05 Nov 2008 12:00 AM:
Car Hire misery.
This summer I have had a car rental booked through carjet.com . We collected the car from Goldcar Europa in Alicante. The bodywork was in poor scratched condition, it smelled of smoke and had some pieces of paper lying in it. Then we discovered that the air conditioning did not work. It took about 15 minutes of driving and fiddling with the controls before we realised the air conditioning was not working. We had been travelling for some 8 hours, it was late at night and so we decided to get to our destination at La Torre Golf resort. About 1 hours drive from Alicante. The next day I took the car to Murcia airport where they exchanged it after keeping me waiting for 1 hour. This car was ok for the rest of my stay. The total rental was for over 3 weeks and cost 526.69 Euros. I then found that on 25th July Goldcar rental Alicante have taken an extra 273.08 Euros from my Barclaycard. I had no idea what this payment was for. I have still not received a statement of how this charge was calculated. This is surely not normal. Charge a customer don't tell them they have been charged and give no invoice or receipt and give no explanation. I then contacted carjet.com who simply contacted Goldcar Europa. They eventually told me that the charge was for damaging the underside of the car. They inferred that they could do no more as I had damaged the car and this is the only part that was not covered by insurance.
At no time did I cause any damage to the car. It was busy at the peak season and I suggest the car had been turned round quickly without being checked fully. I have now contacted Barclaycard who have advised me that I must contact Goldcar and they could not help me. I found this surprising.
In short, they have charged me for damage that was clearly done before I received the car. I categorically deny causing any damage to the vehicle and my wife will happily testify to this. Despite emails to Goldcar I have only received 1 reply saying I caused the damage. Despite my requests they have not provided me with any evidence that they had checked the car. They have also failed to supply a detailed invoice of why I have been charged. I am a regular traveller to Spain and have had no problems with other companies. I actually feel as if I have been robbed since money has been taken from my account with no details given and no evidence that I caused any problems to the car. The question is, where do I go from here. Is it easy to pursue the matter in the Spanish courts And how much would it cost.
As a matter of principal I cannot let the matter rest. I am 273 euros out of pocket for no reason.
I am writing this to ask for help and as a warning to other people about how they seem to sign away all rights when signing a car rental contract with Goldcar Europa. Any help or advice would be gratefully received. Richard Chapman. richard@active-education.co.uk
Thread:
Car Hire Scam
--------------------------------------