GoldCar Rental
Reviews and Complaints

I booked a Fiat 500 or similar for 8.10.2018 to 15.10.2018 via the Ryanair website. When I arrived at Marseille Gold Car office I was told by the Gold Car employee, Franck Emeresse, that I would have to take out their package in addition to the €77.48 I had already paid. Their package would cost €288! This was for additional insurance, not having to return the car with a full tank of petrol and car cleaning. I explained that I did not want any of these services. I have my own excess insurance. I always return a car with a full tank of petrol and ensure the car is clean. Franck Emeresse informed me that I did not have a choice in the matter. I either had to pay an extra €288, or I could not hire the car. He would not budge on the matter. I have hired many cars before and have no problem having a large amount blocked on my card in case I damage the vehicle, but I was told this was not an option. He also blocked €66 for petrol before he told me that I would have to pay the extra €288. This is a ridiculous amount to try and charge for a small car with one driver. I had no choice, but to cancel my booking. He would not refund my €77.48, as he said I had not cancelled in time. I wouldn't have cancelled, if they hadn't tried to charge me a crazy amount of money. I then had to go and find another car to hire from a different company. Consequently this proved to be very expensive, but not as expensive as Goldcar. I have tried to complain direct to Goldcar, but it won't accept my email address. It seems they try and make it difficult for customers to contact them.

Hi,

I have just returned from a family holiday in Tenerife and can assure you that nothing has changed with Goldcar Car Hire as I have just been scammed.

I booked a hire car on line from Goldcar through an agent called ET Car Hire. I made sure that I paid for the full insurance package which included every eventuality - a total of £114.70 was paid for the week and for some reason I had to pay an additional 6 euros when I picked up the car.
We arrived at Tenerife South airport on the 9th October and made our way to the car hire office - which was a bit of a trek! We then had to queue outside the office for what seemed an eternity. Whilst queueing an unhappy customer came storming out of the office stating that he had been conned out of 200 euros for insurance. I assured my family that I had foreseen this problem and had already booked full insurance cover.

We eventually reached the desk and. True to form, that woman told me that I must take out additional insurance for 150 euros. I smugly showed her my paperwork which clearly stated that under no circumstances should I pay for additional insurance. She informed me that this was worthless and continued to badger - at which point I flatly refused. She then became very agitated and asked for my card to pay the outstanding balance and a fuel deposit. I produced my debit card (which is the exact same card that I used to pay for the vehicle) but she informed me that they do not accept debit cards, only credit cards. I told her that I have never owned a credit card so wouldn't be able to produce one. At this point she told me that she would accept a debit card if I paid for the insurance at 150 euros. Obviously I was extremely unhappy with this and at this point my son put forward his credit card to use. Guess what - she couldn't accept because he wasn't the main driver.
I knew that this was all just a scam so I told her to cancel the car and we would make our own way. However, she then told me that she would have to charge me for this as I had given less than 24 hours notice. Completely over a barrel!

I reluctantly had to agree to pay the additional insurance and a fuel deposit - a grand total of 287.86 euros!
When we were leaving the car hire site we did notice a petrol station right on the exit, so I said to my family that we would make sure to fill up at this station - to make sure we don't receive any additional charges.

We returned the car yesterday (15th October) and I drove past the hire place, took the car to the petrol station and asked them to fill it up. I paid for the fuel and drove back round to the hire place (less than ½ mile) and then made sure we cleaned out the car as I was sure that they would try to take more money from us. I gave the keys to an employee who went and checked the car and came back and told us that everything was ok. I asked about the fuel deposit and he informed me that I would receive a refund within the next few days.

We flew back to the UK and arrived home at 2.00am and as soon as I cancelled ‘airplane mode' on my phone I had received an e-mail from Goldcar with a statement attached. It seems I have been charged 10 euros for fuel filling and a 50 euro fine for breaching the full tank policy. This cannot be correct. In total the car has so far cost me around 350 euros for the week when it was advertised at £70 for the week.

I haven't slept since arriving home because I know that this is just a racket and they have totally ruined what should have been a nice relaxing family holiday.

I would urge your readers to take heed - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES HIRE A CAR FROM GOLDCAR!

Regards,

Phil Massey

Contract No [protected]

Please read this review before you use Goldcar.
We hired a car from this company from 28.8.18 - 11.9.18, when on holiday in Nerja, Spain.
We picked the car up and were met by an extremely rude member of staff. He tried to tell us we didn't have the correct insurance, which was not the case, which clearly annoyed him and his manner after that was disgraceful. We were charged 80 Euro for fuel, which were told would be fully refunded to our credit card when the car was returned with a full tank of fuel.

