GoldCar Rental
Reviews and Complaints

We hired a car booking reference number [protected] from Malaga Airport on 1st of July until 16th July under name AnnJane Thompson. On the 6th July we got a puncture in tyre and on further inspection could see that this tyre had already been repaired. We spent the whole day trying to get through to road assistance and eventually had to ask customer service to put us through to speak to someone. Road side assistance came to our villa that evening and explained car would need to go back to depot and we would have to travel back to airport to pick up another car. This was a waste of a full days holiday, also to give me a car that tyre had not been changed after it had been temporarily fixed is not good enough and no spare tyre or tools to fix puncture in car is not acceptable. It would make me think twice about using your company again as sending families in cars that are not safe is unacceptable. I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter.

Dear Sir/Madam
Upon return of our rental vehicle we were later sent a document which included a cleaning fee deducted from our credit card. When I was next in the office I asked them why and they said they couldn't tell me even though they were the ones who supposedly did the clean and to contact head office. Well I am asking you now, can you please give me information or photos of why we were charged a cleaning fee after our return. This could have been told to us at the time of return when we were inspecting the car together. See below photo with all hire details and fees.

Dear Sir/Madam

Frankly I'm astonished by the temerity of the letter you sent me by email this evening.

On the afternoon before I picked up your rental car on Saturday August 4th, I went out of my way to explain to your representative that the car was short by approximately $20 in fuel. It was not full. He advised that we photograph the indicator on the dashboard and submit to your desk at Bordeaux Airport on our return Saturday August 11th. We duly obliged. (Please see attached)

On our return on the 11th we parked and presented the key to your sole representative at your desk and presented the photograph. He examined it and agreed with us that it was not full on the 4th. He noted the photo and the incident on his documentation and asked if we required a refund. I stated that the car on return was not quite full (about €12 short) so I refused the refund. Now I reckon you owe me about €8.

Please investigate this fully and refund me the funds charged to my credit card immediately.

Yours sincerely

Donal and Anne O' Carroll
Tel: [protected]

I would like to lodge a complaint against GoldCar car hire, and request for a refund for fraudulent and unauthorised charges they made to my credit card and are not responding to a case that I have raised.

I hired a car through the RyanAir and fully paid for everything listed as well as getting my own additional insurance.

When I picked the car up I was told I would need to pay for a fuel deposit as well as a late return fee, plus taxes - the fuel part would be funded on return.

I was then asked to sign for this on an epad before having been given any paperwork for the contract to review, plus the representative then handed me the credit card machine and she had pressed enter on the value and was just showing the PIN screen, so I didn't get to see the value.

Later I realised that they had charged me for additional, optional insurances that they didn't tell me where being added, but charged my card anyway.

They didn't advise me this, and I didn't authorise the payment and hence that is fraudulent.

Can you please raise this complaint with GoldCar and advise the process for getting a refund from them.

For additional information please look on twitter and Facebook for GoldCar and look at all of the people who have been scammed in the same or similar way by GoldCar.

Regards

Tom Hickling

We booked a car via the internet to be collected and returned at Malaga Airport in June 2018. The quote on the email was €148.45.
When we got to the Goldcar office in Malaga they asked if we wanted to upgrade the insurance so as to reduce the excess to zero (should we have an accident). The lady said it was €60 so we went ahead and said yes. They then said we had to pay a tax because the car was diesel and also an airport tax... so another €38 added on!
The total rental then came to €380.05! I was asked to sign the contract, via an electronic signature pad so never actually read the contract.

They asked what time our return flight was the following week and we said around 6.00 pm, so we presumed the return time would have been around 3.30 pm.
We actually returned the vehicle (with a full tank) at around 4.00pm so about half an hour late. Nothing was said. Then I received an email a few days later informing me that I was going to be charged an extra €59.79 as they had put 11.00am as the return time! (Admittedly our fault for not checking ...but that was a deliberate con by putting the time over 4hrs earlier!)
So all in all, we paid €439.84 for one week´s car rental! A bit different to the original quote of €148!
We feel totally ripped off by Goldcar. The car was great and we have no problems with the actual car rental but the way they con you to paying excessive amounts and how we were duped over the return time really angers us. It must be a company policy to try and rip off as many customers as possible as after looking into it, I see I am one of hundreds of unhappy customers!

