“I'm giving 1 star because you can't give zero.
I had exactly the same experience in Fuerteventura Airport.
Booked via Ryanair which had a very competitive voucher (60 € per 1 week rental).
In the Ryanair voucher the company INTER-RENT was indicated.
When we got to the INTERRENT office in the terminal, it was closed (obviously), even though we were on perfect time, about 7.30 pm. There was a paper taped on the glass advising to go to GOLDCAR in case the office was closed.
So we went, even though Goldcar was never mentioned in our papers until that moment (this is why Ryanair is a cheecky company, not only for its own policies but also for the companies it chooses to collaborate with...)
The queue was far slower than any other (CICAR, SIXT, BUDGET-AVIS, EUROPCAR were serving customers about 3 times quicker..), and when it was our turn we realised why:
the lady at the desk was initially gentle, but when she tried to sell us the full insurance and we refused, she became very rude all of a sudden and started some sort of psychological terrorism stating the roads in Fuerteventura are dangerous, that there are many car thieves, people drive crazy and only 40% of roads have asphalt....which is ALL not true, in reality.
She said that they needed to take €1.220 as deposit for damages and fuel. Very expensive but we had not many choices, so we did it (and after 4 hours flight, 1+ h of queue and empty stomach you don't want to throw away your voucher and start a new queue for another car at a manybe higher price..)
The papers said the car had no damage, we checked it and saw nothing particular, also because it was already dark when we collected it.
During our holiday we casually heard about terrible reviews on Goldcar, and thank God for that!!!
We felt as we were going to end up in their trap as well, so when we returned it we made DOZENS of pictures of the car.
When we went to the box office, initially there was no one (how strange!!!) but eventually two guys with Goldcar shirts turned up.
I asked them if I could have a paper stating the car was returned in good conditions but they refused to do so, insisting on the fact that "there is no paper" and that I would have received an email. When I said that this paper is normal practice of every rental company, they got annoyed and aggressive, shouting that "there is no paper", and "you will receive an email", refusing once more to check the car.
I left saying "fine, but be aware that I made A LOT of pictures"
my deposit was returned a few days ago, so that's a great relief...but I feel I was just lucky that no scam happened, because everything seemed going in that direction...if we were a bit more distracted and trustful we would have certainly been scammed, as everything seemed like a set-up of the same old trick they did to many many customers all across Europe over the years.
so, ultimately, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
If you can't avoid:
- insist on every possible paperwork
- take many pictures when you pick up the car and when you return it (including the tank indicator, tyres, car instrumentation panel....everything!)
- if you feel suspicious, trust your instinct and go with someone else...trust me, you'll save money and hassle
I wonder, reading other reviews and knowing that the Antitrust has fined them many times, how come companies like these can exist in a civilized world...probably the money they make by literally robbing costumers is enough to pay lawyers, politicians or whoever.”
“DO NOT USE !!!
These people are thieves, I only wish I'd checked online before booking, they stole £320 from my account and claimed it was a car upgrade and Insurance - we had neither! and the car was returned in perfect condition with a full tank, we received written confirmation of this..
DO NOT USE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES”
“Rented a car from them at Alicante airport- 10 mins after dropping the car back they emailed my report saying they checked the car and it had been damaged- charging over £400!! The car was covered in scratches when we picked it up and that was marked on the report- the new report gave no indication where the damage was- just a really bad photo of a mark which could have been any of the marks already on it. Absolute scammers- they give you a beaten up car and then when you return it say you have damaged it- LIARS. I won’t be booking with them again-cheapest is not always the best. Please do not book with them- if you do not take out their Extra insurance they make out you have damaged the car and then charge you anyway- dishonest company- stay well clear if you want a happy holiday”
“Dont take car from goldcar girona Airport. There are thieves, at first they will ask you for additional insurance, additional costs of port dues, maintenance, fuel, if you find yourself from insurance, they will still come up with something to take tribute from you, such as coming up with an accident and taking part of the deposit. And they'll also give you the car what you didn't want to book.”