We eventually found the car, with little help from staff. We checked the car with a fine tooth comb and noticed 2 small stone chips near the fuel tank. We marked this in the sheet given and highlighted it to a Goldcar rep to verify it. They point blank refused to do so, stating they were ‘too busy' and to sign and date the sheet ourselves!

Two weeks later, on 11.9.18, we returned the car to Malaga airport. As a precaution, we took photos and a video of the car, so as we had a record of handing it back with no damage. I'm so thankful we did this. Again, no member of staff around to speak to or hand keys to, they had to be placed in a box.

A few days back home and we noticed a charge on our credit card relating to Goldcar for £227.00 which had been taken off on 5.9.18, 6 days before we returned the car. After much frustration trying to speak to someone, they said it was for damage caused! How on earth could they have charged for damage when a) there was none and b) we still had our car on 5.9.18! Again, after an exchange of emails, as they won't talk to you on the phone, they sent a photo of the damage. The photo did show damage to a car, but not the one we had hired, it was a different registration number. We sent our photos, video footage and a photo of the rental agreement, all showing the Reg number of the car we had, which was clearly not the one in the photo they sent to us!

Since this last email proving they were in the wrong, we have heard absolutely nothing. The 80 Euros for fuel has still not been refunded either, and they were given a picture showing the fuel tank was full.

An absolute disgrace and Goldcar you should be ashamed how you are conducting yourself.

We are now having to raise this as a dispute through our credit card, meanwhile out of pocket and whoever did damage their hire car must be laughing their socks off.

DO NOT USE GOLDCAR THEY ARE CLEARLY DISHONEST AND HAVE NO CONCERN WHATSOEVER FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

GOLDCAR, WE WOULD APPRECIATE THIS MESS SORTED ASAP AND AN APOLOGY FOR YOUR MISTAKE.

I rented a car for two weeks in Marseilles via the Ryan Air Website. The web site recommended use of Gold Car with attractive pricing for a two week rental plus a modest damage insurance .
My complaint is about the methods used by Gold Car's customer service desk in Marseilles to con me into purchasing additional full insurance at an additional cost of 315 euros. The customer services rep explained that if I did not purchase such insurance, Gold Car would secure a 1700 euro bond and that the currency cost to convert that bond from GBP to euros would amount to about 20%, that is almost the same amount as the cost of full insurance.
I was tired from the flight and disorientated and panicked. There was no wifi connection at the Gold Car Office. The only alternative appeared to be that of cancelling the purchase and finding another car to rent. I have raised a complaint with Ryan Air. Ryan Air says it's not their problem. I should have read the fine print. The "fine print" says nothing about the 20% currency conversion cost for the bond!. I feel the victim of sharp practice and seek at least a refund.

My name is Ginevra Cecchetti and I rented a car in Malta for 3 days with your company on 05/08/2018.
Contract number: [protected]
Customer number: [protected]
I payed € 84.95 for Full Insurance.
PLUS I payed € 200 for deposit.
I returned the vehicle on time, with full fuel, without damage and without fines.
I'm waiting the refund of the deposit since 07/09/2018 but it has never arrived.
I opened a complaint on 15/09/1018 with Number: 1765274.
No reply and on 24/09/2018 I requested a reminder. Still any answer.
On 28/09/18 I sent an email to [protected]@goldcar.com, nobody answered.
CC contacted me only after my bad evaluation, and yesterday I received a notice for a refund of euro 121.71 but I PAYED euro 200 !
I'm exausted, it's the 13th of October and I'm sill praying for my refund, I'm so upset, I'm gonna leave complaints about you everywhere. I WANT MY MONEY BACK NOW AND A REPLY FROM YOU! IT'S A SHAME

on collection of vehicle when we were finally pick up after over an hour wait we arrived at your portacabin that i was told you had desk at term 3 then at raddison blue hotel, very poor service, when received by your very unprofessional and rude staff i was told the full insurance i purchased online with the car booking was not veiled and i would have to purchase more insurance now, If did not i would not get the car, I am contacting you get a refund for the extra insurance of 265.00 Sterling i was robbed of from Gold car hire Booking number B21739022 this seems to be a con by this company as the people in front of me got the same treatment having to pay for extra insurance, from David Austin my email address [protected]@gmail.com

