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EconomyBookings.com

EconomyBookings.com review: they charge money for nothing 21

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Author of the review
9:41 am EDT
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They charge money for nothing. On my case the car would have been the SAME price, if I would have rented it directly from sixt. The only advantage economybookings.com gives you, is a useless "voucher". Even the people from sixt didn't know, what it should be good for. So I paid 44€ for a "booking fee". My recommendation is to check the prices for the cars directly on the websites from the common renting company's in the country you want to go.

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21 comments
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kwoo
, US
Oct 05, 2019 4:08 pm EDT

A lot of hidden fees when booking. There is no 24 hour cancellation without paying fees. They add full coverage to your order without you selecting. If you forget to unselect, there's a 10 euro cancellation charge, although I'm booking within the US. Still unable to get in touch with costumer service to complain about the charge. Will never use this site and will tell friends and travel blogs not to use. I will complain to car rental company as well.

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scape
, US
Apr 01, 2019 1:58 pm EDT

SCAMMERS. Contacted their Customer Service after 3 attempts to book yielded NO confirmation email. This took hours of being on hold.

They could not explain why there were problems with booking, but said they could fix it if I sent photos of my driver's license and credit card. Um, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Illegal scam site dedicated to stealing your financial info. STAY AWAY.

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Andrea Johnson
, US
Feb 07, 2019 11:26 am EST

TOTAL SCAM! Paid over $400 fee for an expensive Christmas eve van rental in Chile (total charges to be nearly $3, 000). We arrived and there were NO vans available and we were stuck in the Santiago airport with all of our luggage and family members and NO transportation ON CHRISTMAS EVE. It's been nearly TWO months and NO refund - their customer "support" number in the US hangs up as soon as you check the option. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!

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BPSchell
, US
Apr 24, 2018 8:44 pm EDT

Economy Booking is terrible. They do not respond to you when you have questions and they charge you for everything. I ended up paying a cancellation fee because I would rather pay the fee than give them my business. NEVER EVER use them, go directly to the car rental place.

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Jere.A
, ES
Apr 11, 2018 10:10 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Easy to finalize the rental. Was hassle free at the counter.

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ti009
Irving, US
Aug 29, 2017 9:59 am EDT

On the front page, they post unlimited mileage. After you pay, they send you a voucher that says only 150 miles. This is clearly a BAIT AND SWITCH tactic. There is no customer support. This company is a scam, stay away. If you wonder why they have a few good reviews --- those are FAKE and not from real people.

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hrissie
, US
Jul 12, 2017 8:35 am EDT

I rented a car from them. It was not cheap. I had to cancel over one week before the pick-up and requested a refund. Their cancelation policy says " If you cancel 48 hours or more prior to your pick up, you will be refunded minus the cancellation fee of 20.00 EUR." So I booked the car. However, AFTER I paid and got the voucher it said no cancelations. I lost my money. Totally dishonest!

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YATES718
, US
Aug 25, 2016 9:03 am EDT

OMG! I had the worst trip to NYC ever in my life... I made reservations with Economybooking.com to pick up a rental at Dollar rental in LGA, when I arrived at the Dollar rental office I was informed that they do not accept Debit cards, which then I said okay and went to another rental company. As I got to my hotel I happen to check my account and notice a charge of $243.51 from Economybooking, which I thought was a little funny since I was not able to get a vehicle with Dollar Rental through Economy. I then tried to contact Economy's 1800 number and each time you get a hold of a rep and you tell them you are having a dispute they will literally hang up or do a bogus transfer. They will tell you the only way they handle disputes is for you to email your grievance to an email account and they will get back to you within 24hr which is a damn lie... Fast Forward a week Later still no reimbursement, this company is CRIMINAL and I suggest do not, DO NOT use them...

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KMN123
, US
Nov 19, 2014 9:20 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

They charged a cancel fee of $33 within hrs of booking it. I wasn't traveling for another 2 weeks. Horrible customer service. (Robert)
Disputed charge with my credit card. they goodness they stand behind good customers

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Alex4455
, US
Nov 03, 2015 2:37 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I have noted that there are two completely different sites economybookingS.com and economybooking.com I used the domain in singular, without S at the end, and never had any issues. Hope this information will help.

