GoldCar Rental
Reviews and Complaints

Client name: Regina Fulop
Reservation number: [protected]
Barcelona Airport
06/08/2017

I have been a loyal customer up until this moment of goldcar, i rented several cars from the same office and never had a problem before.

Today I arrived with an already paid reservation and I was told that the terms and conditions changed and i am not able to pay the deposit with my VISA or Mastercard debit card (due to being a debit card) nor pay it with my amex credit card (due to they don't accept, so eventually i couldn't get the car.

The day before when i made the reservation there was no mention about these new terms, I checked the payment conditions on purpose and nothing like this appeared.

I have to mention that i asked the officer at goldcar desk to call the office for me or make another reservation under my friend's name but he refused, basically all my proposals for a solution were refused. He only gave me a phone number to call which is an elevated priced number. Neither the phone person could say anything else than i heard before. He gave me though an email address to address my case to, which I did, but I don't know if anybody reads it since the email address doesn't show anywhere on goldcar's webpage.

Arriving home I checked the TC again, it literally says that the deposit CAN be paid with a debit card, I also checked the reservation confirmation which said the same.

I was trying to get in contact with Goldcar, but the customer is can be reched ONLY through the phone number I mentioned above. No email, no chat, no online complaint form.

I think apart from not being fair with an old customer, this is also a robbery that cannot stay unsolved.
I demand to get my money refunded plus the phone expenses covered for my 8 min call to an elevated priced phone number.

Thank you for your help.

We are existing clients of Goldcar and usually hire from them at Malaga Airport. On this occasion we are flying to Granada airport (about 1.5 hours drive away) and whilst I entered the flight number for arrival correctly (into Granada airport) I entered the pick up as Malaga airport. As soon as I received the confirmation email, 2 minutes after the booking I called Goldcar to explain the mistake. They could not put me through to customer services and said I had to email. I emailed and suggested a cheaper car we could hire from Granada airport instead and also said we'd be happy to pay reasonable administrative charges but they have refused to do anything to help as the conditions say you cannot cancel. This is clearly a legitimate error and they can try to rent the car to someone else. I just want a reasonable solution as currently I am left losing £450 for a car hire I don't need. I also don't know if they are still considering my request so I don't currently have a car booked in Granada and the prices will only go up. I understand what the terms and conditions say but this is clearly just an error on my part. Why would they not show some flexibility to an existing and hopefully future client?

We rented out car from this company online and paid 145 pounds quite a while before our holiday which was 19 jul 2017-28 jul 2017. We then arrived in Barcelona and showed up at the office stand of Gold Car at the airport, in order to collect our car and sort out paper work. We were then asked to provide a deb cart for deposit of 296.95 euros for the fuel and risk of damage etc. Id like to highlight that my husband and I specifically asked what exactly this payment was and we were reassured that it was only a deposit which will be FULLY returned if there were no issues with the vehicle. After the holiday we returned the car with a tank full of fuel, clean and in definitely pristine condition. The next I received an email from the company that I was refunded 112 euros, which isn't even half of the full deposit that we were promised to be fully refunded by the representative at the office in the airport. That's when began to research what exactly had occurred and realized that the company misled us into buying 'Super Relax' cover. At no point were we offered any kind of insurance or cover, we were only told that we had to pay a refundable deposit. I feel that this is such a scam and very low of the company, I am aware that this hasn't just happened to me but to many others and cannot believe how this company continues scamming so many people.

I rented a vehicle for pick up from Murcia airport on 26/6/17 rental number [protected] and paid 54.47 euros ( paid before 26/7/17). On arriva at desk I paid another £30 .31 for admin costs( no upgrade). The goldcar rep kept 1250 euros on my credit card as I had my own insurance instead of taking the cdw extra insurance that they offer, I have done this numerous times with no problem. I returned the vehqicle at the end of rental on 07/07/17 and had the vehicle checked that tank was full of fuel and that there was no damage, this was confirmed.
On arrival home I checked my account and the £30.31 had come out of my bank as expected on 26/07/17, then later a payment of. £88.47 was taken by goldcar central. I would Ike this payment returned please before I take it further. Thanks in advance, george

We booked a car for our holiday to Spain on 7/5/17 at a cost of £218.32. We had email confirmation of the booking ([protected]) ready for our stay. On arrival at Alicante airport on 31/7/17 we were told that the hire had been cancelled ( not by us, due to car unavailability) we needed a car and were told that the cost for the exact same one would be £507.89. ([protected]). It was after 11 pm at night and we felt helpless we have three children and needed to get to our villa . We have no issue with paying the fee even if it had to be slightly increased but not more than double! We will be taking this to the Ombudsman if we don't get a suitable response. Regards Samantha Maltby.

