Goldcar car hire
 

Hello

Does anyone have any idea what the queues for Goldcar car hire will be like end of December? Also their service etc, I know they don't score highly.

I've seen a very good offer, £27, for 8 days hire of a Nissan Juke on Holiday Autos.

Thanks for any advice.

Oh no. Not letting you loose in a car are they? Must put my bike and roller skis away that week.

Steer clear my friend, steer clear!

Haha v funny, I like that. Describe yourself, bike, colours of your naff Lycra and route with favoured times and I'll come and find you!!

:cool:

Fair comment but why please?
Personal experience preferred rather than hearsay!

We used them for years and they were very good, but we got sick and tired of the massive queues and found the quality if he cars dipped.

Then this forum became full of criticism, particularly about charges for so called "Damage" when returning cars and Goldcar don't seem to be the firm that they once were.

I'll admit that some of what I say is "hearsay", though lifted from this Forum, that I gave come to trust implicitly.

On that basis I have always believed that you get what you pay for, so I always use Sixt, who have been absolutely excellent and have really good quality nearly new cars. But clearly more expensive.

Hi Nick
We have used them a few times but every time they insist that you take out extra insurance to cover the excess payment should you have an accident. The last time I said I didn't want to do this as I could pay the excess should it happen. The woman insisted. I insisted and in the end after much arguing she refused to give me the car keys unless I took the insurance. In the end I had to do it or have no car. So just be aware that the £27 you have been quoted will not be what you end up paying. This is why the queue is so long because you think you are picking up a fully paid for car but instead you are subject to a full on sales pitch which you are powerless to avoid. I would never use them again. We used Vanrell this time and they were excellent.

I doubt anyone actually pays the advertised £27 for 8 days.
tripadvisor comments also give you an idea of how it really is.

Terry's Car Hire every time for me. Simple procedure, no queues no extra selling, all insurance included just pick up and drop off.
Great company.

I always find Tery's to be expensive even with the all included insurances etc. am i missing something? I normally use Centauro or Hiper.

I am someone else that has got fed up with Goldcar both for add charges and 'finding' damage weeks after car was returned.

For last three years I have only used Vanrell. Not the cheapest but I have always found them straightforward and honest (yes!); respond to email queries promptly; only take the credit card payment 24 hours before collection and no queuing either when collecting car or returning.

We've stuck with Goldcar and have had some very long queues over the years but have to say our last two trips have been a much better experience. They now have a ticket system for the queue and more people on the desk. We were given a diagram showing any existing scratches, but always check the car before we leave the airport and take photos and report back if we find anything else. We have never paid the excess insurance or got a bill for damage. Maybe we've been fortunate but they are still the cheapest and will continue to use them.

Phew cos I've booked my Nissan Jute with them for £21 in the end! Did it with Holiday Autos and paid £41 full insurance with them as well. I know it's a lot for insurance but I'd rather have it.
I will, as always like you Debz, take a video before and after hire.
Can't see queue being too long late December and we only ever have carry on luggage anyway.
Like the fact they now do a diagram of marks and scratches etc. Very useful.
If I remember I'll report back early January on my experience!

Goldcar. As they say even Dick Turpin wore a mask.

They will probably still argue the fact that you will be underinsured by not taking Goldcar Insurance and also that you will have to organise your own recovery if you break down!! :eek:

They can argue but I'm only interested about the facts of the insurance.
The recovery thing is interesting though.
Does anyone know how much Goldcar's own insurance is for 7 days at all?
My booking with Holiday Autos says I can cancel the insurance anyway. If it's roughly the same price then to save any aggro I'd just go with Goldcar's insurance.

A word of warning. In November we booked a car with Goldcar through doyouspain. When we picked up we were asked to leave a swipe of our credit card in case of damage. When we returned home and checked our credit card statement we discovered they had actually taken the 1400 euros when we picked up and credited us back the 1400 euros when we returned. This resulted in a loss of £110 because of the change in the euro rate. They were not supposed to do this and when challenged by doyouspain on our behalf we were told it was because they thought it was a debit card not a credit card! Eventually they refunded us around £80 of the £110 but we are still out if pocket and Doyouspain appear to have given up despite my many emails. We will never use either Goldcar or DoyouSpain again. We feel Doyouspain have a duty to refund this to us but strangely they don't seem to see it like that!

That's appalling! There is a huge thread on TA about Goldcar. I'm amazed anyone ever books with them but they do.

