“the cost is low - but there is a sting in the tail
I arrived at the Greenmotion office at Poznan Ławica Airport, presented my documents and filled in the paperwork.
I was accompanied to the car and a quick cursory check was done for dents and scratches. This, in no way prepared me for the long (very long) and detailed (very detailed) forensic inspection of the car which would occur, when I returned. I drove carefully during my time in Poland and mainly used the car to drive around town catching up with friends and family
On my return to Poznan, I had the car hand washed (I have never had to do this with any other car rental, before, but they said there would be a 20 Euros surcharge if it was returned dirty) and filled the tank to its pre-rental level. I was running just a little bit later than I would have liked, as the hand wash took some time, but I was not prepared for the service at the drop off.
Aside from the time it took to actually get a member of staff out, to look at the car, when they did, it was almost as if they were doing a forensic fingerprint inspection. Every single centimetre of the car was examined in great detail, such that I had to remind them, 2 or 3 times that I had a flight to catch.
During this inspection we were joined by 2 other people who I assume were other members of GreenMotion staff. The scratch that the staff found was minute and unnoticeable until it was pointed out to me. I have no idea how that sort of scratch could have happened in that location. It is an odd location for a scratch – too low to have been caused by an adjacent car door, and too high to have been someone’s shoe buckle.
During my subsequent research I note that some people have accused the staff of ‘manufacturing’ flaws. There is credible evidence that the company operates a bonus scheme for employees who ‘spot flaws’ so that the company can then levy fines on the unsuspecting user, so it is in the staff’s interest to find a flaw, even if they have to be a little ‘creative’. Obviously this sort of deceptive behaviour would not have occurred to me at the time, but there were three members of staff around various sides of the car and I was concentrating on the area where the staff member with the clipboard/checklist was looking.
I was charged a lot for this small scratch - not as much as some other people have suffered from this company, but still a pot of money I had not budgeted for.
my advice. Don't. Just Don't........... if you think it's too good (cheap) to be true - it probably is”
“Scammers. Would not use again.
Took ages to get the car due to not enough staff. Misleading contracts and up-selling. I usually use Europcar but wanted to try a 'greener' rental service. I wished I done more research. After booking and renting I had disagreements of extra charges. It turns out I'm not the only one, goggle the green motion article titled "Green Motion has low car hire rates – but users say there’s a sting in the tail". There's several articles in the Guardian, BBC, Standard, Telegraphy etc. explaining there misleading and coercive business model.
Would not use again.”
“I encourage anyone considering hiring a vehicle from Green Motion to reconsider doing so. They are an unethical company that defrauds both customers and their insurance companies in order to give commissions to their employees.
I am currently fighting GM through my bank, which has temporarily issued a chargeback until GM provides sufficient evidence of their case. What GM has sent my bank in response are copies of the paperwork I signed, along with their photos of my alleged damage to their vehicle.
Like the many stories of others defrauded by GM, they did not examine the car with me when I received it due to “bad weather”. However, when I returned it just a few days later without incident, they went immediately to a couple of hairline scratches on the bonnet, which I had certainly not caused. They made me sign the return form (on which I wrote in capitals that I did not agree with their damages) and did not give me a copy. To my surprise when I returned home, there were additional damages added to what they had pointed out to me, to the tune of £1,205.
I immediately contacted GM after the incident in March and they sent me photos of the alleged damages. Fast forward to this week, and interestingly enough, the supposed evidence they sent the bank does not correspond with the evidence they sent me shortly after the incident.
Only a single photo they sent to my bank corresponds with any of the photos they sent me in my initial communication with GM. They might not even be from the same vehicle. In addition, the damages they have me as having caused that they sent to my bank are not the same ones on the original list of damages either. Green Motion can't seem to get their story straight.
It is clear that this type of fraud is Green Motion's modus operandi. They don't examine the car with the customer when it is handed over, then when the vehicle is returned they go immediately over to areas with hairline scratches, charge the customers an exorbitant amount for their repair, never repair them, and use the same damage to scam the next customer. As has been exposed in an investigation by Channel 4 in the UK, Green Motion employees earn considerable commissions from every item of supposed damage they can charge.
The UK Channel 4 presenter, Joe Lycett, has recently had a show featuring an undercover investigation into some of the fraudulent practices of Green Motion. The clip featuring this part of the episode can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azQTpzOKPcU
Should you not be able to play it for some reason, following is a short transcript of the section on fraudulent damage payments, starting at 06:20 in the video:
Joe Lycett:
“[Arthur’s] been looking into reports of the fees Green Motion charge for accidental damage. Which brings us to lesson #3: damage charges. If I hired a car and damaged it, I’d assume that the money would go on repairs. But according to multiple staff at Green Motion Heathrow, not all of it does.”
