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Goldcar - terrible company - avoid at all costs

Our experience with Goldcar in Bari was terrible – the salesman was very rude, aggressive and intimidating and forced us to have additional very expensive insurance – he said the area we were going to was so bad the car would definitely be damaged (it wasn’t, every person we met in Italy was lovey except for this person) and we did not trust him at all to leave £1200 deposit instead as we felt he would invent damage reports afterwards (online reviews highlighted our concerns) and we would be charged on our return – he also said the credit card would not be refunded for at least 45 days.
While we were there we witnessed his equally unpleasant colleague using exactly the same technique to other customers. Every single customer in that office was very unhappy with them.
We complained to their office and to their CEO Mr Juan Carlos Azcona but the office reply did not acknowledge our issues and the CEO did not reply.
We will never use this nasty bully-boy company again and I would strongly urge everyone else not to – just google reviews on this company and they are all so bad !!!
Look at some of the links below and the numerous review sites…
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Comments

  • z1a
    z1a Posts: 2,522 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    We all know.
  • AlexMac
    AlexMac Posts: 3,066 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    GOLDCAR?
    450,000 complaints mirror your own
    Check Google... Oh... you mean you didn't search for reviews or look at the Tripadvisor forum search bar before booking?
    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187427-i42-k11385627-Do_not_use_GOLDCAR_car_hire-Spain.html#90716229

    ...sympathies.

    As I say in post #6 (and many others) there is costructive advice on car hire on Tripadvisor at
    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187435-i317-k10395502-Tips_for_Car_Hire-Costa_del_Sol_Province_of_Malaga_Andalucia.html#83951907

    (on a Spain Forum, but applicable Europe -or world- wide _

    Look on the bright side; most complainants report fraud of a few hundreds to '000s of Euros, so you got off light.
  • cubegame
    cubegame Posts: 2,042 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Their business model is based upon intimidating naive travellers into paying for extra insurance enabling them to lower the headline price.

    But as with all hire car companies they will only rip you off if you let them.

    I've had three rentals off Goldcar in Sardinia, Tenerife and Amsterdam. All offered excellent service. The cars were a bit crap but they were cheap. In fact, when I left my sunglasses in the one in Amsterdam, they sent them back two days after I asked if they'd found them at their own cost.
  • 814man
    814man Posts: 403 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    "and forced us to have additional very expensive insurance"

    Really?
  • cubegame
    cubegame Posts: 2,042 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    814man wrote: »
    "and forced us to have additional very expensive insurance"

    Really?

    To be fair, they will be persistent about it.....if you're the kind of person who buckles to pressure sales tactics you're asking to get scammed.
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
    Used Goldcar in Portugal and Malta......both rentals were fine,a little bit of a hard sell on the extra insurance but a firm No Thanks i have my own and that was that
    Had to leave large deposit on credit card which is the norm,so from my point of view they are no worse than Hertz and Avis who i have also used abroad
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
    gardner1 wrote: »
    Used Goldcar in Portugal and Malta......both rentals were fine,a little bit of a hard sell on the extra insurance but a firm No Thanks i have my own and that was that
    Had to leave large deposit on credit card which is the norm,so from my point of view they are no worse than Hertz and Avis who i have also used abroad

    Your point of view is not the norm. Nor is your experience.
  • Neil49
    Neil49 Posts: 3,412 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    This is the link you should have looked at on this site before you booked with them.

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2744712/beware-goldcar-car-rentals-spain&highlight=gold+car

    It's been going for around 8 years!
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
    EveryWhere wrote: »
    Your point of view is not the norm. Nor is your experience.

    As with many topics on MSE about terrible customer experiences with companies be it car hire/energy/banks/airlines etc the vast majority of posts come from dissatisfied customers
    People with positive views seldom post praise..........but they do exist and my views on Goldcar was positive and certainly no worse than other big names but who knows i might use them next year and regret it
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
    gardner1 wrote: »
    As with many topics on MSE about terrible customer experiences with companies be it car hire/energy/banks/airlines etc the vast majority of posts come from dissatisfied customers
    People with positive views seldom post praise..........but they do exist and my views on Goldcar was positive and certainly no worse than other big names but who knows i might use them next year and regret it

    Sorry, but this statement is not credible. Show me the equivalent 'big name' thread; https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2744712/beware-goldcar-car-rentals-spain

    There isn't one, because there isn't the groundswell of dissatisfied customers.
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