Beware - Goldcar Car Rentals Spain

In August 2012 I made a booking through arguscarhire website. I was sent details and confirmation that I would be collecting my car from a company called Goldcar, a company I have never used previously and after my experience will NEVER use again.

At Alicanti airport we had to queue for nearly 2 hours, also noting that just about every person before us in the queue were having problems with hiring their cars, people where continuously complaining once they had been seen at the window.

Once we eventually got to the front, we were confronted by a woman who thought it was highly funny that we had queued for 2 hours, I dismissed this as I thought it's a language thing. Then she went through this hard sell of additional insurance, I said the website stated it was all included, she said that was the agent's website arguscarhire, and not theirs! The full comprehensive insurance was not included, even though I had a print out that said it was. This was all getting very frustrating and confusing. By the end a car that was advertised for £98 was now costing €440, once you included the fuel surcharge, a £50 charge to put the deposit on a debit card rather than a credit card, the list went on. To be honest I was started to think that this company wasn't trustworthy, I told the woman I didn't want the additional insurance cover, she then started stating that any minor scratches to the car would be charged to my card and could be in the thousands! She then starting typing for about 5 minutes on her screen, when asked what she was typing she put her finger to her mouth and said shush!

I explained that I thought it was outrageous that they didn't make these hidden costs clearer and actually Europcar (who I usually use) were the same price, if not cheaper, provided a better service and had no queues. It was at this point she decided that I was being rude and she wasn't going to give me the car to hire after queuing for 2 hours! She also refused to give me my deposit back and told me to go away and call arguscarhire for my deposit - awful awful woman!!

In all my years of traveling I have never experienced such a rude individual, even the other customers in the queue were outraged at the way she had treated me and my family, however I had a very frustrated 2 year old who had been queuing for all this time and we just wanted to start our holiday. I therefore had to walk away after all that time with NO car.

I'm still trying to get my deposit back, even though I must say that arguscarhire, part of cartrawler have been very helpful and it's again Goldcar who won't get back to them.

Please please don't use Goldcar, they look cheap but they actually work out the same price as companies like Avis and Europcar, who both provide an exceptional service in comparison and you won't have to queue.

I go to Spain on quarter basis. The closest airport for my final destination is Malaga. I use to hire a car in the airport. In April 2012 I made the mistake and hired a car from Goldcar. I didn't have problems during my trip, I returned the car in time as per contract. Flew back home. The next day I arrived, I checked my bank account statement. Goldcar charged me in USD although I informed them that the bank account assigned to my bank card is in euro. They converted the euro amount in USD and then back to euro. This conversion cost me 56.78 euro. I contacted Goldcar in e-mail and via phone but they never refund me. In August 2012 we went again to our friends in Spain. In August the Malaga airport is pretty crowded so I asked my wife to hire a car while I'm waiting for our baggage. I missed to mention to my wife to avoid Goldcar. By the time I got my luggage, my other half was already waiting with a Goldcar car key. The answer to my question why exactly this company she said: there were less people at Goldcar’s desk. She already paid everything so, I yield to fate. Again: no problems during the trip, car returned in time, flew home. After three weeks on my wife’s bank account an additional charge of 130 Euro appeared. Claimer: Goldcar. Accessed Goldcar’s webpage and found two invoices under our client code: first for the car hire (which was ok) and a second one for unknown reason. There was no description on the invoice just the amount. We contacted Goldcar in e-mail and phone and after more than one month I’ve got the anwer: the additional charge relates to special cleaning. And this is not true; we returned the car in the same conditions we received, without damages or dirt. The biggest problem in the whole story is that my bank pays these charges even though I informed them that they shouldn’t. Once your card data were provided to Goldcar (e.g. when you pay for car hire on the spot), later on they can charge you whatever amount they want and several times. They can send invoices to the bank with whatever description – and strange to say the bank will transfer the money to Goldcar. And after then you can chase your money, you can call Goldcar (it’s pretty hard to reach Goldcar’s Customer Service and the international call costs) but the most important you’re wasting your precious time. So, if you don’t want to have stroke, if you would like to have calm après-holiday then avoid Goldcar. Pick another company but read the objective opinions about it before contacting them.
Please note I didn’t write down the above because Goldcar got me shirt out, but to help others not to experience the same.

We did eventually get the money back into ouraccount - with no explanation from Goldcar ! I also contacted my Euro MP, whopromises to support action against this type of practice (but don't hold yourbreath.....

Andrew.