Rentalcars.com Reviews 

RENTALCARS.COM

SO-CALLED AFTERCARE AFTER A VERY POOR EXPERIENCE WITH AUTOVIA ITALY.

DO NOT HIRE FROM AUTOVIA!!!
TERRIBLE COMPANY WITH UNETHICAL OPERATING PRACTICES!!!

I had the unfortunate experience of hiring a car through AUTOVIA in Italy earlier this year, having been directed to their site from RENTALCARS.COM

It was a totally fraught experience, from pick up, quality of vehicle, safety of vehicle, customer service, to so-called aftercare.

I had to repair the tyre twice at my own expense. (with no recompense)

There was no mention on pick up of the requirement for AddBlue liquid. The car did not have sufficient AddBlue and I was required to fill it. The car will cease to drive if the AddBlue is too low.

I returned the vehicle 3 days early full of fuel and AddBlue, due to it being unsafe and the lack of customer support.

***On return to Australia I have noted a deduction from my credit card, without my consent, for towing, even though the vehicle was never towed. ( $413.99 AUD) I am currently disputing this unethical deduction from my account, but so far with no success.

I would avoid hiring from AUTOVIA at all cost. I have previously hired direct through EUROPCAR, SIXT and BUDGET with no issues whatsoever. Additionally I would also recommend avoiding RENTALCARS.COM as a means of finding a suitable hire car in Europe. As a third party operator (agreggator) they have failed to address my concerns. Much easier to hire direct from companies like EUROPCAR, SIXT and BUDGET.

Since booking.com took over, the app rentalcars use has become next to useless. It's impossible to see your payment details, and end up in a loop going round and round. Such a shame. Very frustrating.

Unexpected charges due to excess charges on vehicle
Unprofessional
Wear blinkers
Unwilling to help the customer
Pass the buck to the hire company
Avoid

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Goldcar and the lack of support from Rentalcars.

I arrived on time for my reservation with all the required documentation. I presented both my current UK driving licence and my previous UK driving licence, which clearly proved that I had held my licence for well over 12 months, as required by their own Terms and Conditions. Despite this, I was refused the vehicle without being given a clear or legitimate explanation.

I spent more than an hour at the rental desk trying to resolve the issue. During that time, I repeatedly called Rentalcars but was unable to get through to anyone. I was also in contact with their online support, where an agent told me she would call the rental desk and get back to me. She never did, and I was left without any assistance.

Afterwards, Rentalcars simply accepted Goldcar’s version of events and refused to properly consider the evidence I provided. I paid for a service that was never delivered, my travel plans were completely disrupted, and I was left to deal with the consequences on my own.

What makes this even more frustrating is that just two weeks earlier I had rented a car through Rentalcars in Italy using the same UK driving licence without any issues.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend either Goldcar or Rentalcars. If you rent through them, make sure you bring every possible piece of documentation and be aware that, if something goes wrong, you may receive little or no meaningful support.

I had rented and paid for a rental car from Europcar by Rentalcars.com.

Lady at Europcar counter at Edinburgh airport told me that the car she was giving us was the only one they had at the moment in the size category we had paid for and that we were lucky to have it.

It was with automatic transmission and not manual which we wanted and had paid for. If we didn't take it, we would get a much smaller car or would need to wait for an indefinite time. This was not an option for us travelling with lots of luggage and two tired kids.

Lady was acting "very busy" and first informed us incorrectly that we are a day late for the pick up and should be gratefull to get a car at all. We were there right on time and there was no reason for her to rush us like she did. I guess it was all just to confuse us more as we had also a bit of a language barrier between us.

We did not ask for any extra, just felt entitled to a car we had prebooked from Rentacars.com with enough space for us and our luggage.

Lady explicitely told us there will not be extra costs since we had prebooked car with enough space for two large bags and this was the only car available. She would only charge for the tax at the most.

I was severly misslead by the Europcar and Rentalcars com and will take this matter to the consumer authority.

We had just outrageous service by Europcar and Rentalcars.com which as a broker withdrew from any responsibility.

Instead of agreed 693,69 we were charged double. Europcar and Rentalcars.com blamed eachother and both refused to refund the extra payment.

This was not reasonable by any means. Don't ever rent a car by Europcar or Rentalcars.com unless you are ready to be outrageously overcharged and be treated arrogantly.