On September 14, 2018, I arrived at Faro Airport at 10:30 p.m. and went to Goldcar rent-a-car to pick up a Fiat 500 that I had rented online.
I was taken care of by an employee named Cesil who immediately gives me the contract with the conditions of the car rental for me to sign. I asked them to explain some clauses of the contract and Cesil answered that if I had doubts, I could read the contract again. I asked once more to explain me the amounts involved, such as the deposit and the extra fuel. Cesil did not explain anything to me and still leaves the job every 5 minutes claiming that "he needs to get some air because I was asking too many questions." Because Cesil did not know how to speak Portuguese very well, I suggested that it was better to switch to English, which he agreed to, but he still did not take my doubts away and was constantly forcing me to sign the contract. Even worse, the other employee at Goldcar still told me to shut up and threatened that if I did not sign the contract at the time, I wouldn't take the car key. I ignored it and asked Cesil to see the car in order to inspect the conditions and confirm if it is as described in the contract. The other employee insists that I should just shut up, to which I ask for identification, and she responds very arrogantly to me "much pleasure, Alexandra." I was obliged to go to the park to look for the car without a key and without indications of Cesil or Alexandre about where the car was.
As I inspected the car, I noticed a dent in the left side and when I returned, I asked for this to be written into the contract. If I had signed the contract before, the nuisance would have been my fault, which had been a very serious mistake.
Cesil, in an arrogant and rude manner, when confronted with my request, threatens again that if I did not sign at that moment, I would not take the key. Since it was late, I signed the contract with the promise to make a written complaint to the competent authorities. Alexandra's answer, defiantly, was "do, do!".
As a customer and as a person, I have never seen such disrespect and such arrogance on the part of a company's employees. I am obliged to demand at least one apology and I hope that these employees will be duly corrected.

Rented a car from you through DO You spain...reference DYS-[protected] on 27th September from Valencia Airport.

Name Richard Adams.

I was told, specifically, that the €1162.96 to be debuted from my card was for the sole purpose of securing the insurance deposit for hire, I was told specifically by your member of staff that no other charges were added. I'm sure you'll appreciate my surprise when routing out the paperwork for return of the vehicle today that I found enclosed within a closed leaflet handed to me on the day of hire was an invoice, an invoice that was not emailed, presented, viewed or signed by me at any stage. As pointed out this invoice was placed within a leaflet in an attempt to hide it, I have found that Gold car have decided to add, without prior discussion or agreement, a total of €61.90 in additional charges for Smart Return (which we do not know the purpose of this) and 2 x new vehicle charges.

These charges have been deceptively, some would argue fraudulently, added without consent or discussion. Please ensure that the charges, totalling €61.90 are returned in full back to my card.

In addition to this Gold Car were unwilling to provide a copy of the. Terms and conditions in English despite us asking three times.

Rental car made from france : pick up at faro airport for one week beginning september 30 to september october 7th.
-paid on line with debit card.. saw on client [protected] who ispossible online.. debit card and credit card.
Impossible to receive the car at faro airport, even changes to the name of the second passenger who detained a credit card!
The person at the desk at around 7 pm... not possible to reimburse... money lost and proposal of changing names.. renting going from 87 euros to 450 euros.
... came in bus... regarding this price
Need a refund for bad practice before further complaint to upper authorities
Two passenger: christian cervantes and josiane dettori.. you must have all the payment detail for a refund.

Contract [protected].
2/10/18 - 6/10/18.
On return to UK I was invoiced for €180 for damage to car.
I have checked my account and €265.44 has been taken.
Can you explain?
Can I see proof of damage to car for my insurance company.

Boeking nr ES421417390
Bevestigingsnr [protected]

Beste,
Na het inleveren van mijn huurwagen in Malaga heeft goldcar sevilla mij op 02/10/2018 nog kosten aangerekend op mijn creditkaart voor het bedrag van 442.68 euro.
Dit zonder te vermelden waar deze kosten voor staan.
Door de lange wachttijd op de inleverplaats werden we door bediende van goldcar aangemaand om de sleutel van de wagen in een sleutelbox te deponeren. Ondanks ons aandringen om de wagen te controleren, werd ons tweemaal duidelijk gezegd dat hiermee alles in orde was en dat we mochten vertrekken. Groot is dan ook mijn verbazing dat er achteraf zulk een afrekening word gestuurd, zonder enige vermelding welke kosten het betreft. Zonder enige factuur.
Gelieve mij hiervoor de nodige verificatie te bezorgen. De wagen werd terug ingeleverd zonder enige beschadiging bijkomend op deze die er waren bij de afhaling.
Mvg Jos Claesen

In May 2018 I rent a car at GOLDCAR at Mallorca Airport

I chose the Full to Full and according to the Goldcar employee at the disk, I would get 148 EUR refunded when I return the car with full tank, which I did.

