GoldCar Rental
reviews and complaints

Car hire firm has raised a damage charge against us, which we dispute.
For info: the car was damaged on collection and damage not noted on check-out sheet, we corrected this before exiting the airport.
Car returned, without damage. No one to check the car when we returned it.
Email received when we arrived home claiming damage and charging us £225.25

31.08.2020-04.09.2020

Mir wurde eine Vollkasko-Versicherung als gebucht in Rechnung gestellt, die ich jedoch nie gekauft habe. Diese 140, 95€ fordere ich zurück.

Immatriculation: FN873ZN
Contrat: [protected]

Good morning,

I am emailing in regards to my recent Goldcar experience.
From the 23/07/2020- 13/08/2020 I rented a Goldcar from Malaga airport.
Since and during this date I have been in contact with Goldcar customer services via email, telephone and your website in order to get my deposit back. As well as to explain that I was over charged for super relax insurance.

Firstly I was told at the airport it was compulsory to take out super relax Insurance. However after examining your website and speaking to a gold car representative via telephone on the 24/07/2020 (Paolo), I have been advised that it is not compulsory and a refund should be processed. I later that day sent an email to request a refund and I am yet to receive a reply.
Please note I had a credit card with a £7000 limit on car pick up.

I called again on the 13/08/2020 and spoke to Ivanna who advised me that I should fill out the online form. I have done this three times and I am yet to receive a reply.

I have also not received my deposit back for the car rental. I was assured at the airport I would receive this back within 14 days after the car had been returned.
I called again on the 4/9/2020 to explain this as well as filling out the online form on the 1/9/2020.
When I spoke to a Goldcar representative they informed me that for an unknown reason my contract number number has now also changed and she struggled to find my booking information.
from [protected] to [protected]?
She explained that someone would contact me but I have once again heard nothing from Goldcar.
Please can you explain to me what has happened and refund my deposit and overcharge. It has been longer than 14 days as I was advised by Goldcar.
I have also really struggled to get hold of anyone at Goldcar who can sort this out.
I have also contacted the UK citizens advice bureau as I have now been left with a bill on my credit card to super relax and my deposit which I am unable to afford to pay.

I hope you can assist me further.

(I sent this to goldcar, no response)

Contract no. [protected] at goldcar.

I have this car rental right now. I picked up the car in like 3 minutes and the guy in the booth only say "just sign 2 times on the digital display for your rental and all is okay. Just take photo if more damages on the car than already and all is good! I then asked the guy the following"did you block money for full to full fuel and the 1100 eur. For eventually damage"he says"yes" and no more! I then leave airport. I rented with you before and interrent many times. I never ask for insurance! Never like in never! I have insurance on my credit card. Now money charged on my card? 363, 83 eur. I did will not accept it. I send many emails to customer service and still no reply.
Thats why I was surprised the guy was so quick and also why I asked him if he blocked the card for 1100 eur. + full to full option. I will of course not accept this. I also now informed www.doyouspain.com do you spain say they have problems with this insurance fraud everyday!? Please refund my money immediately 363, 83 eur. You must be able to see the guy, your colleague who did this? Otherwise I know his name already. I also made file on eu department and hoja de reclamaciones.

Please respond asap.

Kind regards mr. Max laursen

I rented a car online via rental agency www.rentalcars.com for £164.47 (including full cover) and charged online and €79.50 to pay the Goldcar office for an additional driver. I have a voucher to this effect.

At the Goldcar desk I paid €368.60 and was told this included a damage deposit and fuel deposit, all reimbursable if car returned with a full tank and in damaged. Contract number provided was [protected] dates 24/7/20.

After returning the car, my account was credited for the fuel deposit only. On checking my contract (all in Spanish with no translation), I notice I paid for Cargo Oficina Premium (€25.73), Conductor Adiconal (€57.23), Cobertura Super Relax (€111.17), Smart Return (€12.36) and Mega Relax Cover (€33.06), all plus tax.

Reading a similar complaint online, I can see that Goldcar's position is that you should be offered an option to leave a €1, 100 deposit or pay the additional cover charges.

I was not offered this and the other charges were not explained.

