Goldcar Car Rental - Help

Goldcar Car Rental - Help

Author
Discussion

KenJ

Original Poster:

122 posts

148 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
Hi all,

In August this year my girlfriend and I spent 2 weeks in Tuscany, Italy. We arrived on 02/08/14 and rented a car until 07/08/14. This rental was prebooked through Holiday Autos and paid in advance on my credit card. When we came to pick the car up from Pisa airport I was charged an additional amount at the Goldcar desk for a full tank of fuel - unfortunately this was not optional! I returned the car on 07/08/14 with no damaged and circa quarter of a tank of fuel. An amount was then refunded back to my credit card roughly 3 weeks later for the quarter tank of fuel I returned the car with.

Skip forward to this evening and I was checking my credit card statement online and noticed a charge on 09/12/14 for 40 Euro by Goldcar italy. This is 4 months after the end of the hire period.

I am absolutely livid; in my mind this is tantamount to theft and is an unauthorised card transaction. The full amount for hire car and additional fuel was paid for in August.

Can anyone recommend an official UK based commission I can contact to make a complaint to?

Thanks for reading, apologies for the long post!

rix

2,776 posts

189 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
Your credit card company

NNH

1,515 posts

131 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
To get a credit card refund under section 75 of the CCA, you should first contact the rental agency to ask for a refund. If (when) that doesn't come through, call your credit card and they will refund you directly.

Puggit

48,354 posts

247 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
It may well be a fine from the police - lots of tourists get them for driving in to city centres which tend to be resident only.

As above, find out what it's for. Consider changing your credit card to prevent any more (a friend received 6!)

The Leaper

4,937 posts

205 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Yes, many towns in Italy have central areas with restricted access for cars and are usually poorly signposted. Must be the locals have a way of generating revenue from the uninformed.

R.

Chucklehead

2,729 posts

207 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
have you contacted Goldcar?

andy43

9,546 posts

253 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
You're lucky - in Portugal I've heard they force you to take and pay for a full tank, and expect you to use the lot, with no refunds.
Goldcar - avoid - google them.
Extra charge as already said could be a fine though...

KenJ

Original Poster:

122 posts

148 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Hi all.. Thanks for the information. I've contacted Goldcar, turns out some of you were right. They've charged me 40 euro as an administration charge for a fine. The fine will be sent to me soon and I've no idea how much it'll be for! Hopefully not too much!

LuS1fer

41,083 posts

244 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
Don't pay the fine, they can't enforce it. I doubt they will send you anything. The 40 Euros may be the fine.

Goldcar are no worse than any other car rental company. They nearly all fleece you for a full tank of fuel at a premium price and you were very lucky to get a refund, most won't.

The Tea Boy

4,129 posts

234 months

Sunday 28th December 2014
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
Goldcar are no worse than any other car rental company. They nearly all fleece you for a full tank of fuel at a premium price and you were very lucky to get a refund, most won't.
RE Gold Car;
This!

I have to say, on a trip to Mallorca last month I priced the car hire up and goldcar were the cheapest, including having to pay for a full tank at their prices. So as lusifer says, they are all as bad as each other.

Matt