Security Deposit of £1,505.00 not…
Security Deposit of £1,505.00 not Refunded After 3.5 months.We hired a car from Green Motion Edinburgh Airport from 25 July to 3 August 2025 through Rental Cars. A hire fee of $449.83 was paid to Rental Cars on 22 July 2025.Green Motion Edinburgh Airport deducted a security deposit of £1,505.00 from our credit card on 28 July 2025.The car was returned undamaged on 3 August 2025. We returned to Australia and we saw the deposit had not been refunded by mid August 2025 so we contacted both Rental Cars and Green Motion who both assured us that the deposit would be refunded by 31 August. It is now 15 November and our refund has not been received. We have received 2 emails from Green Motion one on 18 August and one on 1 October 2025 saying the deposit will be refunded. Since then Green Motion is not responding to either emails or phone calls.Rental Cars have escalated our query to their Special Customer Enquiries Team who have not been helpful with statements like “thank you for your patience - don’t worry” . We have had weekly communication with Rental Cars to no avail. After 3.5 months we should be worried!This is very disappointing as regular users of Rental Cars since 2018 ( with 6 rentals this year alone) the follow-up has been hopeless. Dealing with this from Australia has been both stressful and extremely frustrating as well as time consuming. Being a loyal and regular customer of Rental Cars their service has been poor and unacceptably slow in this matter.
Ian Whyte
Such a great company!
Such a great company!! Highly recomennde
Mirash Bin Firoz
Car hire insrance fraud
I rented a car from Rental Cars , com and prepaid including £60 Insurance to be picked up at Lisbon Airport using their recommended hire company SurPrice . After a 2 hour delay i was transported to the hire firms office and was put in a waiting room behind 10 people.Eventually i was invited to present my hire contract and was told immediately that they would not accept Rental Cars insurance and i would not be given a car unless i paid them 471 Euros for their insurance ,Take it or leave it.As i had a 150 mile onward journey and it was getting late in the day and Rental Cars do not give any telephone nos on the Hire contract i had to accept this outrageous blackmail offer.On returning to the UK i asked Rental Cars to repay this amount to me and they refused after i had sent them numerous E-Mails explaining the situation and informing them that they were in breach of contract.I have now resorted to a County court summons to get my money back.
KEITH BRADLEY
Would give them 0 if I could.
Would give them 0 if I could.Still waiting for a refund 19 days later
Mica
Rental Cars scamming people
I booked a car via rental cars from Sixt rent a car company and used my wife credit card. Their system didn't warn me that not allowed different name on card and different name on booking and I made a payment to rent. When I go to pick the car up from Sixt's Victoria Station branch, Mohammed who works in that branch told me that they couldn't give me the car because I wouldn't have a credit card.My wife was with me too.I offered to use my debit card but Mohammed refused me.When I talked with a person on the phone from Sixt found me a way to get the car but Mohamed rejected me to do that and we couldn't get the car. My holiday has been ruined because of Mohammed,Sixt and Rental Cars. Also when I checked Sixt's web site I found out that they accept debit cars too. They are scamming people via this way and it is unacceptable. Their system could not allow people to book a car if the people use credit card with different name with different booking name. There are web sites which is doing this.
Erman Celik
they promote car-hire companies known…
they promote car-hire companies known to lodge fake damage reports and will not provide a fair customer service- avoid at all cost
steven waterhouse
I was researching offers for car hire…
I was researching offers for car hire in the UK. I located this mob. I entered details of dates, places etc. It then gave me an offer of $990 but when I actually went in to book, the price was $250 more! I emailed the firm about this anomaly and in its reply it blamed a third party for the problem. It did not offer to honour its advertised price nor did it change anything online as the exact same scenario was showing on the following day. I took screen shots to show the discrepancy.
JOHN M
RENTALCARS.COM (TEMPEST)
I hired a car through rental cars .com and booked a car through tempest car hire in durban Airport.the car I booked and the car I got entirely 2 different things .I booked a hyundai i10 but got a Renault qwid.their like for like policy .First of all the car is massively underpowered being a 1lt but that's not the issue .the steering is all over the place and the clutch not very good .I contacted rental cars and spoke to a chap called joubert who was as much help as a chocolate fireguard and was told although the car in my opinion is unsafe Ithey wouldn't do anything about it and neither would tempest car hire .bad service whole heartedly and no customer care .before you book with this company be sure you don't get into the same trap I'm in .they just want your money and don't give a damn about your safety or that of the family
Potgieter Daniel Marthinus
Don’t book via this website
Don’t book via this website. They don’t do as promised. The pickup address was wrong. I contacted them after a week of writing forward and back they just replied me this…..”Because you rented the car for days, we are unable to issue you a 3 day loss since your rental duration was only for 2 days. In this case this will unfortunately be considered a full loss. All I can do is apologies as I know this is not the answer you were anticipating.Kind regards,Sumeja Rentalcars
Milad Mahmudi
Compare but don't book
Useful for comparing prices and availability but would not make a booking through them. Customer service doesn't exist so depending who you reserve the vehicle with, you could be left out. Small print not sent out until it is too late to cancel because of highly questionable terms then nobody responds to attempted contact. So yes, use them to compare prices and options but book direct through the care hire company itself.