Prebooked car from Roma IT paid for 'super relax cover' to avoid need for credit card deposit.
Goldcar use Google algorithms to put themselves top of any search for Italian car hire without credit card.
You can not just relax, you can SUPER Relax, just don't expect to drive away, or see your money ever again.
Reason... You need to leave fuel deposit equal to 130litres (for a car with a 32litre tank incidentally!) Your booking confirmation will state in Spanish language, that only e visa or mastercard are valid. No problem you think, I have both those.
At the Roma airport desk the staff will produce a dog eared photocopy of a clause (in English) that prepaid cards that most travellers use are not permitted. That is NOT mentioned in their booking confirmation.
At an agreed signal from the staff, a well dressed man mingling with customers will go into the most theatrical toddler tantrum you'll ever witness, allowing the staff member to flee the scene.
Other staff will then claim you can only deal with the now absent staff member, as only they have the details.
You may imagine I'm exaggerating, but I had a connecting flight a week later and witnessed the exact same pantomime.

You will be told to contact Goldcar Spain.. Good luck...
Rome's refusal to hand over the car will be logged as you not turning up to collect. Eventually you will be given a spurious email address ([protected]@goldcar.com) which will not be answered. Further calls will fail to get a response, other than a comment that customer services are always busy and might take 20 days to answer.

A search for Goldcar reviews will make your eyes water. The consensus opinion being that, as nobody would use the Company twice, they've decided they might as well defraud everyone unfortunate enough to become ensnared, and to the full extent of brazen peactices

Never have such bad service or better said NO service!

Booked a car at Pisa airport and paid everything in advance. Unfortunately our plane was delayed, they could of course know that given the flight number that was known to them.
To be on the safe side, we had already phoned from the airport of departure to report that we had more than 2 hours of delay.

No problem, they would hold our car for us.

That is also how it should go. A customer reverts a car and pays it in advance. A company must then deliver what has been agreed
However, when we arrived at the rental desk, our car was no longer there.
The only option was to pay extra ( 130, -) for a more expensive car! We did not want this, because it was not our fault!

But they insisted, it was NO car or we have to pay!
A so-called upgrate, while the car we booked was much better in our case than the one we finally got.

Really ridiculous how this company deals with customers!
If a customer is reserving a car (and even paid for it !) then you have to be able to deliver that car. If not, you will never be allowed to recover the costs from the customer, it is the problem of the company and not the customer !

Hired a car at Faro Airport 23 August 2018 to 4 July 2018. Tried to sell us excess insurance, but we have our own policy and refused. Picked up car in the dark, small marks on body but didn't notice minute chip in windscreen. On return were charged 400 Euros for windscreen damage - we definitely did not cause this chip, which in any case was so small you could hardly see it. Have raised a dispute through credit card company as although our insurance would cover us then Gold Car would get the money, which they should not do as their policy is clearly to get customers through unrealistically low prices and then make money on enormous unjustified surcharges. Have raised a complaint through Gold Car customer services, but they just do not respond. This company should be investigated and reported. Can provide further details of contract etc if required.

We had a terrible experience with Gold Car on our honeymoon. We reserved the car through discover car hire and had a quoted price and coverage through them. When we went to pay the balance, we were overcharged by almost $200. They were deceitful and dishonest. They did NOT explain that this included OPTIONAL coverage, otherwise we would have rejected it. We paid it and took it up with discover car hire as told, but then they told us that it was because we had "opted in" for this coverage that was never explained to us. We reached out to gold car hire and did not hear back for almost a month, after we reached out to our credit card company. They had the audacity to say we "unknowingly benefitted" from their coverage and would have had to put a deposit down on our credit card, again information that was never given to us. I will never use this company again and have told everyone I know to stay away. Terrible customer service and incredibly frustrating experience on our honeymoon. Their website says they have 4/5 stars, but clearly do not include the negative reviews. I went to the ones posted from the airport I got my car at, and my review is somehow not there. Terrible! We would like a refund of at least the $187 we were overcharged, if not more for dealing with this hassle.

Date:July 2 2018
Confirmation #: [protected]
Booking #: DC-325389
Client Name: Leo Goral

