Awful experience

Drivalia Car Rental - www.drivalia.com
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Jamienoddle's review of Drivalia Car Rental - www.drivalia.com

“Awful experience ”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Jamienoddle on 15/07/2016

Be very very careful when considering this company. We booked online through a broker and never again! They knew we had limited paperwork on us at the desk and so they tried to co. us by saying we had no insurance added to the booking and that we had not even paid for the rental and then tried taking our paperwork and putting at the back so we never had access to it! Then we started to get suspicious as they then worked out a cost which was for the rental again even though we had paid and told us to cancel with the company we booked with on line as they could get it cheaper!! This was all completely false as all we needed to pay was the excess deposit. Very very very sneaky and they started off nice like they were trying to help but really trying to get more money from you by confusing you! When i then rang the original company to see what was happening the guy then behind the counter got very rude and said he could not serve us and refused to speak with the original agent we booked through on line because he knew damn right what he was trying to do and got caught out!!! His whole attitude changed and was an awful experience in the office. It seems like this is a crafty co. they are doing so be very aware of this company as they try and extract more money from you even though you have already paid! They tell you you just give a card number at booking stage to make you think thats right but really its all paid and premium insurance pre paid as we added this at booking stage and luckily bought an email up whilst stood in the office confirming all we had fully paid for which paperwork does not confirm very well which obviously they use to there advantage!but they fool you and try to take the booking over themselves gaining the whole cost if not more again. Don't use this company and pay a bit more to use a trusted company. We ended up having no choice but to pay for a taxi to Torreveijca at 60 euros and having to re arrange car hire completely again from our hotel room whilst on our holiday. BE WARNED. Basically they just wanted us to pay again and once back home in uk it would of been impossible to get a refund as to difficult to prove!! Really annoyed about this experience today and can't quite believe it happened.

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Johnc8's Response to Jamienoddle's Review

Written on: 18/07/2016

I had exactly the same experience. I was charged double cost for a tank of fuel, paid a Euors2000 deposit that will take 45 days to return and threatened that any damage will be charged at 3 times the cost unless I took their insurance.....which I didn't need. No attempt to show/explain the car to me either. Awful service. All because I had booked via a broker.

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Drivalia_Car_Rental's reply to Johnc8's Comment

Written on: 04/08/2016

Dear Customer,

Fuel is more expensive here (like most car hire companies) due to the operating costs of running pumps and employing staff to refuel cars. This is why our standard packages are all FULL TO FULL. We do however offer a low cost FULL to EMPTY package but because of the higher fuel prices we reduce the car hire price to compensate. So if you pay for fuel here you generally benefit from a very low cost car hire.

We publish the amount of deposits which vary from 1000 - 2000 euros depending on the car group and level of insurance in the package you book (in many cases a deposit is not needed). Most car hire companies physically charge the money and then later refund it but this results in charges for clients and the risk of losses with fluctuations in the exchange rate (refund being different amount to the charge). We therefore simply preauthorise deposits which means no charges for the clients but we do have to advise clients that depending on their bank this can take up to a full billing cycle to be available in the account again as this is released automatically and not something we have any control over.

I hope this helps offer a better explanation.

Kind regards
The Drivalia Team

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Drivalia_Car_Rental's Response to Jamienoddle's Review

Written on: 04/08/2016

Dear Customer,

We are sorry if you feel unhappy with the service you received. We strive to deliver outstanding cusotmer service and we are proud that this is reflected in the feedback that we receive regularly from our clients.

To clarify however, we would never try to charge a customer again for a prepaid booking. This is simply not something that we would ever do. The vast majority of our bookings are prepaid either to us directly or to a broker and if there was any mix up over whether a car is prepaid or not this could be down to a simple mix up on the part of the broker and although rare we would always work fast to resolve this.

If you refer to insurance it is very important that you understand that if you purchase cover from a broker this is a completely seperate contract and nothing to do with us. This means that in the event of any damages to the car you are still liable to us for the full charges according to our contract and scale of charges as published on our website. You would need to pay us and then later deal with your insurers to try to reclaim any outlay subject to whatever cover you have with them.

When you take cover from us it is completely different as it directly removes your responsibility to us which means if anything happens you never pay anything to us.

Our team always make sure clients understand this and understand why a deposit is needed if you decline our cover. We may explain the price options for both but of course clients are free to leave a deposit and assume the risk should they choose as long as they are aware of their responsibilities to us.

If you fele that the way that you were dealt with was not to the standard we expect please do email our customer care team and we will look personaly at your booking.

We thank you for using Drivalia.

Kind regards
The Drivalia Team

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