Buchbinder Rent A Car
Reviews and Complaints

Hi,

On July 31st 2020, I have rented a car from Buchbinder, a silver Renault Clio (License plate EU BT 9320).

We used it to travel from Munich to Bad Sachsa (Germany).

All went well until the morning of August 1st when we wanted to leave Bad Sachsa and we noticed that we have a flat tire for the right wheel on the back.

As the car did not come equipped with a spare tire, we called the Hotline number provided to ask for a resolution. We started calling shortly after 10AM, and after waiting in line for more than an hour, someone replied around 11AM. The guy said, yes I'll send someone to help, it will be there in 45-60 minutes. After an hour and a half of waiting, a tow truck appeared and the driver (a mister Gerlach from Auto-Benke Gmbh) said he was instructed to just pick up the car completely, which he did, leaving us stranded there, with all our luggage (please note that the car was full), in a lashing rain.

We had to call the hotline again, in order to ask for a resolution; they answered after another 45 minutes, and the lady on the line said she needs 30 minutes to check if she can get us a replacement car - that we were entitled to anyway and which they should have sorted from when they told the tow truck driver to take our car.

We received a call back after another hour and a half, saying that we can pick up another car in Leipzig, which is 2hours driving away from Bad Sachsa! We managed to fend for ourselves and get there, where we picked up the new car. We received no apology and no money compensation for the fact that we had to go 165km away to get a new car from where they took it from us.

On August 4, I was charged the amount of 386.35 euro on my credit card, from a completely weird named company, Charterline Fuhrpark, which after some research we realised is Buchbinder - with no bill, no invoice, no explanation. If I would have not checked myself, they would have just acted like thieves, with no notification.

I would like a refund for both the fraudulent 386.35 euro on my credit card, plus the initial 93.75 fee for the car, and a compensation for us having to travel for 165km on a sunday and in terrible rain, with all the luggage.

On a quick search on Google Reviews, Charterline Fuhrpark is reviewed with terrible complaints, for fraudulent ghost charges days, weeks, and even months after people rented their cars. It is completely obvious that this is a common practice for them and they should not be allowed to be operational and scam people like this.

Best Regards,
Corina Pelmus
+[protected]

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herrn,

Die haben der Firma EPCplc mitgeteilt, dass ich der registrierte Halter eines Fahrzeuges war, das einen Verstoß in Norwegen begangen hat.

Ich habe das Fahrzeug nicht angemietet. Bitte senden Sie mir bitte Kopien

• des Mietvertrages zu aus dem der Übernahmeort und die Übernahmezeit (Datum und Uhrzeit) hervorgehen,
• den Zahlungsbeleg und
• alle sonstigen Unterlagen zu. Viele Stationen kopieren den Ausweis bzw. den Führerschein.

Ich habe das Schreiben von EPCplc beigefügt, aus dem hervorgeht, dass Sie mich als Mieter/Halter identifiziert haben.

Schon jetzt Danke für Ihre Unterstützung.

Markus Seifert

Dear all,

I write to ask why we have incurred a charge from your Company of EUR 47.00 on the credit card that I used for our Rental Agreement with you - for your reference, Voucher #: VH814077101600. This relates to the rental of a Mercedes-Benz, Lic Plate No. EU-RO 2425. We picked up this car at Frankfurt Airport on Wendsday October 23, 2019, and dropped it off at Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday September 29, 2019.

All required payments - including extras - were completed at the start of the rental. I was not advised that there would be any further charges. Would you please explain why we have been charged this additional amount.

I left the car full of fuel and there was no damage to the vehicle.

Thanks in advanced.
Caio Resende

Dear friends,
I write to ask why we have incurred a charge from your Company of AUD 55.50 (equivalent to EUR34) on the credit card we had used for our Rental Agreement with you - for your reference, Rental Agreement No. 776-[protected]. This relates to the rental of a Ford Focus, Lic Plate No. EU-BM 7734. We picked up this car at Munich Airport on Friday September 20, 2019, and dropped it off at Munich Airport on Monday September 30, 2019.
All required payments - including extras - were completed at the start of the rental. We were not advised that there would be any further charges due on this contract. Would you please explain why we have been charged this additional amount.
We were very happy with our rental car - and the service provided by your staff both at pick-up and drop-off was excellent. We left the car full of fuel and there was no damage to the vehicle at drop-off.
Thank you.
Philip Sinden

