In today's Telegraph Travel website there is a letter of complaint from reader Kate Rogers who was treated to Portuguese hospitality by the acerbic Monica from car rental company Goldcar in Madeira. The letter is run in full as an article titled, 'Is this the world's worst car hire horror story?'
Goldcar's customers at Faro airport has gained a reputation for appalling standards of customer care involving bullying, rudeness and indifference to complaints. Goldcar is a Spanish company and may see little need to look after its customers as there are plenty more.
Bullying, a run-in with Portuguese police, and a tug-of-war over a booster seat - car hire sagas don't get more farcical than this
Kate Rogers, Stourbridge, writes
"I do so wish I had read your report on the case of Nicholas Heath's encounter with the infamous Monica in Goldcar's office on Madeira (Telegraph Travel, April 2) before I rented a car from her company.
I had reserved a estate vehicle suitable for a family of five through a rental broker, Holiday Autos, for a week from May 23 at a cost of £200. As advised, I also took out its policy covering excess waiver insurance with Allianz for an extra £40.
On arrival in Madeira, the Goldcar agent tried to sell me its own insurance. I said that I was insured - and was tutted at. The clerk told me that my insurance was not acceptable as it would not pay out if I had an accident.
She also said that I would have extra paperwork to complete on returning the car. This would lead to a delay as I would have to report to the Goldcar desk in Arrivals and wait to be served which would only be after the queue of those waiting to pick up their cars had cleared. I would not be allowed to return the car directly to Goldcar's car park.
"It will only cost you €150 to take our insurance", said the clerk, "and then you will get priority service". I said I would take the risk and allow enough time to return the car.
I was charged for two additional drivers at €28.69 (£22.70) each instead of the original £19 per person quoted on the Holiday Autos website. I was also charged an extra tax of €22.95 (£18.16) even though my Holiday Autos documentation said all taxes were included.
The Goldcar clerk said that this was because it was a diesel car and the tax had to be paid or no car would be released to me. A charge of €77 (£61) was added for a full tank of diesel. The total of €157.33 was processed and debited to my credit card.
As I had refused to buy Goldcar's insurance, the company insisted on taking a damage deposit of €1,200 (£950). Naturally this triggered a security check and I was told that my Tesco credit card was declined. I was asked for an alternative form of payment. If I couldn't produce this, I was informed, the only way I could have the car was - you've guessed it - to take out Goldcar's own insurance. I had a second credit card so the damage deposit was reserved against it.
We were kept waiting so long at the Goldcar desk that the Portuguese owners of the villa we were renting came to the airport to find us. With their help, we eventually made it to the Goldcar car park to collect our vehicle.
Here another pushy saleswoman tried similar scare tactics. She repeated how delayed we would be if we returned the car with damage after failing to take out Goldcar's own insurance. She added that Madeira was different to other locations and most cars were returned with damage. If our car came back damaged there was a good chance we would miss our flight because there were lots of forms to fill in. I refused to submit to her intimidation.
When the check-out form was given to us to sign we queried the position of the scratches on the driver's door and insisted they were marked properly rather than merely noted as a vertical line on the form. The woman went over both copies of the form again with the pen and assured us that her one large mark represented all the scratches, including the rather large horizonal scratch that caused us particular concern.
Finally, we loaded up the car and drove off only to find that the card for the car park exit barrier did not work. Despite pressing the intercom button several times, we were only let out when our Portuguese saviour drove back to the Goldcar desk in Arrivals on our behalf.
I would love to say this was the end of our troubles but it turned out to be only the beginning of a distressing saga.
The day before our flight, we considered taking the car back early and getting a taxi to the airport the following morning. However, after a family debate, we decided that it would upset plans for the last night of our holiday. We reasoned that no company could possibly carry out these threats. How wrong we were.
We arrived at the airport on at 08.10 (our flight was at 11.05) and I dropped my family off at Departures before parking in the car drop-off area outside Arrivals. The Goldcar desk in Arrivals displayed a sign saying something like: "Sorry for the inconvenience. Please wait for assistance. We will be back soon."
I checked with a man who was already waiting and he had been there 20 minutes at that point. Ten minutes later, a Goldcar employee came out of the back office and walked past us without acknowledgement. I politely stopped him and explained I was returning a car. He looked at my rental agreement and said "no insurance, go to the car park and my colleague will meet you".
I drove from Arrivals to Goldcar's car park where I was met by Monica. She asked for my paperwork and - without checking any other part of the car - went straight to the horizontal scratch on the driver's door and said: "No insurance. This scratch is new. It is not on here [pointing at the diagram on the form]. I will charge you €1,200".
I said that the damage was already there when we picked up the car and it had been pointed out to her colleague when she annotated the diagram showing existing damage. Monica said the vertical line on the check-out report referred only to chips on the edge of the door. "You should have taken our our insurance", she said with a shrug and a smirk.
Apart from taking pictures of the dashboard display, Monica barely glanced at the rest of the car. She simply said that we needed to go to her office now. Once there, she tried to take my car booster seats away (I had brought my own). Only after checking the stock of booster seats in the office which were all green (mine were blue) did she seem to realise her mistake. There was no apology for trying to wrestle them out of my arms.
She then told me to "get in this car", pointing to a vehicle beside her office. When I asked where she was taking me, I was told that we needed to go to the office in Arrivals. "You can get in the car or you can walk. I don't care", she said. Aware that if I let her out of my sight I would be waiting indefinitely, I got into the passenger seat of the car and we set off on what was to prove one of the scariest experiences of my life.