This does not explain Cargo Oficina Premium charge or the Smart Return charge.

Clearly I did not need more cover as I took this out with the booking agency, so this is clearly sharp practice on the part of Goldcar. The other charges were also not explained or identified at the time of agreeing to the rent the car. So I am looking for them to return a further €216.16 in good faith.

The charging approach taken effectively means the car rental is almost double that number agreed with the online agency at the time of purchase and represents for spectacularly poor value for money for a Ford Fiesta rental of 9 days.

CONTRACT NUMBER: [protected]
Client Number : 9815389
See below for initial email sent to [protected]@goldcar.com on 17/03/2020

I rented a car from you on 5th March to 10th March and prepaid £44.22 in FULL on 17th February 2020.
I returned the car on the 10th March and there was no problem at all and I was told there would be no further charges. See attached forms.
I noticed that on 5th March another payment of 26 euros or £23.51 was also charged to my credit card and was processed by my bank on 9th March 2020.
I called your customer service department this morning and spoke with Blair who told me he could not understand why another payment had been taken for "Operational and Logistics Costs" and I had to email customer services to obtain a refund.
I am disappointed that I made the call to your customer service department to resolve this but they could not help!
I have used Goldcar many times without a problem and I am concerned that you are taking payments that you should not do. I am no longer feeling confident to use your services in the future.
I now request a full refund of 26 euros (£23.51) as this is an overcharge that should not have been processed.
Please advise when I will receive my refund for this incorrect charge.
Kind Regards,
Kiran Purbhoo
1 The Dell
Ullesthorpe
Leicester
LE17 5BL
[protected]

Here is the email I sent to Caroline Parrot, CEO of Europcar (owners of Goldcar):

Dear Ms. Parot,

I am writing to ask for your help to get the refund I am owned due to an unauthorised overcharge for car rental through Goldcar.

Here is the history:

I rented a car from Goldcar on 5th March to 10th March and prepaid £44.22 in FULL on 17th February 2020. (See emails attached).

I returned the car on the 10th March and there was no problem at all and I was told there would be no further charges (all signed forms stating the car was returned satisfactorily are included in the IMPORTANT email attached).

I noticed that on 5th March another payment of 26 euros or £23.51 was also charged to my credit card and was processed by my bank on 9th March 2020.

I called your customer service department on 17th March and spoke with Blair who told me he could not understand why another payment had been taken for "Operational and Logistics Costs" and I had to email customer services to obtain a refund which I did (see IMPORTANT email attached).

Having had no response at all for over 1 month, I called the customer service department again and was told that I needed to send a complaint via the Goldcar website which I did straight away (see email attached GOLDCAR - Incidencias 2508738).

I waited for another 14 days but had no reply or communication from Goldcar at all. I then sent another complaint email on 28-04 (see email attached GOLDCAR - Incidencias 2512297) to which I still have had NO reply almost 1 month later. It has not taken over 2 months and I have not received any communication from Goldcar at all! Do you think this is acceptable?

I am now asking for you to help to get this problem revolved as I am still waiting for my refund on your unauthorised overcharge to my credit card of £23.51 (26 euros).

I find it quite ridiculous that I am having to make contact with the CEO of the group to get a simple refund, as I am sure you have better things to do with your time as I do too.

I do expect a reply from you within 7 days to establish the facts and when I will finally receive my refund for money Goldcar should never have taken.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Kiran Purbhoo
1 The Dell
Ullesthorpe
Leicestershire
LE17 5BL
UK

[protected]

Here is their response:

Dear Mr Purbhoo

Thank you for contacting Caroline Parot

Kindly note that the rental option you selected includes ‘Flex-Fuel' that allows you to return the fuel tank as empty as you like without paying a penalty fee.

The amount of fuel will be held as a deposit, and the costs of the operation and logistics will be charged separately (in your case 26€), as well as the location costs (if applicable). When you return the vehicle, if the fuel has been used, the corresponding amount will be charged and the rest of the deposit will be returned. If the car is delivered with a full tank, we will refund the amount retained for the fuel.

