My advice is to avoid Dickmanns

After reading through some of the reviews about Dickmanns car hire I can confirm that these things do happen. I have been hiring from Dickmanns from Alicante airport 3 or 4 times per year for many years and found them to be no trouble at all. In fact as they are so efficient at picking up from the airport and then getting me on the road I have stuck with them. Over the past year I have noticed that things have changed and they would not return my 950euro deposit unless I asked for it back. I last hired a car from Dickmanns in January 2017 and, unfortunately, the agent that dealt with me was impatient and aggressive. As I didn’t buy their daily insurance he gave me a car with many scratches and marks, the remote locking did not work and the key was held together with sticky tape. The agent was impatient and clearly did not like me inspecting the car for chips etc. As there were so many chips it would have been very difficult for me to point them all out to the agent. Upon my return, the agent must have been waiting for me as he went straight to some marks that he knew I hadn’t indicated on the form. I pointed out that they were probably sustained as a normal part of driving but he refused to accept that saying that it was my entire fault. Stones etc. thrown up by another car cannot be my fault.
Five weeks after returning home I still hadn’t had my deposit refunded, as usual, so I had to ask Dickmanns for it to be returned. The response from them was that 350euro would be returned - sometime. When I pointed out that my deposit was 950euro only then did Dickmanns say that they were confiscating 600euro for stone chip damage to the car. The lesson to be learned here is that if you really have to hire from Dickmanns then you must take out their insurance otherwise you will be charged for stone chip damage caused by other cars. With a 600euro charge per hire it won’t take Dickmanns long before the car has been paid for, which suggests that they are running a capitation scheme to pay the capital cost of the car. It’s a win-win for them and a lose-lose for their customers. As a footnote to this review, Dickmanns will not tell me what their policy is on fair wear and tear. I give them two stars for efficient collection from the airport and no stars for customer service.