(Auto) Plus Cars - fail

Started by SoCal, May 22, 2014, 00:40:08 AM

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SoCal

It may be loved on the forum, but it is not loved by me after 2 attempts.  pluscars-fuerteventura

* first rental: car less than ordered and paid for (and quite old). Less than pleasant to drive in.

* second and recent rental: total fail by company - no car rented.

The car was requested last Saturday and by this  Tuesday morning, no response. A follow up produced no response. Consequently, while in the airport ready to fly to Fuertevenura (it takes me 30 hours to get here), I successfully reserved a car from Auto Reisen (https://www.topcar-autoreisen.com/en/) within 10 minutes after filling out the input to the website. The price was 3 euros less for the week requested than Plus Cars. (87 euros for a VW pollo). The car delivered was not a pollo (bad) but a new VW Fuertwagon with 2000 km on it, which drove very well, (good!) much better than the back-breaking Hundai I received from Plus Cars. 

Once I received confirmation from Auto Reisen, I wrote to Plus Cars to inform them I had canceled the reservation to which they responded quickly. (Huh?)  Later, I received from Plus Cars an email saying they had no cars for the period of interest.   

One experience can be an anomaly, but two experiences of unsatisfactory results generates a pattern. However,  I am wiling to give them one more try.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

djk99

I'm happy to hire from either Auto Reisen or Plus Cars and have used both over the last few months trouble free. My last car was from Auto Reisen and although they take €200 up front to cover uninsured damage it was back in my CC account the day after the hire ended. Interestingly, as I was returning the car, the Auto Reisen desk had no customers waiting but the 'big name' company next door had a very long queue. Obviously, not everyone reads this forum as the company with the long queue has the most negative comments of all the renters!!

zedzedeleven

You can name and shame on here you know, don`t need to be coy,  "The big name next door"?  Cicar? Hertz? Avis?
Mentor to the boneheads.

djk99

Quote from: zedzedeleven on May 22, 2014, 12:25:54 PM
You can name and shame on here you know, don`t need to be coy,  "The big name next door"?  Cicar? Hertz? Avis?
I Know. The big queues were at the Hertz desk, but to be honest I think that anyone using this forum would have crossed them off their list already. I think a lot of people  are using  UK Car Rental Aggregator sites for holiday bookings and end up with rentals at the cheapest basic price, but, as we all know will cost them more as insurance and petrol transactions are added. Having said that, IIRC , if you're long term renting (or driving a lot) and actually CAN leave the car back empty it may not be a bad deal. Some of the Aggregator sites seem to offer insurance which seems to cover the extra insurance angle, and there are always independent car hire insurance schemes available for people who rent regularly. 

lionfish

Also a lot of business people have discounts through Hertz UK and therefore tend to use Hertz over here.

Can the Man

Also a lot of airlines, Ryanair, Aer Lingus do special deals on car hire when booking flights, and they are always with Hertz.

Can the Man

Socal, so sorry to hear about your bad experience with plus cars,   :(, I've never experienced bad service from them like you describe. :( :( :(

SoCal

#7
Quote from: Speedy Gonzales on May 23, 2014, 20:13:45 PM
Socal, so sorry to hear about your bad experience with plus cars,   :(, I've never experienced bad service from them like you describe. :( :( :(

Thank you for your concern. I'm comfortable with the idea that the world is grey and not black and white.  Hence all future events are probabilities.  I simply want readers to realize that plus cars is not perfect despite what woe10 says and that there are other establishments that might serve the reader better than plus cars.

As stated above, I'm willing to give them one more try.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

bedouin

I'm on the island now, and have a car from PlusCar. Yesterday, I got a puncture and changed the wheel for the spare. I rang PlusCar, and was asked to drop the wheel back to them and they'd immediately replace it. Got there an hour later, they were waiting for me, and replaced the car with another Polo (but freshly cleaned and checked). Can't really grumble about that, I was back on the beach after about 2 hours.

Magoo

Hope that SoCal's experience was a one off, as I have booked Plus car for September. I have used Cicar for the last few years, but their quote was nothing like.

I don't mind paying over the odds for a service that I know is good & has a track record, but €100 extra, is pushing it too far

bedouin

It'll be fine, Magoo. The car you get won't necessarily be pristine or new, but it will do the job and you can rest easy in the knowledge that it doesn't matter if someone scrapes it or dings it, you just drop it back to the airport and walk away. The scams some of the other rental companies pull are unbelievable! I've just had a PlusCar Polo for 12 days, and have another PlusCar booked for September.

Magoo

Yes, I had a brand new one from Cicar a while back. I spent 14 days bricking it in case someone dented it. Missed out on our usual Cofette trip s well

notdeadfred

Quote from: Magoo on May 25, 2014, 23:36:16 PM
Yes, I had a brand new one from Cicar a while back. I spent 14 days bricking it in case someone dented it. Missed out on our usual Cofette trip s well

Ha, think we must have got one of your previous rentals from Cicar this year in March - looked like it had been to Cofete several times! So we didn't feel so bad risking the drive down to Punta de Jandia for the first time. Over 50k on the clock and covered in scuffs, inside and out. It drove beautifully though and never let us down.

We have always used Cicar thus far and this was the first time we have had a car with more than 10k on the clock, (although it was an upgrade due to non availability of the Corsa we had booked). Sounds like we will need to check prices carefully next time if they are going up as much as you found.

SoCal

Quote from: tiger79 on May 25, 2014, 00:35:02 AM
I'm on the island now, and have a car from PlusCar. Yesterday, I got a puncture and changed the wheel for the spare. I rang PlusCar, and was asked to drop the wheel back to them and they'd immediately replace it. Got there an hour later, they were waiting for me, and replaced the car with another Polo (but freshly cleaned and checked). Can't really grumble about that, I was back on the beach after about 2 hours.

Thank you for this post. It is this type of information that makes me willing to forget previous experiences and try them again because these are the experiences that rarely happen and yet are a good test of a rental agency.  :)
Biking and beaches - total freedom

Magoo

Quote from: notdeadfred on May 26, 2014, 00:00:32 AM
Quote from: Magoo on May 25, 2014, 23:36:16 PM
Yes, I had a brand new one from Cicar a while back. I spent 14 days bricking it in case someone dented it. Missed out on our usual Cofette trip s well

Ha, think we must have got one of your previous rentals from Cicar this year in March - looked like it had been to Cofete several times! So we didn't feel so bad risking the drive down to Punta de Jandia for the first time. Over 50k on the clock and covered in scuffs, inside and out. It drove beautifully though and never let us down.

We have always used Cicar thus far and this was the first time we have had a car with more than 10k on the clock, (although it was an upgrade due to non availability of the Corsa we had booked). Sounds like we will need to check prices carefully next time if they are going up as much as you found.

I did once trash the underside of a rental car trying to get to Playa Juan Gomez. Went down the wrong track & the afternoon didn't end well! Not a Cicar. so no worries. Took it back & said nowt, but I have often wondered what the next renters must have made of the strange squeal on left hand bends