Instead of 148 EUR, GOLDCAR only refund 126 EUR which not ok.

I have call the office at Mallorca airport several times, always with the comment "we will look at it". I seems that they still looking around.

On top of the above we even received the car without full tank with the comment "there is something wrong with the "fuel gauge", but when we have filled up the car, it seems that the fuel gauge had "repaired itself"

Please give me a feedback asap

Best regards

Claus

We have booked Goldcar twice a year for around 8 years paying around £500 to £700 per hire period, and have always been pleased with the service we have received, up until out latest booking.

I am a disabled driver (paraplegic) and I use a set of universal push/pull hand controls which fit temporarily into the hire car.

I booked a Ford Focus Automatic (which we had hired from them before) with this company for the period 2nd September to 30th September 2018 (28 days), with the fully inclusive insurance package.

We had originally booked a car with another rental company - due to the ever rising costs of booking a car with Goldcar.

However, around one week before we were due to fly, we were offered a substantial (45%) discount off a similar car, so we cancelled the other rental company and rented a car with you.

On our arrival at your rentals desk in Malaga airport, we were offered an 'free upgrade' to a Toyota Auris, which we accepted. We completed the rental paperwork and proceeded to the parking garage to collect our keys.

When we arrived at the office in the parking garage it was utter chaos. The rentals desk inside the terminal had 10 rental agents working, but in the garage there were only 2.

It appeared that not only were they dealing with booked rentals, but also 'walk in' rentals, returns and complaints.

After around 45 minutes of waiting we finally got our car keys.

We located our car, a considerable distance from the garage office, but then couldn't work out how to start it - we have never driven a Hybrid (we did not know that the Toyota Auris was a Hybrid) so I searched for a Goldcar employee for help.

Eventually and luckily we found one of their employees, and he showed us how to start the car.

We then tried to fit my hand controls into the Toyota Auris, but couldn't get them to fit, so we returned to the garage office and explained the problem and asked for the Ford Focus that we had originally booked.

The representative said that no Ford Focus was available and it was "the Auris or nothing", very unhelpful.

Finally, we were allocated a far smaller car, a VW Polo, and when we asked if it was a cheaper class and would we have a partial refund, the representatives just said, "no". Both staff in the 'booth' were unhelpful and extremely rude! In fact the VW Polo is generally classed as an 'Economy' model and the Ford Focus a 'Compact' model, so there should have been some price difference for the hire, fully inclusive insurance, as well as the fuel charge which is lower, all for which I should have been refunded.

When my wife asked for a customer complaint form (an EU legal requirement), it was refused and instead she was given a normal business card with the customer services telephone number on.

The smaller car marred our four weeks in Spain. My wife (who is of small stature) had to struggle to fit my wheelchair and our luggage into the car from and back to the airport, and struggled throughout our stay getting my wheelchair in and out of the tiny boot space.

We will NEVER book with this car rental company EVER again, and urge anyone thinking of doing so to use a different rental company!

When I took the car hire out they took a fuel deposit of €152.36 which came out of my account. This for starters should not happen, it should just be a holding deposit.
I dropped the car back fully fueled. The rude women at the kiosk said as long as its full I'd get my money back. I asked her for someone to check over it there and then for peace of mind but she very rudely and bluntly said that's not how they do things.
I took a photograph for evidence that the fuel was full at time of dropping off the car.
Money has been refunded into my account but only €138.00.
Can you please explain why this is and I would like the difference refunded. It was an English bank account so I will probably loose money for the exchange rate but the €138.00 is what they told me I would get back in an email so there is a difference your side.
I am a travel agent and sell car hire all over the world, this is the first time I have used Goldcar and not only is it frustrating that I had to wait over an hour to pick up the car on arrival and the system at Palma Airport for queuing is ridiculous. I was then spoken to rudely on dropping the car off but I then have to complain about less money being refunded. Doesn't fill me with much confidence to use the company again.
I would appreciate if someone could contact me regarding this and look at refunding the difference to me.

My rental agreement number was ES422347950, booked through HolidayAutos.com in the UK. I collected the car on the 22nd of September 2018, and returned it to Palma Mallorca Airport on the 29th. I returned it with a full tank, but I haven't even had the money back for that.