Car rental from 7th - 17th July 2018 - Florence Airport, Italy.
Contract No: [protected], Client No: [protected].
Complaint/Claim: Unauthorised credit card charge: €64 for re-fuelling.
I dispute the claim that the car was not returned full of fuel, and have evidence to prove that the car was re-fuelled at the closest petrol station to the the GoldCar drop-off office, and that the car was accepted back by staff and paperwork signed off as 'FULL GAS'.
At 08.42 am on 17th July 2018 the car was re-fuelled back to the full level at the closest petrol station to the Goldcar drop-off location: Beyfin Viale Giovanni Luder 40 42, 50100 Firenze, and I have the petrol receipt to prove it,
The car was then delivered back at 08.50am to the GoldCar Firenze airport location, and the paperwork was signed off by a representative of the team, stating CLEARLY that the car was returned as : ''OK NO DAMAGES AND FULL GAS''. A copy of both of these is attached.
The charge of €64 was taken without my permission, with no justification and is being treated as an unauthorised charge to my credit card. I have raised 3 incident reports to-date via the GoldCar website and none of them have been answered or resolved.
I have now raised a Visa Dispute claim, via my credit card company, and I am about to put in a complaint with the European Consumer Centre.
I would like GoldCar to recognise their administration error and refund the full €64 back to my credit card, with no penalty or charges incurred by me, the consumer, due to changes and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates please.

Booking number: CFDBO2A6
e-voucher 3867042
confirmation no [protected]
on arriving at Goldcar Malaga Airport

I was shocked that the EUR 37.49 which was payable at the rental desk turned into EUR 303
On my car rental agreement the "Premium Location" fee & airport taxes were included yet I was charged for these again plus EUR 10 for full damage excess waiver and EUR 115 for a full tank of fuel. Other customers were being charged EUR 80 and their key was brought to the rental desk whereas I had to walk to the underground car drop off point and queue again to collect my key only to be told that my car was not ready but they would give me another car which I accepted. On reaching the car it was extremely damaged on all panels and I have 20 + pictures if required. Not wanting to delay my holiday any longer, I drove to La Panera which is exactly 74 km and parked the car and for the remainder of the holiday we drove about in our friends vehicle and only drove the car back to the airport which was another 74km. We were recommended to use your company by a regular customer of yours and quite frankly I am very disappointed.
As I left the rental agreement in the hire car could you please contact Gold car to retrieve these and the final invoice and get back to me with your views on this.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Bailey

A quién corresponda, he realizado una reserva por el total del alquiler de un vehículo pero no puedo hacer uso del mismo porque me han hurtado una riñonera durante mi viaje hacia España donde tenía entre otras cosas, mi licencia de conducir. El domingo fui a sus oficinas en el aeropuerto y no me permitieron hacer uso de mi reserva, por no tener mi licencia. Me dieron una tarjeta para que me comunique con atención al cliente ese mismo día pero nadie respondió. Ayer me pude comunicar telefónicamente para hacer el reclamo y me notificaron que envíe un mail a este correo. He intentado hacer la cancelación desde el website con el asesoramiento de una operadora pero no me permitió hacer la gestión. Ya que se trata de un incidente de fuerza mayor solicito que me sea devuelto el dinero. Mi número de reserva es [protected] y mi nombre es Roman Ghenciu.

Desde ya, muchas gracias. Quedo a la espera de pronta respuesta.

Atte. Roman Ghenciu.

I had pre booked car hire for 4 days - see ref number. On collection at airport the rep asked me to pay 140 euros. When I asked why he said for full tank cover. However this was only 75 euros. I asked him to amend the payment to reflect this. He stated that we would need to put an excess deposit if 1, 000 euros to keep the car 3rd party only. I agreed to that, entered my PIN number and signed.
Upon checking receipt at our villa next morning ( today) we have been charged the full 140 euros to cover full cover insurance . I am raging at this. We have arranged full cover insurance through a separate insurance company, and we have now paid again. I want the balance of my deposit refunded please. If not I will raise the matter formally through the appropriate channels. Thanks . Brian Davidson

Information below explains my situation. These are copies of emails I have sent to Goldcar without a single acknowledgement or response.

See content. I strongly advise that you respond.

From: Peter Trevitt [mailto:[protected]@kerr-noble.com]
Sent: 24 July 2018 09:26
To: 'Goldcar'
Subject: FW: charge error

Good Morning Goldcar

My membership number is [protected].

Why have you not responded to my emails. From my position it appears that you are trying to avoid sending me the rebate for the overcharge. Would it be easier for you if you deduct the 35.99 from my next booking that I will make this week?

I request that you display the common courtesy of replying to this email so this matter can be finalised. Without a response I will be forced to seek legal advice.

Regards

Peter J Trevitt

From: Peter Trevitt [mailto:[protected]@kerr-noble.com]
Sent: 19 June 2018 10:12
To: 'Goldcar'
Subject: FW: charge error

Please respond

From: Peter Trevitt [mailto:[protected]@kerr-noble.com]
Sent: 18 June 2018 11:33
To: 'Goldcar'
Subject: FW: charge error

Good Morning

You will note from my email of the 31 May 2018 that I was overcharged by 35.99 GBP. I have been a customer of Goldcar many times over many years. I am disappointed that you have not responded to my email, and arranged for the refund due to me.

