Goldcar Rental

Terrible experience.

Returned the car – all signed off with no damage. But they would not immediately unblock the deposit. The contract says it may be withheld if there is damage – but they had signed that there was no damage. No reason at all to hold the deposit.

VERY rude and unhelpful customer service on the telephone when we asked the deposit to be unblocked immediately – the man hung up the phone.

Will never rent with them ever again.

WARNING
WARNING. Really bad service and untrue business.

Goldcar would not hand over a car even if rent and insurance are paid from home and voucher is displayed if you dont bring a mastercard.

They claim that it is due to insurrence issues, but Mastercard insurance covers only if you have paid with the card and when they received payment, they did not make us pay attention to that it could not be used. Also they would not return payment.

My flight was delayed, my pick up time was 22:00, arrived at 1:30 am, the office (Pisa airport), was closed since 00:00, the next morning went to pick up the car, the lady said that my rental had expired and that I would have to pay again if I wanted to get a car, she explained that I didn鈥檛 contact them and that the rental had a duration of 6 hours, I was flying, I was with my family, 2 kids (5yrs and 6yrs), and my wife, we were very stressed and tired because of the flight delay, how could I have contacted them, if my rental expired after 6 hours of the pick up time and the office was closed at 00:00. I still had 4 hours left on the next morning, which didn鈥檛 happen. Arrived around 10:00 am, my rental was cancelled and I had to pay twice for the same car.
Besides that, I had to pay a fee of 鈧?0 + fuel at a very expensive rate for not having returned the car with the tank full, I explained to them that on my way back to the airport the 2 gas station that I had stopped to refill the car had their systems offline and I couldn鈥檛 bring it back with the tank full, the guy didn鈥檛 care, very unpolitely, as if I was interrupting his lunch, said, what do you want me to do?
You are very unlikely to get my money again, I will not recommend you to anyone, if rental car is mentioned in any conversation, I will repeat what I have written in this review.
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Really poor customer service.
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Greedy ba$tard$ = Goldcar.

I can only comment based on my personal experience, and don't doubt the issues which others have faced who've left negative reviews. I've hired a car twice from Goldcar in Catania in Sicily and both times were for a month. The value for money was excellent, but I didn't take out the extra insurance to remove the excess – I have an annual policy to cover this which cost around 拢40. I think I was still exposed to breakdown recovery though, but fortunately both cars were relatively new and low mileage, so I wasn't concerned. In both instances, the car was looked at on return and signed to say there was no damage, with no unexpected deductions from my deposit. On the second car, I remebered the return date incorrectly (thought it was a couple of days later than it actually was) – I got a call from the office querying where the car was. I drove it back and handed it back late. Had they not called I'd have been in for a big charge – as it was my error cost me 40 euros. I think the staff are a bit hard sell on the excess insurance, but other than this I have no complaints.

I hired a car in Sicily, poor experience. Have 3rd party cover so didn't need their insurance (expensive). My first credit card didn't have the 1200 credit needed to block the excess (1100 and they managed to load a couple of costs onto my card first. Offered a second CREDIT card -IN my name. It was refused on the pretext that they/ we had to use the same credit card as with original booking – so hire car cost twice as much. Followed this up several emails and tel calls later from home – no joy at all. Typical round and round in circles till you give up technique – no direct tel line. Car co. says it was a debit card – I send scan photo of the second credit card (yes, in my name) – they respond with another do-loop. Poor poor response – could do better Goldcar! Try harder with follow up and trust your customers when they are telling the truth.
If you (Goldcar) wish to follow up, or even offer me the courtesy of a telephone line (novelty) of a manager, I'd be overjoyed!

Barcelona Airport: Customer Service on the phone.
Aggressive, Abrupt
Lack of understanding of english etiquette. By simply speaking english, staff thinks that they are being helpful, no with the language, must learn the mamnerism. May be it's accepted in Spanish but when you translate in English, conversation sounds like an argument.
Other car hire companies provide better customer service.

Their customer service does not come worse any where else. Horriffic service at the counter in Las Palmas. It is a total no go next time in Las Palmas.