Contract no. [protected]
Client code [protected]
I hired a car from Toulouse airport between 21-28 th June. I have now discovered that I have been charged 100 euros for damage to a wheel rim. This is not true .
There was no damage to that car created by me. One of the wheels did have some damage before we took the car and this is shown on the check done by Gold car when the car was picked up . I have the paperwork to show this. I also have photos to show the condition of the car.

Hi, I arrived at Malaga airport at 10.30pm on 27 July to pick up the car for the above rental. There is a new layout there so I went directly to the car park where I have often picked up my rental at your office there. That was at 10.45pm but your office there which is supposed to be open until 11pm was closed. So I had to go back into the terminal building to your office there. I arrived there at 11.03pm. They charged me €40 for late pick-up. I object to this charge as, if your office in the car park had been open as it is supposed to be, I certainly would not have been late.
In the circumstances, can you refund this amount to my credit card please?
I am a member of Goldcar and have been using your services for many years in Malaga. This is the first complaint that I have had and I found this experience very frustrating.
Thank you
Donald Bergin
email: [protected]@eircom.net
Ph. +[protected]

I booked a holiday to Corralejo, Fuerteventura which didn’t include transfers, so I was just about to book my usual route to Corralejo from the airport by coach. A friend said that car hire is cheap so I checked it out on the Expedia website and sure enough it was £11.49 for the 10 days through a company that advertises on the Expedia website called Goldcar Rentals, I did think how could they do it for that price? but that wasn’t my problem.
Before I left the UK I purchased a car hire excess insurance from Questor Insurance that covers the UK and all European countries.
When I got to Fuerteventura airport I found the Goldcar desk and gave there representative my Expedia car rental voucher, I was asked for my Driving licence and then was told that I need to pay 109 Euros for the Full to Full petrol policy, of which I thought was a bit steep because you can fill a Fiat Panda up on about 30 Euros.
After this he said that there were 2 options, Option 1 was I pay 234 Euros for insurance for the 10 days, I asked him what was this for, he said to cover my excess if I have an accident at which time I told him that I have my own excess insurance cover, but he wasn’t interested in seeing it, he just said it wouldn’t be good enough.
He then went on to Option 2, this one really confused me, which I think is what he wanted, I needed to have 1100 Euros taken of my card, some of this will be taken off for excess and I would get the rest back when I bring the car back unharmed, he wouldn’t tell me how much would be taken off, I told him again that I had my own excess insurance but he ignored me. By this time I realised it was a Con – rip off (whatever you want to call it). It was at this time I said I’ll take a coach, with this he said I can bring the amount down on Option 1, also at this time I didn’t believe a word he said, he also said that I’ve only paid £11.49, which I replied, that’s what you advertised on Expedia website so that’s what I paid. So I asked him to cancel the booking, I know I won’t get my £11.49 back but that little to pay to get away from this Rip off.
I can’t believe that a company like Expedia would advertise a money grabbing rip off outfit like Goldcar rentals on their website. Both of these companies I will never use again.
I will be sending a copy of this letter to both Expedia and Goldcar Rentals, but I know I will not get a response, I think companies like this just think because of how little money was involved that people won’t bother, but this delayed us for approximately 3 hours on our holiday
Also I will send copies to BBC’s Watchdog, Rip off Britain, Martin Lewis and anybody else I can think of.

Below are the details of the booking and my excess insurance.

Yours Sincerely
Colin Donovan

Expedia, itinerary number: [protected] [protected]@uk.expediamail.com

Goldcar Rentals, Confirmation number: [protected]
Pick up: 13/7/2017 drop off 23/7/2017

Excess insurance: Questor Insurance
Certificate number: C100/1636897
Claim Scheme Code: 50077
Account number: 544-542
[protected]@questor-insurance.co.uk

Thank you for having relied on Rhodium when you hired a vehicle under contract No. [protected] between 10/06/2017 and 20/06/2017.

