RentalCars.com
Reviews and Complaints

I am very disappointed in the misleading price quote I recently got from RentalCars.com (and their provider Europecar). I rented a car on-line and picked it up at Paris CDG airport in September 2015. It was a 10-day rental and Rentalcars.com quoted a good price. Unfortunately I just got two additional bills from Europecar (the actual provider of the car) totaling $131.95. This is an addition of over 60% to the price I agreed to with RentalCars.com. The charges include refueling, although I refueled on the airport as I returned the car so it was totally full. Also another charge for "Administration fees fines" of $34.38 (30 Euros) for ?. The car was returned undamaged and clean so I have no idea what this charge is for. There were a number of additional fees which could have been included in my original quote from RentalCars.com (i.e. the 34 Euro "Premium Station Surcharge". They knew I was going to Paris CDG so that known fee should have been included.

This is a scam that relies on charging your debit card at the time of reservation and later have the car refused. Numerous clauses are designed for that purpose. When that happens you lose your entire payment. In my case I offered the same card for the deposit, it had sufficient funds and the rental company could have locked the required sum, but they refused to accept it. I have previously used the card for rentals with no trouble. There was nobody from rentalcars.com available to talk to at the time I was at the car company desk, around 11pm, I got a message to call the next day. The sum for the entire rental period was charged at the time of reservation, and no refund has been given.

I made a reservation with rentalcars.com on june 8th, 2015. I never received an email or mail confirming the reservation until yesterday august 13th. The email I received was to confirm the car reservation and that the amount that was going to be charged on my credit card would go thru the same day.
Since I thought the rental hadn't gone thru initially because I never received confirmation, this took me by surprise. I had made different plans regarding my transportation. So I proceeded to cancel. They stated that I would be charged $40 dollars cancellation fee. My trip is not until the 9th of september. I don't think that a cancellation this far in advance should be subject to such penalty. I am very upset. Will not be using this business again and I will advise anybody that is thinking about renting a car via this company, to stay away from this company. Consumer beware!

I was in the process of renting a car for two weeks from Toronto International Airport in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The company Rentalcars gave me what I thought was a good quote. I filled out the online form and the quote was in Canadian dollars. When I got to the section for payment I was careful to put the correct numbers in place and didn't notice that now at the payment section
it was in US dollars. I sent an e-mail to complain and they e-mailed back saying that "if my driver's license was issued in Canada or the US this booking could not continue." I e-mailed back saying that the license was issued in Canada. They did give me a credit but there is still $47.48 left on the VISA statement. I have sent more e-mails wanting the full credit but get no replies. This company is very misleading with having two different currency prices and also there should have been a big notice saying I could not book a car from Toronto, Canada if I had a Canadian driver's license. Thank you Beverly Nicholson

Rented a car through rentalcars.com prior to traveling to Los Cabos which they advertised as including Third Party Liability coverage for a vehicle from Europcar. Upon arrival I showed my contract which states the included liability coverage. I wasn't allowed to rent the vehicle without paying $309 (US) paying for additional liability coverage. That was close to twice my original rental agreement with rentalcars.com. In contacting them I was informed that while my agreement had liability coverage it was a "basic" contract and that I should have expected to have provided my own insurance. The contract does state that I have the "option" to purchase additional insurance. There was no "option" either pay the additional amount or you can't rent the car. Even though my rental agreement through rentalcars.com clearly states the inclusion of third party liability. It was a worthless addition and basically scam with no value and significant unexpected costs.

The rentalcars.com company is a web based company from Manchester. However, the company from which I got the car in Bologna, Italy, Goldcar, might be based somewhere else. The complaint was that the actual price of the rental doubled at the counter when picking up the car in Bologna, and the explanation was so vague that the scam did not actual hit until returning home looking at the bill of the rental. I tried to get in touch with rentalcars.com but obviously they did not respond with a complaint procedure in place. They got the money and ran. Stay away from either of these companies: rentalcars.com and goldcar. You will be fleeced.

Rental cars confirmed that I could rent a car on my indian license as long as I am within 1 year of my stay in the UK. Basis this confirmation I made a prepayment for my advance online booking of my rental car with the supplier europcar. The booking id is [protected]. However when I reached the supplier on the date of collection they declined me the car stating that they cannot provide the car basis my Indian license and I need to provide an international permit. I was asked to contact rental cars for claiming a refund on my booking since i was not provided the confirmed car for my travel.As a consequence of this confusion I ended up losing around 400£ due to arrangements I had to make in the last minute to manage my trip and accomodate the cancelled hotel reservations.That it caused too much of physical and mental stress is another aspect for which I have not yet been comitted anything.I have addressed this issue with rental cars and they havent yet come back to me with a solution.