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naomikarpati
, AU
Oct 25, 2015 12:09 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

AVOID THESE SCAMMERS - poor service, ignorance, non professionalism

Here is what happened...booked an Audi A3 from Australia, confirmed the car via e-mail with Economybookings.com. I have the proof email stating that they are guaranteeing the requested car. Of course upon arrival to Budapest Airport in Hungary we were presented with a Skoda Rapid. I showed them the e-mail, they did not care. I called their contact number, an Australian number which connected me to Latvia. I spoke to three different employees, two different men with the same name, the lady even refused to give out her name. They hung up many times so after my fifth attempt one of them told me to cancel the car and write to customer support and get a refund. Oh yes, only if I knew that I am just going to be ignored.
They were lying all around on the phone, stuttered when I asked them whether they record this phone conversation or whether they can look up my email correspondences with them. They were bunch of amateurs. The most upsetting thing is their ignorance through e-mails. I received 2 replies from an actual person to my 10 emails and even that is deflecting, not wanting to deal with the case.

The representatives at the Budapest Airport even gave me a written proof that they don`t have that car in their fleet. So it also falls into a category of false advertising.

I am constantly seeking ways how to report economybookings.com as a scam website, read through the many negative reviews but the next step will be issuing a legal letter to them. It is not about the few hundred dollars but these scammers have to go. The lower price their offer is not much lower at other places and their cars are much worse because you never get what you book anyway. Paying a bit more and going with a reputable company like Sixt, Europcar, Hertz...etc is the way to go. PLEASE AVOID ECONOMYBOOKINGS.COM

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Neil M-D
, IT
Aug 27, 2015 7:00 am EDT

Booked car back in February 2015 (booking B39853938) from Rome Fiumicino but on arrival the supplier, Goldcar (EconomyBookings being an agent - note that if you look at the favourable comments about them on varied websites it's actually the car suppliers receiving the comments, NOT EconomyBookings), informed me I had to pay a non-refundable security deposit of Euro 351, more than double the cost of the hire. I refused to pay this as it's unheard of nowadays - all other companies block an amount on the credit card which is refunded when the car is returned with no damage. I contacted EconomyBookings for a refund of my pre-paid amount of Euro 170 and still, 6 months later, they refuse to do so citing varied excuses ranging from "I used a debit card" (untrue, it was a Visa credit card) to "it was a fuel deposit" (also untrue, maximum fuel deposit - strangely enough also refundable - is Euro 150) and keep on referring me to their Terms and Conditions of rental which certainly do not in any way refer to "non-refundable security deposits". They have now informed me that my case is closed as they have 'investigated' the matter - the whole investigation process apparently being a case of which excuse can we use this time in the hope he'll go away and forget about his money, their delaying tactics are unbelievable anywhere from 2 - 12 weeks to respond. Sorry EconomyBookings, totally unacceptable behaviour.

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Adrian Alexander
Rochdale, GB
Jun 19, 2015 10:25 pm EDT

COMPLETE SCAM DO NOT USE!
DO NOT NOT USE! Website is vague and beware of hidden costs such as the so called " refundable excess" insurance fee which is charged immediately during booking and only comes up after. This charge is completely useless as the car hire do not recognise it and is a scam!

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adriandk
, ZA
Jun 15, 2015 4:11 am EDT

OT REPLYING TO EMAILS IS THIS DELAY DELAY TACTICS

Hi,

Hope all is well,

We have already send a message to say that we could not pick up our car in Milan, as the rental car service said that they needed a credit card with 900 euro's on, I only had 400 euro's on my card as the previous car rental in France froze a portion of our money. The voucher said that we only need to pay 50 euoro's om arrival as we had already paid in full up front

Payment details:
According to this booking, you have made a prepayment in amount of 363.39 EUR (4943.35 ZAR)

This is a lot of money to us, and we never had transport in Milan when we arrived their. We were forced to sleep on the grass as we could not get to our destination.

