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- jdybnsn2's review
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| Value for Money | 2.9/10  |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 2.7/10 |
By jdybnsn2
on 15th Jul 2008
| Date of hire (month/year) | June 2008 |
|---|---|
| Country & City of hire | Italy (Bergamo Airport) |
| Condition of vehicle | Poor |
| Choice of vehicles | Poor |
| Value for money | 3/10 |
| Overall value | 2/10 |
 jdybnsn2's recommendation | |
If we had scratched or scraped the car, we would not have had to pay for it as it was so badly scratched & scraped already, no one would have noticed ! We had booked an economy car Clio or similar from Bergamo airport. Our booking even had an illustration of a Clio on it and stated Clio however when we got to Bergamo airport we picked up the car from Nationale but they insisted that we were not entitled to a Clio economy class but the next sized down - this was a Fiat Panda. We were not at all happy and despite me showing the illustrated Clio on the paperwork they insisted the mistake was with Holiday Autos, and in their words "this happens all the time". Of course the last thing you want at the start of the holiday is a fight and we were just lucky that having flown with a no frills airline we only had the one suitcase, and several bits of hand luggage...otherwise I don't know how we would have all fitted in the car ?
I have to say Nationale were not impressive in their service ...they gave us directions for picking up the car ..but having walked around the entire airport complex in the hot sun for 40 minutes we couldn't fine the car hire lot and we ended up going back to the desk. The person in charge then claimed he had told us that we needed to catch a pick up bus from out side the arrivals door - which he definitely had not mentioned the first time..or if he had it certainly was not put across in a clear manner !
Eventually,we got to the car lot which is located outside the airport to find we had been allocated a Fiat Panda that had looked like it had been involved in the Italian job ! There wasn't a side or corner of the vehicle that wasn't scraped/scratched ! Though it wasn't overly old ...it certainly wasn't what you'd call a new car !
We pointed out the scratches to the guy at the car lot but he just shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the paperwork which actually did detail the scratches ...so in other words they knew about them , so get on with it !
By this time of course we were in no mood to hang about any longer especially with two fractious kids, and now being over a mile from the airport building, there was no going back....so off we went.
For the benefit of others and not necessarily the fault of HA I would like to say that the road map issued by Nationale was utterly useless - not only did it include the whole of Italy ...to give you an idea of the scale, but it also had strategically place company symbols (obviously location their offices) often placed right over important road junctions. Fortunately we were able to get better (free) road maps from the local Tourist Offices later in our holiday..but it did not make driving from the airport to our destination very easy !
I have put a complaint in about the state of the vehicle and the fact we were not allocated the type of vehicle believed we had paid for ...got an automated response a couple of weeks ago but nothing since - having read these reviews I'm not holding my breath of any decent compensation ...if any at all ! Wish I'd used Auto-europe now, as I've never been disappointed with what they have provide. Don't be swayed entirely by cost !
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