GoldCar Rental
Reviews and Complaints

Hired a car from 26/10/2020 to 8/11/2020 from Alicante airport.
Contract [protected]) was raised with a fuel policy agreement of Full/Full and a deposit ‘Deposito Combustible' paid of €115. This would be refunded if the car was returned ‘Full' - which it was.
Checking my credit card it appears Goldcar have only refunded €65 of the €115 deposit
I have queried this with an operator called Lisa at Goldcar and she had stated that only €65 was returned as the outstanding €50 was for other fees - one being ‘Smart Return' and the other ‘Airport Fee'
With regards ‘Smart Return' - there is no reference to this on my contract so cannot be enforced.
With regards ‘Airport Fee' - My online booking clearly shows that the Airport Fee is included in the total fee to be paid on arrival
Therefore I believe Goldcar is acting fraudulently by not returning the €50 deposit.

I made a booking with Goldcar for a car rental in September 2019, having used that company many times over the last 10 years. Despite being a Club member the company have failed to respond to my letters and online messages about Government restrictions preventing travel to Spain and request to refund super cover insurance, which obviously I could not use, and also airport tax - I was only to willing to forego the car rental charges all of which I prepaid. If anyone at Goldcar gets to read this message then I would be delighted to hear from you.
Brian Phelan
[protected]

Car Hire: 12-26 August 2019. Pick up Faro Airport, holiday destination Carvoeiro (128 kms round trip from Faro).

*14/08: Rang Goldcar and spoke to customer representative Claudia.
This was to report faults on the car. We had upgraded at an additional €15 per day (Matricula: 68XD07) totalling an extra €210 for the duration so expected the vehicle to be in faultless condition, unfortunately, it fell far short! As such, we were promised and stated we would be willing to take up the offer of compensation to forego the supplement paid.
As reported, there was an intermittent electrical fault which caused the door open alarm to be activated on the dashboard whilst driving with audible alarm sounding continually which also contributed to circumstances where the car would not lock. Not only was this highly inconvenient and the noise extremely irritating whilst on our long-awaited annual holiday but it also meant the car on occasion was not secure and left us feeling highly anxious in case of a potential break-in or theft.

26th August: We reported the faults at the drop off office at Faro airport as instructed over the phone by Claudia (see above). We set off an hour earlier (with 3 children in tow) in order to do this but we were then told this would have to be done via customer services number: +351 707 504070 and dealt with back in the UK.
28th August, I rang the Customer Services number and spoke to Fatima who advised me to complete the 'report a problem' online clearly setting out the problems encountered and terms of compensation offered.
30th August: see email from Juan @ Goldcar apologising
12th September: emails forwarded to Lorena at Goldcar as requested
10th October: Camilo response stating complaint would be escalated to Head of Maintenance but any financial compensation hitherto promised, reneged upon.
10th October: Response to Goldcar highlighting all references to any refund withdrawn.
15th September 2020: Further email to Camilo requesting escalation channels. Completely ignored.
26th October 2020: Took to Twitter to voice consumer complaint. Immediate reaction from Goldcar asking to private message.
27th October: After a lot of spurious preamble, agent Ahtziri referenced an email never seen before by us which claims: "We are sorry to hear that the condition of the car provided did not meet your expectations.
After open an investigation with the Faro office, we can confirm that the car conditions were ok at the end of the rental.
So I am afraid to inform you it is not possible to compensate for this booking.
29th October: Emailed Caroline. parot and Jose. blanco@europcar to escalate.

Dear GoldCar,

I booked a car in Palermo airport between 21st and 28th of October with Super Relax Cover.
- Booking number 19907708

My driver's license is non-EU, from Ukraine. Before booking I checked which driver's licenses are accepted by Goldcar:

https://www.goldcarhelp.com/en/faqs/227-what-driving-licences-do-we-accept

After that, being sure everything will be alright, I made a non-refundable reservation on the Goldcar website. Yesterday I looked at the Terms and Conditions, and found out that in Italy international driver's license is required according to that. May I ask why the information on the website is entirely misleading?

I called Customer Service and was redirected to Palermo GoldCar Office (+39 091 591414) and spoke with a nice lady, who said a physical international driving permit is required. She said I will be refused a car if I do not provide an international driving license. This is horrenous. I cannot cancel my reservation. I am refused a fully prepaid service because I trusted what is written on te website whereas an contract has completely different misleading requirements.

I booked Goldcar with full insurance and still fell into scam.

------------------------------
Kind regards,
Oleksandr Puhachov

Booking number [protected].
Dated Aug 18 and Sep 7

It's in regards to two fees that I was wrongly charged.

1. 50eur diesel fee that I was charged at the counter when I never specified for a diesel car
It specifically says on the T&C that "If there are only diesel cars in the Group chosen by the customer, at the pick-up time, this charge will not apply."
But they refuse to reply to my emails for the refund.

2. 250eur deducted from my credit card without my authorization for damages that were existing
When I returned the car the attendant said there was a damage to the bumper. The car has dents and scratches on every side. All the damages were old. Upon taking the car I have mentioned to a check out attendant and he said its was ok since it was an old car and all noted. I have explained to the attendant that all the damages were existing on this old car and we agreed none of the damages are new. After I left I received a charge of 250eur deducted from my credit card without my approval and for the existing damage.

I have called and sent emails. Only reply I received was on Sep 21 listing the terms of their cancellation policy that is completely irrelevant with my refund request.

Booking Reference Number: PT519556880
Confirmation no. [protected]

Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,

When booking the car on edreams, I took an additional insurance for my car rental to make sure that I have no more payment to make when picking up the car.
This was a misleading information : Goldcar obliged me to take again an insurance or I had to leave a deposit of 1.200€ (I am a student and can't pay that). Goldcar said that I shouldn't have taken that edreams insurance as it is useless.
Consequence : I paid 2 times an insurance.
I hereby ask you to reimburse the supplement I paid when processing the on-line reservation. My family is travelling a lot using edreams, it would be a shame to change of online travel agency.

I remain available and count on your understanding

Alexandra Fasel
+33.6.48.14.70.56

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.