We are hereby informing you that the vehicle you hired was ticketed 1 time during said rental period.

The above was received in email from Goldstar Rhodium and a fee of Euro 45 $ assessed. I paid the parking fine of $35 Euro in Tarragona after going to the parking fine office and received a paid in full invoice. I showed this to Goldstar agent on the return of the car and he made a copy attached tyo the contract on return. Many weeks later I received a notice of the fine. There is no successful way from my home in the US, Maryland to resolve this problem. It is completely unfair and unnecessary . They were well paid for the rental. Nelson Kieff

Contract: [protected]
We arrived at. 23 the 10.07. In a very poorly illuminated P-Keller Personally was not helpful and not interested in a check of the car. I just had to sign. The staff only spoke Spanish to us and we had no chance to understand how we should handle the marks the car had ore what we should be aware of. However we delivered the car back the 23.7. about 7am, no one there to take the car back, 60min later we received an email with the damages we should have coursed and an invoice of 750, - euros with the day after gets up to 779, -euros.
WE HAVE NOT CAUSED THOSE DAMAGES

Charge Check-In Tyres 1 - 200, 00 €
Charge Check-In Wheel rim 1 - 350, 00 €
Charge Check-In Major cleaning 1- 150, 00 €

I hired a car from gold card on the 29th May 2017. Firstly as I arrived to pick the car up I was informed I owed €116 from the previous year for cleaning the inside of the vehicle . They did not inform me until a year later, they waited until I was at the desk in Malaga .
When we returned home from this years holiday I received a email stating they were charging me €40 for a admin charge for notifying me about a speeding fine . They then proceeded to charge twice . Once on the 23rd June. Then on the 26th June .
Gold Car seem to be stealing money from my account as they have my card details .
I have filed complaints and tried on many occasions to get some answers but I got nowhere. Please help .
Contact number. [protected].
Cc NU36692287

I rented a car for 4 nights on the 16/07/17 in lisbon airport, i had the car for 2 nights and had to return it as my girlfriend got some bad news and we had to travel home early so I returned the car on the 20/07/17. On the return i was told that car "Might" need to get a special clean as there was some sand on the carpets costing €30, as we were in a rush to catch the flight as we had booked last minute i didn't have any time to discuss this with her. it was just a small bit of sand from bottom of shoes and cars should be hoovered anyway between rentals. I had to run to catch the flight and didn't say anything, Today on the 21/07/17 i received an email from goldcar telling me that i have been charged €30 for a special Cleaning and another €150 for a major cleaning! Firstly how can i be charged both types of cleaning, its either one or the other and secondly why am I getting charged for a major cleaning? 30 seconds with a hover and the car would be spotless, this is disgraceful and very unfair considering the reasons why we had to cut our holiday short. I request the return of the extra €150 you charged my credit card, I am willing to pay the €30 since the lady at the desk said I might have to pay it, But to add an extra €150 on top of that as well is not fair. my Client number is [protected]

Following on from our recent holiday in which we hired a car from yourselves I am writing to complain about the service we received from Goldcar

On collecting our car from Goldcar office at Valencia airport on the 8th July around 8.30pm the man who served us completed the paper work and handed over the keys, my husband asked him to check around the car and he replied this was not necessary as the car was new, I am sure if you check his paperwork in relation to our booking on that day you will find the proper car check paperwork for our car was not completed or any signatures from us! It is not our responsibility to check the car is free from any damage and I know it is one is one of the satnad checks that shouls

Thankfully we took our own photos ( see below, from our phone and you can see there are scratches are there). However on returning the car to the airport on the 16th July we were told by the lady who served us that there were 2 small scratches on the car one at the front and one at the rear, which were obviously not ours and from a previous customer, and clearly old scratches, however we were unable to download the photos straight away and by the time we did we were told the £200.00 per scratch had already been processed and could not be reversed and that we would have to speak to customer services on our return to England.

We were also told that the refund minus the £400.00 for the scratches ( have received today minus the £400.00 – what a surprise ) could take up to 28 days to return!