Have payed for the car online, but did'n get it at the airport because I did'n have credit card with me (only debit card) and there was no ANY choice to get the car…
Why did you take the money from the same card first then?

Here is an account of my recent experience with Holiday Auto/Goldcar.

I used Holiday Autos to book a car hire for a recent holiday to Gran Canaria. The booking was done online on 17/08/2017 and paid for by credit card.

The price of the car hire was 37.74 GBP for 3 days (from 26 August 2017 to 28 August 2017 inclusive). I also took out the damage waiver insurance with AXA for 15.84 GBP (refer to doc 3) with a single combined payment of 53.58 to Holiday Autos (Etrawler Unlimited Company). The car was hired on 26/08/2017 and returned on 28th August 2017. The car was returned with a full tank of fuel and signed for by the attendant.

Below are some more details …

From reading the contract and the promotional material I was under the impression that there was nothing further to pay when I hired the car other than a deposit of 1400 Euros in the event of any damage to the vehicle hire.

When I arrived in Gran Canaria I was was put under extreme pressure to take out Goldcar's insurance which at first I accepted as I was led to believe that the damage waiver insurance I had was not appropriate. The Goldcar administrative assistant made a charge to my credit card for Gold Car's insurance. When I left the desk I went to pick up my vehicle and upon inspection spotted an issue with the vehicle and reported this. I was then asked by the car attendant to go back to the sales desk in order to sign a new contract for a different vehicle. Before returning to the sales desk to sign the new contract, I re-read the insurance contract and, at that point, decided I was not going to proceed with Goldcar's insurance as I had already pre-paid for the same insurance with AXA. When I returned to the desk and signed for a new contract, I told the same administrative assistant (who I dealt with on the first contract) that I did not want to proceed with the additional insurance amount for Goldcar's insurance and that this should be refunded back to my account (73.80CR on 26/08). The admin assistance reluctantly agreed but then stated that I would have to pay up front for a full tank fuel (which would be refunded back to my card when I brought the car back with a full tank of fuel) and a deposit would be reserved (to cover for any damage to the vehicle) as I was no longer taking out their recommended insurance. I was aware of the deposit (this was stated in the original contract documents with Holiday Autos but was somewhat surprised by having to pay up front for the fuel. I had no choice but to agree otherwise Goldcar Rental would not have let me hire the car.

I returned the car back on the 28/08/2017 within the timeframe, with a full tank of fuel and got the assistant to check and sign that there no damage to the vehicle (over and above what was reported on checkout) and that it was returned with a full tank of fuel.

On returning back to the UK, I checked my credit card after a few days and noticed that no refund had been applied to my credit car account so I raised my concerns with Hoilday Autos (case reference nos, xxxxx, xxxxxx). below is a copy of my email exchange with Holiday Autos

Customer Query
Please note that I have been overcharged for the car rental. I was led to believe that the charge for hiring of the car was 41.47 EUR, despite me presenting a copy of the documentation to the rental service desk from which they took the booking reference number(xxxxxxx). To my surprise on my credit card statement I have been charged 105.40 GBP i.e. (179.20 – 73.80). I was told that there would be a surcharge for fuel which would be refunded back to me on return of the vehicle. I also had to pay a charge deposit of 1290.29 also (but this was expected and I was prepared for this). Despite this, the fact remains that here is an element of double charging i.e. paying for the car rental twice because I have paid you a total of 53.57 as well as the car rental company 105.40 GBP. I am presuming that the car rental car company will refund the amount that they have charged me for the full tank of fuel (as yet this has not been refunded to my account and I am not sure what the amount will be) as I returned the vehicle back with a full tank of fuel. From start to finish the service from the car rental company has been unsatisfactory. The car rental company refused to recognise my prepaid damage waiver insurance, instead they aggressively pushed their own insurance. When I refused stating that this was not needed (and produced my insurance documentation) the person became angry, started shaking his head stating that I was making a mistake. He made the threat that if there was a much as a scratch on the vehicle I would be charged a minimum of 600 euros which would be non refundable. I felt bullied into taking out the insurance at that point in time. To make matters worse, there was a problem with the car, the cigarette lighter was not working which meant that I was unable to use my sat nav. Fortunately I managed to spot this before driving the vehcle from the airport, I reported this and I was given another vehicle but then had to sign another set of paperwork. At this point I had re-read my insurance policy documents and decided against taking out their own insurance. They person was clearly annoyed and I was made to feel uncomfortable but I was resolute in not taking their insurance. This is the reason for the 73.80 GBP refund. The bad service aside, it is fundamentally wrong that I should be paying these additional charges. Hopefully you can recitify the matter. If you require additional information then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Holiday Autos Customer Care
Mon 04/09/2017, 10:56
Booking Ref: xxxxxxxxx
Holiday Autos Ref: xxxxxxx
Dear customer,
Thank you for your correspondence.
I am sorry to learn of the difficulties you experienced during your recent car hire using the online booking service.
Please refer to the final rental agreement issued by Goldcar (ES) where apparently the additional charges was for Damage to the car.