“Corporate thief —- BA changed my flight times because of COVID 19. We told Goldcar our new arrival time.. 6 hours later than the original time. Landed at Ibiza airport. To be told we had gone over the 6 hr hire window and our booking had been cancelled. The lady at the fest would call their head off to confirm we had told them about flight time changed. We are now owed £250 which they refused to pay me back.... thrifts”
“I have rented from Goldcar on a number of occasions as I rent a car in Malaga every 2 weeks, and they are normally (on the surface) one of the cheapest rental companies in Malaga. However when I add in the charges they have made to my credit card once I have returned to the UK on a number of occasions, it makes them a very expensive option. They get very poor reviews consistently and are the only Spanish rental company that does not belong to the European Car Hire Conciliation service, which is why they can constantly ignore any emails or complaints.
Indeed the Daily Mail have listed them multiple times as the worst car hire company in Europe.
In November they charged me 180 Euro for damage to a vehicle (which I disputed but could get no comment from them), however they had actually taken 300 Euro from my credit card. I went to the ECHC who told me that they cannot get involved with Goldcar as the company does not co-operate with the conciliation service. Thankfully I was insured so approached my insurer. The Insurers were sympathetic and informed me that they had many people with similar experiences with Goldcar. They were very happy to re-imburse the 180 Euro, but said that regardless of the proof I had that Goldcar had taken 300 Euro from my credit card, they could only re-imburse me the amount that was on the Goldcar documentation (180 Euro).
I then proceeded to try and get get the refund of 120 Euro from Goldcar, after several months of Goldcar ignoring every email I sent (in excess of 25) and every form I filled in online (twice per week) I eventually contacted the Centro Europeo del Consumidor en España. Who contacted Goldcar and miraculously almost 8 months after initially chasing them for the money, they immediately agreed that they should have returned the 120 Euro to me straight away And refunded it back on my card the following day - no word of apology or explanation. This is not the first time I have had to chase Goldcar to refund money they owed to me.
How many people have been repeatedly ignored by Goldcar so-called 'Customer Services' and have eventually given up, and Goldcar keep the money.
I would recommend giving them a wide berth - they are essentially a disreputable company with no customer service at all and they use every trick in the book to extort money from you - including tellling lies as you collect the car. I have been told that unless I take their insurance at the desk I would not be able to hire a car. I have also been told that if I scratched a vehicle I would be liable for the full amount of the vehicle value in excess of 8000 Euro if I did not have their insurance.
I have an annual policy from Insurance4Carhire which I would highly recommend, and covers you for all the things such as excess etc.. that is not normally covered by the basic insurance. Goldcar told me that this insurance is not valid in Spain and not worth the paper it is printed on - however over the years I have had punctures and flat batteries and they have never failed to re-imburse the costs.
It is worth paying a little extra to rent from Record or Firefly (both members of the conciliation service) and in my experience have customer service staff who respond within 24 hours, are helpful and are happy to assist you if you have a query about a charge or rental.
Rent from Goldcar at your peril - you have been warned!”
“They do not deserve even a 1 star!
When I arrived at the office and the assistant at the desk gave me the keys and rudely pointed the direction where I should go and collect the car without even making an effort to come with me to show it personally. Also, the assistant got really rude when I said I do not want full insurance. Then I asked someone to come and check the car with me but the guy said that I do not need anyone to check the car I should check it by myself, which I thought was due to the good condition of the car and also that the company is reliable. However, after returning the car they found scratches on the car. The scratches are tiny and can not be seen with a naked eye. The guy used a special light and straight away find the tiny scratches which was odd it seems like he knew about them. After these false claims, the manager came and I show her the location of the scratches and she could not point them because they can not be seen without a piece of equipment there are very small. My point is the scratches have been there before. I am not professional and I do not wear special equipment with me when renting a car and also I do not check cars every day. It has not been done exactly the same checks on delivering and receiving the car. It is not fair the way the car was checked in and checked out it was two completely different procedures. The car was not checked when I took it by a professional member of GOLDCAR but was checked on dropping off. The whole procedure was unfair. They did not show me any invoice the manager just promised me that I will be charged with 200 euros for the front door and when I got off the plane I received an email that I will be charged 450 euros instead.
Be aware!!!”
“Don’t touch this company with a barge pole, They have been ok until now when we didn’t return the car on time due to the Spanish lockdown. They show a complete lack of flexibility and understanding and charged us over £1000 as a penalty and there was nothing we could do about it in spite of potentially breaking the law. They are very underhand and know they can get away with it.”