Green Motion Heathrow employee:
“If someone comes in with a scratch they’ll charge £1,200. It gets put in a pot and split between 3 people, or 10 people. So, each one of them goes home with like £300 commission every single month.”
Joe Lycett:
“So staff at this franchise told Arthur they earn commission on money they charge customers for damage…”
Why this company is still in business is beyond me, but I will consider taking legal action against them. I have never before encountered this type of behaviour from a reputable car hire company, and will ensure through extensive publicity that others are not scammed by them in the future. They not only are scamming customers, but also the banks and insurance companies who end up paying Green Motion's employee commissions.
Following is a list of articles published relatively recently from respectable news organisations exposing GM's fraudulent practices. I am including these links here in the hopes that nobody else will be defrauded by this company.
https://www.standard.co.uk/…/car-hire-workers-were-paid-to-…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-46974240
https://www.theguardian.com/…/09/green-motion-car-hire-bills
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/a…/car-hire-charges-scratches/
https://www.irishtimes.com/…/cartrawler-suspends-green-moti…
https://www.independent.ie/…/the-pictures-clearly-show-no-d…
https://green-motion.pissedconsumer.com/review.html”
“Extremely unprofessional.
They try their best to charge every extra pound they can stating the most absurd terms and condition that no other rental company has. STAY AWAY!!”
“Everything about this company is a scam. Booked via Expedia, was given incorrect booking information from both Green Motion and Expedia, turned up with incomplete documentation because of this. Had to wait 2.5 hours to pick up car in an enormous queue. To top it off, on return had to pay £212 to replace a tyre for 'damage' that I did not cause. Absolute rip off merchants, avoid at all costs.”
“Booked via booking.com. was delayed 50 mins die to medical emergency on our flight. Phone lime for green motion closed and no car for us. Rang the next day and spoke to an extremely rude member of staff. Avoid this company at all costs. Book with a reputable company based at the airport and not a parking lot miles away.”
“Never rent a car here. They will find a non existing scratch and charge you for the wheel and the fact that they cannot rent the car in the meanwhile. We're queuing with other customers Having the exact same problem..”
“"for 2 senior citizens, a very distressing start to our holiday, the oldest con in the book "
I paid in advance to rent a volkswagen from midday sunday 5/5/19 to midday sunday 12/5/19, the flight was on time ay 14.30, when we finally got to green motion [ looked like a breakers yard]after dragging our suitcases through gravel on a very dangerous road, we were told the car wasn't available and we would have to pay an extra 45 euros for a larger car, apparently I did not read the terms and conditions. after agreeing an extra 30 euros, after a heated phone conversation with "maria", we were given an absolutely filthy nissan, I washed it myself later.the success of any business depends on repeat trade and customer satisfaction , I will stick with "alamo"/enterprise car hire in future and never go anywhere near "green motion" or easyrent cars
Danny Clark
Review on EasyRentCars.com 4.0
I was under the impression the office was inside the airport, and i dont understand why the car i had rented wasn't available”
“Rented in Vilnius.
Worst experience ever! Was given different car, not the one I've booked with warranteed make and model. Collection took half an hour, was charged 73 Euro "administration fee" for forwarding to me parking penalty charge €15 which I paid immediately via email 2 weeks after returning the car.
At the end it cost me more then any best car rental company would charge.”
“Beware - out flights were delayed and by the time we arrived they rented our car out to somebody else and refused to even refund us. We were on our way to a family funeral with an 18 month old. You get what you pay for. Stay well away.”
“Is this the worse hire company in Iceland - green motion
Having just returned from Iceland I feel compelled to write this email and provide feedback on our experiences.
We hired a Jeep from green motion at the airport.
The Jeep had a few issues e.g. door wouldn’t close properly and fuel cap broken but as we were keen to start our holiday we left the airport.
After 100 miles the front tyre burst causing us to have to make an emergency stop - really quite traumatic.
When we took the tyre off it had very little tread. The tyre was illegal and dangerous. Also the car had no warning triangle to put onto the road so we had to change the wheel watching out for oncoming traffic. When we called the company we were told to go to a garage and get it replaced and they would pay if indeed it was illegal.
The garage confirmed the tyre was illegal and dangerous and also that another tyre was illegal on the car which they replaced. They also mentioned the cars tracking was completely wrong.
