Goldcar Car rental has just cheated me

As a continuation from my previous thread Goldcar head office has just told me that the car that i had hired did have the basic  insurance (CDW, 3rd party) opposite to what i was told when i rented from there office at Alicante Train station JOSE MARIA there representative told me that there was NO BASIC INSURANCE and i was NOT given the truth by DYS.

We have been conned and i have the necessary proof to substanciate this . Although it is only 120 euros which they are not prepared to re imburse me ,it is a matter of principle. Does anyone know of a good solicitor?

I read this earlier today in an on line publication aimed at professionals in tourism:-  

'Seventeen rent-a-car companies and two allied associations must pay a fine of more than 35 million euros for acting as a cartel by fixing prices and commercial conditions especially in Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucía and the Balearic Islands. Thus the national competition Commission has ruled after an investigation opened in January of last year with Solmar being 'let off' for collaborating in the enquiry. The stiffest sanction has fallen on Goldcar which the CNC has fined 15.5 million euros. Other large fines went to Centauro Rent-a-car, with 5.6 million; Record Go Alquiler Vacacional with 4.9 million and Automotivecars Málaga with a fine of 2.9 million euros'... 

"The participating companies were fully aware of the wrongfulness of the mentioned agreements, as they planned a system to prevent the control of competition and designed a monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the agreements adopted by the cartel, centered on the President of the Business Association of rental cars of Andalusia (AECA)," Radiostation CNC.

Can you outline the old thread as its not clear what you are saying 

Look at previous thread under Goldcar where they basically told me that the car which i was hiring did not have CDW & 3rd party insurance so I had to pay 120 euros .Goldcar  headoffice now tell me that all Goldcar cars do have this basic insurance  however they will NOT re imburse me.

In my earlier thread apologies for my grammar i used 'there' instead  of  'their'

But if you rent through Eye on Spain ( Do You Spain Rentals ) like thousands of others it specifies that basic Insurance is included in the rate you pay . then when you get to "The Collection Point" at the Hire firms desk the reps try to shaft you for additional cover which you can of course decline.

http://www.murciatoday.com/35-million-euros-in-fines-for-price-fixing-in-car-rentals-market_18204-a.html

Absolutely  Aliton, I told the fellow at Goldcar at Alicante that I had car excess insurance BUT he continued to say that although DYS told me and their documents stated CDW etc was included that DYS was NOT telling the truth and that there was NO basic car insurance(CDW). The car excess was NOT a problem but NO basic cover was included in the hire of the car  which turned out to be untrue.

Surely the confusion here is that all the hire cars are insured, but only for the road risks side of things, the extra insurance they stick us for (And more often then not this is more then the rental cost) is the damage we might cause to wheels / tyres / bodywork in carparks / under carriage say over rough tracks / glass etc etc.

Dont agree with it one bit, but the cost of a wheel and tyre is more then this extra insurance.

l'd never Goldcar again!  I booked through DYS as I have done 99% of the time over the last 8 years and the rental was with Goldcar!  I groaned as before we've seen the horrendous queues that they have but thought I'd take the risk and the queue wasn't too bad.  Hired the car, paid the extra insurance for the damage to panels, wheels windows etc... Took the car back and handed the paperwork to the lady at the desk.  Job done!  When I got my credit card bill i noticed that they had taken an additional £32.... off my card the month following my rental!  I wasn't happy as I'd paid the extra insurance, it shouldn't have mattered what we'd done to the car we shouldn't have been charged anymore!  As it happens the car went back as it had been picked up although a tad dusty as my house has a short track leading to it!  I emailed DYS and didn't really expect to hear from them but I got an email back saying they would ask why the extra was taken.  I was quite impressed!  That was short lived as I've heard nothing since despite another email!  Having seen that they are one of the worst companies for adhering to the rules I'm going to email again!

Fazeress , I have just received an e mail telling me that they (Goldcar) are taking an additional 60 euros off my Credit card as the car was unclean. I have informed my CC company and I am going to dispute it. These companies are a set of rogues and they need to be regulated but I cannot see this happening.

