CarTrawler
reviews and complaints

I used your car hire insurance to cover my rent a car during my holiday in Portugal.
Unfortunately, I had an accident and needed to submit a claim.
3 months have past and the claim hasn't been sorted. I find communication with the team quite difficult, it takes weeks to have an answer and they keep claiming that my bank details are incorrect despite the fact that I've verified them several times.
Quite frustrating, I must say.

I rented a car from cartrawler for a rental price of 193 with included after hours drop off. The rental receipt I was given was for 133 from bargain car rentals. After numerous emails car trawler could not tell me what the extra $60.00 charge was for. I now have to pay an additional $66.00 for early pick-up late drop off as the office hours were different from the original booking. It is too late to cancel as all rates have gone up. I will never use the company again as they have no way to contact them. The only response they keep giving me is that was the rental price and I suggest you drop the car off earlier then or pay the fee. No break down of cost has been offered despite several emails. I could have got a better deal with less hassle if I had gone through someone else. Fingers crossed I have no accident because I doubt they would offer any assistance.

I made a rental reservation from CarTrawler to take from Istanbul Ataturk airport. Apparently they took money for nothing. There wasn't any car so they told me that they will cancel it. From that time no news. I tried to reach them nothing happened as well. I am just saying that never ever rent a car from this company. They are so enthusiastic about getting money and not providing any service. I will go for every legal authorities.

Copied: Customer Relations, Air Transat

Ms. Thomas,

It has taken me some time to digest the condescending tone of your message, to which you add at least, one obvious false statement (“… Please be advised I have sent you a copy of invoice [protected] this relates to fine received whilst renting for the cost of 48.45 euro.”). The amount of €48.45 is for TOLLS, not for a fine!

Furthermore, this is what we were told at the desk in Lisbon, on July 24th when we collected the car:
1. The total of €1, 004.54 did NOT take into account the $766.05 CAD that we had paid when we first reserved the car through CarTrawler (January 2017).
2. Final adjustments would be made on the day we returned the car.
3. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, is there a mention that there will be a “currency conversion fee” of 3.25%.

The invoice originally sent to us on August 12th (by email, to my other address Alexandra.Mendes.[protected]@parl.gc.ca - attached) again omits any reference to the transaction we had completed with CarTrawler (PT739522570).

I have to admit that this whole episode (to refrain from calling it a scam) just confirmed to me that not only will we never rent another car with Europcar, I will continue to advise all my friends who go to Portugal to avoid your firm like the plague. My daughter, who also rented a car (Peugeot 308, station-wagon) for the same length of time (July 24th to August 12th), through CarTrawler but with Iber-Rent, had a trouble-free experience, paid exactly what was agreed through CarTrawler, and had a much more expeditious service at the airport.

Air Transat have now been advised of the issue and – as stated above – are copied on this message. CarTrawler will also receive a copy of this complaint.

I hope someone at Europcar is sadistically enjoying this because we certainly aren’t!

VERY sincerely,

Alexandra Mendès
[protected]
[protected]
https://www.facebook.com/AlexandraMendesLiberal

Dear Sir / Madam

I booked a vehicle online from the 21st of September 2017 until the 1st of October 2017. The vehicle will be picked up and dropped off at Lanseria Airport.

Our plans have since changed and we will drop the car off on the 29th of September.

When I try and change the RETURN date, the system says that I have to choose another vehicle. When I choose the same vehicle for the shorter period of time, it quotes me a lot more than the original charge.

That makes no sense to me and seems like an unethical way of doing business.

Your feedback will be appreciated.

Casper Heunis

I booked a car from Dublin airport 25/8/17 - you directed it through
payless/budget. I turned up with the appropriate
documentation and was told that i could not use my credit
card for the deposit unless I had a pin number with it. I
only use my credit card on very rare occasions and have never had a pin number with it. I have used the card all over the world and used my signature to verify it. On the last occasion I came through Dublin
airport in April after booking through your company I was able to
sign for the deposit through Thrifty. The staff at budget/payless told me there was nothing I could do but buy extra insurance from them or ring
yourselves. I decided to ring as i thought there should not
be an issue. I spoke to a representative who repeatedly told me there was nothing she could do. At no point in your terms and conditions does it state the credit card must be chip and pin. Using a signature is an acceptable verification method. I had paid for the car i had paid for
the insurance and I brought the correct documentation. I was unable to access the booking without paying an extra 140 euros to budget/payless.
As far as I am concerned you have failed in your duty to
provide an appropriate service. I want you to reimburse me
for the extra insurance - 140 euros i have paid plus £5 for the phone call I was forced to make. Never mind the stress and anxiety it caused
my family. I look forward to a swift response and resolution
to my request. Thank you.

