Goldcar Rental & DoYouSpain

Stokeseagull

We paid a deposit for Car Rental through DoYouSpain for a car to be picked up from Goldcar in Alicante Airport.
We got to the Goldcar kiosk at 11pm on 12th July to see a huge huddle of people. They had a ticket system where you had to click whether you had a booking or not. Those that had bookings already were left waiting for hours (we waited almost 2 hours to be seen). As a test I went back to the ticket dispenser and clicked that I had no booking - our number was called immediately but we were actually shouted at for trying to cheat their immoral system. If they had your money guaranteed they just let you fester in the concourse for hours.
During this time multiple customers who already had a booking stormed off with shouts of 'Don't use them - they're scammers' and words to that effect.
When we eventually were seen (1hr 40 minutes later) they first claimed that we couldn't get a hire without their insurance )even though we bought platinum insurance that was supposed to guarantee not being hassled in this way.
Then we were asked to pay £1,400 deposit which we knew about but they wouldn't accept my wife's credit card (the very one she used to book in the first place!). As a named driver I offered them a choice of 3 of my credit cards which they refused. They said it would have to be my wife's debit card but that their bank charges 10% to take and then to return a deposit and so they asked for a further £280 non-refundable completely made-up charge.
At this point we walked away, as in all my life I've never heard such rubbish as banks charging to make deposits. We went to Europcar next door who sorted us out immediately, were polite and didn't angrily try to extort money out of us. They said we were the seventh customer just THAT EVENING who had given up on a pre-booked hire car with Goldcar.
I tried to get our £200 deposit back from DoYouSpain but they are obviously as unprofessional as Goldcar. I filled in their incident form for complaints with the details. Literally within 2 minutes they 'resolved the case' by replying It says clearly in our terms you need a credit card.???? Nothing to do with my complaint.
I have rang them 3 times - each time they are rude and just not interested at all in Goldcar or the events of that evening.
What do I do now? I have reported the deposit to our bank as a disputed charge but DoYouSpain and Goldcar can't be allowed to openly extort customers and get away with it. Who do I write to to get this properly looked into?

zagfles

Just dispute it with your bank, and think yourselves lucky it was "only" £200. And in future, don't use brokers/agents for car hire, and google reviews. 

bagand96

zagfles said:

Just dispute it with your bank, and think yourselves lucky it was "only" £200. And in future, don't use brokers/agents for car hire, and google reviews. 

Be careful when using brokers or agents, but they do have their place. 

Be more careful when choosing the Car Rental Firm who are actually hiring you the vehicle, that's who was the problem here. 

Marksfish

I used to use Hirecarsinspain. Always had good service, a UK number to call at any time and guaranteed all inclusive prices.

zagfles

bagand96 said:

zagfles said:

Just dispute it with your bank, and think yourselves lucky it was "only" £200. And in future, don't use brokers/agents for car hire, and google reviews. 

Be careful when using brokers or agents, but they do have their place. 

Be more careful when choosing the Car Rental Firm who are actually hiring you the vehicle, that's who was the problem here. 

Virtually all the problems we see here are people using brokers and ending up with the likes of Goldcar. Problem with brokers is they'll find the cheapest deal which is often unrealisticly cheap and hence the problems with them trying it on. Do a bit of research and book stuff direct. (in general - obviously some agents are better than others)

bagand96

zagfles said:

bagand96 said:

zagfles said:

Just dispute it with your bank, and think yourselves lucky it was "only" £200. And in future, don't use brokers/agents for car hire, and google reviews. 

Be careful when using brokers or agents, but they do have their place. 

Be more careful when choosing the Car Rental Firm who are actually hiring you the vehicle, that's who was the problem here. 

Virtually all the problems we see here are people using brokers and ending up with the likes of Goldcar. Problem with brokers is they'll find the cheapest deal which is often unrealisticly cheap and hence the problems with them trying it on. Do a bit of research and book stuff direct. (in general - obviously some agents are better than others)

Apart from a few "special deals" the brokers will tell you who you the Hire Car Provider is. It's up to the customer if they choose to research that hire firm or not (the hire firm named in this thread are in my personal "never" list)

That said I've had plenty of rentals that I'm sure you'd deem "unrealistically cheap" that have been absolutely fine.  Read and understand what you're agreeing to, research the local provider, and don't fall for any shenanigans at the desk.