All sites should remove their advertising.

I totally agree terrance43!  I re-emailed DYS and asked them again to find out why extra money was taken from my card!  I wasn't even given notice it was just taken and I only found out when I got my bill!  I told DYS that they shouldn't deal with Goldcar as they would give them a bad reputation!  I've never had a problem with DYS in the past and used them many times.  Its Goldcar which is the problem.  I'll let you know if I get any answer but it shouldn't matter if the car is dirty!  They should clean them each time anyway!

When you book another car with DYS un-check / un-tick the box on the DYS site for Goldcar, and you should get a car from....Not them.

http://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

costs about 45 pounds a year and you dont need to worry about car excess charges.

firefly just cheated me

My experience with firefly car rental at san havier airport

Arrived 1^st  august at san Javier, Murcia  with wife and 10yr old granddaughter found the van  that firefly operate from , to the left of the  airport arrival exit doors in the car park.

Checking in with my doyoudo spain voucher was easy enough,  I was explained that if I took a insurance package for something like an extra 64 euros (it was not explained that this did not include iva tax) I would not have to pay any deposit from my credit card, and would not be liable for the 400 euros excess should I be involved in any accident.

As I had been involved in an accident on the previous trip to spain wich I believed was not my fault, Yet that car hire company insisted I pay a further 900 euros to continue the hire agreement, what could I do? I then had 3 days of my holiday to continue, with out a car was impossible, it was a Saturday afternoon and not much hope of getting another car with another company, so that time I continued driving the damaged vehicle. After paying a further 900 euros.

This time with three days of the seven remaining I was involved in another accident this time some drove into the back of us at a motorway entrance, mid Sunday afternoon on returning from the beach and shopping, so I am deemed not at fault.

I returned the car back to the firefly van at san Javier, at around 9pm on a Sunday night.

After trying to call them for advice as the accident happened at about 3.45pm I was able to take my family back to out apartment, and make plans for the return of the car, in the mean time I also emailed all the photos I took at the scene  and photo copies of the accident report form, as I have read in small print any accident must be reported within 48 hours to the hire firm.  I was eager to get this done.

And as san Javier was very near where we stay it seemed a good idea to get the car back to them asap. As I had purchased there full insurance cover I assumed every thing would be a piece of cake and I would be fully compensated with a replacement vehicle and a waiver on any fuel charges as I had already paid 74 euros plus tax for a full tank which I had half left,, with 3 days remaining this would have been plenty to seem through to near empty on return.

So as the only car was available was a car smaller in size  I accepted this and we had done most of the running around  and shopping we needed to do.

So it made no difference if the car was smaller, i.e a cheaper model.

Then whilst this was explained to me, I saw a flaw in the arraignment in that they required me to go to a near by (about 5km) petrol station to fill the damaged car with fuel. As time was running out i.e it was now 9.45pm and they close at 10pm I believe, so I complied and drove to the station to fill the half empty tank, it cost a further 35 euros of my money to fill the tank.

I  drove back to firefly at the airport , to be told I would now be given the cheaper car  with a full tank of fuel  which I must return empty. Now im thinking hang on a minuet here,

I have purchased your super duper extra cover insurance here which you said I would not have to worry about a thing every thing is covered.

Now you want me to drive away in a cheaper car than what I had already paid for, pay an extra 35 euros for added petrol and use a tank of fuel in three days that is smaller and cheaper than the one I paid 74 euros for in the first place, all because of an accident that was not my fault. The other driver even admitted fault on the accident report form. Wich I have promptly returned to you plus the photos I have taken and sent to you to help your claim against this driver.

This is not right is it, the reply after much talking in Spanish between the two girls on the desk was that it was company policy we have no facility to change contracts, I must proceed as they wish or not have a car. As I was with a child and my wife at gone 10pm at san Javier airport there could be no way I was able to leave with out transport.

I stood my ground and tried to explain how could I be  treated like this as a customer, surly they could see this was not fair and very harsh treatment, when I was supposed to be covered for all eventualities?

