written by 472McNeill on 04/06/2021
Autoescape is acting as a broker, which means that they charge you the car rental price before you actually get the car. If the actual car rental company refuses or cannot give you a car for any reason, Autoescape will make sure to keep your money regardless. This happened to me, and I tried calling their customer service. Their attitude was clear from the very beginning, they were rude and trying to find whatever reason to have you be the only responsible, and deny any reimbursement: - you arrived 5 minutes late (because your flight was delayed, or because there was a big line at the rental agency or any other reason) --> that's your fault and you won't get reimbursed - the car rental company is asking for a proof of residency or for an international driving license --> that's on you for not checking all of the renter conditions (plus, those conditions can change from a location to the other) - payed with a debit card --> you should have checked that you needed to pay with a credit ... I'd imagine that their business runs on customers paying Autoescape for a car rental, and customers not getting the service they paid for. That way they never have to pay the car rental company and it's free money for them
written by briceevin on 24/02/2019
Very poor customer service - will never use again. I rented a car in Geneva in Feb2019. I properly filled in my flight details, flying Easyjet arriving at 22:15 on a Friday evening. In the autoescape booking I indicated 22:00 as rental time since it was the closest to my flight arrival time. Having collected my luggage I arrived at the Sixt desk at 22:40 and found the place completely empty with no sign of any Sixt employees. People at the next counter told me Sixt employees left already 15mn earlier, meaning they waited for me less than 15mn after my flight had landed. So late on a friday night I had no other choice than to rent from another car company and paid the premium price. I was very lucky because first there were no cars left but an unhappy customer returned th car just an hour after renting it. When i called autoescape customer service, they refused to give my money back and ask to claim the money from the airline company!!! This is just a joke. In the end it cost me 500 euros to rent a car for only 4 days! Will never use autoescape again. If your flight is delayed or you wait your luggage too long, they cannot garantee your car. How can you trust them? AVOID at ALL costs!
written by 310Wallace on 21/10/2017
hired a car through Autoescape to be picked up at Milan Airport from an off-airport site. However Autoescape provided the wrong name of the car hire company and misleading information as to how to find them. ended up wasting 1 1/2 hours trying to track them down and I wasn't the only one. have put in a complaint over a month ago but they haven't bothered responding. Avoid at all costs.
written by Conway421 on 21/09/2017
I arrived at destination a couple of hours late to find that the car rental no longer had the car I had reserved and already paid for, but a slightly larger one that came at extra cost. Being late picking up a car at an airport destination is very common and I guess the reason why you give your flight number is also so that they can see whether there are any delays. I never had this sort of problem before. When I contacted Autoescape, all they said is that I read the Terms and Conditions and that I could contact the airline asking for compensation.
written by DaiW on 07/07/2017
Just had a terrible experience with AutoEscape for 1 week rental. They are brokers not car rental company so whatever you do ensure that you have read all the T&C line by line. Or else you will have a surprise. I wanted to cancel my rental as I have found much cheaper for a much larger vehicle. The UK T&C indicate total refund if done 24 hours prior to rental date but as I was renting in France it became the French T&C and so lost 30eur...Or you have a 1 year credit with them .. For sure - I preferred losing 30eur 1 time than dealing with them in the future
written by 177Baldwin on 05/07/2017
I rented a car for 2 days last week. When booking the car I specifically looked for a deal that included unlimited mileage and a one way rental, and paid more for this. After renting the car, the rental company sent me a bill for these additional points, doubling the cost of the rental. On reviewing the documentation from Autoescape, I find that on the 3rd page of the email confirmation, they've included different conditions to what I had signed up for. Short story, do not believe what Autoescape advertise. You will be charged more. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
written by 346Hay on 23/06/2017
I went on auto escape car hire website booked a vehicle for use in Italy then later after booking confirmation they asked for €1500 as deposit. They took half of the money I paid as cancellation. Their communication is bad no good English. Please don't book with them unless you live in Portugal where they got office.