The price of this system depends on your destination office and the model of vehicle chosen. You can check the costs at this link: www.goldcar.es/SDR
I hope this clarifies matters but please do get back in contact if you require further information.
Kind regards,
Maria

To date, I have requested a refund 3 times and have kept being told that their terms and conditions state they can take any amount of money from my credit card for "logistic and operation costs" without any authorisation even when the car was returned in exactly the same condition with a full tank of fuel as it was when I collected the car. They have not given me a satisfactory answer as to why they made an additional charge to my card.
Please note the car was collected from Seville airport and returned to the same branch so there were no extra costs the company incurred at all.

I have copies of all signed paperwork i was given when I returned the car and was told there would be no extra charges when I asked but cannot upload them as they are pdf docs.

Your help in obtaining my refund would be very much appreciate as I feel I have been robbed in broad daylight by a large company with extremely questionable practices.

Kind regards,

Kiran Purbhoo

[protected]@kphr.co.uk

12.02.2020 - collected hire car from Fuertaventura InterRent kiosk at Fuertaventura Airport - credit card details were taken and told that £1, 100 pounds would be taken as a security deposit. Aggressively persuaded that I had to pay €160 for additional insurance, which we declined, also told that there was no 'additional driver' on the contract and told that would cost us €7/day - declined this (on checking booking documents from ArgusCarHire, found that we did have additional driver on the booking, InterRent insisting that we didn't!)
19.02.2020 - returned car to airport with full tank of petrol (policy on booking was 'full to full'), no damage to car (took photos and video to confirm this). Received email from InterRent confirming that there were no additional charges to be made.
05.03.2020 - email receive from GoldCar stating that 'an incedent' was detected which was preventing them from being able to refund my deposit. I contacted ArgusCarHire by telephone as I was concerned about following the link which asked for my card details and date of birth (sounded unsafe). ArgusCarHire advised me to create a complaint ticket with goldcar, sent me a link to follow. The link sent wouldn't accept my booking reference. ArgusCarHire also sent me a document which was in Spanish, detailing a charge for the additional driver (which I had declined) and a charge for fuel.
12.04.2020 - following numerous phonecalls back and forth with ArgusCarHire I was advised to send GoldCar my bank details via email, which I did.
27.04.2020 - contacted InterRent, as advised by ArgusCarHire, spoke to Ahtziri who said she would look at pushing my deposit claim as a priority as I'd been waiting so long. Also suggested I send an email to InterRent asking for my refund.
15.05.2020 (Friday) - spoke to InterRent again, informed that my claim was in the 'billing department', advised to ring back the following Monday.
18.05.2020 (Monday) - email received from InterRent informing me that 'due to a system error the claim was empty' suggesting I open a new claim.

Hello Goldstar CS employees,

I still have not received an answer to my mail send to you on March 10.
Goldcar is known as a decent and responsible company but the way you are now handling our issue disappoints me tremendously.
Can you send me a response to my mail asap.
With regards, Rene Pluijms

Op [protected] om 20:46 schreef Rene en Yvette Pluijms:
> Dear Goldcar CS,
> yesterday March 09 2020, I called Goldcar (+[protected]) and asked for the reason I didn't get an answer to my trouble ticket 2464689 dated February 08. See below my trouble ticket.
> The Goldcar employee informed me that the ticket was closed. However I didn't get any mail and reason for that closure.
> The Goldcar employee promised me to send a copy of this e-mail to my by Goldcar known e-mail address : [protected]@pluijms.tech.
>
> To recap my issue as described in the trouble ticket:
> I miss Euro 64, 67 in the by Goldcar Visa refund. I understood during the call this had something to do with the date I got my driving license. Goldcar thinks this is less then 4 years.
> However: I have a valid driving licence since 1989. See attached photograph with driving license date for B and BE authorisation
> Please:
> 1. can you send me a copy of said trouble ticket follow-up with reason of the lacking Euro 64, 67
> 2. please reimburse this Euro 64, 67 to my visa account and let me know when done.
>
> With kind regards, Rene Pluijms
>

