Goldcar Rental 

This lot charged me 1200 euros for superficial scratches to a car that would have easily rubbed out with T-cut.
They took out their electron microscope to look for any damage, yet when I picked up the car they had not logged existing damage to the vehicle.

Customer service-RUDE and unhelpful.

Beware they are looking to make money out of you-Avoid at all costs.

If only I had read these reviews before booking. Booked a car via Holiday Cars at Gold Car. Wanted to pickup the car at Pisa airport. 6 People in front of me took 45 minutes (2 desks open!) to handle their things. Still I thought I would be much quicker because I had well prepared. But then came the surprise.....
The NoRiskWarrantly I had purchased and clearly was mentioned on the voucher I showed appeared not to be valid. Also the charged me more than was agreed to leave the car at another return location. I had to sign a paper telling I accepted I was not insured or else no car. They blocked 1500 euro on my credit card for the missing insurance. All in a very intimidating and hostile atmosphere. Because HolidayCars emergency number would not respond I could do nothing else than to sign the papers.
When I picked up the car there appeared to be scratches which were not mentioned in the paper work. Had to get another person to write down the actual state of the car. Took some pictures from the body work to make sure I would not get in trouble. The car was so tightly parked that it was impossible to take pictures of the complete car.
When I returned the car the lady saw that the roof antenna was missing. Asked me if it was there when I picked up the car 'cause the paperwork didn't mention anything about the missing antenna. If I had pictures from the roof of the car when we picked it up. No I didn't but I knew the antenna could never have been there when we picked up the car. We had only been to very remote locations in the mountains. The lady insisted me to prove the antenna was missing by pictures. Finally my wife could show a picture (lucky shot) where it showed the antenna was indeed missing at the pickup location. Still the lady was not convinced. I had to pay for the missing antenna. Looking at the picture it was clear to me they tried to trick me (and they will do with the next person renting this car). I looked at the other cars parked and saw a lot of roof antennas missing. What a bunch of criminals!!

Rented car from Goldcar at Cagliari Airport - Sardinia.
All I can say is; Read the Small Print ! Especially if you're using an intermediary agency like Booking.com, then ensure you read their small print as well as Gold Car's. Basically you will be convinced by very well trained staff, to buy their additional insurance, which in our case was €280 for two weeks. This almost doubled the cost of the rental.
If you have taken out your own excess insurance, they will do a very good job of convincing you it isn't sufficient. Also, you will be told that "in the event of the car being off the road due to an accident, you will be charged €30 per day for each day that the car cannot be rented to someone else." In other words, I would be made to compensate Gold Car for their loss of revenue, as well as being made to pay for the repair.
You will also be given the well-rehearsed speech about "how Sardinian roads are so bad, your car is at risk if you don't take out our insurance". This is utter rubbish, as we found out.
There is also a €3500 charge that you will need to pay if the car is written off.
I don't know how this company still operate, and why they have not been picked up by Trading Standards for misrepresentation, and misleading information, but all I can suggest is; make sure you are very clear about what your personal excess insurance actually covers so that you are prepared in advance of the sales pitch you will receive from this company, make sure you read the small print with any hire company you use, read the reviews beforehand, and if possible; don't use intermediaries - book direct with the hire company, and speak to them up front to understand any hidden costs.
Update: you can see from their response below, that they haven't even read my comments properly. Their reply is a cut/paste standard response talking about deposits and credit cards? That's not my real concern - it's more about the staff at the counter, the way the customer is forced into purchasing their insurance, and the daily €30 'loss of revenue' charge that is thrown at you. Like I said; read the small-print, and watch for the hard-sell tactics of this company.

Goldcar


Reply from Goldcar
Published 72 minutes ago
Dear Richard,

The first thing we want to clarify is that upon arrival at our office, you must provide a valid payment method. Please note that the payment methods accepted by our offices are present on our website. In our terms and conditions (section 4) you have to select the destination office since the payment methods vary depending on the office.Kindly note that at the counter, it is mandatory to provide a valid payment method in order to collect the car even if you have booked our Super Relax cover, because you have to leave a deposit for the fuel rate selected.

As for the question about the deposit, our clients have two options of coverage among which to choose a method of coverage. You can select our Super Relax coverage that covers the possible damages of vehicle and has assistance in highway 24 hours, without franchise and without blocking any deposit of the card
In the case of not wanting to take our coverage, the client has to leave a deposit that starts from € 1100, when the car is returned, if it has any damages our agent proceed to deduct the amount of the deposit and unlock the rest. In case of returning the car in the same state in which we deliver it, we proceed to unlock the total amount of the deposit. To know the exact amount of the deposit, please visit our terms and conditions (Section 6.3).