I have rented a car in Montreal in Canada by rentalcars.com. The price which was 65 CAD, but local company has charged 350 CAD from my credit card. Rentalcars.com did not interest in this issue and advised me t contact with Budget rent a car. Now I am making an effort to get back my money from Budget. Please be careful about rentals from rentalcars.com or Budget

I purchased the services of rentalcars.com and the precharged my credit card. When i went to pick up the car at the kiosk, the attendant informed me that there would be a mandatory insurance fee of $100 (62% mark up on the original price). The attendant was apologetic and says that this frequently happens with rentalcars.com. Given the new price, i declined the service and immediately contacted rentalcars.com to cancel the service. The company sent me an email one day later saying they allowed me to cancel the service but would issue no refund. I have called several times to the company, but I could not speak with anybody with decision making power. All correspondence was very bureaucratic. There whole business model is to offer something cheap by hiding (high) fees. I would not recommend this service to anybody. It was not that much cheaper to begin with. The offer a product that has a true price very different that advertised. It is almost criminal. In the end, I was out $150 with no car rental.

I have purchased a one week car hire through rentalcar.com website as a last minute emergency. When i went to pick the car from europecar i was asked how long i have been driving and when i said 2 years she said sorry you need to be driving for 3 years. I went back to rentalcars.com and explained the situation and what i got was a quote from the terms and conditions which state the 3 year rule. Now why such an important information be hidden in the terms and conditions and not be clearly displayed in the advert. Apparently europecar have changed its drivers experience from 2 yrs to 3 years in 2015. I have written 3 times to the online query form and all information i get back is the same. They have also advised that the £128 i already paid will not be refunded which made my blood boil. I mean what a scam. I feel that i should be refunded the money since i have not used my car hire car. I also believe that their advertising is very misleading and the car drivers experience should be properly displayed with the car hire details.

Made resevation for car rental in Malaysia using Rentalcars.com. Travel plan changed, so I cancelled the reservation online as instructed by Rentalcars.com and waited till I arrived at destination and rented car from local counter (Hertz). Rentalcars.com continued to card credit card for charges, disputed charges multiple times but still charged. I never received any service from Rentalcars.com, only a bill $1400.00+.
Advice...NEVER rent a car from RentalCars.com, instead call a rental company at destination to make resevations. Skip a problem, skip RentalCars.com. I will pass this information to all my family, friends and fellow strangers for years to come. My reference #[protected]. My confirmation #[protected].

Actual rental cost 30% more than the quote despite the Total Payment statement.
Pickup desk was apologetic and said "Don't know why they do that". Although I nominated "airport pick up" this charge was missed, as was drop off, daily fees and local taxes - advised this was my fault for not reading the terms and conditions properly.

Rentalcars offer to beat any lower quote but how can you compare quotes when these charges are hidden? Other companies include them.

Also automatically charged for damage waiver insurance on top of the quote (unrequested) which was a hassle to cancel.

Actually replied to my emails but brushed off my concerns about their quotation and billing process - "read the terms and conditions carefully".

Choose another supplier!
In Australia I have used DriveNow previously without getting hit with hidden charges.

This company promises to have a car available for pickup. When I show up a bit late, they have cancelled the rental and charged me the full amount FOR NOTHING!

I re-booked with them and they promised to give me a refund less 3 days rental. Now it has been 2 months and they still have not given me a refund.

Poor customer service, bad attitude. If you say you're keeping a car, KEEP IT.

Overcharges on credit card without authorization. On enquiry shown duplicate invoice through rental cars.com. Never seen this invoice before for $1035 CDN. Everything paid for ahead except the usual scam at airport for insurance which I opted to pay 6.00 GBP per day minimum insurance. Was offered full package for 350.00GBP which I told him you must be joking and opted to pay the small amount for tires, mirrors etc. everything fine on return. Please people get these crooks off your websites, they are robbers. I am sure there are many more people like us being scammed and no-one does anything to help. A few months back my husband passed away and I had to visit my 92 year ok'd mother in Scotland. I have gone through enough stress this last year without this.