We hired a car voucher number EC9A298A/car rental provider K500011077 & returned it to Hamburg airport on the 3rd of July without damage. We paid the remainder of our fee at pick up form Hamburg for the rental. We then paid a further 147.66 euro at drop off for an unfilled tank of fuel & for some extra kms we travelled over our allowance.
We have now received a further 144.00 euro charge on the 17th September for no reason at all.
My husband received a speeding fine of 20 euro direct from Landkreis Gifhorn der Lanrat Germany which he paid on 31/7/2019, we have the fine & record of the receipt.

I have had to cancel our credit card so your company can no longer put charges on it. This is poor service to charge a card without explanation over 2 months after we returned the car.

I have put a dispute in with Mastercard. I want an explanation & receipt of all charges incurred for the rental 22/6/2019 to 3/7/2019 and an explanation of these further charges. If you have charged anything due to the fine then we are demanding a refund as we paid that direct ourselves via international transfer.

Hi. We have rented a fairly new car at the Vienna airport that has broken down after few days in Croatia. We got the replacement car however it was granted only for few days with a drop off in Makarska (Croatia) and doesn't cover all our original journey. Buchbinder promised to extend the rental as well as to confirm that drop off can be done in Vienna. For 4 days now we experience the worst customer service I ever had to deal with - they can't answer our questions or give any information, waiting for some (imaginary in my view) manager who will find a solution. They seems not to have a phone number of their manager either. Keep on promising to call us back and be patient. Twice they even hang up on us - unacceptable for any customer service!

Here with I'm re-sending my objections like an appeal against Your Invoice for damages.
I've already sent You several emails starting from July 12th, 2019.

I received Your below "Schaden Nr. #7287649" on July 11th and Your related Invoice, this to inform You that I was very shocked and disappointed because at the check out of the car, on July 10th, nobody asked me to sign any check out and the damage report, You are claiming me now.
Here, I'm sending You the check report again; I signed it during the check in in time on July 09th, only.At the check out, the car was completely and fully in order and Your operator haven't informed about any of the damages You are complaining me now.
Thus, there weren't any real damages that depended by my fault, neglicense or mistake. All the relevants where probably from previous rentals or even made later to my rental.
Furthermore, I hope by mistake, Your Guy during the check-in filled wrongly the check out part instead instead of the check in ones.

Thus, an amount of EUR 679, 22 has already been debited to my credit card but, it is really not due.
The pictures nr 3 and nr 4 of the car, into Your above claim, don't correspond to the reality of the fact.
I cannot and I don't want to pay that amount You've already charged me.

Please kindly return it back into my credit card.I'm looking forward to hearing from You soon.

Hello,
i left a rental car in the frankfurt airport on the 9 july, at 6a.m., without any damage, and with full gas, i dont understand way are your company charges me with 511, 54€ on mi credit card
without sending a mail, or justifying this amount, two weeks latter.
please cancel the charges, and send me same explan
David Caldeirao
booking number 766832145

I returned a rental on the 18th of June at the Frankfurt Airport and I was informed that I would get my 250, 00€ deposit back on the day after as usually happens with normal rent a car providers. I contacted Buchbinder on the past few days without sucess or solution, most of the times they switch off their phone as soon as you speak in English. I still waiting for my money back! This is not acceptable...
RENTAL AGREEMENT Nr. 774-[protected]
Reservation. No. [protected] from 14/06/2019

Hi. On the 15 of April I hired a ford kuga from your branch in Berlin. On the 16 of April I was on my way down to Hof for my sisters 70 birthday unfortunately just 1 hours outside of Berlin the car brock down. It took the adac nearly 4 hours to arrive to fix the car what then only took about 20 minutes. I do appreciate things can go wrong with cars but this car had only 4000 km on the clock. Subsequently I missed my sisters party. I would like you to consider my complaint as I'm a regular customer with Buchbinder and other car rental Company's

Dear sir / madam,

I am writing to you to raise an issue about: car rental

The issue that I have experienced was: we have booked a car for 22nd of dec, to go to the austria with all our family. We have not got our car, so they changed it to bmw, after we have paid extra, when we have left and driven few hours, the car started to show, that brake pads needs to be replaces, engine coolant level too low... We were traveling in a middle of winter where is snowing and ice on the roads with two kids... I am not talking about safety, but I don't understand how this kind of car can be for rent at all! When we have sent an email asking to change a car, answer came after few days in german language, they said they can't see a photos, even we sent a copy to our email as well and photos where attached, so finally, nobody have not solved a problems and we needed go back with kids in the winter roads for more than 5 hours in a road

It occurred on: 22/12/2018 to:20/12/2018

Hello —
We returned a rental car to Munich airport on December 28th 2018. On December 31st our credit card was charged $759.11. We were not notified as to why this charge was made. Please let us know if you can explain why this charge was made. Otherwise, we will reporting this charge to the credit card office as fraud.
Reservation number [protected]

Thank you

Niamh Condon and Jason Wheatley

phone number (USA): [protected]
email: [protected]@gmail.com

We rented a car with them the 30th august, reservation number [protected], rental agreement 773-[protected]. Before leaving the airport, we sent 3 pictures attached to the email info.duesseldorf.[protected]@buchbinder.de, with damages not considered in the contract, with this content:

De: COP
Fecha: 30 de agosto de 2018, 20:46:13 CEST
Para: info.duesseldorf.[protected]@buchbinder.de
Hello. Just to report the damages before we go.

We left the car the 5th of September, and by that time everything was fine with the car (I have the handover certificate, with no damages reported in the appropriate square). We have received a charge of 866, 96 euros in the VISA the 27th of september, which we don't know where it comes from, and they say we have done those damages.

I request the absolute refund of the innapropiate charges

I have been charged by charter line different amounts at different times. I have rented a car from July 2 to July 7 for $522.15.
Other charges I don't understand are
July 2, 2018 - $23.77
July 09, 2018-$1.18
August 1, 2018-$220.60
Please explain to me what these charges are for. And how soon you can redeem me for them.
Thank you
No answer from them yet! I have called and asked many times.

Just the heads up to all who expect a bit of customer service; with this company there is none, at least not at the Berlin Airport, Tegel.
Entire staff probably has no training in customer service whatsoever. There is no manager on the shift and none of the staff is willing to discuss any of your concerns. Meanwhile, they are chatting between each other and staring at their phones. The would rather have you take your business somewhere else and not to bother them!
Unbelievable atmosphere, out of this world customer dis-service!
DM
P.S. I would be curious to see if the customer service ever contacts me in order to
improve their service or at least as a courtesy.

To The Customer Support team.
SUB: Refund of excess liability of £872.96 and dispense and invoice for repairs.
My name is Dr Srinivas Vinjamuri and I rented a car (White ford focus registration number EU-BI 3095) from Buchbinder /Mega drive at Salzburg airport on 26/5/18 around 6 pm.
I had an extended insurance cover from ‘'Discovery car hire limited '(invoice number DC-350269-U6TH and booking number DC-350269)' to cover any accidents until the expiry of my rental on 30/5/18.
Unfortunately, the above car met with an accident on 28/5/18 at Vienna near the opera house around 3.30 pm and was rendered non- driveable.
I had completed all the formalities and also obtained a police report after paying EUROS 36
(Police receipt number 450751)
The sad part of the story was I was stranded on the road with my young family, in the busy city centre waiting for help and support, which was unavailable for over 7 hours.
I have lodged a formal complaint with Buchbinder/Megadrive about the unacceptable customer support.
Subsequently I returned the replacement car (Black Skoda registration number, BL-167OT) borrowed at Vienna Airport that night, at Salzburg airport on 30/5/18 around 10 am without any further problem.
The advance credit of from my master card (ending with 2939) of £872.96 is yet to be refunded.
I was told on 30/5/ 18 at the Salzburg airport that after assessment by the accident team, a formal invoice would be sent in 2-3 working days after which I can submit the same and claim from Discovery car hire limited.
However it is over 10 days now and I am still waiting for a formal invoice towards the repair costs, so that I can contact my '' Discovery car hire limited.''.
I would be grateful if you can please send this invoice at your earliest so that I can contact the insurance provider (Discovery car hire limited) and also refund of the excess amount back to my credit card as soon as possible.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any more information.
Many thanks for your help
Regards

Dr Srinivas vinjamuri
537, purley way, Croydon, London, United Kingdom, CR04RJ
[protected]@googlemail.com
Phone 0044-[protected]

LETTER OF COMPLAINT AGAINST BUCHBINDER/MEGADRIVE CAR RENTAL COMPANY

SUB-COMPLAINT REGARDING AN UNACCEPATBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT INCIDENT ON 28/5/18
Dear Buchbinder/Megadrive compalints division
My name is Dr Srinivas Vinjamuri and I rented a car (White ford focus registration number EU-BI 3095) from Buchbinder /Mega drive at Salzburg airport on 26/5/18 around 6 pm.
I had a extended insurance cover from ‘'Discovery car hire limited '(invoice number DC-350269-U6TH)' to cover any accidents until the expiry of my rental on 30/5/18.
Unfortunately, the car met with an accident on 28/5/18 at Vienna near the opera house around 3.30 pm and was rendered non- driveable.
The Right side of the rental car bumped into an ambulance van and the car was non-drivable, as a result of a on the right bumper dent touching the right wheel.
The accident is unfortunate but the way I was dealt with by the customer support team at Buchbinder/Mergadrive on that evening was deplorable and way below the minimal acceptable standards.
I Wish to lodge a formal complaint surrounding the event with me on 28/5/18 and hope that this will be seriously looked into and dealt with appropriately for the benefit of the company and goodwill of the customer.
After the accident, I have finished the formalities with the police, obtained a formal accident report from them by paying EUROS 36 (police receipt number 450751), and called Buchbinder/Megadrive for help regarding towing this car and also obtaining a replacement car.
On several occasions I could not get through to them to answer me and in between those few occasions I had them on the phone. I was pushed from pillar to post by the customer team at Salzburg airport, Vienna local office (Wien 3) Vienna airport and your 24/7 hot line with confusing and conflicting advises.
I was asked to call Salzburg airport as I rented the car there. Sadly after several hours an agent at Salzburg airport picks up the phone and assured to call me back in 15 minutes with advice for a new car and towing the old car.
This never happened and after several failed attempts, I was advised to call Vienna office.
Both Vienna office and Salzburg office Hung the phone on me, on several occasions which I found was very nonprofessional and irresponsible.
Finally, one agent at Vienna office, who I managed to speak to, promised to call me back in 5 minutes with information on Replacement car and arrange to tow the faulty vehicle, which turned out to be another empty promise.
After a several futile calls, Vienna advised me to call Salzburg office again. I reiterated the events so far and they advised me to call Vienna airport office for a replacement car.
Unfortunately I had no reassurance of any kind, no attempt to organise help or provide a replacement car from any Customer support worker.
All I was told to was call Salzburg airport or go to Vienna airport for a replacement car and after several million calls to the 24/7 customer care team/Emergency number ([protected])
Vienna office and Vienna airport, a lady from 24 hour hotline agreed to tow the car the following morning.
She unfortunately could not help me with providing me a current replacement car
I have given her the address where the faulty car was stationed and placed the key in a designated spot as agreed prior with her.
After several futile attempts I decided to go to the airport to ask for a replacement car as advised by an agent.
I finally reached Vienna airport around 10.30 pm that night and managed to get a replacement car to carry on my onward journey.
I must say an agent at the airport called Patrick seemed to understand the problem finally and supplied me with a replacement car soon.
I am bringing it to your notice that after several calls, it took over 7 hours in the capital city, very much during office hours, for me to get someone to advise me to go to the Airport and arrange for towing the faulty car and clearly this is highly unacceptable. I dread and wonder what would have been the state of affairs if this happened on a motorway or a more remote area.
I was waiting all these hours near the faulty car (obviously cannot leave the car to be towed by the parking control officers) with my wife and two young children for some sensible advice and support from the customer care team.
I reiterate that the customer support team on duty had no idea of the problem and were overly enthusiastic without any understanding, or compassion. They were blaming each other and shifting the focus of the problem from them to another colleague rather that help a customer in distress, in a new country.
In fact, a support worker (Mr Ali) before 8 pm from your local Vienna office advised me to stay overnight in a Hotel and claim the hotel rent from the insurance.
I had a few such very weird advises from your customer care team.
I can confirm that I was in a new place with a young family stranded in the city centre of the capital and all this happened well with in the office hours, presumably when all the responsible and decision making managers are around.
The strength of a company lies in providing friendly and acceptable customer service, more so in difficult times, which sadly was lacking for Buchbinder/Megadrive allthrough, in my limited experience.
I am a very unhappy customer and would certainly think twice before I hire or recommend Buchbinder/Megadrive to others.
I hope the company takes my complaint seriously and will fix the various problems to the customer's satisfactions and the future customers will have pleasant memories with your car hire company.
Thankyou
Regards
Dr Srinivas vinjamuri
537, purley way, Croydon, London, United Kingdom, CR04RJ
[protected]@googlemail.com
Phone 0044-[protected]

I returned a rental on the 17th of August at the airport and was informed that I would have to pay a fee for returning the car on the store I picked it up.

Usually when I rent a car I get the deposit back on the same day. I contacted Buchbinder on the 19th of August asking about the deposit of €1, 000. Since then I sent three more messages and got first an automatic answers, and two days later an email explaining the deposit is usually returned up to 9 working days after the car is returned. It did not happen, so I contacted Buchbinder once more and on the 31st of August Jennifer Katzke from Customer care wrote" Due to an increased workload, delays in the response to e-mail requests may occur.
You will receive your answer as soon as possible."

Three weeks to get a deposit back is far from a reasonable period.

About 4 months ago, I booked a car through rentalcars.com. I found a minivan for only 339$ for 13 days. Yesterday, my husband read the yelp.com reviews on Buchbinder, the car company we were to use, the rating was only 1.5 stars and over 50 reviews. All complained of the exact same thing. Apparently, you can only use a gold/platinum Mastercard or Canadian Visa Card. Only these cards are accepted for their rental car insurance. They were also charging people 460 euros to purchase their rental car insurance if you didn't have these cards. On top of that, when the cars were returned, many claimed that they tried to keep their deposit for minor damage that was on the vehicle. The area where you pick up your car is dark and and the area where you turn it in is bright. After reading all these poor reviews, I decided to call rentalcars.com to cancel my reservation. I spoke to Robert there who decided to attempt to reconcile this. He called Buchbinder for me and spoke to "Outay Garaboski" who stated as long as we bring in a credit card that had raised numbers and name, it would be accepted. I specifically said we will bring in a Chase Sapphire preferred Visa card and he said it would be accepted as long the numbers and letters are raised which they are. My husband went to Buchbinder today to pick up our minivan and they refused to accept his card! When my husband stated we called and talked to Outay Garaboski yesterday who said it would be fine, their representative stated there's no one of that name! All Rentalcars.com would do was refund our reservation amount. I decided to call rentalcars.com to see if they could help us out since Robert stated we wouldn't have a problem in the first place. The representative I talked to said his colleague who was on the phone with my husband at the time was calling their suppliers now to get another vehicle and that I should call back to see their findings. My husband said his representative from Rentalcars.com did not mention anything about finding another car. I called rentalcars.com again to see what their findings were, hoping that they'd find another company who had a minivan for us at a similar price of $339 since they said they were calling their suppliers. This time, I got "Shakeel" who basically reiterated the problem and said they've done all they could do. He also said nobody was calling anybody to help us get another car! Basically, they were lying to me to just to get me off the phone and out of their hair. He then suggested that I walk around the terminal and find another car rental company that would accept my credit card! I couldn't believe my ears! Isn't that what rentalcars.com is for? Sure, I can walk around and find another car company but at triple the price then what was promised! The least rentalcars.com could do was find another company who could rent out a minivan at the same or similar price. Instead, they refused to help! He said there are 25 other employees there and nobody was going to call and find me another vehicle. What in the world are these 25 employees doing there, then? I applaud Robert for at least trying to help me and call Buchbinder to find a solution. He even said Buchbinder was one of his favorite companies to work with. He stated I wouldn't have a problem with my card as long as it's raised. I understand problems arise as we are all human and this was a fluke, but how you solve the problem can be more revealing. What rentalcars.com did was throw their hands in the air and told me to find another company myself. This company needs to revamp their entire customer service team and protocols. This was utterly unacceptable. When Shakeel refused to help me find another car, I asked for his name and stated I would find every review site I could find and post this experience. He even spelled his name for me so I could! I'm hoping someone investigates this awful company. They have ripped off so many at the Frankfurt airport.