As Holiday Autos is an introductory service, we are unable to investigate damage charges with our car rental partners directly.

I would recommend that you make contact with the car rental supplier. Please find the supplier's contact details below for your convenience:
Agent: GOLDCAR

I do hope you will receive a satisfactory resolution to your claim and would like to apologise for the inconvenience this might have caused.
Kindest Regards,
Gxxxxxxx
Holiday Autos Customer Care

customer email
Mon 04/09/2017, 12:48
Holiday Autos Customer Care;
Dear administrator,
Please note that there was no damage to the vehicle and this was signed off as such by the GoldCar attendant when the car was returned on Monday 28th August. If there was damage to the vehicle then the attendant should not have signed the check in inventory.

There are certain things that do not stack up, or make sense, that you should investigate which are as follows
Why was the money deducted at the start of the car hire on 26th August and how did Goldcar know that this would be exactly the cost of the damage done to the vehicle when this was returned?

What damage, are Goldcar claiming, has been done to the vehicle. Can they (Goldcar) produce any evidence? If they are charging me for the damage then evidence of the damage should have been communicated to me.

Why did the Goldcar attendant sign off that the condition of the car was good when the vehicle was returned?

Why was I asked to pay up front for a full tank of fuel?

Why was the cost of the fuel not refunded back to me when the car was returned? I returned the car back with a full tank of fuel.

Can you please ask Goldcar rental these questions. When making charges to the customer it should be clear what the charges are for. If Goldcar cannot justify the charges then this should not be made.
Finally, can you give me an email address for Goldcar rental.
Yours faithfully,
customer name

Mon 18/09/2017, 13:00
customer email address
Booking Ref: xxxxxxx

Dear customer,
CarTrawler Ref: xxxxxxx,
We are continuing to investigate your query.

Currently, we are waiting on information that will help provide a resolution.
We will contact you again once this information is with us and we can resolve this issue for you.

Kind Regards,
CarTrawler

I contacted my credit card company when Holiday Auto's dragged their heels in responding to my email. On providing full details to my credit card company, I was issued with a temporary credit for the amount that I was overcharged by Goldcar. This is the message I received on Sep 25th 2017 from the credit card company

"We've placed a temporary credit(s) on your credit card ending xxxx. The company has 45 days to challenge our decision. Should this happen we will contact you"

Lo and behold I was contacted by Holiday Autos on 12/10/2017, presumably after pressure from my credit card company. This was their reply

Booking Ref: xxxxxxxx
Holiday Autos Ref: xxxxxx
Dear customer,
Thank you very much for your correspondence in relation to the experience you had when renting with GOLDCAR (ES) through Holiday Autos.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused to you by this matter.
We had escalated the matter with our partners at Goldcar – and they had reviewed charges applied.
The charge "Fianza Tarjeta" – was related to the deposit held for the duration of the rental.
Due to system issues this refund was not finalized correctly.
We have received a confirmation that an outstanding refund of 鈧?106.00 has been processed to the card used at the rental desk.
We would like to apologise again for the inconvenience.