I would like to know what portion of this money you are going to pay back to us, u can not take all our money for something we never received, it i unethical

kind regards
Adrian

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WalterPhillips
Windsor, CA
Jan 14, 2015 12:57 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Do not use economybooking.com. They do not return emails and do not answer their phones. They booked a car for me at a place that was a few miles away from the airport. I selected pickup and dropoff location as the airport.

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DB2k
London, GB
Sep 29, 2014 7:17 am EDT

As a web-based business owner - Do Not Use These Scammers.

This is the kind of company you are dealing with:

I bought car hire from EconomyBookings.Com - aka bookinggroup.com. The policy I bought, stated online, it included damage collision waiver and personal insurance. AKA - it had green tick boxes stating insurance was included.

After buying, I queried the status with the underlying car hire company (economybooking.com just book with a local car hire company) - they stated there was a non-optional additional daily charge for insurance! This made the car hire substantially more expensive on the whole (50%).

As I wasn't made aware of this up-front, I asked for a refund. This all happened within 2 days of booking my car hire. ie. I booked, and asked for a refund, within 48 hours.

I was told the fee charged by economybookings.com would NOT be refunded. I thought, this is clearly a mistake, and queried. 10 emails later, and they still won't refund my initial charge.

This is not a company you want to deal with. They will incorrectly sell you car hire, then simply point to their terms and conditions. They operate outside the law, and will simply ignore all complaints - I am now taking this up with my credit card company and I urge all other customers to do the same.

Again, DO NOT USE this company!

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steve lu
Atlantic City, US
Apr 25, 2014 3:24 pm EDT

be careful this website, if you are in USA, never booking rental car from them.
They are not in USA LAND, just want your money.

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Sam McKelvey
Glasgow, GB
Apr 13, 2014 5:58 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Trying to contact Economy Booking for the past 12h regarding a booking. The do not pick up their phone or respond to emails. I had booked a car to collect at Malaga airport in 4 days, then was given a higher price an hour later. I do not want the higher priced booking and wished to cancel immediately but they are not allowing this. I am sure this is against all consumer rights and will be looking to taking this further.

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Petogala
, IT
Jul 06, 2013 4:04 pm EDT

Better than expected
I rented a car with economybookings.com for the first time and did not know what to expect but as a result was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of service. The website is very user-friendly and I got a few qoutes from them with favorable prices. They cooperate with all the major suppliers can offer a wide choice of vehicles. They also provide a very useful Cancel Protection option, I added it as well and could cancel my booking up to one hour till its start but did not use it. Definitely would rent through them again.

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Stephanie8230
, FR
Oct 12, 2012 8:18 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi Piersene, Thanks for sharing your experience. We also had a terrible experience with Economybookings and my advise to everyone reading this post is to STAY AWAY OR IT WILL COST YOU A MAX! Here is our story: We recently booked a car with my husband with unlimited mileage (this was CLEARLY stated on the voucher). However, when we went to the car dealer to pick up the car, we were told that Economybookings had registered our order with limited mileage in their system. We immediately called Economybookings customer service to try to find a solution. All they offered was to...cancel our booking! We needed the car and had no choice but go with the limited mileage contract. Since then, we got in touch with Economybookings customer service (at the address they are elegantly mentioning in their comment) but they never got back to us. The best: Since this incident, we tried to reprint our voucher (they send you the voucher via email and you need to click on a link to retrieve it), and they have changed the content of our voucher which now states: Limited mileage! Unfortunately for their dishonest and unscrupulous customer service, we had kept the original voucher with the clear unlimited mileage mention. But this type of practice tells a lot!

Economybookings Team
Economybookings Team
, LV
Oct 10, 2012 2:46 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you, your comments are highly valued by us as we strive to continually improve our service.
We take very seriously to each comment, for us it is important that your submited review was justified.

For more thoroughly investigate your complaint we ask you to send yur reservation number to our Support Group Team by e-mail
support@bookinggroup.com
We hope that very soon hear from you and we be able to check the situation.

Regards,
Economybookings.com Team