I had already paid HolidayAutos.com for additional insurance, and had printed out a certificate from Axa Ltd; however, after waiting for over an hour at Palma Airport in Mallorca, I was told by one of the representatives, named Carlos, that my debit card was needed just for €12 for airport taxes. I discovered that €289 had been taken from my account just two days later. I even got charged £7.17 for the currency conversion. I have attached a .PDF of the charges made by HolidayAutos on the 17th and later by Goldcar on the 24th.

The atmosphere at the front desk at PMI was intense and very stressful, partly because a customer had been arguing with Carlos about having to queue again for a second ticket. The representative's demeanour was aggressive and very pushy. I asked about the charges and signed the agreement, which was in Spanish, but not once were the extra charges mentioned by him. On Goldcar's website it states:-

What is the super relax cover?

Yes, by requesting our Super Relax Cover service. This service not only avoids the need to pay for an excess fee but also provides insurance that covers theft, damage to the bodywork, finish, wheels, tyres, windows, floor pan, rear view mirrors, lost keys, taxi or tow truck services in the event of an accident or battery charging requirements.

I did not request it because I'd already arranged it through HolidayAutos.com, so I want to take this all the way.

Kind regards,

David McKiernan

My contract number is [protected], I hired a vehicle at malaga airport from 30/8 -22/9 when I returned the vehicle I had filled it full with fuel at la cala and then drove to airport, now I've received email saying€9 of fuel had to be added and charged €50 to fill this, as a customer of goldcar for many years I find this charge to be totally wrong and request a full refund, please consider my request, I've been a valid customer

Car hire 25.09.18 to 28.09.18 Arrived on 07:15 flight from LGW, so tired on arrival.
Agreement [protected]

Unhappy with badly dented car with smashed wing mirror presented to us. Asked by employee why we had booked with Goldcar in the first place if we didn't like it. Started going round car with Goldcar employee marking damage I pointed out. Foolishly, I did not check every mark was recorded. Hub caps were held on with plastic ties - evidence of previous kerbing.
Going clockwise around car, came to NSR tyre which was clearly under-inflated and I thought either tyre or wheel rim was damaged. Long and acrimonious exchange with employee who insisted car had been through safety check. Employee eventually got electric tyre pump and (over) inflated tyre. NB tyre pressure did not register on gauge when first connected - it was that obvious. Employee angrily refused to change tyre or car. His behaviour was intimidating.

Somewhat flustered (I had been up since 04:00 that morning), we probably did not record all damage on final near side of car. Complaints to colleagues of employee brought response that he was their manager.

After two days we had to top up the tyre pressure on the faulty tyre, which was down to under 20 psi.

A different employee checked car on return on 28.09. "Additional damage" was found: scuff on NSF bumper and scratch under sill on NSF door. Car was parked front in on all car parks only times car was left unattended including underground hotel car park. It was impossible for bumper scuff to have happened during our hire; I know I didn't scrape sill (but that is just my word).

The employee classed both scratches as grade 2. He filled out a repair invoice and refused to allow me to make comments on his copies of the documents. I was not given a copy of the original sheet which showed recorded damage, but it was very clear that no recent repair work had been carried out. Charging almost Eur 1, 100 per short term hire for repairs not carried out is unethical.

This is a Goldcar franchisee. What is the view of Goldcar HO on such behaviour?

We are a 65 year old couple, who have hired cars over many years in Europe, Africa and North America; we have never encountered such behaviour before.

Been charged 60+ euros for hire of a 'new' car but one hired had covered over 9000 kms. Fuel tank was full upon return - been charged for filling up. Airport taxes not explained before hire.All 3 included in these extra charges

Booking ref via Ryanair ES967041920 16th to 19th Sept 2018 from Valencia Airport in the name of Robin Kett (collected around 11.20am 16th returned 9.00am on the 19th)

I booked a 5 day car hire in the UK and as I already have my own crash damage waiver insurance I opted not to have this via goldcar. On arrival I was told I had to take out the goldcar insurance at a greatly inflated price. This was clearly not as described and more than likely illegal practice. I have requested a refund of the deposit I made only to be told it's nonreturnable? It seems to me that you are miss selling a product and little more than a bunch of con men / women.

We rent the car at 22:00, we looked al around the car and sign the contract, never look UNDER the car with the guy at Zakinthos airport. In the return he say they where something UNDER, we didn't have something with this car, we didn't did that . It was the same man and we told him we didn't check that, we never checked UNDER. So he took 1222 € on the credit card . He said we had to make a claim at customer service . We don't have to pay for something we didn't doe. No picture on is tablette . Only a x .