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Rentalcars.com

1.6

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Rentalcars.com Reviews Summary

The company has garnered a predominantly negative reputation, with numerous customers expressing frustration over inadequate customer service and unresolved refund issues. Common complaints include misleading pricing, unexpected charges at pickup, and a lack of accountability when problems arise. Many reviewers felt deceived by promotions that did not translate into actual benefits, leading to perceptions of false advertising. While there are occasional mentions of successful rentals, the overall sentiment indicates a significant distrust in the company's practices, suggesting a pressing need for improved transparency and responsiveness to customer concerns.

This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews

service
383
value
359
shipping
197
returns
268
quality
313

We monitor reviews for authenticity

New York
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Susan S.
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Was told on the website when I reserved the car, that I paid $65 deposit to hold the rental -- checked my cc and found an additional $81 charge. Tried calling them numerous times, was on hold each time for 10+ minutes; left messages for them to return my call -- no one ever did -- cancelled car rental six weeks prior to trip -- was charged $65 cancellation fee. These people are awful.

Date of experience: June 1, 2019
Germany
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow George M.
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They suck. I wanna lol that statement but I can't. They took the money ASAP, messed up the reservation and now I'm stuck without money and my car... the day before my trip.

I really wish I had seen the reviews before hand...

Lesson learned. Avoid at all costs!

Date of experience: May 28, 2019
Virginia
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Robin B.
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Never again i will rent from them, my bigger mistake renting from them. Stay way from them, i rather rental form so american comapnies.
( Ref#*******)

Date of experience: May 24, 2019
TW
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow kuangtao c.
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This car rental company is outrageously irrational from their service offered to the customer. They are mistreating the customer which not only that, they deem the customer's request by refuse the customer service purchase even the bank informed us that the consumption has been acknowledged, where the transaction has been charged. Our credit card issuing bank is confused why the transaction been cancelled due to the internal security check from RentCars.com, and we could not understand the negative response coming from RentalCars with mean and brutal refusal comments to tell us never book from their website again if we like to rent car on their website. DO NOT USED THIS CAR RENTAL AGENCY, IT IS EXTREMELY LOUSY AND YOU WILL CERTAINLY BE REGRETED IF YOU HAVE EVER GIVE A TRY ON IT!

Date of experience: May 23, 2019
Australia
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Angela T.
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My husband and I have booked a 9 seater Van from Rome to Milan in June this year. Our travel plans changed & I called to request the van be dropped off two days earlier. I was informed that I could lose the van booking altogether, and be allocated a smaller car instead (impractical as there are 8 adults plus luggage) AND I would have to pay a higher amount? I wish I had read the reviews on these SCAM ARTISTS before I booked through them. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES hire a car through this mob EVER.

Date of experience: May 20, 2019
Iceland
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Thor T.
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Found a nice car for good price for 14 days, month after i ordered the car i get a mail that the car has been canceled because the system didn't register a letter in my name. No mail to change the letters or anything to let me know there is a problem, just one letter that the car has been canceled, when I call them they don't want to do anything to help other than rent me the same car for 4 times the amount. Stay away from this company.

Date of experience: May 20, 2019
Canada
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Kathie M.
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I rented a car and my flight was delayed by hours. No vehicles available. After several hours trying to contact someone at this company they cancelled the existing booking and rebooked another car. 2 months and many emails and still no credit for the original rental. What a bunch of crooks. Worst business practice ever.

Date of experience: May 15, 2019
Illinois
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Giovanni B.
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I rented a car back in April with this company, I prepaid for a car for the weekend, they supposedly contracted it through Thrifty rental, when I arrived at the airport the person at the front counter and her manager could not located the reservation even I had a print out and all the numbers with it, when tried to call them, all they give is an international number which I was unable to call to from my cell phone. After spending about 2hrs the manager at Thrifty and myself gave up looking and had to rent a car on the spot for double the cost. Next day I contacted Rentalcars.com to try to get a refund and they said that it was hard to get a refund... they played around and said they would look into it... I have sent several emails and NO answer has been received, when I finally got someone on the phone, they asked for proof of the rental agreement I had to re-do... then again after sending all paperwork, copies via email, weeks have gone by and no answer received. This company is the absolute WORSE!. I am disputing the charges with the credit card company and they can deal with this "company". I give them one star and that's only because is the least required to leave a review. They deserve none!

Date of experience: May 13, 2019
Norway
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow PieterJan B.
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Third time that I used rentalcars.com. No problems with the first two times. This time, booked a car through them for a holiday trip, supplier was Sicily by Car at Rome Fiumicino airport, reservation in January for a trip in April. Rentalcars.com charged my credit card immediately in January. When trying to make the 1000 deposit in April Sicily by Car claimed that my Visa credit card didn't work. First time in 30 years that it would not work, and I travel a lot for work. We called the credit card company representative in Finland on the spot, and they confirmed that there is no problem with my Visa credit card, nor with the deposit amount, but the credit card machine of Sicily by Car is faulty, causing the Visa computer to refuse the confirmation. They told us a way to bypass the problem (feed the data manually), and wanted to talk with the SbC representative directly. Sicily by Car representative didn't want to do neither. We then offered my wife's Visa credit card to be charged for the deposit + 60 for additional driver, with sufficient credit, but the same problem occurred, as their credit card machine is faulty. We then offered a third credit card (Diners Club) and they refused this card. Sicily by Car representative then didn't want to talk anymore with me. We called rentalcars.com. No reply. We ended up renting a car on the spot at another rental company, including a deposit, using my same Visa card, total sum about the same as the original deposit. No problems whatsoever with my Visa card or the new car rental. We called rentalcars.com several times and put in a claim to get the rental price back and compensation for the additional, more expensive rental. Very little responses so far (4 weeks since the rental). So far, only the insurance part of the rental sum of the original rental has been returned to my credit card. What should have been a 188 rental has costed me about 580 plus the holiday time lost, phone calls and emails afterwards to rentalcars.com. Never again rentalcars.com!