Kindly respond accordingly thereby avoiding the necessity of further action.

Regards

Peter J Trevitt

From: Peter Trevitt [mailto:[protected]@kerr-noble.com]
Sent: 31 May 2018 09:49
To: 'Goldcar'
Subject: charge error

Good Morning

Booking NAoa€ - 25 March 2018 10:09 - Girona pick up 28-03-2018 dropoff 16-04-2018

Paid crazy smart rate in full - 139.36 (including unlimited mileage / car passenger insurance / partial damage cove with excess / third party liability insurance / VAT, local taxes.

= amount to be paid 0.00

On collection - contract [protected] matricular: 4069JYY - The girl on the desk mistakenly charged me 35.99 euros.

Please send the 35.99 back on my credit card.

Kindly send me an acknowledgement and confirm the refund.

Regards

Peter J Trevitt

Returned car to Olbia airport with a full tank of petrol minus about 6 Litres we used getting to the Airport.
For this 6litres I was charged about €50 which included a "fuel handling charge" !
Feel completely ripped off by this and will never use Gold Car again and would recommend that nobody use them. It seems to me that Gold xar offer the best prices online to get people to book the hard sell additional insurance and excessively profit from fuel.

It seems that all over Europe people are being ripped off by this outfit!

I was warned but I thought I knew better and was drawn in by the low prices compared to others in the area.

We returned the car - washed - and yes there are some marks made by bushes on the side panels which will polish out. I was greated by an obnoxious young person who said "you come with me - damage - you pay you pay". Naturally he was not able to tell me what I would pay just that the charge of up to €1100 would be taken from my credit card. I know that some coloured t cut would sort it out but they just would not listen. At one stage he was shouting at us and telling us you must pay ...

Now - I do have excess insurance so I will get my money back but this is very sharp practice.

The lesson - do not use Gold Car as they will rip you off!

I rent a car by Do You Spain from Gold Car on 11th July from Barcelona.
1. First bad surprise was when Gold Car do not recognised the full insurence from Do You Spain. The amount payed for unrecognized insurence was 48 euro. Gold car made a full insurence for 356 euro.in this amont was included a fuel depozit of 104 euro. This depozit they say that will returned if I bring back the car with full tank. I returned the car with full thank, but Gold Car returned back only 64 euro without any reason or explanations. How I can receive my money back?

When we went to pick up the car, my husband was asked to sign a document which was written mainly in spanish. He asked what he was signing for and was told that it was in case we did not return the car full of fuel.
The car was very good and the the service good, but when we returned home we discovered that we had been charged for 'super relaxed insurance' which we did not ask for, and were told that we had signed up for it.

Client Number: [protected]
Contract Number: [protected]

I rented a car from Goldcar at Nice Airport from 24/06/18 - 02/07/18. At the desk I was told to either pay £200 for extra damage insurance or accept that my excess, in the case of ANY incident (even non-fault), would be up to £1400. I refused to pay the £200, and the Goldcar agent was rude and unhelpful after this point.

The car I was given had 5 scuffs/ scratches pointed out to me before I rented it.

A couple of days after returning home, I was sent a bill for £286, with no explanation of what it was for. The bill simply says 'check in front bumper 1'. I have not been sent any other document or proof for this charge.

I have attached photos that I took of the car when I checked it in, and I can't honestly see anything at all on the front bumper, on either side. I can provide copies of the contract, check in document and the bill they sent, but this online form won't allow me to upload anything else (max size 5MB).

I completely dispute the £286 charge and, unless I am shown some proof of damage to the car, I would like my money back in full.

Best wishes,

Sorcha Armstrong

Rental number [protected]
I picked up my hire car from Alicante airport yesterday. I had already bought my own insurance through Worldwide Insurance prior to my holiday. The man at your desk told me that this policy was no good for your cars. He said I could not take the keys unless I bought your insurance. With tired children after a delayed flight, I was left with no choice but to pay for your insurance. Your staff are blatantly lying to people at your desks. I know my policy was good but he refused to rent me the car without buying yours. I didn't want to make a scene at the airport so I reluctantly paid for your policy. How can you allow this to happen? I know from other cases that you probably won't even reply to this complaint but I can tell you that I work for a popular newspaper in the UK and will contact our travel journalists on my return. I will give them the details of what you are doing so that this can prevent someone else being cheated in the same way. I will make sure that the negative publicity you get is damaging to your business. You simply can't keep ripping people off like this.