CMcW
Overall a TERRIBLE experience
Overall a TERRIBLE experience from start to finish for 3 main reasons: 1. You WONT GET what you PAY FOR2. They will charge you hidden EXTRAs3. Terrible Customer Service1. You WONT GET what you PAY FORa) Car Model DOWNGRADED (and no reduction given)Word of warning here: the model of car you select online will likely NOT be the vehicle you pick up from your destination. And you will be downgraded NOT upgraded. On Rentalcars.com agency the car rental was marketed as “Nissan Qashqai or SIMILAR MODEL”. A Nissan Qashqai RRP is around £23k, we were given a FIAT 500X which RRPs at around £17k. 2 other clients in the queue next to me were complaining about the exactly the same thing. So be prepared to pick up a significant “downgraded” car from the one that is marketed to you online.b) Marketed as “Free Baby Seat included” but they will charge youRentalCars.com sent me confirmation with the text “Free Baby Seat included”, but when I arrived at Leasy Es car hire pick up, they wanted to charge me an additional €120. The baby seats they were offering me looked as though they had been pulled out a garbage dump, so I refused to pay and ended up buying a Iso Fix baby seat off Facebook Marketplace for €30.2. They will charge you hidden EXTRAsa) For picking the car up lateYou will pay an extra €40 if you pick the car up late. Why? I don’t know. But its in the small print.They also charged me an additional €40 for late drop off, despite me writing them an email advising we were running slightly late, and trying to reach them on several occasions by phone (they don’t pick up!!)b) For not carrying a Credit CardI have paid the deposit previously with other car rental companies with a Debit Card, without an issue. I understand the disadvantage of paying the deposit with a debit card is that the whole deposit (around £1300) physically leaves your bank account and is then refunded when you return the vehicle. However, I do not own a Credit Card and so I have always chosen to do it this way.With Leasy Es this is not possible – CHECK the SMALL PRINT.And the penalty for not paying the deposit – an extra €277c) For not checking the SMALL PRINTOne of those companies you simply CAN’T TRUST. Unless you scour through the 10 pages of small print and spend days jumping through hoops to comply with every T&C, they will charge you extra for something. The Ryan Air of the Car Lease world!!!3. Terrible Customer Servicea) Very difficult to reach by phone or emailIt took me hours of ringing around (they often don’t pick up or put you on hold) and emailing 4 different email addresses before I was able to add a 2nd driver to the insurance. b) Rude Customer ServiceIf you raise any kind of complaint, the customer service assistants will initially BLANK you completely, then SHOUT over you or SMIRK at you. I think this type of behaviour is driven by fear. They clearly prioritise cost and ancillary revenue (charging for HIDDEN extras), over customer experience, service or customer loyalty. As such, it seems they are sick of dealing with extremely upset customers, and resort to “attack is the best form of defence” type tactics, to get through regular challenging customer interactions.In summary, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!
Carl Bennett
These people are scammers
These people are scammers. Paid online without being told a credit card is needed for the deposit. Went next day to pick up car and obviously without a credit card they wanted to charge me an extra £35 per day. Asked for refund and took 25% of the original payment. Its like a double edge sword with these guys - either-way your trapped in the cancellation fee or the additional cost for not having a credit card (despite them not mentioning this required prior to checkout). Disappointed! Booking.com is the main company behind rental cars so will be leaving a negative review for them also!
saqib
Very bad service
Very bad service . The followup and process was bad I am not satisfied with their services.
David wollf
Avoid them
I wish I could have seen the reviews before booking the car with Rental Cars and their associate Sixt. My actual booking was of ten days, but I returned after two days, I have the paperwork. Now, when I am asking for a refund, there is no helpline response, no one responds on the telephone, there is no result of filing a claim online. There seems to be no resolution if you have a problem with them.
Abid Saeed
Dreadful customer service
Dreadful customer service - double charged so paid £340 for 1 day and 2 hour rental. No effort to assist apart from pathetic effort to get me to rent with them again ! They referred to small print with a do not reply email, end of story. Avoid them.
Mark66
Rentalcars AVOID them like the Plauge
Rentalcars AVOID them like the Plauge, Rip you of with no come back. They work in hand with Sixt car rental and avoid them as well. See my review with Sixt, Double charged for a 5 day hire for a Skoda, Over £600.00 for a 5 day hire of a Skoda. Other companies i could have a Range Rover for that money, RIP of Merchants RENTALCARS & SIXT, Please go else where like Euro car, Hearts but not Sixt or Rental Cars.
Mr james bryson
Made reservation to pick up car in…
Made reservation to pick up car in Milan Linate and they for some strange reason put the time as 10.00am pick up, we never told them that so rang to correct it and they used that as an opportunity to squeeze an extra 40 euros out of us! These people are rotten scammers and i will be taking this further with trading standards and other agencies its nothing short of theft! Plus they never answer the phone
Dianne
Bad service
We were prevented from picking up the rented car. We tried to cancel our reservation first through the internet using our reservation number, which was impossible, then by calling the UK office. The person we talked to could not or did not want to make the cancelation for us. We were advised to enter their website using our reservation number and do the cancelation there - this is not possible. We paid for one week rent incl. extra insurance even though we never picked the car. My advise is: do not use agents, go directly to the car renting companies.
Alicia
Lousy company
Wish I had read the reviews before I booked with rental cars worst company I have ever dealt with can’t understand why they are allowed to still be in business.I hired a car through them and took out insurance the car was for my daughter she lost the key I called rental cars to make sure I would be coved the agent couldn’t even see the insurance cover but advised if it was full cover I should be covered but could not make a claim till the rental was finished I have now made the claim and they are refusing to payout
Robert
Avoid these thieving and frauduent rip-off merchants at all costs
Website states free cancellation.They take a £ 60.00 deposit then refuse to rerund you when you cancelBuried in the 'small-print' is the 'deposit not refundable' words.I would swear in anger but Trust Pilot would remove my statement
Christopher