We've used Goldcar direct for many years now after some poor experiences with 'local' firms. Always had current model low mileage cars. We now use kiosk service to walk in collect key away in 5 mins...yes, you have to pay full insurance to get that, but no more expensive than anyone else. Join their club for points & discount deals..£27 per day OK in July, esp when considering cost of 4 transfers...no connection with them, by the way

How much is the goldcar insurance? If more than £7 per day and using hire car for longer than a week in a year, you'd be better off with this:

https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/#0

You have to leave a credit card pre-authorisation (as outlined by the person who had problems) for about €1100 with Goldcar (most other companies pre-authorise €600 - €750) but they should not charge your card only authorise the amount (it is against their trading conditions with Visa/MasterCard to take a charge so it would easily be charged back and refunded).

Yeah you have to pay and then claim back if you do have any problems that is not covered on the compulsory insurance so it depends if you think the saving is worth the hassle. For someone who rents for nearly 3 months a year, it is a big saving for us.

Make sure you use a credit card for the pre-authorisation not a debit card, though. They can and will charge the debit card and then refund.

Nick

We do exactly the same as Bircho and cover the excess charges with Icarinsurance and have done now for 3 years. The website is much improved and they have tried to cater for the issues on being insured or not. Undoubtedly this is a reaction to the frequent arguments people had on arriving at the desk. The employees have been much less pushy this year and we arrived 2 days ago and met no queues and had a very affable discussion over the insurance. I have tried others but always come back to Goldcar, the cars are nearly always low mileage and if you manage the insurance issue properly the best value for money. They are also again offering a full/full service which means you can't get stitched up on the cost of a full tank either. Hopefully the queues will be ok at the high season but you can always pay for express service if you wish. I think they have pretty much got it spot on now in balancing customer needs with their need to make a
Decent profit. Chelsea dons

Has the Goldcar pickup kiosk moved from the ground floor of the car park to first floor this year?

Smg yes it has moved to 1st floor.

Bircho, just to explain further. They did refund my credit card when challenged, it's just that in doing so, with exchange rate changes, I got back in sterling £110 less on the 1400 euros then they took. They have now given me a further £80 back but I am still around £30 out of pocket. I don't think that's fair given the fact that taking the money in the first place, rather than just a swipe, was their error. It's like any company, you only find out how good they are when you have a problem.

Did you check at POS whether it was pre-auth or charge? It states it on the machine. Also you could have charged back through you cc company and you would have got the original amount back.

The problem was goldcar believed, we've no idea why, that our credit card was a debit card! For that reason they decided to take the money rather than just a swipe. This wasn't mentioned to us when we were stood in front of them collecting the car so I think actually it may have been a slip of the hand. Anyway, that's where all the problems started. This was in November and it still isn't resolved. Really just need to give up I think. But it's a matter of principal!

Sorry, yes it was supposed just to be a pre authorised amount

After my hefty praise of Goldcar I found they did the same to me this time Kingsley , transferred the lot to my credit card. I have started the dispute process so will see how I get on !! Instead of a 10 day charge of £236.68 , I'm currently out of pocket for £1582.66 !!!!!

smg Im sorry I misread your post the other day!

The Goldcar kiosk where you drop off keys is still on the ground floor. The Cars are parked for collection on the 1st floor.

ah, so do you still collect keys from the kiosk at ground floor?

Just used Goldcar for a quick day trip, got online price of 1.98 euro for a day (yes, 1 euro 98 cents) so paid in advance.

Queue was ok, a lot less than Record, no query over the 1.98 but tried to hard sell me full insurance for 68 euro for a day.

Left deposit, brand new never used car, full tank so just paid for what used.

Used 11 euro of fuel, and was charged 35 euro admin fee as per their T&Cs !!! Still cheaper than most other prices I looked at - just wish they'd be more transparent with their full costs

Good luck Chelseadons, I hope the refund goes okay for you. Goldcar now believe they have refunded me the money they took and no longer wish to discuss. But they are refunding in Euros and I am receiving sterling so in the end I am still out of pocket. Not a lot if money I know (just under £30) but we only had the car for two days! I think the car hire was in itself only around £30. And it's their mistake! Never mind, I'm sure they won't miss us as a customer!

smg you collect the keys form the kiosk in the terminal. You drop off the keys at the kiosk on the first floor the car park...as I said in my original post. My husband confused me and said it was the ground floor, and as I always bow to his greater knowledge I conceded ...he was incorrect :rolleyes:

We flew back last night and I can confirm this is correct info and will ignore my husband in future!

This is a great site for excess insurance.

Compare Car Hire Excess Insurance

Europcar buys Goldcar for

Interesting article on the sale of Goldcar to Europcar.

Used them twice in the last two months....brand new Fiesta last week - excellent both times, had to have the 1,000euro excess put on my credit card, but having my own insurance meant in was ok with that - if i had a knock not sure i'd be okay tho'.

Get the feeling who ever wrote the article doesn't like Goldcar. Not quite sure what it was that made me think it, can't quite put my finger on it.