TopCar issues

Grancanariaholidaymaker

Hi there
I’m on holiday in Gran Canaria and looking for some advice, I’ve hired a car through jet2holidays and the company they’ve subcontracted it to is TopCar. When I collected the car they demanded a €900 deposit even though we had purchased extra insurance with jet2 to avoid this. Then when I went to collect the car they said I would receive the handover documents by email. This was on Thursday last week. And I’m still waiting for them. I’ve tried contacting them via phone and online contact forms, but no response.

Any advice would be greatly received on my next move from here

vacheron

Was the extra insurance purchased from Jet2 "Vehicle excess insurance"?

If so, you would still need to pay the hire company the €900 deposit. This is only avoided only if you take up the (usually very overpriced) additional insurance offered by the hire car company themselves. 

The Jet2 insurance would cover any losses resulting from the hire car company retaining some, or all of your €900 deposit upon returning the vehicle and any claim would be repaid directly to you.

Grancanariaholidaymaker

It was a “full protection insurance” that I purchased with jet2.

but my main concern is that I haven’t received any documentation, including the handover document which would have any pre existing damages listed on it. I don’t want to leave it and get back to the airport and they take my €900 deposit that’s been paid.

also with regard to the €900 deposit, usually with a deposit the money is ringfenced on my card but with TopCar they’ve actually taken the money completely out of my account. Surely this is an incorrect practice?

BFBW

Grancanariaholidaymaker said:

It was a “full protection insurance” that I purchased with jet2.

but my main concern is that I haven’t received any documentation, including the handover document which would have any pre existing damages listed on it. I don’t want to leave it and get back to the airport and they take my €900 deposit that’s been paid.

also with regard to the €900 deposit, usually with a deposit the money is ringfenced on my card but with TopCar they’ve actually taken the money completely out of my account. Surely this is an incorrect practice?

The clue is in the name....insurance. Nothing to do with Top Car at all. So everything with them will be as normal. Take their Waiver or leave a deposit. What Top Car would sell to you, is a Waiver, not insurance.
You have purchased an insurance policy via Jet2. So any problems and you will have to pay, making a claim via the insurance policy for reimbursement.
I guess you now understand that you aren't going to get your full deposit back, even if you utilised a no forex fee card, since there will be exchange rate variations and likely fees for both conversions.
It don't even sound as if you used a credit card, since you write about them taking money from your account.In that case, even if you took the Waiver from Top Car, you would still have had to pay a deposit. Maybe not as much, but still something.

• If you're paying with a debit card, you'll have to leave a deposit, even if you've purchased our extended protection.
• Certain vehicle groups may require a credit card.
• The following information must be legible on the card: (i) the cardholder's full name; (ii) the card number; and (iii) the expiry date.
• Prepaid, rechargeable, or virtual cards, as well as card payments via electronic devices, may not be accepted.
• We may not accept deposit payments from cards that present administrative difficulties in processing refunds.

and

When you return the vehicle, we’ll ensure it is in the same condition as when you collected it, with the same fuel level, reasonably clean in line with responsible use, and returned at the agreed time.

If all conditions are met, the excess deposit will be refunded. The refund may take up to 15 business days to appear in your account, depending on your bank.

We process both the charging and refunding of the excess exclusively in Euros (€). We are not responsible for any differences in the refunded amount due to currency exchange rate fluctuations.

Let's hope that you took comprehensive video and photos of the car on pickup.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/top-car-hire.com