Beware - Goldcar Car Rentals Spain

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  • Goldcar found a tiny scratch on the plastic bumper which may well have been there when i took the car - they then charged 100 euros for the repair and a further 250 EUROS FOR ADMIN - which they explained was because it had to go from Italy to Spain - this is simply a money making rip off - please don't use them.
  • :mad:we picked up the car (3day rental) from malaga airport and was also scamed with the exhcange reate , also told we had to pay 80. euros for a full tank of fuel , but because we were only haveing it for 3 days we needed to fill it up on our return and we would be reinburse with the 80 euros QUESS WHAT ??? ITS NOW SEPTEMBER thats 4 month without a reply, or an explantion why we have not recieved our money. its the last time i ever use this comany. :mad:
  • NEVER EVER EVER BOOK GOLD CAR TO HIRE A CAR

    I recently hired a car from Gold car in Palma, We waited 2 hours and the girl called me a ignorant brit!! because I asked why Spanish people were allowed to jump the queue, (apparently because they had a 2 year old) Once at the desk were told unless we took the ""extra insurance"" we could not have the car and would not get a full refund already paid. So we had no option but to pay the 59 euros they wanted for this. We had to pay 84 euros for fuel (bit steep in a fiesta) as well

    Once we returned the car we asked the Gold Car staff to check it and were told "no to busy" so we took photos just incase we got any unexpected charged for damage! and when I got home low and behold £52.00 had been taken WITHOUT my consent for what I did not know, Finally I have been told for Cleaning services!!! The car did have a bit of sand in but I would have cleaned it if they had told me, and I presumed you hire a car to use not to look at !!!!!

    My credit card company say because I gave Gold car my details I have to pay this and reclaim this, you have to give credit card details to hire a car!!

    I have contacted rip of Britain to hopefully do something to help, this is absolutely disgusting so please please NEVER EVER USE GOLD CAR RENTALS THEY ARE ONE BIG CON!!!!!! AND LET EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE LIKE VIA FACE BOOK ETC, THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN, We have used car hire companies for years and never ever had a problem, I am now awaiting the outcome as I have sent a email to demand the ""extra insurance"" and cleaning money back as this is not in there terms and conditions which by the way you can not down load once booked the car.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    Look here before deciding on from whom you should rent a vehicle in Spain. Don't always go with the cheapest quote.
  • Never EVER use Goldcar, or Holiday Autos. Here's my experience: Booked a car through Holiday Autos online for a holiday in LaManga, Spain, picking the car up at Murcia airport. Go every year and usually use bravocarhire.com and Solmar - who have always been fine and straightforward, but this time went with others as they had a cheaper quote (ha!)

    I had prepaid the car rental (£141) and knew I also had to buy a full tank of petrol (88 Euros), which they would only take on a Visa Debit card. I paid, then the hard sell for insurance started. Knowing this is just a way for them to get more money, I refused, so they said I then had to take a swipe of my credit card (not my Visa debit) against an excess of 6000 Euros!!!! I told them this was insane, but they said if I didn't give them the swipe or buy the insurance, I couldn't have the car. I reluctantly gave them my Amex credit card and they took a swipe, gave me the receipt and I got the car. A week later, I returned the car, undamaged, and all was well... Until I got my Amex statement, and saw that I had a payment of 96.40 Euros and 99 Euros, four days apart, from a company called 'La Manga Club, Los Belones Car'. Having a further look on the credit card swipe they gave me, I noticed a payment of 96.40 Euros at the bottom that I hadn't been notified of.

    I immediately rang Holiday Autos - who have been DREADFUL at helping me and dealing with this situation. When I told them what happened (after having emailed my complaint as they don't have a customer service line to call), they called back a week later to say they'd spoken with Goldcar, who said the charge hadn't come from them and that was that. Naturally I objected, claiming I had the swipe from them, but when I looked closer I noticed the address on the swipe wasn't Goldcar, Murcia airport, but La Manga Club. The people at Goldcar were telling Holiday Autos that I must have gone and hired another car there (let's not even bother asking about the logic of why I would hire another car on the same night). When I asked the Holiday Autos rep to ask them about the excess - as they must have taken one since I didn't buy their insurance - they provided a final invoice which showed I'd approved a 600 Euro swipe on my Visa Debit card. Which I hadn't. This then became an issue of my word against their fake documentation, and I have lost. Holiday Autos have told me there is nothing they can do to help me, so American Express are now following up their own investigation, which could take 8 weeks. In the meantime, I am more than £190 out of pocket on what was meant to be a cheap rental.