Jet 2 Car Hire Booking No. CY99505850

Case No [protected]

I was surprised when my credit card was charged £208.18, when my agreement with you for Car Hire was for a total amount of £175.96

You explained that £52.22 had been deducted for Axa Insurance.

I have checked through all my correspondence and I can fin no reference to this. I did not agree to pay £52.22 for Insurance.

Can you justify why this money has been debited from my credit card, when I did not purchase this product?

Can you refund me ASAP?

Thanks
Kenneth Arthur

Worst company ever! They cheated us for 60 euros! We have received 3/4 parts of full tank. When we discovered it, we spoke to an employee who has confirmed and signed this on delivery papers. Therefore, we have returned 3/4 of full tank. Nevertheless, they have charched us for 50 euros penalty fee and 1/4 fuel. The worst thing was that they would not accept delivery papers as proof their employees signed. Their response took a very long time. They were unprofessional. They were out just after cheating customers. Stay away from this company!

Please people, stay away from this company. I rented a car through their "service" and paid 3.000 dollars in advance for 3 months online. I thought I was doing it through dohop had no idea of this company. When I went to Avis to pick up my car the agents tell me the 3rd party that received my payment cartrawler didn't pay them any fee and gave me a fake vouching ticket so they can't let me have the car. The guys at avis hadn't even heard of this company before. I doubt there is any legimate business going on in this site. This is a big scheme. When I call to ask about refund of money I am told in a very bad english that they will take 20 days to investigate if there is reason to refund my money.. HELLO, this is 3.000 dollars I paid for a car that they won't provide and they won't cancel the transaction either so I can make a new order. There is nothing to investigate, this is a 100 % theft. I went to Canada for a school for 4 months with my wife and new born baby. I have a hard time sleeping cause I worry how we will survive here and I feel so stupid being trapped into a scheme like this. Please remember the name of this company and avoid at all costs, I don't want anybody to go through what I have been going through.

Booking Ref: GR726275440
CarTrawler Ref: [protected]

Dear Cartrawler Customer Care,

I find it hard to believe that you have come to the conclusion that I did not accept the conditions of the rental. I have followed the advice given from your customer service personnel and that Abby Car could not be used.

It was Abby Car who refused to accept the own risk amount of €1350 which was stated as one of the terms in the rental conditions I received from you. To have the car released I had to either buy an extra full insurance or leave a open amount to my credit card to cover all damages to the car. I refused to accept the new conditions from Abby Car and tried to reason with the personnel and used the rental conditions from you. I was told that your terms and conditions were not valid for rental from Abby Car.

I phoned your customer service for the purpose to get the car according to the conditions from you. When she was asked, the counter personnel at Abby Car refused to say her name or speak to your customer service. Finally I got the Abby Car counter personnel to speak your customer service in order to find a solution. Unfortunately it was not possible for Abby Car to accept the conditions for the rental made by your company.

Your customer service told me that she would make a complaint of the issue with Abby Car and that I could not use the car rented from Abby Car since they refused to accept your terms and conditions. The customer service tried to find another car through other rental companies with no luck. I was then told that I was free from the all contracts with Cartrawler and that I had to find a rental car of my own.
I found your customer service personnel very helpful and understandable even if they came short to find a solution on this issue. They used about one hour to try to help me.

The argument that I would not accept the terms of the conditions falls for its own absurdity. Do you really think that your customer service would make so much effort to help me if I had refused to accept the terms and conditions of the rental? You even claim that I would not accept my own traffic fines and violations and not to be aware of the danger and illegality of drunk driving. These arguments are completely groundless and unknown to me and to your customer service personnel.

This case does not apply to the no show policy as you claim.
I hope you can do a more thoroughly investigation and look into the reports from your customer service. I enclose the e-mails I have received regarding the failed rental.