“Shamefull people. When we picked up the car I went over it very carefully as I had read some reviews about Car hire companies in Europe who are notorious for ripping people off...( strange how the EU Eurocrats in Brussels do absolutely nothing about their citizens being cheated by these criminals!?). I filled out the piece of paper with the drawings of the car in profile where you are to indicate if there is any damage to the car....which I did. I then went into the office and asked them to over see or sign my paper with the indications of previous damage. I was directed to some guy who had some sort of measuring device and if the scratches and dents were smaller than his device we were not to worry about it. Still I insisted he notice the damage to the rim of the wheel Hub. I took a video of the whole car but the garage guys put pressure on me by laughing at what I was doing and saying "don't worry!" We were then told they would take £150 as a "deposit" on the fuel and this would be returned when we returned the car with a full tank of fuel...which we did! We filled up the fuel tank at a garage about one mile from the Airport ( off the Airport road) and could not get any more fuel into the tank. When we got to the Goldcar return area at he Airport there was no-one there,No Staff, but several confused customers not knowing what to do with the keys of their returned cars. This was not early but 9AM in the morning and no-one there at the office. There is a "Box" on the wall outside the office where you are can post the keys but no-one to inspect the car you're returning...for damage or acceptance or just to check the fuel indicator is full. So you have to walk away to catch your flight leaving a parked car you've had and used at the mercy of whatever they want to say or claim about its condition...Remembering these people are virtually criminals....its quite an ask to trust these crooks and all the other customers who also had no choice but to but the car keys into this box all walked away very worried. Of course when we got back home to the UK, Goldcar had only returned half the money they took for the fuel "deposit" ...what a surprise. So now we have to deal with their terrible service to have to politely "Request" for the rest of our money. Goldcar know that most people will give up when back home and getting on with their lives. Thats how they operate. I will never ever go back to Malaga again and be swindled be these criminals. Spain is really going downhill!”
“When we picked up the car I went over it very carefully as I had read some reviews about Car hire companies in Europe who are notorious for ripping people off...( strange how the EU Eurocrats in Brussels do absolutely nothing about their citizens being cheated by these criminals!?). I filled out the piece of paper with the drawings of the car in profile where you are to indicate if there is any damage to the car....which I did. I then went into the office and asked them to over see or sign my paper with the indications of previous damage. I was directed to some guy who had some sort of measuring device and if the scratches and dents were smaller than his device we were not to worry about it. Still I insisted he notice the damage to the rim of the wheel Hub. I took a video of the whole car but the garage guys put pressure on me by laughing at what I was doing and saying "don't worry!" We were then told they would take £150 as a "deposit" on the fuel and this would be returned when we returned the car with a full tank of fuel...which we did! We filled up the fuel tank at a garage about one mile from the Airport ( off the Airport road) and could not get any more fuel into the tank. When we got to the Goldcar return area at he Airport there was no-one there,No Staff, but several confused customers not knowing what to do with the keys of their returned cars. This was not early but 9AM in the morning and no-one there at the office. There is a "Box" on the wall outside the office where you are can post the keys but no-one to inspect the car you're returning...for damage or acceptance or just to check the fuel indicator is full. So you have to walk away to catch your flight leaving a parked car you've had and used at the mercy of whatever they want to say or claim about its condition...Remembering these people are virtually criminals....its quite an ask to trust these crooks and all the other customers who also had no choice but to but the car keys into this box all walked away very worried. Of course when we got back home to the UK, Goldcar had only returned half the money they took for the fuel "deposit" ...what a surprise. So now we have to deal with their terrible service to have to politely "Request" for the rest of our money. Goldcar know that most people will give up when back home and getting on with their lives. Thats how they operate. I will never ever go back to Malaga again and be swindled be these criminals. Spain is really going downhill!”
“Avoid like the plague - I had used them a few times without any problems and on the latest occasion they charged me 440 Euros for damage that was already existing on the vehicle when I collected.
Trying to contact the company is impossible - phone calls to them result in being directed to email them, and emails to them don't get answered!
There is a reason they are so cheap!”
“hidden extra fees explained as being part of refundable deposit but later discovering on paperwork it is for added extras which were not requested.
Despite making complaint and requesting refund, particularly as there are no signed documents agreeing to the extras, i have not received a satisfying response. AVOID AT ALL COSTS”
“Replusive company they will scam you til the end! Ended up paying almost 4 times the price of the original quote. Customer service is digusting and spend the whole holiday worrying about getting ripped off by these con artists!! AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!”