One of the girls could sympathize with my predicament, you could see on her face that she knew the situation was wrong and not fair, and said she would have a word with the boss on Monday  and call me on my mobile, in my mind I was looking for a full refund of the fuel cost on the first car as I had returned it full at there request.

And a allowance to be able to return the new car with a full tank at no charge for fuel  this way the 35 euros I had paid to fill the first car would have covered the half tank I used.

So I waited for a phone call that never came,

Feeling that firefly might try to make things difficult on my returning the car I did a little research as to what I was actually paying in car hire costs for this trip, the total had come to 354 euros including a 146 euro fee paid to doyoudo spain for the car hire voucher.

164 euros to firefly for fuel extra insurance and tax.

As I had been coming to spain for 8 years and never paid this much to hire cars I checked a few website carhire links and came up with a few variations on cost for a 7 day period in august and cheapest I found was a arguscarhire  at  202 euros including fuel extra insurance  etc.

And another of 352 euros with europcar  one of the 3 or 4 mega expensive rental firms I never use.

With this information I returned the car to the firefly desk.

Only one of the women was on duty the one who had no sympathy, very much like a young school head mistress with no compassion what so ever, I approached gave the keys over and asked for a copy of the accident report I had given them which I had forgot to collect the previous night.

I got this then began to ask about what had the boss said about my complaint, she began by saying it was not her I was dealing with as it was her colleuge

And she knew nothing of this phone call, yet it was her that was interpreting my comments on the night of the first return.

I tried to explain the predicament I was in and how unfair I was being treated but she was a complete blank wall, it was as if she was trained to not have any compassion or emotion and just keep stating that is our policy there is no flexibility to change contracts or give refunds.

I explained that the information in trying to sell me the extra insurance was that they said I would have to pay a 400 euro excess if I did not take it assuming I had an accident.

When I read the policy from doyou do spain it said full cdw and nothing about any excess, I was now feeling this is simply a rouse to get you to buy the extra cover.

When I put this to the lady at firefly she said we have our policy and doyyoudo spain have another.

What is that supposed to mean? So I buy a contract with doyyoudo spain that has didly sqwat to do with the car hire contract I was taking on?

I reiterated the point and she just said you must take that up with doyoudo spain, we do not operate that way, that is our policy.

I continued to stand my ground much to the annoyance of the queue forming behind me.

I really hope none of you have an accident whilst your in spain.

Mika all of these companies are a band of crooks. Goldcar told ne the same that DYS operate on a different set of rules to the actual car companies,STAY AWAY FROM BOTH GOLDCAR  and DYS.

as for DYS i thought it was owned by justin who owns eyeonspain, thats why i trusted it.

I have used DYS for many years and never had a problem until the last time in May when Goldcar took extra money on my credit card without asking.  I don't think that Justin is anything to do with DYS but I could be wrong!  They have had the best deals 99% of the time although with others if you book very early you can get better.  Its certainly worrying that the car rental companies say that the info that DYS give you regarding insurance etc.. is totally different to theirs!  I've always taken the extra insurance to cover for glass, wheels etc... as its not that much and you think that you are then covered for every eventuality! I'm just so glad that we now have our own car and don't need to worry about hiring one!

just to add to the mix, the time before in june we used carjet, and they put us with dickmans, i had an accident on a round about at fairly slow speed, i felt the spanish driver either was not looking or diliberatly hit me, any way this caused body only damage, which i asumed i would be responsible for, but looking at the carjet booking details it said full cdw and no excess, dickmans tried to say that what carjet does is different to them, so who`s contract are you actually buying?

your handing over money to a broker (carjet/DYS) surly they have a responsability to honor what they say they are selling to you.

and it seems bad that i have had two accidents the last two time in spain but i was trouble free for 8 years and 8 trips before that. i find driving in spain better than the uk, less traffic for one. i have driven all over the world, and not had a problem untill that roundabout thing, but each time the extra insurance would not have made any difference to the outcome, as no wheels or glass where damaged only body work, and ofcouarse the 400 euro excess that firefly anounced they would charge if i did not have the extra insurance.