written by Cookeml167 on 02/06/2017
One star is too generous for the current service this company provides. I have booked a car, confirmed and paid in advance. On pick up time, the car was not available, their call centre was closed and guess what, it was nobody's fault!. I was forced to book a new car at a higher cost through another car renta at a much higher price on the day. As the call centre opened on Monday I called autoescape to try an recover the money I had paid for the service not provided. Terrible customer service. They have not yet refunded the money and claiming they are not responsible for the issue. It is scary to think such companies are free to operate online. Never again!
written by 80Woodard on 21/05/2017
Virtually all information on the voucher was wrong. I checked with both parties before my trip and the AutoEscape said "if there are differences we will refund the claim". The difference was 320€ on a 120€ hire. Yes, I ended up paying 320€ more and the rip-off company claims that they cant do anything since this is between me and the rental car company, because we signed a contract. They take no responsibility for the difference in CDW of 600€ and out of hours charge of 50€. Would rather walk next time. Their low price isn't low when they rob you blind in the end.
written by Mudprawn on 16/03/2017
Booked a car through Autoescape. My account login was sent to me which I clicked on and it said the money had been paid and the booking made. Arrived in South Africa from UK where the car company had said there is no booking. Apparently my payment was rejected. I was not informed and my account on autoescape has always said booking made and paid for. Ended up having to pay additional to rent a car on the spot. Total incompetence and pathetic service.
written by Jimmyq231 on 07/11/2016
Awful! I regularly travel to and from Ireland and each time I use comparison websites to book a car. On this occasion I decided to use Autoescape as they were offering me what I thought was the best deal. I booked my car and received an email from them immediately after. Two days before I travelled I signed in to print off my booking confirmation and found that my booking had been cancelled. I rang autoescape and they told me the car I booked wasn't available so the booking was never confirmed. I asked when they had planned on telling me this and they were adamant an email was sent to me two weeks ago! I regularly check my inbox and junk and informed them that an email had not been received and if it was sent two weeks previously, why would I wait until 2 days before I travel to rectify the situation. Autoescape placed all blame on me and would not take any responsibility, they offered to book me a new car for over six times the price!!!! I had to book through another company and because it was so last minute it was still four times more than I originally paid. When I complained through their online system they were quick to blame me and immediately closed the case, not allowing me to reply! Disgrace!!!
written by Fitchij401 on 07/10/2016
I booked a car in October 2015 for use in December 2015. I had to cancel and asked for a refund. I am only talking £35! I was told I had to have a credit note. OK. I tried to book a car in September this year and was told I could not use the credit note as it was from 2015, I would have to raise a ticket on the website and ask for a refund. I did this. After 2 weeks I get a reply to say I can not get a refuns I will have to make a new booking before October 12th which is in 5 dys. What a bunch of amateurs.
written by sierra32 on 07/10/2016
I have had the most unpleasant experience of ever booking a car with this company. I went online and booked a car for the same day from London Heathrow. I live local. I did not receive any email from them and since it was Sunday, their offices were closed as well so I had no idea where to pick up the car from. I went on their website and tried to modify the booking but it did not allow me. Tried cancel but it also did nothing. I then called them next day on Monday to arrange for a pickup on Monday but they said my booking is cancelled. I opened a ticket with them to investigate and after few days they replied back that they will not refund anything. Such a terrible customer service. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM.
written by Kasey49 on 08/09/2016
FES AIRPORT OR WORLWILDE NEVER RENT WITH AUTO.ESCAPE.COM FAKE RENTING COMPANY.
written by JaneConway72 on 05/08/2016
I made the mistake of using Autoescape, powered by carRentals.com...without checking any reviews. Big mistake, I learned the hard way..having turned up to our location expecting to have a car we were informed by Avis that they had not accepted the booking and cancelled it because they didn't have the soft top car we wanted. Autoescape failed to inform us of this, maybe expecting Avis to give us another car. Avis had no more cars. Autoescape don't have a number you can call on a weekend!! Ridiculous.... Luckily a local company had one available and the holiday was a success. I still have not got my money back from this shoddy outfit for months and they keep fobbing me off saying we failed to get in touch with the local partner. I've got the ombudsman on the case now but I'm not holding my breath as it's an Americsn company. I can probably get my money back from the credit card company but it's not about the money now it's the principle so I will also try a small claims court. Don't use, don't know how they still operate with all the negitave reviews I've found.