I am sure you will agree this is not an acceptable level of service and felt that we were being scammed and taken advantage of and being made to pay for someone else’s damage !

I look forward to hearing from you with a resolve to this

I have also been unable to e-mail as goldcar make it virtually impossible to contact them and to submit a complaint as they have no website, it will not allow you to submit any e-mail address on their complaint form a the bottom right hand corner, please can i have an e-mail address to contact someone?

Kind Regards
Sarah Doyle
[protected]

From: Simon Doyle [mailto:[protected]@btinternet.com]
Sent: 20 July 2017 20:34
To: Admin
Subject: Rental car photos

Sent from my iPhone

We booked and payed a car to pick up in 11:45 12 midnight, my girlfriend select one day before our arrival by accident. We called weeks before arrival and they said they will fix the pick up 24h later, we did never ask for the day we payed extra.
When we arrived to Spain we found some arrogant staff denying the key of the car payed for a long week, they said they waited for 6h. And they re-rented to someone.

📍We were left in the airport late in the night without car, thanks to goldcar care to costumers.

📍Goldcar made double profit of the car we rented.

📍We did neven get back the-late pick fee- and ensurance for all those days.

🔍We should have listen to the warnings 2 friends from germany that payed a deposit to in a rental in Spain and after 2 years still did not recieved the money back.

WE RECOMEND TO NEVER RENT WITH GOLDCAR
We want our money back and we will never forget this, all the calls are recorded.

we rent a car with GPS. Paid 80 euros for 6 days, and the GPS did not work! its was always giving us wrong directions, and we lost our ways and missed alot of things planned because of the bad GPS we got! we could not turn in on all the time, it was freezing and not syncing with the road! and it made us lost in our way more than 10 times! we demand a full refund of the GPS cost, Best regards

Date of incident: 17th June 2017
Client Number: [protected]

Hi,

I recently visited Mallorca and hired a car through the Palma airport branch of Goldcar. I booked the hire car through eBookers.

When I arrived at the Goldcar desk to pick up the car, I handed over all the details, plus my passport, driving licence and credit card. I was then told that I would need to pre pay for a tank of fuel which would be taken if I returned the car empty of fuel [understandable] and was then told I would need to purchased extra insurance. Despite my eBookers paperwork saying no extra fees would need to be paid and that I was covered with a CDW up to £1, 100. The staff member then said I could pay a deposit of £1400 which would cover me in case the car was retuned damaged. I agreed I would rather take this option.

Once I disputed the extra insurance payment the staff member could no longer speak English. Coupled with my lack of Spanish we had an issue.

The staff member even said at one point, that the car rental was so cheap it wasn't possible for Goldcar to hire it out. Why was it advertised at this rate if it wasn't possible?

She told me to enter my pin once, then asked me to enter it again and sign a pad. Which I did. It was now 23.30 and I had a three year old with me and a wife who is five months pregnant so I took the keys and a contract written entirely in Spanish and left to pick up the car.

On retuning to the UK and checking my credit card statement they had taken £137.73 from my account.

I called Goldcar immediately who said they would look in to this payment.

A day later I received and email stating the following:

Dear Mr. HXXXXR
Thank you for your email about your recent Goldcar rental.
I am sorry that you had a bad experience with one of our representatives. Customer feedback is a key part of our staff appraisal process so your comments are important and will be taken into account.
I am concerned to hear that you were under the impression that your Goldcar rental would be directly covered under your own motor insurance policy/your broker’s policy. This isn’t the case and we do our best to make that very clear on our website and on booking vouchers.
Customers have two cover options when they book with Goldcar. The first is to pay a refundable deposit. If there is damage to the vehicle during the rental period the cost of repair is deducted from the deposit and the customer will need to make a claim from their insurer to recoup the costs. The second option is to take out our Super Relax cover. This means customers can drive safe in the knowledge that any damage will be covered and that Goldcar will handle all the paperwork.
The cover that appears on the contract you signed on collection of the car, is non-refundable service, as you have benefitted from the coverage and have been protected against any unexpected charge during your hire period.
I hope this clarifies matters but please do get back in contact if you require further information.
Kind regards,
Tania

Unfortunately I did't Google Goldcar prior to booking, if I had I would have avoided you.