Best regards
Erik Folkestad

My partner Steve Porter booked a hire care online - booking number ES767227160 flight number VY1269 as the apartment that we were staying in Spain required a car due to its mountainous location and we'd been looking forward to our holiday for so long due to a tough year together, it was booked in his name as he wanted to be the main driver however he didn't have a credit card so when we got to Malaga Airport and spoke to the advisor from Goldcar they said that we could not have the car for this reason, now that was extremely stressful for us but when we read the terms and conditions it did state that the main driver had to have a credit card in their name so we called Cartrawler and a gentleman said that he could change the name on the voucher to mine as I had my driving licence with me and also a credit card with a limit of £3, 000 in my name so he kindly sent an email over to Goldcar stating that this was acceptable so I accepted that I would now be the main driver of the hire car, the advisor from Goldcar then offered me additional insurance of which I declined as my partner Steve had already added on the additional insurance when paying for the car online, the adviser didn't seem very pleased that I had declined this additional insurance and his attitude changed immediately which I couldn't understand, however because we had been at the Airport for nearly 2 hours already I ignored this as I just wanted to get the car and drive to our apartment to start our well deserved holiday so he asked for my driver's license and credit card and explained that there needed to be a pre-authorisation on the card in case of accidents e.c.t which I accepted as he explained that no money would be taken from the card if nothing happened so I put my card in the machine and entered my pin number but the card terminal would not accept my pin and the adviser said that I must have entered the wrong pin number so I tried again and the same thing happened so I said I've got my pin number written down so I'll check it and when I checked it it was the correct pin number and all this time the adviser kept offering me this additional insurance at a cost of £200 Euro's which he said would eliviate this issue and I said no as the pin number is correct, I then asked if I could sign instead and he said no, he told me that the only was around this was to pay the additional £200 Euro's insurance so I explained that we were in a budget and that would wipe out half of our holiday spends but he didn't seem to care about this so I called my credit card company to see if there was anything more that I could do but there wasn't anything that they could do for me, now by this time we'd been at the Airport hours and I suffer from Anxiety and I'm also an Asthmatic so my breathing was getting laboured and I'd also had a massive row with my partner Steve so we went back to the desk only to be told by the adviser that we couldn't have the car and he was waiting to serve someone else, to say that I was overwhelmed was an understatement, we proceeded to the taxi rank on!y to be told that all taxi's were on strike from Malaga Airport as of Sun 13th of August and the date was Tuesday 15th of August, I broke down as I didn't know how we were going to get to our apartment with our hand luggage and 2 large cases in the blistering heat, we had to find a bus which took us to Malaga coach station and then buy a ticket to Calahonda but when we got off the coach we still had an extremely high climb up into the mountains where our apartment was situated in Alcores however luckily the taxi's were running from that part of the island so we paid £10 Euro's to get to the apartment, now by this point I was in tears and couldn't breathe and was wondering how on earth was we going to manage without a car so everywhere we went we had to have a taxi which wiped out more than half of our spending money, to say it was the holiday from hell was another understatement as we couldn't afford to do anything we wanted to as our money was spent on taxi's, now I'm that distraught that I'm prepared to take this to a solicitor and also the press if this matter is not dealt with as a matter of urgency and I would like the full amount of my money back which was £111.64 and also what it cost us in taxi's as well as the bus and the coach for the whole holiday which amounted to £150 Euro's, if we are compensated accordingly then I will not take this matter further however if not then as I mentioned previously I will be appointing my solicitor and will also go to the media,

Yours sincerely Ms Louise Edwards

CarCrawler -no responsibility for solving case with rental company Interrent
Booking Ref: IT737422000
CarTrawler Ref: [protected]
Rental company (Interrent Italy) has charged my credit with more than 800 EUR for alleged damage. Although the car has been returned with no damage. No evidence like photos, report etc on damage provided.
Car Crawler had not done anything to resolve the case, although they could not get any eveidence from Interrent. They directed me back to Interrent.
Interrent does not answer any correspondence. No resolution after 2 months.
Never used it - they do not take any responsibility for the rental. Extremely arrogant customer care department, emails answered after 10-15 days.

Rental Agreement no [protected]/res no [protected]

dear sir
We rented a car from you on July 21, around 11pm and would like to enquire on the following:

- Why we were not given an automatic car, you can see from the attached voucher, that we booked and paid for a 7 seater automatic which allowed 1 suitcase.
- We wasted much time at pick up at Stansted enquiring on this matter, as we already paid for an automatic ahead of time and instead we had to settle for a manual, as it was getting close to midnight and i had 3 children with me.
- it was supposed to be 7 plus 1 suitcase, but we could only sit 5 if we wanted to put one suitcase in which was very inconvient for the entire time we rented the car.