written by on 08/04/2016
Please please do not hire from this company. We did not get a car.
written by on 31/03/2016
DO NOT use AutoEscape for rental car bookings! Also, be wary of their affiliates/subsidiaries - carrentals.com and cardelmar.com. They are either dishonest or utterly incompetent and their business is a sham. They are also only a middleman for booking cars through regular rental services - you are MUCH better off dealing with reputable companies directly rather than this third-party site. I cancelled a booking I had made with them in France through their .fr page. When I later tried to use the voucher I had received, I was told that because I was an American, I could not use the French site and thus could not use the voucher. Their rep told me to make a booking through the American affiliate, carrentals.com, and that he would reimburse me the cost of the voucher directly so that I could use the money for the subsequent rental. I did this, but no reimbursement came. When I contacted them after a couple of weeks, they told me that I could not be reimbursed except minus a fee that amounted to more than half the value of the voucher. When I asked them if that meant I could use the voucher from the French site for rentals in other countries, two different representatives both gave me vague answers and would not give me a clear response even when I reiterated the question clearly as a yes or no matter. These representatives were both rude and condescending, acting as if I didn't understand what they were saying, when THEY were failing to understand my questions or give direct answers. They had me on the phone or waiting for their calls for 3 hours and finally told me I could use the voucher in other countries (after also having told me that no, I could not use it in other countries), but that you could only apply the voucher over the phone, not online, so I would have to call them and deal with more rigamarole to try to get it used, and I still don't know if it would work. Finally, I wrote an email to customer service saying that I was dissatisfied with their solutions and that it was absurd that I couldn't either get a full refund or simply use the money I had already paid them for another rental. They responded (which I only discovered after they closed my support ticket, since no notifications were sent to my email) requesting my bank account information, which was never involved in the transaction as I paid with a credit card, and I can only imagine what they "needed" it for. This company may function if your situation is completely straightforward (i.e. renting a car in your own country, running into no situations that might create opportunities to levy fees, and not needing to cancel or modify your reservation), but in any other case, they will attempt to trick you. DO NOT use Auto Escape, Car Rentals, or Car Del Mar!
written by MollieDouglas11 on 04/10/2015
They are a third party website selling "vouchers" for rental cars. (This is not clear while checking out.) What does this mean? It means for a weekend rental, AutoEscape said I owed ~60 Euro, and when I got to the Hertz counter the total ended up being ~$180 Euro. This was absolutely unclear in the check out process. They had phases like, "You're all set for your compact rental" and "check here for extras" and listed a car seat, etc. - all things I didn't need making me think I was set to pick up my rental car. tldr: They mislead you into thinking that you're paying up front for the total rental, but that may not be the case. I cancelled the order, but they did not process my cancellation as promised and it has been nearly 2 weeks.
written by lilice0 on 03/09/2015
Autoescape will provide you with the worst service ever!! I wouldn't even call it a "service" in fact. I rented a car via this website and subscribed to the "premium" insurance, just to be on the safe side. I unfortunately had an accident with my rental car and had to spend hundreds of euros to fix the car. But this wasn't the worst part. I then got in touch with autoescape and discovered that they have a totally FAKE CUSTOMER SERVICE. They kept on giving me various numbers to call... to then tell me that I should email them... to then tell me that I should open a claim on their website. Once I finally got to this point, they carried on with slowing down the process. They pretended that they couldn't open the documents I had sent, and asked me to resend them but did so one by one, week by week. it took forever. They basically try to exhaust you so you give up and stop asking for a refund. And they are good at it. I sent my first request over two months ago and I am still waiting for them to give any kind of info regarding my refund. Avoid them like the plague!
written by altequilas on 12/08/2015
If you take an insurance with them make sure you declare any accident maximum two days after it happens otherwise you won't get your money back, also if you try to contact them, GOOD LUCK, so basically you have to declare the accident maximum two days after it happened but you can't get in touch with them, can you see the problem? Just pay a tad extra with another car rental company, it's definitely be worth it if you have any problems.
Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site
As rated by our community of reviewers