Some of our clients sometimes hire our services through an agency and these agencies offer their insurance that is foreign to Goldcar. In this case, they must leave the deposit and not to choose our Super Relax coverage. In the unfortunate situation that the car is damaged during the rent, the amount of the deposit is deducted and it is the client who has to claim the reimbursement of that amount to his insurer or agency.

On the other hand, for our fuel rates you have to leave a deposit that is unlocked if the customers return the car with the tank as it is delivered (Full). In the case of the Full-Full rate, if the car is not returned with the full tank, the customer will be charged a penalty, the amount of fuel used and the remaining fuel is returned. In case of returning the car with the tank full, the deposit is returned in full.

We would also like to tell you that our prices as well as the conditions of the reservation are clearly detailed during the booking process and in the Terms and Conditions of the contract that you accepted.

Hope this information is useful.

Kind regards,

Victoria R,

Goldcar Representative

Hired a car in Italy based on an online quote, upon picking up the vehicle we were advised that the contract owner was not valid even though a different driver was specifically stated in the reservation. A new contract was initiated with additional insurance that we did not want or require. We had to pay over 150euro more that initially planned. Additionally, the car was returned with the same amount of gas in the tank, attendants did not check the car when the vehicle was returned, 1 day later and an email invoice was sent charging us more of fuel and 50euro in charges. We would strongly recommend going with another company. Goldcar/Rhodium/Ace would not be our car rental option for our next trip.

I recently rented a car at Goldcar in Rome. A very bad experience. I rented through rentalcars.com. Here I purchased full insurance and knew and accepted the requirement for reservation of deposit as a consequence. Nevertheless, I was practically threatened by their staff by pickup of the car, as I would not sign up for additional insurance with Goldcar. Not until I demanded them to call up Rentalcars.com, they gave up their threats.

Afterwards they tried to blame me for a number of damages on the car that they had not registered by the pickup. They asked me to check the car myself, which was impossible as it was parked in total darkness in their parking facility. I moved it approx. 20 m. into a lit area, and found more unregistered damages to the car. Claiming that, they tried to blame me, that as I had moved the car - in their parking lot - It could as well has been me damaging the car on doors, hood and more. Amazingly untrustworthy and totally unreasonable behavior from their side. Again they didn’t give up their threats before I asked them to call Rentalcars.com to clear up the case. First at that point they reluctantly delivered an updated report of the car's damages before I took it over.

In addition, they have maintained the reservation of 1200 € for almost 3 weeks more than agreed. This has again not been canceled before I requested it with Rentalcars.com.

I have rented quite some cars during the years, but I have never experienced the same lack of service and bad behavior from any other company. All in all, an incredibly bad experience, which makes it easy to choose next time - ANY OTHER THAN GOLDCAR!

DO NOT USE GOLDCAR - SCAM AND DONT REFUND MONEY.
WORST CAR SERVICE EVER

Car was fine.
But at the rental desk in Cagliari, the staff were forcing people to take out an insurance. We were already insured through our credit card.
The staff told us we would be in very bad trouble if we didn't subscribe their insurance. We do not speak Italian very well and we are elderly and we thought we were being manipulated. They basically told us that our insurance was obsolete and would not work in Sardegna.
It lasted half an hour before we were given the keys to the car.
We will never rent through Goldcar again.

Worst, most aggressive, lying car rental!!
We were lured into renting on-line, when at the counter the agent insisted that we bought an additional insurance which we did not need or want, he tried to sell us other products or upgrades which we did not want, then with an excuse he said he could not give us a car if we did not upgrade.
He promised he would make a note on the contract and assured we'd get a refund.
We had to walk to another car hire company with all our suitcases, in the dark, on the grass verge of a dangerous road and despite all my attempts to get the refund they just ignored all my emails.
Shame on you!!
You are just a bunch of thieves!!!

Rented a at Goldcar car in Malpensa (Goldcar contract no. 11597563). The car's condition was presented as flawless. Found several damages including a LARGE DAMAGE just below the bumper that woluld never have passed a previus check. It was marked on a new bug report along with other damages together with the Goldcar employee! After night delivery, Goldcar announced it as a new damage! Do we see an example that Goldcar charges the same damage more than once and their procedures are inadequate?