It was an excellent car rental experience. The car rental company showed a SEAT model, but upon picking it up, I realized it was actually a Peugeot 5008. The car was easy to drive, a diesel vehicle with great power and uphill ability. It had spacious interior space, with the trunk able to hold four large suitcases and even some small backpacks. The vehicle was very new, and it performed wonderfully during the 2800+ kilometers of our road trip. The staff at the rental company were also very attentive. Overall, I’m extremely grateful and very happy with this car rental experience.
No upselling, but make sure to check the contract carefully. Initially, the wrong return location was listed for one-way rental, but it was later corrected. Additionally, the deposit fee was charged directly to the card instead of being pre-authorized, and there was a loss due to exchange rate differences upon refund.
We received a Renault station wagon, but its trunk space is smaller than that of a Corolla station wagon, which resulted in two of our suitcases having to be placed on the rear middle seat.
It took an extremely long time, and the type of car provided was completely different from what was promised. The car had a lot of scratches and was in poor condition.
The vehicle was relatively old, and the key issue is they didn’t refund the deposit. Instead of a credit card pre-authorization, the deposit was charged directly. After returning the car, they said the deposit would be refunded in 14 business days, but then they went radio silent.
The credit card couldn't process the deposit, so they initially asked me to pay 2000 MYR in cash. I ended up paying 1000 MYR in cash as a deposit. Now it's May 5th, and the deposit still hasn't been refunded.
This was my third time driving overseas. Before going, I was mentally prepared for aggressive insurance upselling, but honestly, this was the worst car rental experience I've had, and it completely deterred me from planning future self-driving trips in Italy. Next time in Italy, I'd rather take the unreliable high-speed rail. If you absolutely must rent a car, I recommend buying basic insurance through Zuzuche and getting the car rental company's insurance as well; this will save time but will be more expensive. Otherwise, you might encounter problems like I did, where I not only ended up buying the car rental company's insurance but also wasted three hours there. The staff's pricing seemed arbitrary, so I suggest recording everything from the moment you step up to the counter to pick up the car. Photograph any price-related paperwork as well. Here's the detailed breakdown:
First, the cross-border fee was initially quoted at €110 plus tax, but they said it could be waived if insurance was bought. The first attempt to upsell insurance was priced at over €300. After Zuzuche intervened, the cross-border fee changed to €9 per day (total amount).
Second, surprisingly, the car rental company's POS machine showed a 'credit card limit exceeded' message when trying to charge €1100 without their insurance plan. My credit card app showed an available limit of over €6000, so there shouldn't have been any issue handling €1100. I wasn’t the only one experiencing this; another foreign customer, who had booked through a website starting with 'B', had the same problem. Whether this was a coincidence or intentional is unclear. This issue has been reported to the bank after returning. Despite trying every possible solution, the only workaround was to buy the rental company's insurance. I recommend calling your bank beforehand to check your single authorization limit for pre-authorizations.
Finally, when the rental company staff notice that your card can't handle the authorization amount, they'll either cancel the rental (with full loss of the rental fee) or push you to buy their insurance, which lowers the deposit to a few hundred euros and gets approved instantly. At this point, the insurance upselling price had changed to €500+, discounted to €400+. When I pointed out that they had earlier quoted me just €300+, they denied ever saying that. It's ridiculous, and unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the initial quote paper or record the entire conversation. Eventually, I argued with the staff quoting me earlier and managed to get the price back to €300+, but it was still higher than the initial quote due to the addition of a 22% tax.
On a positive note, the rental staff's attitude was relatively good. After the pre-authorization issue, I asked to make a phone call and try again, and they patiently waited.
Returning the car with purchased insurance was smooth. They checked the trunk, seat conditions, and fuel gauge but didn’t mention any additional charges. I'm unsure if more unexpected issues will arise later since trust was completely shattered due to the arbitrary pricing during pickup. Currently waiting for the bill and will monitor further.
Called them, and within five minutes they arrived to pick me up. The process of picking up and returning the car was very quick, and the staff were very friendly.
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