We would be grateful for your assistance with the above, we took the automatic in the end as there was no other choice, there was a misdescription in what we rented. your staff at Standsted was not helpful, just said there was nothing he could do. Louis, assisted us, and when we asked for his full name, he said he was not obliged to give this to us. we thought it might help to clarify if there was two similar names working at Europcar, Standstead.

I wrote to Cartrawler on 16 July because I had to make a change or cancel my booking with them. Except for a Ticket Number ([protected]) and this message "Thank you for your request. This is an automated response to confirm that we have received your feedback A member of our Customer Services team will be in contact with you within the next two working days. Kind Regards, Customer Services " no subsequent communication was received and all my enquiries were received. After reading the other complaints, I realise I will never receive my deposit back.

All potential users of Cartrawler: do NOT make use of them please.

Recently made a reservation through Car Trawler. As soon as I completed the reservation I realized I input the wrong date and immediately (within minutes) called to change the reservation. Unfortunately, there were no reservation when I actually needed the car (same day); neverthless, Car Trawler charged me U.S. $55 because the cancellation was less than 48 hours from the time of the original reservation. How absurd! I would never do business again with a company that treated it's customers this way.

I booked a car rental for Dollar Rent a Car over the phone (which I found out later that this is not allowed). I gave the lady my debit card information and she made the reservation. She sent me an email showing confirmation and said that all I had to do was show the person at the desk my email and pay the taxes and other charges like additional drivers etc. at the time of pickup. I got to the desk and find out that they don't accept debit card any longer. They needed a major credit card which I don't have or a flight ticket which I don't have. I didn't fly in. I asked the lady at the desk for a refund and she said that she couldn't because "they" weren't the ones that processed the booking. So I called (Cartrawler) and the person who I spoke with said that there has to be an investigation on my situation. Because in the terms and conditions it states that a renter must have a major credit card. I stated that I didn't See any terms and conditions because I booked over the phone. The lady informed me that the person I booked over the phone with was NOT SUPPOSED to do anything like that over the phone. I would like a FULL refund of the charges that I have been charged because I was not able to render the services offered. The total amount was 174.04. Thank you.

I booked a car through CarTrawler with extras which I added, and paid for when booking through the company. When I arrived at the desk to collect my car they told me that these extras weren't included, even though it said on my voucher that I had already paid for these. I spoke to CarTrawler on the phone whilst I was there and they assured me they'd refund me for these. After a month of going through their complaints process I finally got a response from CarTrawler, and they 'resolved' my complaint by refunding me a fraction of what I was owed and told I'd be refunded. When I emailed to say I was not happy with this they simply ignored me, and continued to ignore my following emails. Avoid this company at all costs, they have completely let me down and lied about refunding me what I was owed, and ignored my complaint about this. Extremely poor customer service and company.

I've booked car in Copenhagen for 3 days and the rate quoted at the time of booking was $17.xx per day.

I later found out that they've charged me for 4 days ($70.23) and not for 3 days days that i am renting (26th to 29th September ).

Sent them several emails to complain about this but never received any response. Today called them and my call was answered by their call centre agent CHA in Philippines. She has given me shockingly unbelievable reason for 4 days charge trying to hide behind their small print. She said hiring car from 26th to 27th (receiving on 26th and returning on 27th) is not considered one day but they count each date. Hence they've charged me for 4 days (26th, 27th, 28th and 29th). This is the weirdest and most stupid reason I've come across to steal money from ordinary people.

If nothing works, will try calling credit car company and dispute this transaction as being unauthorised amount.

I cancelled a car hire, which I arranged through your company.
The booking reference was AU732936080 for a compact car to be picked up and returned to Maroochydore airport in Queensland. The supplying company was Argus Car Hire, who confirmed the cancellation on 26th July via e-mail.
Payment of $204.83 was made via the NAB credit card on 22-06-2017 reference ETRAWLER * [protected].
Would you please refund this amount.
For further information you can contact me via e-mail address tom.di.[protected]@bigpond.com

Kind regards,

Antonius Vermeeren

Your company is a complete ripoff...I was overcharged by $733 after prepaying for a car rental for a recent vacation. Customer service is apparently non-existent for your company. I am going to report you to the BBB and Consumer Affairs. I want my money back. I am going to contact a lawyer and fight this to the end so that no other innocent people are taken advantage of. THIS IS FRAUD. I am so disappointed in this experience. Never again will I use this company.