From my experience I do not think I will be hiring from Holiday Autos / Goldcar again. You have been warned!

NEVER EVER USE GOLDCAR
We will not recommend Goldcar to others because we had great difficulties at the desk in Fiumicino Airport. The reservation was OK and paid in advance, but the problem was that we didn't need your insurance, because we are covered – i.e. the extra excess car hire.

The salesmann was agressive in his attempt to force to sell us the insurance. He took payment for the car hire and the extra driver, but forgot to take the deposit. He claimed that our MasterCard was out of order and he refused to take another MasterCard, so he told us that only if we took insurance he could make the payment work – that麓s blackmail. We lost confidence in Goldcar and therefore we left without the car.

We will never rent a car from Goldcar again.
When we booked we payed for full coverage for any incident – but when we picked up the car we had to pay 107 euros extra – otherwise there would be a limit for the coverage.
When we delivered the car, we filled the tank, drove 20 km to the airport and when we got back we got an extra invoice of 62 euros. And of course it's impossible to call or mail to complain.
Contract 12384148/customer 10936122

The price igrow when you have book, the service is not in service, the attitude is bad and the long slowly waiting time… (Palermo, Italy)

I can鈥檛 recommend this company….(waiting time min 2 hours)

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Pretty much what everyone else says… I purchased insurance through AXA and upon arrival was told that the insurance, bought through one of Europes' largest insurance companies, was insufficient and I must either buy additional insurance from Goldcar or they would debit my card for 1220 Euros and this would be refunded 28 days after I returned the car…. Hardly a choice! The car was filthy and old and made a strange whistling noise when I went above 50kmph. Doubt the car was worth much more than 1220 Euros! I travel to Italy regularly for work and have never experienced such bad service. It felt like an absolute scam. Whether this is in the small print, or not, is irrelevant. It is an appalling way to do business.

DO NOT book with them. They are cheats and scam artists. As all the other reviews on this site show we were victim to this practice too. We collected our car and were charged extra as they could not take the deposit from the card we booked and paid with on line. On returning the vehicle they charged us for a 'forced driver side lock'. When we collected the vehicle the engineer drove it to us and left the driver side door open. The electronic key fob worked for our entire trip and so we did not need to manually open the door. I wonder how many times they have charged other customers for this same forced lock.
Avoid them at all costs.

I rent a car in Bologne airport but to do so it was a nightmare. First they complain with my credit card. I have a Visa Platinum with a Visa Eletron sign on the back of the card (as many cards has it), but for them my card was a debit card and they could not accept even though I said it was a credit card. So they force me to add another conductor with a MasterCard to receive more money paying extras fees. But so far the biggest problem was the staff that was completely rude and treat us disrespectfully. It was like we are doing a favor in rent a car with them. We had a non refundable reservation, so the staff told us to looking for another company if we are unsatisfied instead try to solve our problem. Last but not the least, pay attention in the fees about the fuel and fines, they all are extremely abusive. After 2 months I'm been ripped of paying 55 euros in "internal fees" about a supposed fine. Don't ever rent a car with them.

DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THIS COMPANY
When we finally got to the desk due to what appeared to be insufficient staff we were given form to complete, then assistant disappeared for 15 minutes.
When he came back he asked where we were staying and proceeded to produce his phone and show us various photos of the area I believe just to distract you, he then went through the options for excess insurance at which stage we produced our excess policy taken out before we travelled and told him any other cover was not required.
He then said he would need to swipe my credit card twice to cover payment in case of any damage and for fuel charge if we returned car with less than a full tank.
After being in the office for an hour we were finally given the keys at which point we were told that the fuel gauge was faulty.
When we got to the car the fuel gauge was showing around 85% full, when we had too refuel the gauge showed 100% both times.
I have just received my credit card bill which shows a payment of around 拢200 for excess insurance that we said we did not require.
Also there was nothing wrong with the fuel gauge.
Basically Goldcar are just a rip off.