My issue is that despite me saying I wanted £1400 reserved on my card you did what you wanted regardless. It was an entirely underhand and duplicitous act to con me out of £137.73.

I would like the £137.73 refunded asap.

James

Booking Number [protected]

Stephen Jackson
43 Main Street
SEWSTERN
NG33 5RF

[protected]@tiscali.co.uk

I arrived to collect my hire car at Palma airport on Sunday 16th July 2017 at approx. 10pm.
I had booked a 5 door car but was told I had only paid for a 3 door car. After some discussion and production of my confirmation I was then told I would be collecting a 5 door car.
The representative then proceeded to attempt to sell me insurance which I did not need.
Again after some discussion I paid £1100 deposit and understand this will be refunded when I return the car. This is clearly stated on my confirmation of booking.
Eventually I was given the keys to the car which, when I arrived in the car park to collect was a 3 door car.
After the inconvenience I had already experienced, I decided to take the car and make a formal complaint.
As it was dark when I collected the car I have subsequently made an inspection this morning (17th July). I have found a slight dent over the back wheel arch on the drivers side, and a scratch on the drivers side door.
I have photographed these and will submit as evidence should you require them.
I am appalled with the service I have received and, as there are 4 of us requiring to use the vehicle (2 of whom are teenage boys) this is now going to cause more inconvenience and discomfort during our holiday.
I would like a thorough investigation into this incident and look forward to receiving substantial compensation, both for the lack of your company being able to provide the vehicle I have paid for and for the lack of satisfactory customer service.
Being lied to by a representative is also completely unacceptable.
I look forward to your immediate response and hope this complaint is resolved before I return home on Saturday 29th July.

I booked an Emirates flight to Malta from Hong Kong and used the link (Cartrawler) in their website to book a hire car to be collected at Malta airport on 19th June 2017. I was informed to collect the car at the Rhodium desk in the arrivals hall. Upon arrival I found the Rhodium desk, empty, but the paperwork was all completed by Goldcar staff at the adjoining desk. As I had already paid in advance for the car I had no option but to proceed with them even though I had seen many adverse comments about their services.
When I went to collect the car I saw perhaps 40 identical white cars with large Goldcar lettering on the sides in the Goldcar parking area. However I was given a very battered red car with nothing to indicate it was Goldcar. I took photos of the car before driving it away because it was in such a bad state. As I moved the car it rolled back slightly a few inches and I saw another unmarked white car come up alongside my rear nearside. I braked as someone shouted and got out of the car. I felt no contact and there were no markings on either car to indicate any contact. I was still in the carpark of course. I asked the other driver to show me where there had been contact but he couldn`t show me. I was then confronted by the Goldcar staff who insisted they would have to report to the police and he would detain the car and provide me with another. And I would have to forfeit the Euro 1350 excess. He said I would have to claim it back from my insurance (which I do not have).
I was then given a white Goldcar to drive away which I used for the required period, returning it with no damage and no further excess forfeited.
I question the whole circumstances of this red car incident as it seems most suspicious and in some countries a report to police might have yielded results. I wonder how many similar incidents at Malta airport have occurred involving Goldcar. If there was any damage at all it was microscopic. I do not mind paying for such and would request that the company do this and refund the balance of the excess forfeiture

Arranged car rental with Goldcar prior to the commencement of holiday to collect at Bucharest Airport. Agent refused to honour the rental as my credit card was not accepted. I contacted credit card company who confirmed there was no problem whatsoever with my card and that the agent had failed to request the deposit. I asked them to repeat it but to no avail. I went to another car rental office adjacent to Goldcar, who confirmed my card account was in order by placing a minor transaction on my card. I returned to the Goldcar agent who still refused my card. I suggested that he contact his bank, but he refused. He therefore cancelled my prepaid rental contract. I managed to secure a car rental with another agent at the same car rental lot without any problem, but was charged significantly more as I had not pre-booked. As a result of this I have lost the money I had prepaid and had to pay significantly more money than I had originally budgeted due to the attitude of the Goldcar agent at Bucharest Airport. I am disgusted by this poor service. I think a refund and compensation would be a reasonable manner in order to resolve this situation.