I contacted Rentalcars prior to the flight regarding a future delay that I've been noticed about. I clearly stated that I might be late to the rental opening hours. That said that Its Ok.
I was late and came back tommorow morning to the rental stand. The rental company said that they cant rent me the car and that Rentalcars guided me falsly.
Rentalcars Wont refund me even though I havent used the car, noticed them in aligable time for cancelling the reservation and above all, misinstructed me and ave flase info.
Realy disappointed.

Avoid this company!

I informed the company in advance that my flight was delayed. The woman I spoke to assured me that everything would be sorted out, so I trusted them.

When I arrived, my rental car was no longer available. As a result, I had to pay €80 for a hotel because I couldn't collect the car that night. The following day, I had to book another rental car at my own expense.

When I contacted customer service, they apologized and told me that I would be refunded for the car and that if this ever happened again, I should just call them. However, the refund never arrived. When I contacted them again, I was suddenly told that they would not be refunding me after all.

This has been one of the worst rental experiences I've ever had. I was given false assurances, left out of pocket, and then denied the refund I had been promised.

Avoid this company and read the reviews before booking. I wish I had—it was my mistake to trust them.

I booked a car via rentalcars.com.
They are the proxy for Klass Wagen. According to the confirmation email, Klass Wagen were supposed to pick me up from the airport. The phone number for the local office does not work. I rang to the mother company of Klass Wagen which is located in UK and was informed that a shuttle van is “minutes away”, but never arrived. After approximately 2 hours, I got a cab to drive me to the local office of Klass Wagen in Iaşi city, Romania. The taxi driver explained that this is a known problem and that he often drives customers to Klass Wagen office because they are not being picked up from the airport. To my surprise, they had a different phone number on their main door than the phone number which was provided in the confirmation email. The shuttle van which was supposed to pick me up from the airport was parked in front of their building, which means nobody was in their way to pick me up. They did not accept a virtual credit card and they required a deposit of 2300 euros, even though I paid upfront for the car rental and full insurance. Upon contact with rentalcars.com via telephone they agreed to refund only part of the initial amount on my request to cancel the rental. Really disappointed and do not recommend.

I will never use them again. Had rented and prepaid a car in Italy, but when I got there, was told they didn't have th automatic I had requested. And that my credit card expiring in less than 6 months made it unusable for the deposit which was to be 1,100 Euros. They pointed me to the Terms and Conditions, but that is a ridiculous numbers. After much back and forth and finally agreement on a lower amount, I was given an automatic after all. I drove it for 5 minutes until I realized the engine warning light was on. Drove straight back and returned it and said I no longer wanted the car. When later asking for a refund from rentalcars.com, they told me since I had returned the car early they had no further obligation and the case was closed. Also, communicating with them is a pain. They never send you an email with any information, you have to go and log into your account to read it, and then you need to request a new pin every time before you can log in. Just to then finally learn that they will not give you a refund.

Do not be fooled by the cheap looking prices online. Rentalcars.com is very expensive and their service, especially when a car breaks down, is useless, bordering on criminal.

Ever wondered what would actually happen if a car malfunctioned on you (as in it loses all power and cannot be driven or even locked) days before your rental period is up? Would you be given a replacement? How fast can they recover your vehicle? Will the rental company reimburse you for the alternative transport you had to get? The answer to all these questions are disappointing.

We hired an EV in Italy, which completely lost power 2 days before we had to drive back to the airport. We reported it right away, and then had to wait a full 6 hours for a recovery team. The company claimed they would refund the train tickets I had to book. Then they simply stopped replying to any and all communications after we left the country.

- Refund for the unused days where their service failed? Not getting one.
- Train ticket reimbursements? Nope.
- Reimbursement for the deposit you haver to pay in case YOU break the car? They kept that too. Outright theft. I'll update that claim if things change. Actually maybe I won't since Rentalcars doesn't even respond to negative reviews! They literally don't give a ****. One day they'll wonder why their business collapsed. They won't figure out that it's because of the army of customers they ****ed over continuously.

All told? Close to £1000 for a 6 day rental. 2 days of which the car was a brick for.

Rentalcars customer service is a huge fractured mass of different groups, all with different email addresses. In one case the email address they advised me to contact wasn't even a valid email address for external recipients to email - two different email programs even refused to allow me to enter it into the To field!

I have used RentalCars for at least a decade. Never had a problem because the car never broke down. As SOON as you have an issue, you're high and dry. That insurance you were made to take out to cover things like this? All three levels of it? None of that matters because THEY WON'T RESPOND TO YOU.