In good faith, we rent at the company Rhodium, which is named Auto Escape, which is called CarRentals.com, a Ford Fiesta from home, since we have one, and there is room for us. When we arrive, and after over an hour's waiting at the office, it is finally our turn to be served. The expedient is now trying to sell an additional insurance beyond all that we have bought, with all sorts of horror scenarios and economic threats. When they failed, they booked as little as Kr10,000 on my mastercard. Finally, we get papers and keys and go to the car delivery. After we have walked around for 20 min. and asked for an employee, there will finally be a man. He then points to a small Fiat 500, (they have no other) that he claims is the same size as the one we rented ?? Since we are four adults with two suitcases, we can not be in the car at all. He calls the office, asking us to come back. After waiting again 20 min. and the parliaments back and forth, we have to upgrade to the one we have once rented, namely to pay KR 622.00 extra. After another waiting time of 25 minutes. Finally, you come with a Ford Fiesta. It's both the first and last time we use that company.
Leif Christensen

very bad as we had to pay for a scratch on the lock, which was actually already there at the beginning. we even had photo's to prove it!

DISHONEST and A RIPOFF!!

What I thought was 拢78.00 turned out to be 拢250!!!

Forced into taking out an additional insurance at 27 EUR a day otherwise I was threatened with an on the spot fine if 350EUR if I were to scratch the car and a deposit of 1200EUR to be returned 15 days after the return of the car.

Also required to put down a 106 EUR deposit for fuel when the tank was only 30 litres.

How can this be legal?! I went with gold car as thought it was the cheapest, absolute rip off!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! I will be seeking legal advice.

NEVER RENT A CAR FROM GOLDCAR. IT IS FRAUD AND THEY ARE ILLEGALLY WITHDRAWING MONEY FROM YOUR ACCOUNT!!

Just arrived home from vacation in Sicily yesterday. We had booked our trip through a Danish traveling agency, which has also arranged the car rental. Therefore we expected everything would be fine and they would have used a decent car agency. They hadn't!

When we arrived to pick up the car we were told that we had to get an extra insurance, because the one we had already paid for (through the agency) wouldn't cover before after 鈧?500. So basically if anything were to happen we would have to pay ourselves despite having already paid for an insurance. This extra insurance costed 鈧?85. And then we would also have to leave a deposit of 鈧?18. These 鈧?18 would be reserved on my credit card and be released the minute we returned the car – at least that was what we were told. And she also told us that this insurance would cover EVERYTHING! Whatever happened!

Despite of this message that were repeated to us about ten times, we took pictures of the car – just in case.

After a week of driving around Sicily, we returned the car. We had to return it outside opening hours as we had an early flight. The car was fine when we returned it – no scratches, no nothing. Everything was exactly in the same condition as when we got.

After returning home from Sicily yesterday, I received an email from Goldcar saying that the "compressor was missing and they would therefore withdraw 鈧?40 from my account"!!!

We're not even sure what they mean by compressor, because they haven't given us any description or anything. They haven't proved anything either, but they have already withdrawn the money from my account. Despite this being illegal. So they are actually also committing a felony. We definitely didn't remove anything from the car, they are just claiming that we did.

At the same time they haven't put back the deposit money – so now they have currently withdrawn 鈧?18 + 鈧?40 from my account. Deposits usually works differently. If they were an honest company and the compressor actually were missing, they should only have withdrawn 鈧?240 minus 118 from my account. Meaning 鈧?22.

But obviously they are not an honest company, as they are 1) claiming we have stolen from the car and 2) withdrawing money from my account illegally.

I tried to call hem yesterday but they just told me to make a query on their website. So I did. But I don't think it will work as I just found out my dad kind of had the same experience with them a cuople of years ago when he was renting a car from them – also in Italy. Here they were just claiming he had made some scratches, which he hadn't. They took about 鈧?500 from his account, and they never did anything about the query.

I have contacted the police, my lawyer and my bank and of course also the traveling agency, we booked though. Hopefully this will help get my money back which they have basically stolen from my account. And hopefully the Danish traveling agency will stop doing business with them!

I really hope people will stop renting cars from this company!!