Opodo review: Car hire/ customer service

Booking Ref:RO777150620

Romania - 22/09/23 - 25/09/23

We turned up to pick the car up and they initially had no record of us having paid. Once i'd shown proof on my phone they agree to the booking. The company then put lots of pressure on us to take out the extra cover because Romanians don't care and are wreckless. The extra was more than we wanted to pay. We sat and talked about our options and asked about taxis and were were told they are too dangerous here and we couldn't trust them. It was quite scary. The rental place isn't near anything so we felt quite isolated. In the end as it was feeling dodgy and uncomfortable we left.

I booked an uber and on the way to the hotel I reviewed all the documents. I then saw at the bottom of the email I had the extra insurance already and i'd paid for it. We called the rental place straight away to ask them if we could pick up the car the next day. They said no. We said okay we will turn around and come now. 30 mins after we left. They said no we had broken our agreement.

We left it as we didn't want to argue with the intimidating people. I got in contact with Opodo to explain what happened. I received an email from Opodo on the 26th of September asking for a credit card, bank statement and flight details. This felt extremely uncomfortable so I sent them the flight details and asked why they needed the credit card as we didn't even get that far in the process. No hold was taken or card presented. I emailed and asked why the needed this so I could understand before sending it off.

On the 4th of October they replied the same thing. I again asked why. I also asked who they were regulated by so I could raise my concerns about the asking of card details from what I understand is unnecessary as these were not presented. I then chased for an answer on the 9th of October and have still heard nothing.