Carjet and Allmeet Rent a Car refused credit card

reablaz

Hello,

My mom have paid for car rental 99.21€ and €62.35 for premium insurance from Carjet.com using Revolut debit card on 22/09/24.
When she arrived to Antalya (Turkey) (yesterday 23/10/24), the car rental company's (Allmeet Rent a Car) representative picked her, my dad and sister from the airport to their small office in the city centre.
My mom presented her Lloyds credit card, and a rental contract and insurance from Carjet.com to the car rental company.
1. They tried to scan her credit card, and stated that it doesn't work. My mom asked to put it into the card reader to put a PIN, they refused.
2. They said she has to buy another insurance from them (Allmeet Rent a Car) for about 40 euros a day or something. She refused, and said to them she already bought one from Carjet.com. They started to be angry and impolite.
3. They have asked to pay additional money for a 2nd driver, but the 2nd driver is already included in the policy of carjet.com.
4. They tore apart my mom's rental contract from carjet.com and refused the service, and did not give the car 
5. They took my mom, dad and sister back to the airport, where they used a transfer to get to the hotel. They are now couple days with no car, and no refund.
6. My mom contacted carjet.com, but they are saying the rental company said my mom just provided a photo of her credit card without giving the real credit card. And refused a refund.
My mom did not give any photos to the car rental company at all.

What can she do about it?

I have advised her to make a claim through the insurance she bought (but on the claim form they ask for details about damage to the car, etc... There was no damage, she even didn't see the car).

A d also dispute the transaction(s) in Revolut, sending them the correspondence as an evidence of contact with the merchant.

Unfortunately, she did not voice or video record the situation at the rental car company office. There was even no company name or logo at their office. And my family don't know how to go back to their office, because it is nowhere... They used their driver/representative on purpose, so the tourists won't know how to find them. They acted rudely, and they seem to be the scam company.

What can you advise? Can she get a full refund somehow?

This is what was the last email response from carjet.com:

"Hi,

 

This is what the company has informed us: 

 

Since the customer's card was not suitable for deposit, the car was not given. There was only one card photo, we cannot process with the photo.

 

No refund will be made.

 

Regards,

Annabel

CarJet.com

DoYouSpain.com"

DullGreyGuy

What are the terms of the agreement about providing a card on collection? It's getting increasingly common that the terms require a card with raised numbers but many cards are no longer embossed so fail to meet the requirement. 

Did she have no other cards with her that they could try? It's not a sensible idea to travel with a single card for fairly obvious reasons. 

General recommendation is never to mention you have another CDW/hire excess policy but simply say you are happy to pay for the excess if a claim is necessary however that will mean you will have to have a working card for them to reserve the excess against. 

reablaz

Here is more info

reablaz

Premium insurance policy

reablaz

Here are the policies, terms and conditions:

A link to download pdfs:
https://file.io/sBN3QDFKZRWG

reablaz

Two more screenshots:

reablaz

DullGreyGuy said:

What are the terms of the agreement about providing a card on collection? It's getting increasingly common that the terms require a card with raised numbers but many cards are no longer embossed so fail to meet the requirement. 

Did she have no other cards with her that they could try? It's not a sensible idea to travel with a single card for fairly obvious reasons. 

General recommendation is never to mention you have another CDW/hire excess policy but simply say you are happy to pay for the excess if a claim is necessary however that will mean you will have to have a working card for them to reserve the excess against. 

I think my mom has an old style of credit card... But I can ask... They did no have any other credit cards at all, just one, and she never had any problems with it.

Do you think she can get a full refund? She is trying to find another rental car company to rent a car while they are over there... Because she struggles to walk (age and health related issues).

reablaz

DullGreyGuy said:

What are the terms of the agreement about providing a card on collection? It's getting increasingly common that the terms require a card with raised numbers but many cards are no longer embossed so fail to meet the requirement. 

Did she have no other cards with her that they could try? It's not a sensible idea to travel with a single card for fairly obvious reasons. 

General recommendation is never to mention you have another CDW/hire excess policy but simply say you are happy to pay for the excess if a claim is necessary however that will mean you will have to have a working card for them to reserve the excess against. 

Is it NOT embossed? It has the title, first and last names, long 16 digit card number, CVC, valid from, expires end...

Caz3121

embossed would mean the digits are raised rather than printed on the card. I the 'olden days' this was used when using a machine to imprint the card details onto a carbonised record.
Looking at the cards in my wallet just now all are printed (as your pic) and none are embossed so I guess I would be scuppered if that was a requirement.

zagfles

It's almost certainly nothing to do with the card not being embossed. It's likely that the car hire company wanted her to buy the excess insurance as that's where they make the money. Look at the costs, 99 EUR for 14 days car hire, of which the broker will likely take a cut, so 7 EUR a day, maybe 5 or 6 after the broker cut, that's ridiculously cheap even for Turkey. They're not going to make money on that. But 40 EUR per day for excess insurance! 560 EUR for the fortnight!

There's a long thread on TA about them Allmeet Car Rental - Türkiye Message Board - Tripadvisor 

Probably best way to get money back is to ask the bank for a chargeback. They clearly didn't provide the service she paid for. Their claim that the real card wasn't presented for the deposit may be an issue but is probably not credible. The bank may have had other people with the same issue. 

For future, always check reviews for car hire companies, don't book through brokers or comparison sites, the problem with car hire brokers/comparison sites is companies will always try to make the base price as low as possible so they appear top of the list, and make money on the extras like excess insurance. And because that's where they make the money, they may put pressure on customers to buy or even find excuses to refuse to hire the car if they don't buy extras. 

I've not hired a car in Turkey but have in loads of other countries, I've found the best value is often small places in resorts and I will always pay cash if possible. Most small car hire places don't require a credit card, so you know you're not going to get a nasty surprise on your CC bill when you get home. Also worth buying excess insurance in advance, as most car hire has an excess, and even those that claim they don't tend to have exclusions for parts of the car eg glass, tyres. And always google reviews for any car hire company.