This Company is scam
I booked over the Internet one week car hire from www.rentalcars.com they sub the rent to Ezi-Rent car hire that advertise Luton Airport location but they are in Slip End miles away. I called them to find our they location ... staff is rude and not helpfull . After long conversation they canceled reservation and now they don't want to give money back. Also be aware if you book they charge for damage Excess refund nearly as much as rent. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY ... SCAM

I had been try to rent a car from this company for my trip to Chios island Greece (Period 15-18 October 2013). I submitted my request which was only one day in advance of my trip to Chios. The information given on the WEB portal of the company was; Voucher will be sent within 8 (eight) hours. However when I checked after eight hour I receive just the same explanation but with a duration of eight hours starting to my timing of checking. It was funny because I had to get an acceptance before starting my trip, therefore I tried several more times with periods 3-4 hours. With every new request the company defined a new eight hours period starting from each checking time. Therefore I cancel the reservation, but that time they charged nearly full amount of 3 day car rental. It was a reservation which never voucher confirmed. I request for charge back to my bank but Rentalcars did not pay back.

Rentalcars.com is a total fraud (and spammers too)

This company (which is part of Priceline) has lots of terms and conditions which work against you and we have ended up with paying €256 for *nothing* in the end. Here is the story:

On a family trip in Italy, we have made reservation for a car rental from this website in May 2013. We have especially requested a navigation device during reservation to find our way easily around the country.

On 19th of May we went to SicilyByCar desk at Rome Termini Station to pick up our car. We paid the deposit, signed the papers and got the keys. When we arrived at the parking lot to pick up the car, we were told that they have no navigation device available! We had to go back to train station (which is 300m away) and ask the lady at SicilyByCar desk. When we asked why she had not told us that navigation device was not available before and made us go through all the signing papers and paying deposit procedure, she did not have any answer at all! We were really disappointed and frustrated.

The only way to go was cancelling the reservation and renting another car from another dealer. So I called RentalCars.com customer services and was told that I need to pay half of reservation fee as a penalty and that was because the pickup time had passed. But we had not get in the car at all! Just because the pick-up time has passed we were made to pay €256 for nothing, simply nothing! All we get was disappointment and frustration in the middle of our trip. Not to mention the half of day we lost during reservations.

When I have placed a complaint, I got a response a month later, which says this is according to their terms and conditions and they will do nothing about it. The rep's last sentence in the email was:

"We are not in position to refund you the rental price and we now close the matter"

That's all I was able to get back.. (oh, and daily spam emails)

So, STAY AWAY FROM RENTALCARS.COM, if you want to stay stress free.

We rented a car through Internet, rental cars.com which belongs to travel jigsaw. After reserving and paying for the vehicle, we immediately changed the pickup time from that evening until the next day. When we arrived at the airport rental car agency, were no cars available. I called and wrote emails asking for a refund, but was told to wait until the end of the rental period...10 days.. to demand a refund.
Ten days later, I filled out the request for a refund, but the answer was to wait for up to 28 days. Now it has been over a month and we are still waiting to be refunded. I find this highly unacceptable. it has been now 6 weeks that this company is holding our money and I don't know when we will be refunded.

I believe that this is the first time in my adult life that I have been so thoroughly fleeced by hidden fees which doubled the cost of the product I purchased. I rented a car through rentalcars.com. I conducted a search on their website, selected based on price, entered my credit card details and paid in full. When I arrived at the location to collect the car (Schiphol airport) I found that there were additional fees that DOUBLED the cost of the car. I wrote to rentalcars.com upon my return home and was told AFTER the whole transaction about the fees. Instead of apologizing or splitting the difference, as I suggested, then sent me information that I needed at the time when I made the decision:

Thank you for your email.
Fees to be paid locally for your reservation is:
Mandatory local fees

* Airport Fee - €59.50 per rental
* Premium Location Fee - €29.50 per rental
* Road Fee/ Road Licence Fee - €3.00 per day

Kind regards,

Amy McVey
Reservations Department - rentalcars.com
Floors 2-5
St. George's House,
56 Peter Street,
Manchester
M2 3NQ
UK
e: [protected]@rentalcars.com

Reserving the car was easy but the customer service afterward has been a nightmare. They missold the return of vehicle time and wanted to charge me for their mistake. Then after my trip promptly charged me additional fees. When I called to request an explanation of the additional charge I was sent around the houses and after holding for 20 minutes was then told that they would not accept a request on the phone and that I would have to write in to them. They are also unable to tell me how long it will take to provide me with an answer and or a refund. Terribly unprofessional company, I will NEVER use them again and will be going to the ombudsman if I don't receive a refund.