Car Hire Rip-Off at Airports

[woe10]

Car hire sharks caught red-handed: Probe reveals the ruthless tricks of airport rental desks to add charges onto bookings

Europcar, Goldcar and Firefly added charges to bookings by a reporter in Spain
Budget and Thrifty also quoted hugely inflated costs for renting a car in person
But both firms offered similar vehicles at same location at slashed price online
Findings come after revealed tourists billed for repairs which are not carried out


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4747878/Car-hire-sharks-caught-red-handed.html#ixzz4oVraOrqS

[bedouin]

Everybody knows most car rental firms are crooked, that's why people like PlusCar are so popular in Fuerteventura.

[Mr Boo Boo]

Everybody knows most car rental firms are crooked, that's why people like PlusCar are so popular in Fuerteventura.

Used Plus car for the first time last month, will be using them again... highly recommend.

[spitfire58]

It seems to be predominantly the brits that are doing this. Probably because a lot of people here feel they are "owed something" by society in general. Unfortunately it is a rather low life culture that feeds this. The people that do this (in my view) should be named and shamed, along with the ambulance chaser companies that put them up to it. Then there names should be put on a worldwide black list so they can never book a holiday again !!

[el caballo hambriento]

Interesting to see how many of the companies are owned by Hertz.

[paully]

Interesting to see how many of the companies are owned by Hertz.

Thrifty and Firefly from the names above are owned by Hertz

[bedouin]

Hertz tend to recycle cars from their main fleet when they get a bit scruffy, and keep renting them out under their "budget" brands.  The cars may be a bit scratched or scraped - damage for which previous renters will have been charged, but the repairs are never carried out.

[seane]

I was out in June and rented from gold car  I thought I was getting a good price I left the car back with a full tank of petrol and in perfect condition now I`m  been hit with hidden charges â,¬26 administration charge I got a parking ticket which I gave to the office and he told me that they will pay it for me and charge my account the money was taken but now I have received a bill for â,¬45 for the same ticket. When I contact the office I get the run around. Take my advice and avoid this company the are not too be trusted

[spitfire58]

I was out in June and rented from gold car  I thought I was getting a good price I left the car back with a full tank of petrol and in perfect condition now I`m  been hit with hidden charges â,¬26 administration charge I got a parking ticket which I gave to the office and he told me that they will pay it for me and charge my account the money was taken but now I have received a bill for â,¬45 for the same ticket. When I contact the office I get the run around. Take my advice and avoid this company the are not too be trusted

Hi Seane,
I was out last month, similar experience. I have my own insurance excess so didn`t take theirs, had to pay a 1400â,¬ deposit, which was taken from my c card, not just blocked. Got it back ok except for the exchange rate & another “smart charge” that I didn`t get returned. Cost me £61 in total. Their excess insurance would have been cheaper!!! That was Rhodium (part of GOLDCAR) if I had know, would never have taken it !!!

[bedouin]

I'm coming around to the view that, if you can't find a truly all-inclusive no-excess offer, it's less hassle just to buy the rental company's extra insurance.  For the Canaries, I always use Pluscar (or similar offerings), and in Mallorca last month I used Rosslind, but when we go to mainland Spain I tend to end up with outfits like Goldcar, and just pay the extra.  I hired a couple of years ago from Solmar in Murcia, they charged my card with â,¬1000 excess and didn't refund it.  I spent months getting my card issuer to grab it back.

[charlatanefc]

Good advice.  We use Vanrell when we go to Majorca, no scams just like pluscar, and Malagacars when we go there.

Used Avis when we went to Costa Blanca last year, and they were fine.  No excess, and just the price of a tank of fuel taken as a deposit which was returned when the car was checked as full.  You can get some cheap rates if you look at the right times too.  I now have free preferential service, which basically means you can just go to the garage and drive the car away

[Snowdrop]

Ci-car is also a good company to use. You can pick up at airport and drop off in resort or vice Versa.  And what they quote is what you pay.  No hidden extras.

[Dave Diggler]

Been using Topcar for around 7 years, never had a problem (touch wood) very reasonable rates, no hidden charges, decent cars.  Not the newest fleet, but I prefer a tatty car anyway, it doesnt show the scratches🤔

[dagwood]

Ok if you get screwed by a car hire firm once that's ok but if it happens again and again well you need to have your head examined. There are about half a dozen good reliable car hire firms on Fuerteventura and the rest are chancers and robbers.
That said I rented from Hertz on mainland Spain and the dam thing was stolen and I found them very good, and had a replacement car in a few minutes after I made the police report. (keys and other items stolen in our apartment while we were asleep) Some time ago I rented from Hertz in Fuerteventura and they were horrible to deal with but I read on here that in Fuerteventura its a franchise your dealing with and nobody cares and just want to pass the day as easy as possible.       

[Can the Man]

Ci-car is also a good company to use. You can pick up at airport and drop off in resort or vice Versa.  And what they quote is what you pay.  No hidden extras.

This is correct, but you do pay a premium price with CI Cars,

[erik_tonny]

Ci-car is also a good company to use. You can pick up at airport and drop off in resort or vice Versa.  And what they quote is what you pay.  No hidden extras.

This is correct, but you do pay a premium price with CI Cars,

This may come as a surprise for you, but it is normal in the grown-up world that quality comes with a price.

[Ivemovedon]

And this may come as a surprise to you. You don't always get what you paid for...However much it is.

[Ivemovedon]

LOL

[dagwood]

The Auld Forum has gone very slow.

[Ivemovedon]

Only towards Ryanair from what I see. But then that's quite understandable at present. As for the other chappie.....

[jg]

And this may come as a surprise to you. You don't always get what you paid for...However much it is.

I always nderstood that as "You don't always get what you pay for, but you hardly ever get what you don't pay for."

[Ivemovedon]

Looks like either way it's a possibility you stand to lose. So maybe go for the cheapest. It won't hurt quite so much if you do get turned over then

I'm not sure if Top car Autoreisen are the cheapest now or not,we did originally choose them for that fact although that was many years ago. But we've used them for the whole time we have been going to the island. And in all that time we have never had an issue either with money or car quality. When that happens you keep using them until they let you down. Up till now they haven't.

[Banjo]

Same here, used them around a dozen times without any issues.

[paully]

This time we used Autoresien, who have now split from Top Car..They have the same terms etc as Cicar and Autoplus and we got a very acceptable VW Polo, all in for E122 for 2 weeks...

   Top car hire seem to have changed their terms and if you want any recovery assistance it appears you have to buy their additional insurance deals, which covers everything of course, but does put the price up somewhat.

[Ivemovedon]

Will check that out before we book. Thanks for the info paully.

[Can the Man]

This time we used Autoresien, who have now split from Top Car..They have the same terms etc as Cicar and Autoplus and we got a very acceptable VW Polo, all in for E122 for 2 weeks...

   Top car hire seem to have changed their terms and if you want any recovery assistance it appears you have to buy their additional insurance deals, which covers everything of course, but does put the price up somewhat.

What kind of car you get for that money Paully ?

[Deso]

I'm going to guess, a VW Polo.    

[spitfire58]

I'm going to guess, a VW Polo.    

I was gonna say that but John might throw his coffee at me next time 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