Farocar, www.farocar.com Review

Overall Rating

The company provided us with an almost new Peugeout 207 which was reliable and a smooth drive. However........ This company were VERY unreliable. Before we arrived in the Algarve they agreed to deliver the car to us at our resort in Lagos for 11 am, my partner has had his license for less than a year but they reassured me that this would not be a problem. On the day the car was due to be delivered Faro Car rang up to say that they would be bringing at 3pm instead of 11am. We had been relying on using the car that day but had to change our plans due to its late arrival. We returned to the hotel at 3pm and waited around but no car arrived. At 4pm I rang the company who I found to be rude and unapologetic, stating that it wasn't easy for them at this time of year (August) and telling me that they would try and get it there by 5.30 pm - when I asked what discount they would give us for the car being a day late the member of staff I was speaking to said she could not authorise any kind of discount. I asked to speak to the manager and I was told they would call me back. Surprise, surprise no-one called back. When the car turned up at 5.45 the memeber of staff delivering it had no idea that we had even contacted the company. After much discussion, they would only (grudgingly) knock 10 euros off the price which we accepted as we needed the car and a whole day of our holiday had been wasted already. At this point they explained that my partner would not be able to drive the car despite their reasurances to the contrary when I booked it. When it came to dropping off the car at Faro airport we almost missed our flights, we went to drop the car where they had instructed but were not allowed to enter the parking bay where we had been told to leave the vehicle on the grounds that the car was "not authorised". No-one from faro car was available on any of their phone numbers or at the airport. With just 40 mins before our plane was due to leave a Faro car rep was eventually located who was rude and unapologetic for the problems, offering no explanation. Every dealing with this company was stressful and unpleasant.

Members' Comments onsmythzy's Review

• pacc on 27th Aug 2008

  On behalf of FAROCAR I would like to inform to any visitor watching this review that we did provide a really nice new vehicle, a bit late because they were at a long distance (on the opposite side of the Algarve), and sometimes due to traffic or work flow we can get a bit late. Besides that everything was fine and they didn't make any complaint whilst in Portugal.

• smythzy on 28th Aug 2008

  In response to the above comment, I feel that I should explain what really happened. I wrote the review to share my, and my husband's, experience with this company, and to allow other potential customers to make an informed decision when choosing an algarve car rental company.
  I had no idea that Faro car would even see this review so you can imagine my surprise when they phoned me at home. The manager phoned me at home on two occasions, asking me to remove the review in exchange for reduced car rental if I returned to Portugal, I declined this offer. During this telephone conversation they acknowledged that everything in the review was factually accurate. At no point have I tried to use the review to extort a free holiday from the company, as far as I know their business is cars not holidays. I had no wish to ever deal with this company again but had no choice when they phoned my home, after 20 minutes of talking to the manager of the company and wanting nothing more to do with them, I asked if they wanted to give me a refund if they felt so strongly about the review. They declined, and that's fine - I just wanted them to leave me alone and to stop calling me at home.
  All consumers have the right to make informed decisions and I would be very wary of any company that is prepared to go to such lengths to stop an honest, accurate review from being available online.