    I believe Goldcar (in Murcia airport at least) are running a scam. Banking on people not reading their statements properly, thus adding the odd amount on here and there and getting away with it,

    My lesson is to not go for the cheapest car hire, read reviews extensively, and share this on every forum so no one ever has the misfortune of dealing with Goldcar's thieving and Holiday Auto's inadequate and upsetting service. (Apologies if you read this elsewhere in another forum but I am going to try and post this as extensively as possible)
  • I recognise many of these Goldcar stories, and my experience in Jerez this year was similar - rude and churlish staff, unreasonable fuel policy (although it is true that Holiday Autos do set that out in their small print) and hard sell on the additional insurance cover. At least the queue was not too bad since Jerez is a small airport - there was a massive queue at Malaga the previous year.

    I declined the additional insurance because I had purchased a car hire excess annual cover policy (over the internet at home). This appears to be a money saver - you pay just £35 per annum and it covers the excess for all your rentals that year. Except that I have found that it doesn't cover everything.

    I too had to hand over a credit card and it was swiped to the tune of some €600. Unfortunately we had a mishap with the car keys and a replacement was needed. I also had to fork out €120 for a taxi to collect the new keys.

    My Questor policy is underwritten by White Horse Insurance Ireland Ltd. Whilst they have paid up for the charges related to the keys, they refuse to cover the cost of the taxi.

    So - don't think that the annual excess cover provides total peace of mind. In effect, it is not an effective substitute for the hire firm's own additional cover (which would have cost €60 in this case). So, questionable whether this is really a money saving approach.

    In future, I will be looking for a better quality rental firm, and taking out their full insurance option. In fact we did this in Spain with Hertz in 2012 and the experience was relatively problem free (yes, I dented the car then as well - don't have much luck with hire cars!)

    Back to Goldcar, I felt that they were positively crowing over the fact that things had gone wrong and - 'oh dear, you don't have the insurance'. The same offhand staff were unhelpful and unsympathetic in their handling of the situation. I felt that the reason for their annoyance on the insurance front was that they probably get some personal gain from selling it.

    I'm thinking of hiring a tank next time....:)
  • Used Goldcar on a recent trip to Valencia. They advertised as the cheapest company, at only 25Euros. Got there and paid for insurance which was a further 60Euros. Only when I returned to the UK did I find they had charged my card an additional £160 for the full fuel tank, only being in Valencia for 4 days I barely used any of it. They didn't mention any of this. Bunch of con men. Nothing is as good as it first seems. Avoid like the plague.
  • nickcc
    nickcc Posts: 2,265
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    It would be so nice to find a car rental company that you could actually trust, I'm sure they would make a fortune once the word got round. I chose Avis in Malaga and what a battle that was, guaranteed Full Full but Avis tried to charge me for Full/MT even though I had a receipt for filling up 10 minutes before return. Sorted in the end thanks to the Malaga manager but who wants all this agro at the end of your holidays.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    nickcc wrote: »
    It would be so nice to find a car rental company that you could actually trust, I'm sure they would make a fortune once the word got round. I chose Avis in Malaga and what a battle that was, guaranteed Full Full but Avis tried to charge me for Full/MT even though I had a receipt for filling up 10 minutes before return. Sorted in the end thanks to the Malaga manager but who wants all this agro at the end of your holidays.

    Can't say that I disagree with you.

    First rental with Hertz in Malaga, I reserved a BMW Sports and they offered me a Mini when I arrived. :eek: Of course I insisted that only an upgrade was acceptable.
    They came up with something in the end.

    The next time, they closed the drop off office early and then tried to charge us for an extra day. Cheeky monkeys.

    But at least no dodgy fuel policy tricks and new cars with no scratches or faults.
  • We paid DoYouSpain.com 89 euros online to hire a car for 8 days in Alicante. I didn't know which car company they were booking us with but they did mention that we would have pay for a full tank of fuel at the airport. I was expecting it to be the at the going rate and that insurance was covered.

    When we arrived in Alicante at just gone 10.30pm we found the Goldcar desk and joined a queue which we finally got to the front of at just before midnight.

    To cut a long story short we ended up paying an extra 134 euros for insurance we were forced to buy and the fuel at a massively inflated price. The woman at the desk was incredibly rude and by the time I'd finished I felt like I'd been mugged. I would have told them to stick it but the kids were tired and I just wanted to get them to bed.

    The car had a hubcap missing when we picked it up which worried us because we were fully expecting them to try to get us to pay for it when we returned it. We tried calling to inform them but couldn't get through. I'll be keeping an eye on my statements now to see if they try to steal more from us.
    We couldn't use much of the fuel; it was an underpowered Fiesta so we returned it with most of the fuel left and had no way of getting a refund.

    Utter rubbish - I WOULD NEVER USE THEM AGAIN and strongly suggest that you think twice before you do.
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