I called the car hire company asking for the car to be replaced and was told to come back the following day to get another car.
We returned the car the following day and after much discussion they found another car which they gave us.
The replacement car on starting had an alert warning saying it needed a service - we asked the hire company about this and were told the computer hadn’t been reset in the engine management system.
So we set off and after a few minutes we then noticed the tyre pressure warning light had come on so we returned to the hire company. We were told they had no other cars so we had to have that car or nothing.
So as our holiday was already delayed we had to accept this. Later on in the day we noticed that one of the tyres was deflating so we went to a garage to inflate it to the correct pressure.
Having now lost a day returning the car we decided to live with the tyre deflating and to pump it up each day.
When we returned the replacement car at the end of the holiday we asked to speak to the supervisor whose attitude was one of “I don’t really care” about your issues and the fact that we were given not one car that was dangerous and illegal but two.
When asked for compensation she was unable to offer a realistic figure that could make up for the lost holiday time, lost bookings for trips etc.
So in summary ....
We lost a day changing vehicles and missed booked events.
BUT the real issue we have is that green motion knowingly gave us 2 vehicles one of which had illegal tyres on it and that both cars were dangerous to drive.
If you use this company please check the vehicle thoroughly and please stay safe”
“hands down this is the worst Car Rental Company in the planet ...How they get away with reaping off customers is beyond me , Picked up a rental car at 11pm at night ....They give u a number to call the following morning if you have any issues with the car. I had called the toll free number the next day b4 10m ...to report that the car alloys wheels had a little scatch....Could not get through to any number that was provided in nearly 4 hours ....i returned the car 7days later ..was billed nearly $900 for the little scatch and they said a lump on one of the tires...yeah $900.00.
Zero customer service
Over 10miles from the airport”
“Charged me for body preexisting scratches and tyre consumption marks.
However when I rent a car from a company, I dont expect to take videos or images and I was not instructed to do so by your staff. I base my deal on trust. Discrepancy between your delivering staff and receiving staff degree of scrutiny is the problem. I guess they punish customers for not purchasing their insurance”
“Horrible experience. We had to wait for 1 hour in a queue before we could do the paperwork and then didn't leave until 20 minutes later. We had to pay extra as we only had a debit card and not a credit card which is ridiculous. Service did not seem to take into account that we had been waiting so long. When we dropped off the car the queue was even longer so their process seems to be highly inefficient.”
“This is a warning to anyone renting a car from green motion Manchester airport so you can avoid what happened to me.
I have renting cars at Manchester Airport for years and have never had a problem. It is clear that some people will fall for their unscrupulous behaviour which is legal.
I have used my current ASB New Zealand credit car for a minimum of 5 car rentals over last 18 months. I do not take out car rental insurance through car rental company I use holiday insurance. The car rental ensures I am aware of putting a hold on about 1000 pounds of which I completely understand.
The way car rental co makes money is through encouraging you to take out their insurance but they back down pretty quickly if you say no.
I always check car thoroughly and ensure they add even smallest mark.
Now my problem was purely with my credit card which unless embossed they tell me cannot safely put hold on money they require in case of accident. I don’t know any other car rental that insist on embossed card.
They informed me the only way was to take out their insurance. Price I would of paid with embossed card $744 turned into over 1800. They also took 200$ incase of fines I doubt i’ll Get that back.
The woman behind desk has been well trained. No emotion no reaction.
Please take note the only car hire place at this site is green motion. The site is rough gravelled muddy I’m glad I wasn’t flying out as shoes were muddy trousers covered to. So ensure you have easy to clean shoes and change of trousers.
The bus is clearly marked green motion and it’s a big bus not minivan.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EMBOSSED credit card.
Learnt my lesson will not be using them again.
Have always used car rental at car rental village which is well situated and lots of choices and take my credit card.”
“I would have given no stars if it was an option. Avoid Green Motion absolutely. On returning a vehicle to Edinburgh airport I was charged in excess of £250 for an invisible scratch. The only reason the attendant saw anything was because he put it there. I believe this absolutely. Total scammers”
“They advertise at a very low price and then load up the price when you get there.
Also when ensure that you get a copy of the paperwork when returning the car.
I wouldn't deal with this company again, very untrustworthy”
“3 hour queues with no explanation, Max 2 cars leaving an hour. Look for non existent damage and try and claim dirt as scratches. No customer service, arrogant, rude and argumentative. Do not use these scam artists.”