I hired a car from Gold hire in Porto airport in 1-10 March 2020. (original booking ref attached) I received an invoice by email on 7 March 202 (attached gold hire 3 and 4) these are a different booking number, but have the incorrect dates and then my final invoice when I returned the car on 10 March 2020, the fuel was full and there was no damages (attached gold hire 1 and 2) showing that here were no other charges to be made and thought that was the end of it. Please note that these invoices have the same damages before and after hire, the same car registration number but different booking references. I have now received my credit card statement April 2020 which shows 400 Euros being deducted on the day I returned the vehicle 10 March 2020. I have received no other notification or information regarding this. I have spoken to 2 representatives on the phone from the Porto branch, who couldn't tell me what the charge was for and said to contact this website. I am out of pocket for 400 euros plus the interest my credit card is charging.
I expect a full refund including the interest. This is despicable customer service and both advisors I spoke to were unhelpful, curt and rude considering I am the one that has been abused.

My hire number is [protected]
customer code is 9684591

I look forward to hearing from you soon

Regards

Synthia Campbell

Good Afternoon,
In November 2019 I hired a car from Goldcar in Gibraltar. At the time of the rental, I chose not to take Goldcars insurance as I had an annual collision damage waiver policy in the UK.
Unfortunately during the rental, I had an accident which was totally my fault and involved damage to the front number of the vehicle.
At the end of the rental, I informed the car hire company of the damage caused.
Since November, I have tried on numerous occasions(phone and email) to get an invoice which shows the cost incurred. I subsequently received 2 invoices- one for €385 and one for €350! The first showing for the damage, the second incorrectly showed €350 for the rental.
The rental was only €22 which I paid for separately.
I need an invoice to show €735 which is the total amount that Goldcar have charged me so that I can make a claim in the UK but Goldcar refuse to answer my emails and telephone calls (which I have made 8) are a total waste of time- staff are rude and unhelpful. The last time I called them, the phone was slammed down on me.
I am not asking for a lot- just the correct invoice so that I can claim my money back.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Goldcar rental contract no. [protected] - Codigo cliente 4715694
Citroen C-Elysee 1.2 PureTech

I have rented from Goldcar for around 14 years, always from San Javier / Corvera (RMU) airports without any issues.
On 17 November 2019 I rented via Alicante Airport for the first time - the desk service was very good so I assumed we would have no issues using Goldcar from this location.
I returned the vehicle on 30 November (registration 3490 KXR) after having washed and cleaned the bodywork, refuelling and then taking photographs of the vehicle at return to place 127.
There was no new damage on the vehicle. no one was available to inspect the vehicle with me as the staff were having to manage a large queue of customers all returning vehicles at the same time. No problem as I have the photographs. However, I subsequntly received theafter check in report to find an attached photograph showing a long single line scrath on the rear (offside) passenger door.
The scratch is very similar to a deliberate 'key'd' type scratch as we refer to in the UK.
2 points of note here. The car bodywork in the photo showed the car was dirty and the scratch was not at all evident in my photo (which is authomitically timed and dated by my mobile phone).
I have submitted complaints directly to Goldcar and also via Resolver and have also lodged a complaint with my credit card company, as the fee of 250€ has been debited to my account.
There only 3 explanations for this damage.
1. The damage was done deliberately by a member of the Goldcar team after the car was returned.
2. The damage was caused by somebody else but given that the parking spaces at either side of the vehicle were already filled then there is no reason for anyone to have been near the vehilce I returned and this still does not explain how the vehicle became dirty in such a shirt time after return.
3. The damage is from another vehicle.
I am incensed that Goldcar are trying to allege that this damage occurred during my rental.
My expectations are that this allegation will be rescinded and that I will receive a full refund of the charge and an apology and / or offer of compensation for the stress and time it has taken to complain about this matter.

The staff on the front desk blatantly lied to me stating I would not get the 22% tax back on the €1600 deposit as I was paying by debit card. I questioned this but the representative was insistent. Basically it was a sales tactic to get me to buy further insurance with them as it meant I wouldn't then have to pay a deposit. I already had insurance in place so only needed to put down a deposit. Had I not been deceived at the front desk I would have saved the additional £250 they charged me.
Don't fall into the same trap as me. This company are scammers. THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF!
DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM!