CarTrawler
Reviews and Complaints

We hired the car through easyJet, only to find out that the rental was managed by ETrawler UK Limited in Barcelona. During our attempt to resolve the issue, the company's customer service was extremely rude, and they cited their policy that denies a car or a refund if the customer is late for car collection. As a result, we were left without the reserved vehicle and without a refund. Consequently, we were forced to pay an additional €500 to Alamo Car Hire for a significantly smaller and less powerful car, which could not accommodate our luggage adequately.

This situation has caused extreme stress to both myself and my partner, particularly because my partner suffers from anxiety. Given the significant distress and inconvenience caused, we are now seriously considering taking legal action to address this matter.

During our attempt to clarify the situation with ETrawler UK Limited Barcelona, we asked a straightforward question: Are they stating that they will not refund us or provide the vehicle we had booked and reserved? However, the lady we spoke to refused to give a direct "Yes" or "No" answer and merely reiterated their policy without addressing our specific concerns.

We firmly believe that, as customers, we have the right to a refund or the vehicle we reserved, despite the delay in collection.

We find it unacceptable to pay for goods and services that were not provided to us. Consequently, we are seeking the help and assistance of the legal team to address this matter promptly and ensure compliance with applicable regulations.

Regards,

Richard Kidger

I booked transfers for our recent trip to Madrid via Ryanair which are delivered

by Cartrawler and it was a complete fiasco.

Our booking reference isES844780590

Our flight from Bristol to Madrid was delayed so I tried calling the two numbers I was given and they were automated and eventually just hung up on me.  When we landed no one was there to collect us and the driver did not answer his phone either so we had to go out and pay for a taxi which was also much cheaper than you.

We also were not collected for our return trip.  I had noticed that you did not have the full address and was told to log in and change it but the system does not allow you to give more information.  None of the phone numbers work, you just go through multiple automated levels to not be able to speak with a human being as I only needed to add the house number to the address.

This has been a terrible service and yes I know you don't operate it but you advertise it as your transfers and I want my money back.

To Whom It May Concern

I am looking to speak with someone in relation to an airport transfer booked through Ryanair Transfers.

The transfer was booked on the 23rd March 2023 and the fee of €508.51 was paid in full at the time of the booking. The booking ID is FR706149940.

The supplier was SIXT and they were due to collect us from a campsite in France on the 23rd June 2023 and take us to the airport in Biarritz.

They cancelled the transfer as they did not have a driver that could show up. They cancelled on the 23rd June 2023 less than 40 minutes before they were due to collect us.

I am now seeking a full refund of the fee paid in March 2023 for failure to provide the service which was paid for.

We have just received this correspondence from SIXT which is in the attached picture.

Can you confirm if you have received same and if so can you advise on when we can expect to receive the refund from you?

I booked a rent a car along with Fly Dubai air line ticket to dubai and unfortunately the car which I booked was for 2.4 litre cc while I was offered 1.6 litre cc car which I flatly refused, neither I got my refund nor any responsible answer from Fly Dubai/Europecar, I would urge the public to be careful while booking rent a car for driving at dubai as the car agencies are involved in colluding and cheating the public and unfortunately the airline does not support and rather wash their hands off. I have a reservation for car issued by flydubai official email id sent to me yet they refused to intervene.

I am writing to you out of sheer frustration, disappointment and actually a bit of anger too. I am so disappointed with the way we were treated by Easyjet on our last trip and was hoping that by reaching out to you, you could assist me in reaching a swift conclusion rather than having to deal with the faceless, no reply emails.

We booked a car through Easyjet which I now understand is operated by Cartrawler who passed the business on to Surprice Naples. Our flight was from Bristol to Naples on the 30th of May 2023 with our destination being Sorrento. This was a very special trip as it was for my 40th birthday. We have had a very tough few years personally so were really looking forward to spending some time together and relaxing.

When we arrived at Naples, to pick up the car we had booked through Easyjet, we had to walk for almost an hour, asking for directions, through very unsafe streets, along busy roads with alcohol bottles and needles strewn everywhere. It was utterly shocking. We have young children and as adults, the walk was bad enough but for families who also had to make this trip, it is utterly unacceptable. We both felt very unsafe.

When we finally arrived the car could not be released to us because there had been a power cut across Naples. We waiting for an hour in the baking hot sunshine (there was no air conditioning in the office due to the power cut). We were already tired as we had an early start. The manager told me he didn’t know when the power would be back on so couldn’t tell me if he was able to release the car to us even at all.

We decided to call our hotel and get a taxi instead.

This then meant having to pay for a very expensive taxi to our hotel and an inflated rental car price as we had to hire one from Sorrento instead to visit the areas my husband had planned for my birthday.

When we arrived home, I put the claim in to get the money back for the car and the claim is still showing as ‘under investigation’. It has been nearly two months now. They tried to tell me they had rejected our claim as we were apparently a ‘no show’ but this is a total lie.

My family and I have recently returned from Crete, and although we had a good experience with EasyJet in general, unfortunately the car hire booked in conjunction with our flights was not a pleasant experience at all.

We originally booked a 'Peugeot 208 or similar' classed as an 'Economy' sized vehicle. When we arrived to collect the car we were given a Fiat Panda, classed as a 'Mini' sized car on most listings. We believe we were intentionally offered the car one size below our requirements in order to encourage us to pay to upgrade - we did not!

When we returned the vehicle, we highlighted a vertical scratch on the front bumper, it was clear that this damage was the result of a key (or similar uniform object) intentionally dragged upwards through the paint work to cause damage, and was not caused through normal use. We were charged an unjustifiable amount of EUR 477.40 for repairs, which we were repeatedly told we would be able to reclaim once we got home by contacting our booking agent CarTrawler, even though we continued to state we did not have excess insurance. Although I can not prove it - I am convinced this damage was caused by someone Abbycar deployed. The Accident Report Form we later received was incorrect and not signed and we have requested an amendment and correct completion, but so far no one has provided this.

I understand there is very little I can do about this now, but the reason I am writing to complain is because we booked our hire car through EasyJet as we believed the companies they used were reputable. The logos used to entice the customer are all large, well-known brands with good reputations. It is obvious from checking reviews of Abbycar that they are not to be trusted (and the general reviews for Cartrawler are no better) so therefore the customer review rating of 7.4 as advertised on the listing on the EasyJet website is hugely misleading. Although the small print throughout your site indicates that you are booking car hire with CarTrawler, all customer fronted pages and printouts are EasyJet branded and are again hugely misleading.

After a brief browse of the information offered by the Advertising Standards Authority I would consider that the information provided on the EasyJet website to be misleading, as is the customer review score (source unknown).

I am sure my complaint will simply be added to a pile of similarly disgruntled passengers/customers and I have very little faith that I will even receive a non-automated response from any of them; all three companies involved have received their cut of our money and now they will hide behind their terms and conditions and small print as all large corporations do.

I Booked a car rental with a rental service called SIXT. The reservation was for 2pm on Sunday. When I arrived at 2pm they said they were closed. I’ve been contacting cartrawler and Sixt for months, asking for a refund, but they’re both declining to refund me, saying that I was a “no show”. The next step for me is contacting a lawyer or a small claims court. This is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with.

I tried to use their Help Center to complain about a Goldcar booking. Goldcar are fraudulent and have made false accident claims and added false damage reports to the car post drop off.

Its important that Cartrawler stop referring to Goldcar as its damaging their reputation.

When I used Cartrawlers complaint system it does not allow any details to be entered or any files to be uploaded.

So its impossible to raise these issues with them.

Booked and paid with Travelstart, and thereafter all correspondence and calls were referred to their partner, CarTrawler. Paid in full and in advance for a hire vehicle from Budget/Avis in January 2022, and received a contract. Upon arrival at Cape Town International airport, Budget/Avis denied those terms of the contract - their conditions of hire were considerably different and at least 50% more expensive than the CarTrawler contract. Travelstart - who took the full advance payment - denied a request for assistance and referred me to CarTrawler. The CarTrawler 'service assistant' was unable to confirm the conditions of contract and told me to apply for a refund - less their charges as per their contract - or accept the Budget/Avis contract, I paid the full additional amount due to time and vehicle availability constraints.

Subsequent emails have been returned undeliverable.

17th June 2022: I paid (credit card) CHF 819.66 and CHF 14.34 (1.75% added tax) to Rental24H (Cartrawler) for the rental agreement AT815425350

3 th August 2022: I received from SIXT an email that my car will be ready in two days at Wien Schwechat (airport)

5 th August 2022 - SIXT counter at Wien Schwechat (airport): They told me that I'm blocked in the SIXT system. Therefore, they coundn't give me the ordered car.

Up to now, SIXT never could explain why I'm blocked in their system.

SIXT tells me now, that Cartrawler has to organize the pay back.

15th August 2022: My email to [protected]@cartrawler.com at 11:51 PM

(I never got an answer)

Dear Complaint boards team,
Hope this message finds you well,
I am writing in regard to a Car Trawler company that charged me €89.89 for a booking that they never honored.

On the 13th Nov I had booked my flight on Emirates (KHNA4J) for travel to Bkk - HKG - I had also made bookings for transport on car trawler through emirates for pickup from my home in Bangkok and for arrival in Hong Kong as I was travelling with my Elderly mother who suffers from Akzhemeirs.
The chauffeur for the pickup in BKK was very efficient - they contacted me on What's up and liaised all the logistics for our pickup.

However I was disappointed that this service was not followed through on arrival into HK - we were slightly delayed whilst waiting for our suitcases - by the time we got to the arrival hall there was no chauffeur with our names to pick us up - both my mother and I waited around and even went to Checked whether the chauffeur was waiting in the other arrival section. There was also no message where to wait for the driver.

There was no contact or messages from the chauffeur unlike the chauffeur in Bangkok who was so efficient - they did not try to call me when I had given my mobile details on the booking form. I tried to contact the chauffeur through the car trawler website, this was next to impossible and not user friendly.

I ended having to take the airport train to HK station and waited for quite sometime for a taxi - not easy when travelling with two big suitcases and an elderly 80 year old mother. This is the reason I had booked for the transport so that our trip home would be less stressful -

I have tried to use the chat line on car trawler website and emirates survey feedback - I have received no reply or communication in regard to my experience.
I had sent my feedback to Emirates team in regard to my dissatisfaction with the transport booking I had made through their website powered by car trawler - as I tried to contact car trawler company through the numbers provided and the chat app - with no success.

I have written to car trawler with the email that emirates had provided ([protected]@cartrawler.com) on the 26th, however this email did not go through
I then sent another email to [protected]@cartrawler.com as advised on their website also on the 26th Dec and on the 5th January - to this date received no response or follow up on my feedback / complaint.

I would be so grateful if you could assist me for the follow-up and reimbursement of the cost for the chauffeur booking that never turned up.
Thank you kindly,

Mylene Wonghen

My Booking Ref number GB663477240, Arrived at airport at Newcastle UK to collect my hire car on December 16th and Europcar cancelled my booking due to that my Mastercard was addressed at my living country of Vietnam but my Drivers License was my UK drivers License with my home UK address so they would not accept the booking and then said that they would have to cancel and gave me a cancellation number [protected] and they instructed me to contact Cartrawler and give this cancellation number and get a full refund of my booking. The i had to find alternative hire booking at extra cost to myself. So i would be grateful if you could come back to me on this case.

Best Regards Mr Niall Davis.

I made a booking for an airport transfer however the company didn't show up on Sunday 1st January 2023 at 2am even though I received confirmation the day before with the drivers details, when I contacted the driver they advise that the booking was cancelled by the provider which caused a lot of stress for me and my family in the early hours of the morning as I had a flight at 6:30am and this lead me to order two individual cars this morning costing more than what I had originally paid upfront to CarTrawler.

Dear Team

Cartrawler was booked for Saturday 17 December 2022, Ref: AE830143270 at 6am from Dubai International Airport to Shangri_La Dubai. The driver was late by an hour. Need to seek for help. When the driver arrived, he said to contact his boss to know the reason he is late...very arrogant.

Now I have been contacting the driver for the return leg, he says he is not aware that he needs to pick up Mr Li today at 18.00

We rented a van for vacation through hopper paid in advance conf. Us6222749040 reservation was sent to cartrawler then to ace olympic rent a car conf cdv13099983 called rental agency upon arrival picked up taken to their office and asked for a credit card somehow they said that cartrawler didnt pay them and waited until we got home ad billed us for 300.00 and another 301.40 we paid hopper 697.49 some body owes us a refund ace/olympic says cartrawler does and asked them to refund our money no money yet

On September 12, 2022, I booked car transportation (with a driver) from and to the Seattle airport on November 22 and November 26 by following a link on the Alaska Airlines website "Alaska Ride Services." I paid $193.12 by credit card and received a confirmation of my booking (US648552680) from the "Alaska Ride Services Team." On Saturday, November 26 I awaited the arrival of my ride at 5:00 am, the hour I had reserved for pickup. When no car arrived, I called the customer service number for Talixo which appears on my ride voucher (+[protected]). A representative told me that the driver for CarTrawler, the company providing the ride, had cancelled and that they had tried to notify me of the cancellation but could not reach me by telephone or text. The cancellation was attributed to unsafe driving conditions and icy roads. I received no prior text messages or calls notifying me of the cancellation in advance. The roads that morning were perfect, and the temperature was about 41 degrees Fahrenheit. I prevailed upon my son whom I was visiting to drive me to the airport, and he did so with the trip taking 20 minutes from Capitol Hill without incident of any kind. I have subsequently filled out online complaint forms and sent emails to CarTrawler, Talixo, and Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines is noting the poor performance for a review of "Alaska Ride Services." Talixo disavows responsibility and says that CarTrawler is responsible for the service failure. CarTrawler sends email expressing regret and follow up, but no follow-up occurs. The company has a reputation for this (see: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/car_trawler.html and https://www.yelp.com/biz/cartrawler-dublin-2). I believe the company regularly engages in fraudulent practices. At a minimum, I want a refund of half of what I paid: $193.12/2=$95.56. I have written both Talixo and CarTrawler multiple times since November 26 and continue to receive form replies apologizing for my experience but no refund. I did not receive the service. A refund is owed.

Firstly I would like to make a formal complaint regarding the journey and the issues I had on this booking.

I set up this booking and then had to cancel my booking because the system changed the time and date of my return booking, I rebooked and waited 10 days for the money to be returned. On the new booking I amend the time to 2330 hrs but didnt notice that the system had then forwarded the date also by one day making the return date wrong. After booking I had not noticed this at all.

On arrival at Dubai airport the driver was not waiting as planned despite us not getting passed security until way after the time we had agreed, we booked for 20.30 and was still waiting for them at 21.15. (This had also a knock on effect in cost as we missed the evening meal at the hotel as a result). That aside when we got to the vehicle I was less than happy. We had booked an Executive XL vehicle to find that we have been given a 15 year old Hyundai vehicle, the boot was half full with a spare tyre and the cases had to sit on these.

When we got in the vehicle the children sat on the third row, my son was unable for the whole journey able to fasten his seat belt due to it being broken. I have attached video footage of this to confirm. Also the engine management light has on the vehicle for the whole time we were in the vehicle meaning that this vehicle had some serious issues. The driver was using his phone on a number of occasions which we only registered when he keep making sharp moves !

All in all the standard was not what we had hoped for when booking via Emirates and given that Emirates have given you the contract to provide there customers with transport we were very disappointed. I contacted them to comment and they advised that they would make sure we have the correct vehicle on our return. This leads to another problem that the return was now placed on the incorrect day 29/10 at 2330 hrs when our flight was on the 28/10 and pick up should have been 2330 hrs, we waited 10 minutes and they contacted them to ask when the vehicle will arrive to be told we had the wrong day. We had no other choice by this time to get a local taxi which cost a further 258 AED to take us otherwise we would have missed the flight. All in all the whole experience was a mess, from the booking process where you cant amend dates and times without rebooking to the standard of vehicle, and us not getting what we paid for, to the return journey and issues.

I therefore think I am within my rights to request a full refund for the amount of £243.45 to be returned to my credit card. I will await your reply and confirmation of this, however if you are not in agreement, I will have to raise a formal complaint directly with Emirates as I am sure they would want to here about there customers experiences on booking travel and transfers. I await your reply.

Regards

Hello

Reservation N° FR [protected]

I want to protest about this lease agreement that I made through your services for an AVIS vehicle on November the 3rd 2022 at Montpellier airport

In fact, through your services, this rental cost me 533 euros (paid to your company) + 253 euros (added and paid to AVIS company at Montpellier Airport) for insurance; that I also partially paid with you.

So this rental costed me 786 euros for 6 rental days, = 131 euros per day for a Duster rental. This price is really to high and does not correspond to the expected service.

Indeed when I arrived at the AVIS counter, I discovered that I was not covered for the entire Franchise buyout for this vehicle rental, contrary to what is written in your document, I received ((copy attached).

I find that your document (copy attached) is inaccurate in its content. When we read the last paragraph because, although I have taken out insurance with you, in fact we are not totally covered, it is a shame to lie to the customer.

I therefore expect from you a quick response to this claims, apologies and serious explanations / compensations.

Regards

M Beaudet

We rented a car at cartrawler, trough the booking of our flight to spain.

We paid for the car trough IDEAL, but after we did that, it told us we needed to confirm with a credit card(which we dont have).

Not even 5 minutes after booking the car, we sent an email to cancel it.

It told is this would cost us €95.

Kind of strange, but we went with it.

We would get the money back in 10 workdays.

After 14 days we still havent received the money back.

They then told us it would take up to 3 weeks from then.

3 weeks later they told us they didnt have our bank information.

We paid the car, so they should be able to see our bank information on the payment.

After we provided the required bank details(which they already had access to), we got an email that it could take up to 10 days to process our request.

Then we got another email that it would take up to 20 days.

We just want our money back, its been 2 months since we canceled the car and we still havent gotten our money back.

Ref: GB625839720 Manchester Airport

My wife and I booked a car at Manchester airport, Europcar office, on 28 July 2022 but when we arrived we did not have the credit card it was booked under so they tried to charge us an additional £700 and we could not pay it and did not get the car and had to take the train. We missed our hotel booking and had to pay for a more expensive hotel for the first night.

Europcar has refunded the money to Cartrawler and we would ask that you now refund the payment to us. The entire amount was taken from our account which we did not agree to. It should only have been the deposit. We felt that we were being taken advantage of by Europcar since insurance on the car was already included and should not have costed £700. They had no reason to refuse to give us the car as they were happy to take the £700 using a banking app.

David and Fiona Harris