“They will rip you off for every penny they can, even if you have the proof that you were not to blame. Do everything to the book, get confirmation that all is well, they will still charge you for something extra.”
“They will rip you off for every penny they can, not accept proof that you are not to blame. The staff are rude and have anger management issues. Be warned, you can do everything to the book, get confirmation of this and they will still charge you for something extra.”
“I feel scammed, Goldcar offers very low prices until everything is right there, when I pick up the vehicle a few kilometers from the airport to which I am transferred with a van from the company to a checkpoint next to a hotel, the officeman offers me 3 times more expensive insurance than the total rental of the vehicle costs me, it warns me that some clients have problems with the blows of more than 5 cm that they are charged a lot of money to repair those blows, I refuse to take out the insurance because I'm going to hire him at RENTALCOVER for £ 51 for 14 days that the rental he hired lasts. Then goldcar charges me €1617 on my Visa card, from that moment the officeman treats me with indifference and does not look me in the face when I ask about the damage that the rented vehicle has, which is dented and scraped on all sides to explain the meaning of the damage part of the checklist that you have given me because I do not understand it, his answer is I read it to me and it does not explain anything else. When I return the vehicle at the end of the rental they tell me that they will return the €1617 that they have withheld from my visa card after 2 hours, after 8 hours I call the Goldcar headquarters to ask for my money and they tell me they will return me Money between 8 and 10 business days after having delivered the vehicle, upon receiving the money after a few days I am charged almost €30 fuel management which I return full to the top.
After delivering the vehicle they tell me to wait at the door of the hotel where they will pick me up with the goldcar van, the driver of that van is a small man with a very bad mood and very rudeness, when a French gentleman tells him that he is going to losing the plane, the little man speaks to him with very rudeness, in the end I agree that the French gentleman gets into the van so that he does not lose the flight after waiting for several minutes I had to pay a taxi to take me to the airport and not take a risk to miss the flight
The only positive thing I can say is that the guy who checks the vehicle on delivery is a good honest and polite professional.”
“Extremely rude and aggressive staff, made to pay excess insurance charges as booking made in husbands name therefore unable to use my credit card for deposit. Staff should not be in a customer facing role, unnecessarily rude in front of my 8 year old daughter, a horrible example of how to behave.”
“STAY AWAY FROM "GOLDSCAM" !!
STAY AWAY FROM "GOLDSCAM" FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!.
I booked a car in Madrid for what I thought was a good deal. I was a bit reluctant about using Goldcar because the terrible reviews I have seen on the internet but I thought it coudl be different for me if I played it carefully.
1. Collection day. We got a very old car full or scratches. My worry was that they could use any of them to charge me for it. I took endless pictures and spoke to the guy to confirm all of them were in the report. Goldcar took GBP 1410.44 as 'deposit'.
2. Retun day. I got confirmation the car was fine so not surprises with any claims later on. I returned full so no issue. I asked for a receipt BUT they said they will send it by email... TRICK!, they claimed the email address was incorrect (false as I asked the desk to enter it and I even wrote it down for them). Needless to say I never got any email with the receipt from GOLDSCAM!
3. Deposit return. A few days later they returned GBP 1292.2. I called them endlessly and sent emails to no avail.
Issue: the take the deposit using a ccy rate and return it using another one. I ended up losing GBP 118.2.
Goldcar claimed they returned the deposit but because the exhorbitant exchange rate they use the customer doesn't recover it in full while Goldcar makes a profit with the exchange rate.
One more thing. I bet GOLDSCAM is charging multiple customers for the damages on the car (mine was full of them) without never fixing them. How can they charge for a damage but they don't fix them?. Certainly ILLEGAL!.
Moral of the story: the saving you may think you will make is not worthy compare to the headaches ahead. AVOID!”
“We arrived at the correct time to collect our car, the large tattooed man behind the desk couldn't find our booking and tried to rent us a car for over 10 times the sum we had already paid one for. They were most unhelpful then we were then asked to leave.
We had to get a taxi (over €100) after we reached our destination we were told they had found the car and if we didn't return they would "fine" us €50 for a no show.
Very poor, leaving us without a vehicle due to their administrative error and no effort to put things right.
We had to get another taxi to take us back to the airport at the end of our stay.
MY ADVICE IS KEEP CLEAR OF GOLDCAR unless you want to risk being stranded at the airport.”