This is fraud, both from an insurance perspective and from a trading standards perspective. It would not be tolerated in any real business. While I can (and have) reported them to governmental agencies to be investigated, I think we all know very well that nothing will happen, your case file will never be opened and no consequences will be felt.

They will not have your back. They won't resolve any issues. They will keep responding from a new email address, so you'll never have a coherent conversation.

Use a proper company with a reputation they care about like Hertz, Avis, Budget etc. These middle man companies like Rentalcars just aggregate the worst of the rest of the car rental "companies" (scammers) into a large database of bad service.

Do not use this platform to book your car as if you have any delay on your flight you will be denied both a car from the rental company and any refund from rentalcars.com. I have used the platform for years, but when I recently had a delay the experience was horrendous. Rentalcars.com have incredibly poor customer service and essentially don’t care. I will never use this site again. Book directly with the car rental company.

Most stupid company. We paid with an amex but the rental company didnt acept amex and they took us 400e for cancellation fees.

Supposed to be written somewhere in the conditions

Booked a car through Rentalcars in Nova Scotia with Alamo, car was fine but on returning was charged a re fuel fee which I had already pre paid supposedly plus other local taxes which were never explained on original booking. Rentalcars customer services woeful and now just ignore any emails so that’s money lost. Rentalcars part of booking.com which has appalling customer service also so be aware.

The car I had bookeb at Olbia Airport (Fiat 500 or similar) was not available because I arrived at the collection point 2,5 hourslate due to flight delay.I was forced to hire a higher category car (Lancia Ypsilon automatic hibrid) and pay a high upgrade fee. I am requesting a refund of this extra charge as the contract does not provide for the loss of the booking in the event of delay.Here are the booking details: D013267587-AF5J supplier RentalPlus

Terrible customer service and zero consumer protection. I booked a car hire via their platform, but when I arrived at the counter, the supplier blocked my primary payment card and forced a duplicate £158 charge under operational duress, using non-compliant billing practices. When I raised this with Rentalcars customer service, they repeatedly refused to investigate the supplier's conduct or review the written evidence and terminal receipts I provided. Instead of helping a loyal customer, they used automated scripts, blocked any attempts to escalate the complaint to a manager, and repeatedly closed the case without addressing the context. They do not vet or take accountability for the rogue suppliers allowed on their platform. Completely untrustworthy broker when things go wrong.

Rentalcars.com are adequate providing nothing goes wrong. If there's a problem, you'll be in big trouble. In my experience, we lost our booking completely - paid for a hire car in full which we never got.

Rentalcars.com has limited contact facilities to modify a booking so if your arrival is delayed, they may cancel a booking you've already paid for and not refund anything or charge you an excess which in our case was more than a week's car hire.

If you try and raise a query or an objection to Rentalcars.com, you get what appears to be a semi-automated response filled with greasy apologies but no actual resolution.

By all means use rentacars to find a car but you're far better off booking directly with a car hire company and it may be less misery to just walk.

Used to be okay, but recent experience has been TERRIBLE. Their policies now include a statement that your full name needs to be spelled out on the creditcard, otherwise the rental car company will not let you pick up the car without additional insurance. This is very weird, since most banks only put initials and last name on the card. For my recent reservation at Lisbon airport with Klass Wagen, this was a reason to not give me the car, even though it never was a problem in the past. Rentalcars.com was only “regret to inform you that this is now the policy, and no refund can be made”. I will book with a decent agency directly next time and no longer use Rentalcars.com

Alamo forced us to pay a deposit (after 36h travelling to get there we just paid up), they didn’t return it within 28 days and rentalcars.com no help at all

This company stole £130 from me, if you book through this company you will be scammed and you will lose your money that is a fact! Use any other rental car company, or book directly through a renal car serivce directly. Use any other company but these, they WILL scam you! You've been warned!

1. Never pay in advance. If you are a little late even for the reason of flight delay your car goes to someone else and you end up charged separately for the available replacement. No refunds

2. Rentalcars.com is not on you side in case something goes wrong with the actual provider. In my case there were a number of issues, dirty seat belt which is impossible to spot until you pull in off and drive, which spoiled my clothing, not a full tank on pick up, etc. For all my troubles I got 10% on next booking. Thank you very much, this is not gonna happen ever again