Date of experience: May 12, 2019
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Antoaneta L.
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We rent and paid for a car with pick up date April 25,2019- airport Sibiu, Romania. When we arrived they said that we can not receive the car because we do not have the international driving permit so they decided to cancel the voucher without our permission and charged us with 144.91$ -cancellation fee. For customers from outside of European Union you need to be more clear about this international driving permit, where we can obtain this permit and how long we can use this permit in Europe! For an American, Canadian, Australian, Asian, it will be helpful!

Date of experience: May 9, 2019
Florida
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Thieves!
May 9, 2019

Don't rent from this website! SCAM! HIDDEN CHARGES! UNAUTHORIZED CHARGES! Please Go with EXPEDIA or another company!

Date of experience: May 9, 2019
Ireland
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Hidden costs
May 7, 2019

Pick up and drop off were in different countries which made rental expensive. Fair enough. "No hidden cost" was mentioned on their website when booking the car, referring to those costs. Unfortunately, that was not the case. At pickup I has to pay additional costs for insurance and different countries for an extra 30 percent. Totally misleading information by this online platform. You better book somewhere else.

Date of experience: May 7, 2019
Ukraine
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Awful company
May 6, 2019

Awful company. Sold me a car with a baby seat, and when we arrived in Turkey the car hire company Green Motion didn't have a seat. They said they've not even received an order for one. So I had to drive illegally to the hotel as it was late and put my babies life at risk. My girlfriend and baby couldn't use the car for the rest of the trip so all plans were ruined.
Rentalcars since offered me £22 refund for the car seat and no other compensation. An absolute insult. I use this company all the time, at least 5 times per year. Won't be doing any more. The customer service is horrific.

Date of experience: May 6, 2019
Ireland
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Marie d.
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They send me 2 receipts.
They stole our money, never wanted to refund us.
Really, they are dishonnest, never had a bad experience like this to rent a car.

DON'T BOOK WITH THEM!

Date of experience: May 3, 2019
Spain
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Sebastian P.
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Worst company ever! PLEASE GET AWAY FROM THIS PEOPLE SCAMMERS! JUST GETTING YOUR MONEY AND THEN>>> VERY CONFUSING TERMS AND CONDITION>... THEY TOOK MY MONEY AND THEN they toll me that I can not rent a car because I'm Canadian and I need international Driver's Licence! CRAZY SCAMMERS,, GET AWAY FROM THIS RENT A CAR COMPANY IN MADRID. THEY COULD TELL ME THAT IN THE FRONT DESK... BUT NO! THEY TOLL ME JUST CALL TO THIS Number to get your money back... and then. Nothing... The manager "Porfirio Plaza" toll me that they won't be able to give me my money back! SCAMMERS!

Date of experience: May 2, 2019
Missouri
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow suhail J.
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Stolen from me $71 with no service. Stay away and save your money, Stay away and save your money, Stay away and save your money,

Date of experience: May 2, 2019
Ireland
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Shane O.
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Absolute terrible to deal with and nearly left me standing at counter in italy with my family because they gave me false information about booking with debit card but when the sent me the list of things and said it must be credit card. I have the whole conversation screen shot
Will never use this company again

+4
Date of experience: May 2, 2019
Missouri
1 review
6 helpful votes
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I rented a car from Economy Car Rentals at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The agent tried to sell me an electronic key that would allow me to use the Florida toll roads. The daily cost was $9.95. I was told that if I did not buy this device and used the toll roads there would be a minimum charge of $100. He also insisted that all the colored roads on the Florida map were toll roads and that there were no toll booths on these roads that you could pay in cash. He even drew a route on the map showing the local roads and the length of time it would take driving if I did not use a toll road.

This was all a blatant lie since the Florida Interstate is not a toll road and there are toll booths on the toll roads.

This is not an honest company.

Date of experience: April 28, 2019
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Website Nightmare
April 25, 2019

I booked a car for $69 for five days in Miami. There was a lot of copy in the confirmation indicating that there could be other fees and a need to bring a letter from your credit card company. It was very confusing. The confirmation did not show any taxes or other fees which would have to be added. I I then saw many negative reviews about the company. I tried to cancel my reservation but it would not accept my booking number There was no phone number. It took a half hour to cancel the reservation.

Date of experience: April 25, 2019
New York
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
Follow Muhieldin S.
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Bad customer service, difficult to reach or contact them, difficult to deal with and are there to take your money and run away with it. Please Please steer clear and away from them.
After three hours on the phone to cancel due to additional unexpected charges a d three weeks later, they have reversed my cancellation a d took my money. I booked the same car from the same supplier independently, cheaper and treated with respect. You do not need a middle man/company to rob you off.

Date of experience: April 25, 2019