Warning! Do not book through this agency! Our reservation for a vehicle at Catania airport was made via Vipcars.com, an entity that received compensation for providing insurance services. Our intention was to collect the vehicle on the 2nd of June 2023. The reservation was made by myself, and my Italian partner, who possessed the appropriate credit card, was designated as the primary driver. However, the individual at the rental counter exhibited extreme rudeness and promptly denied us the vehicle, asserting that the person who makes the reservation is automatically considered the primary driver. Despite our efforts to contest this, the individual abruptly resorted to employing derogatory language in Italian, while her adjacent colleagues found amusement in our predicament. The entire encounter bore a striking resemblance to a scene from a mafia film, presenting an utterly surreal atmosphere. A refund of the payment for reservation as for insurance was denied as VIPcars refused to reply in person to my request, instead answering via bot with autoreply. As a seasoned travel journalist specializing in inflight magazines, and having previously worked in the corporate department of a prominent car rental company, my familiarity with the industry is extensive. Acarent, a company registered in Sicily, exclusively operates within Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Morocco, Malta, and Greece—countries known to harbor a level of corruption conducive to their business practices. Subsequent investigations revealed that the car rental aggregator VIPcars.com operates under the trading names of Webart Softech Ltd and Inc, offshore companies registered in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively, with company directors conducting their operations from India. The aforementioned entities purportedly offer rental car insurance at discounted rates, which prove to be non-refundable and demonstrate a reluctance to fulfill claims, as attested by other reviews. It is strongly advised to steer clear of these two entities, as engaging with them will invariably result in financial losses and a highly unpleasant experience. I am compelled to notify the relevant authorities such as the financial ombudsman, UK trading standards, etc regarding the fraudulent nature of these agencies, in order to instigate a thorough investigation into their illicit activities and, ideally, bring them to justice.