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Car hire

ricky2tricky4city

ricky2tricky4city

Colin Calderwood
Usually (to Europe) we are taking our own vehicle, but we're going to Bordeaux area for a long weekend in Oct and I'm just looking at the car hire options.

Now I know the dirt cheap providers are fraught with danger BUT even looking at Alamo, Enterprise etc the reviews of the behaviour of these companies are nothing short of scammers. Nonsense charges after rental, extra valeting charge, more random payments taken months later, etc..and a brick wall when disputing or seeking an explanation...let alone a refund.

Is it hertz, europcar for less headache and nonsense?

Edit: Hertz Europcar look no better 😬
 
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I'd second the shout for Sixt, you should also check with your local independent's (if any) as usually they would allow European travel. Local's (back in my day) often were better towards the customer than the larger companies.
(Ignore Northgate thou, bunch of tacos lol)
 
I hire cars probably 3 or 4 times a year and I’ve found Sixt to be the absolute worst by a country mile. I had a particularly awful experience with them from Gatwick a few years ago.

- hit with a late office opening time charge even though I arrived before the office closed, but because of the long queue for their desk I was “after hours” by the time I was served.

- they charged a completely different amount to the emailed agreement and when I mentioned it they gave me a number to call to complain but I had to sign the agreement in the office otherwise they wouldn’t give the keys for the car.*

- the car tyres were simply nowhere near legal, like F1 slicks, but when I went back to the office to show them it was shut!

The complaint process was terrible, always a new person responding so you have to repeat the issue every single message. Ultimately they always just responded saying *”well you signed the agreement”! Yes, It’s that or you’re stranded in Gatwick for the night with no car and a 1 year old daughter and I only signed on the verbal proviso I could still claim..

Id put that to the back of my mind and just writing all that has made me livid all over again!! Ha

I filter them out of any searches I do on comparison sites nowadays.

I’m actually using Alamo out of Luton airport tomorrow, so I’ll drop a review at the end of the hire!
 
I used the cheapest one on a price comparison site for Agadir Morocco. Was little more than a scam, where an individual essentially holds you ransom when tired off your flight. Seems cheap then they try to hit you with hundreds more! Wasn't expecting that. Mate had exactly the same. Beware, you think they are all reputable on the comparison sites.

Worked it out with the scammer in the end after walking away, didn't pay too much extra and really liked the car. You are in Africa and different rules apply there! In Europe all much of a muchness. I prefer the smaller local companies. A quick search of posts on Trip Advisor usually suggests the local firms.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
I hire cars probably 3 or 4 times a year and I’ve found Sixt to be the absolute worst by a country mile. I had a particularly awful experience with them from Gatwick a few years ago.

- hit with a late office opening time charge even though I arrived before the office closed, but because of the long queue for their desk I was “after hours” by the time I was served.

- they charged a completely different amount to the emailed agreement and when I mentioned it they gave me a number to call to complain but I had to sign the agreement in the office otherwise they wouldn’t give the keys for the car.*

- the car tyres were simply nowhere near legal, like F1 slicks, but when I went back to the office to show them it was shut!

The complaint process was terrible, always a new person responding so you have to repeat the issue every single message. Ultimately they always just responded saying *”well you signed the agreement”! Yes, It’s that or you’re stranded in Gatwick for the night with no car and a 1 year old daughter and I only signed on the verbal proviso I could still claim..

Id put that to the back of my mind and just writing all that has made me livid all over again!! Ha

I filter them out of any searches I do on comparison sites nowadays.

I’m actually using Alamo out of Luton airport tomorrow, so I’ll drop a review at the end of the hire!
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After reading the reviews (on Google) of all the various suppliers out of Bordeaux it was looking like Sixt was the best bet....then you come in with this :)

Ive not had a hire car for a while and the last time I did was around the time all types of new providers were springing up and I was warned off them then. What I'm seeing now is even the established names are behaving like crooks. I can't believe this hasn't been exposed more, it's probably criminal (literally). Abusing their position and brick walling any complaints/grievance channels, that's before you even get to refunds.

I might add, that it could differ from branch to branch and maybe the airport pick ups are worse because they have you in a corner.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
After reading the reviews (on Google) of all the various suppliers out of Bordeaux it was looking like Sixt was the best bet....then you come in with this :)

Ive not had a hire car for a while and the last time I did was around the time all types of new providers were springing up and I was warned off them then. What I'm seeing now is even the established names are behaving like crooks. I can't believe this hasn't been exposed more, it's probably criminal (literally). Abusing their position and brick walling any complaints/grievance channels, that's before you even get to refunds.

I might add, that it could differ from branch to branch and maybe the airport pick ups are worse because they have you in a corner.
Click to expand...
Maybe I just got unlucky. The one thing you can’t say I was unlucky on though was the complaint process, that will be bog standard SOP’s, so if you (or anyone) do chose SIXT just hope everything goes ok.
 
I got so fed up of the big names, I googled alternatives and found doyouspain at https://www.doyouspain.com/index.htm

What a silly name

The site looked OK, so I hired a car through them and it was great, everything was spot on. Their emails looked a bit of a scam and I was a tad concerned before I got to the airport, but it was all great and went through someone proper e.g. Hertz or whatever, I forget.

I then used them again for a trip to italy, using the site doyouitaly and it was all great, again it went through a decent company "Italy Car Rent" just 50 metres further out from the main airport car rental places.
Got a BRAND NEW Peugeot 3008 and I thought "meh I hate Peugeot's" but it was a real eye opener, very nice (and I drive an S-Class normally)

So check them out (but don't blame me if you have a bad experience, seems like everyone has had both good and bad experiences with all these car hire companies)
 
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