Rentalcars.com
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Rentalcars.com

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Reviews 1,137
5 Stars
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4 Stars
1%
3 Stars
0%
2 Stars
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1 Star
96%

Australia
1 review
5 helpful votes
Follow Javed W.
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BE WARNED
January 18, 2015

BE WARNED. RENTALCARS.COM is a total rip off. Dont use this company or similar web only companies rather go straight to rental car companies itself because I believe these sort of web only companies have several websites. Live in Sydney Australia and booked a car through rentalcars.com but cancelled nearly a month before the booking day but was charged $50.50 dollar fee is way too much for booking a car through a website. At time of booking all this information was not given. It is dodgy and misleading. The actual car rental companies never charged anything for cancellation. Even now the car company did not charge any cent for the cancellation only RENTALCARS.COM charged me $50.

Date of experience: January 18, 2015
Germany
1 review
7 helpful votes
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They are supporting "Dollar Rent a Car"s insurance scam: Just like hundreds and hundreds of other customers, we were ripped off by Dollar, and rentalcars.com are not helping us to get our money back. Dollar charged us almost $ 500 (on top of a 1000 Dollar rental) for insurance we never wanted or agreed to.

This is how it works:
They take your signature (that you have to sign on a computer screen when picking up the car) and copy it onto a paper contract. On the paper contract, they add all kinds of insurances that you verbally declined (or that they don't even mention during the entire process of the pick-up!).
When you return the car, they charge it to your credit card. If you then contact them and tell them you never signed the actual contract, they will tell you they have your signature on the contract (by means of signature forgery!), and they won't refund it. If you file a dispute with your credit card company, they will show them the paper contract and tell them you signed for it.

Several class action lawsuits on this issue are pending, get info here:
http://www.investigativeguy.com/dollar-rent-a-car-overcharges/
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/08/19/dollar-rent-car-insurance-scam-video/

rentalcars.com better stop doing business with "Dollar Thrifty", before they go under together. Do not rent your car here, they are part of the fraud!

Date of experience: December 9, 2014
France
1 review
3 helpful votes
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0 stars, absolute rip off
November 26, 2014

0 stars, absolute rip off. Advertised charges will be more than doubled at time of collection. Fuel was charged at twice its garage price. Will never use rental cars or Goldcar in Tenerife again. The hour and a half queue to collect the car at the airport summed up the service. Everyone I spoke to had the same comments. Please beware and don't spoil your holiday, Use a reputable company instead!

Date of experience: November 26, 2014
New Zealand
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Beware Hidden Charges!
September 27, 2014

Beware Hidden Charges!

Actual rental cost 30% more than the quote despite the Total Payment statement.
Pickup desk was apologetic and said "Don't know why they do that". Although I nominated "airport pick up" this charge was missed, as was drop off, daily fees and local taxes - advised this was my fault for not reading the terms and conditions properly.

Rentalcars offer to beat any lower quote but how can you compare quotes when these charges are hidden? Other companies include them.

Also automatically charged for damage waiver insurance on top of the quote (unrequested) which was a hassle to cancel.

Actually replied to my emails but brushed off my concerns about their quotation and billing process - "read the terms and conditions carefully".

Choose another supplier!
In Australia I have used DriveNow previously without getting hit with hidden charges.

Date of experience: September 27, 2014
Virginia
13 reviews
22 helpful votes
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My experience was no different than everyone else on this site. My Mom passed away and I took her back to England for burial. I booked a rental car and was quoted $122.00 for the week with no additional fees. I returned the vehicle with no issues and upon my return home, reviewed my bank statement only to find I had been charged $149.00 and the $184.00. Almost triple what I was quoted. I'll be calling an attorney, attorney generals office and the better business bureau. I'll also reach out to some agencies for assistance as I work as a fraud investigator and this certainly qualifies as fraud!

Date of experience: September 27, 2014
GB
1 review
4 helpful votes
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TOTAL SCAM!
July 17, 2014

TOTAL SCAM!

