfway through the rental, I changed the wheel and, as we had an early morning return flight and didn't want to risk not having a spare, took the car back and was told I would have to pay for another tank of fuel"as they only let cars go out with full tanks", they did offer an allowance for the quarter of a tank I had in the 1st car. option 2 was to go to the nearest filling station, fill up and then swap cars, option 3 was to go to an Opel dealer, pay for a new tyre and rim and they would refund the cost !!

There were no safety vests or warning triangle, apparently they need a 30 E deposit for these but said if I had been fined they would have paid it. Just glad I had the 22E tyre and glass cover.

knightstyle

Recently hired a car from 1car1 at Stanstead Airport, good rate and they make a note of the fuel guage reading when you take the car. So you return the car with the same reading if you can. No fuel surcharge. Also hired a car from Hertz at Bournemouth last month, what a shambles, they do full/full but had no idea where the nearest garage was to fill up! It is at Tesco about 4 miles up the road, but as all the staff were not from the area they did not know this.

PNEfan

Budget car rental via Holiday Autos from Belfast airport. Told there was a quarter tank of fuel and to bring back the same, but actually empty! Hassle of returning to desk, getting signed off, etc. Main gripe with this is no one will risk running out of fuel on return to airport, and not knowing car/fuel consumption, etc will always err on side of caution. Winner for Budget. Will be complaining - again - to Holiday Autos, but anticipate the usual generic response. Will not be using them again. Grotty car too.

LesD

One sure thing that comes out of this thread is not to book through Holiday Autos!!! T&Cs for their contracts don't seem to be very clear.

Elsewhere, it's been posted that maybe even Record are moving to full-to-empty.

I'll be glad for that. There won't then be hordes of MSErs looking to save a few euros on the fuel.

moonrakerz

LesD wrote: »

Elsewhere, it's been posted that maybe even Record are moving to full-to-empty.

I'll be glad for that.

You won't be when the main road to the airport is blocked with out of fuel cars whose drivers thought they has "just enough" fuel to get back to the airport !

Ricky_F

dekeweild wrote: »

Steer well clear of carjet / goldcar as they operate a full tank / return empty policy. i was just charged £70 for a tank of fuel in malaga (a seat Leon does not have an 18 gallon tank!).

The fuel gauge was stuck permanently on FULL so we had to keep topping up as if we ran out of petrol then recovery would be at our expense. they didnt want to know when we tried to complain.

I rent cars on a regular basis mainly from Malaga. On collection of the car from Goldcar at Malaga Airport I was told that the fuel tank was full and was charged an extra 74 Euros and that I should return the car with an empty tank and if I am to return the car with any fuel left over then it is not refundable. The fact that I am only having the car for 4 days and only using it for local short distance meant that I only used a quarter of a tank but had to pay for a full tank. I told the Goldcar office but they were not the least bit interested.

CARJET'S REPLY:
"I am sorry but Goldcar's fueling policy is Full/Empty, with no refunds
on unused petrol for reservations over 3 days"

"Our supplier's prices are not based on petrol station prices. Their
structure is taken from Spanish Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Trade
Also, the service of refuelling the car is included in the price."

THIS IS A CON SO DON'T GET CAUGHT OUT!!!

mandi_moles

This is a tricky one..
I checked every car hire company before we went to Malaga just recently and ended up using Hertz. Even though the prices were a little higher they use the FULL/FULL option or full/empty. We ended up spending 36 euro on petrol (filling up on way back to airport) and it all went well with a full tank and no extra charge.
My only problem with Hertz tho is the 710 euro excess which could be covered by a £82 charge which I felt a bit expensive.

Now I am left with the dilemma of who to use at Alicante as we are over there in December for 4 days... any ideas ?

Just discovered Doyouspain.com and even though they operate the full/empty option as there are no hidden charges on a basic KA they will probably be cheapest option for us

rbulph

I think the answer to this is firstly to carefully check the terms and conditions disclosed by the agent. If the agent simply says "Local supplier's terms apply" and doesn't disclose what these are, it must be implied that the local supplier's terms are to be reasonable. Take a copy of everything disclosed by the agent with you to the car hire company.

If, on arrival, the hire company tries to impose this arrangement, and it wasn't disclosed by the agent, kick up an absolute fuss. Request to delete the relevant provision from the contract and have the agent sign it. If he won't, get really angry. Create a scene to try to embarass him into agreeing. The agent won't like having someone shouting at him; it will look very bad to other people around. Phone up the agent and ask them in a loud voice what on earth this is all about. Complain to the tourist office at the hire location, if there is one.

If the hire company doesn't back down, I would delete the relevant provision anyway, and see if he lets me have the car. Or cross out where it says "Agreed" and write "These terms are not reasonable and I do not agree to them".

If ultimately you get left with no option but to sign the terms or not take delivery of the car, you can do things when you get back home. You could complain to the agent and your credit card company when you get back and try to secure a refund. You could post a complaint on here. You could try suing the agent, but I think it could be difficult to establish liability, and not worthwhile, for the £40 or so that you've lost. Or ultimately, just look at the total cost you've paid for hiring your car, and you might find it wasn't that bad anyway, so just get over it.

paulegc

I have always used carjet when going to Malaga. After reading this forum I have emailed carjet to ask if there are any options other than full / empty. Their reply "Very sorry but our fuel policy is full/empty on rentals more than 3 days. We can arrange full full only on short hires (maximum 3 days)". I have emailed them back telling them "If you policy changes let me know, but I will in future use companies that offer full / full". If enough people only use companies that offer full / full or half / half they will eventually change this policy.

Thanks to this forum I have now got an idea which companies to use. Record seem OK, will give them a try, but their T & Cs at the moment state they will only do full / half or full / full on hires of 6 days or less.

LesD

paulegc wrote: »

I have always used carjet when going to Malaga. After reading this forum I have emailed carjet to ask if there are any options other than full / empty. Their reply "Very sorry but our fuel policy is full/empty on rentals more than 3 days. We can arrange full full only on short hires (maximum 3 days)". I have emailed them back telling them "If you policy changes let me know, but I will in future use companies that offer full / full". If enough people only use companies that offer full / full or half / half they will eventually change this policy.

Thanks to this forum I have now got an idea which companies to use. Record seem OK, will give them a try, but their T & Cs at the moment state they will only do full / half or full / full on hires of 6 days or less.

Hello and welcome to MSE.

If you read this thread through, you will see that Record have changed their policy in recent months.

If you do find anyone offering full-to-full hire in Spain, perhaps you will return here and let us know. You may also then want to explain what the difference in the hire cost is and what the insurance terms are. Then we should need to know what the terms are for additional drivers and any additional equipment provision - including the supply or not of warning signs, emergency jackets, bulbs, etc. so we can compare total costs rather than just focusing on the fuel policy.