We booked through rentalcars.com and paid in advance by debit card to rent a car from dollaruae.com. Apparently in Dubai a credit card is a compulsory form of ID even if you have paid and have a passport. Since we didn't have a credit card tohand, we were refused rental and the adviser said the booking has been cancelled and we would get a refund and as proof gave a copy of an email she sent to the head office cancelling the booking. After returning home we checked the booking email and realised that the online company was registered in the UK and that sounded odd so tried contacting them to inform them as well, however none of the numbers on their site worked and we had to send an email instead. And now the 2 companies are insisting that we should have contacted them separately on the day of collection and that rentalcars.com was not aware that our booking had been cancelled - this seems very odd and self serving considering they communicated the information regarding the booking to dollar in the first place and call themselves their partners.

They are refusing to refund even part of the AED 2000 (over $500) that they took as advance payment.

The entire rental agreement has been drafted to scam customers since the contract is so long and technical you would need a lawyer to explain it to you

Date of experience: July 17, 2014
Canada
1 review
6 helpful votes
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I used rental cars.com for the first time because I was in the midst of a complicated relocation from the UK to Canada and didn't have time to research car companies individually. Big mistake! Rentalcars.com charged me nearly three times as much as Avis actually charges for the car in Canada. Rental cars.com is taking advantage of people like me who are moving between countries frequently and don't have time to research the real rates of cars in a given country. Needless to say, I will never use them again, and I hope this warning helps others in similar situations.

Date of experience: May 4, 2014
NL
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Rentalcars.com is a total fraud (and spammers too)

This company (which is part of Priceline) has lots of terms and conditions which work against you and we have ended up with paying 256 for *nothing* in the end. Here is the story:

On a family trip in Italy, we have made reservation for a car rental from this website in May 2013. We have especially requested a navigation device during reservation to find our way easily around the country.

On 19th of May we went to SicilyByCar desk at Rome Termini Station to pick up our car. We paid the deposit, signed the papers and got the keys. When we arrived at the parking lot to pick up the car, we were told that they have no navigation device available! We had to go back to train station (which is 300m away) and ask the lady at SicilyByCar desk. When we asked why she had not told us that navigation device was not available before and made us go through all the signing papers and paying deposit procedure, she did not have any answer at all! We were really disappointed and frustrated.

The only way to go was cancelling the reservation and renting another car from another dealer. So I called RentalCars.com customer services and was told that I need to pay half of reservation fee as a penalty and that was because the pickup time had passed. But we had not get in the car at all! Just because the pick-up time has passed we were made to pay 256 for nothing, simply nothing! All we get was disappointment and frustration in the middle of our trip. Not to mention the half of day we lost during reservations.

When I have placed a complaint, I got a response a month later, which says this is according to their terms and conditions and they will do nothing about it. The rep's last sentence in the email was:

"We are not in position to refund you the rental price and we now close the matter"

That's all I was able to get back. (oh, and daily spam emails)

So, STAY AWAY FROM RENTALCARS.COM, if you want to stay stress free.

Date of experience: September 10, 2013
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1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Basil M.
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In Breif: prepaid for a rental car which they never gave me! They wouldn't even refund me afterwards!

When I went to pick up the rental car I had prepaid for, they asked me to produce a credit card as per the guidelines of the voucher provided to me by rentalcars.com.

I had provided first an embossed Credit Card (same card I used to book the car with initially) with sufficient funds, but there was an error when the hold was requested and the transaction was declined. While rental cars maintains its my fault - I supplied them with a Credit Card certificate from my Bank and a certified statement that shows that on the date of the transaction, I had a valid and active credit card with sufficient funds.

I then proceeded to provide a second credit card, but the company refused to accept it as it was not embossed While my card is in fact a credit card - Rental Cars insisted that it was an E- card and not a credit card. I showed them both my E Card and the other card - they still refused to reimburse me.

I then provided a third credit card which belongs to my companion. The company also refused this card since the card holder name is different than the reservation name.

To date - they kept all my money and keep making excuse after excuse.

Date of experience: May 1, 2013