Monica drove off at breakneck speed around the airport. She swung the car round a left-hand bend, skidded off into the right-hand lane, and almost ran a blue car off the road. The woman driver of the blue car came alongside us again and a heated exchange in Portuguese ensued with international hand gestures (from Monica) who slammed her hands on the steering wheel, cursing as she kangarooed the car forward and then slammed the brakes on three times. The blue car kept pace with us and pulled in front of Monica as she reached the Arrivals drop-off area.
The driver got out of the car and went over and spoke to two police officers who were standing beside the Arrivals exit. It turned out that the driver of the blue car was an off-duty policewoman herself.
I was told to "get out of the car and wait" by Monica as the on-duty policewoman spoke to her and asked for her documents. She was handed some sort of ticket. At this point the policewoman told her to deal with her customer (me) and come back.
Monica took me to the Goldcar desk and told me to wait. She rummaged around in a drawer for some other documentation she needed before walking past me and heading out of the terminal again. Scared to let her out of my sight I followed her back to the policewoman.
When we finally returned to the desk, Monica produced the white top copy of the check-out report and said the damage was new and I would be charged €1,200 for it. I asked to speak to the manager. I was told she was on holiday. "I am in charge", said Monica. "I make the rules; it's €1,200".
I said that this was theft through deliberate deception and asked my cousin, who had come to find me, to fetch the police officers from outside.
Whilst my cousin was gone, Monica said: "The police might make the rules out there, but in here it’s my rules and you will pay. I have your credit card details. I can charge what I want".
I asked for a copy of the paperwork. Monica said that I could only have it if I paid up. If I walked away she would charge me €1,200. (This statement was delivered with much shrugging and I-don’t-care body language).
The policewoman came in, looked through all the documentation and queried a few things (in Portuguese, so I'm not sure what was said). The result was that Monica reduced the charge to €355 (£281) without explanation.
At the request of the policewoman, Monica produced an Accident Information Form for me to complete. I again asked for a copy of all the paperwork. Monica said the paperwork about the credit card transactions was hers. She declined to give me copies of anything except the duplicate check-in and check-out forms and the Accident Information Form.
I asked for a damage report and quotation for the scratch to prove to my insurer, Allianz, why I had been charged €355. Monica refused to copy this paperwork and snatched it away when I attempted to photograph it.
I was invited by the policewoman to make a formal report to the police about the way I was being treated. Unfortunately I could not do this as I had to catch the flight. The policewoman did make notes and did give me her ID number.
There was now a queue of about 20 customers waiting at the Goldcar desk. I told Monica that I would be making a serious complaint against Goldcar as I felt it had taken money from me by deception and its customer service was appalling. Monica shrugged her shoulders and walked off.
By the time I met up with my family again I felt physically ill but had to put on a brave face for my children, aged five and seven, who had been waiting for a long time to check in. At least we all managed to get on the plane home together.
I am fully aware that this account is my word against Goldcar's, but our hosts who owned the villa we stayed at were horrified at our treatment on arrival in Madeira. They are willing to back me up as witnesses when we checked out the car, and I have the policewoman as a witness to much of what happened when handing back the car.
On May 31, I raised a complaint through Holiday Autos. I received a response from CarTrawler which said: "Due to CarTrawler being an introductory service we are unable to investigate damage claims with our car rental partners directly.
"As such, I have forwarded all the details of your query to our colleagues at Goldcar Portugal and have requested that they contact you directly to resolve this matter. I would recommend that you also make contact with them to check the progress of your case."
Needless to say I have not taken to this too kindly. I replied saying that I hired the car through Holiday Autos and, as my agent, I expected the company to deal with such a serious issue. I was not prepared to incur further costs dialling an international number for a company that I believe has obtained money from me by deception.
I have requested a refund of the €355 damage charge, the additional tax, and the cost of the car rental, together with an apology from Goldcar. I have already spent approximately four hours on the phone, writing emails or filling in claim forms for Allianz.
As hard done by as your correspondent Nicholas Heath felt in paying for two lots of insurance, his experience was a walk in the park compared to what happens if you stand your ground. All of the staff I dealt with were pushy and used scare tactics but Monica was arrogant, rude and obnoxious to the extreme.
Do you think I am reasonable in expecting some serious action to right the wrongs I have suffered from both Holiday Autos and Goldcar?
Gill Charlton, consumer correspondent, replies
I have never heard such a horrendous tale of bullying by a car hire company. I advised Mrs Rogers to hold out for every penny because of her experience. After explaining why she would not deal with Goldcar directly, Holiday Autos took charge of the situation. It refunded her rental of £200 as "compensation for the inconvenience caused" and - after another prompt from Mrs Rogers - paid a further £83 to cover the Allianz insurance and the extras paid at Goldcar's desk.
Goldcar initially credited only €284 to Mrs Rogers' card account and it took another flurry of emails to extract the final €71 taken for the non-existent damage. Despite her treatment, Mrs Rogers has yet to receive any apology from Goldcar for the appalling behaviour of one of its agents.
I asked Goldcar for an explanation and said that I thought that Mrs Rogers should also be given a free week's rental as compensation (though perhaps not in Madeira). A senior manager at Goldcar's head office in Alicante, Spain, told me that the Mrs Rogers' case had been investigated at the highest level and that it had worked with Holiday Autos over the compensation package for her.
"We sincerely apologise to Mrs Rogers for any distress caused and we will be in touch with Holiday Autos again to finalize any outstanding issues or compensation for this case," he said.
"Last year more than 870,000 customers hired a car with Goldcar and the vast majority did enjoy a pleasant and trouble-free experience. However, this feedback is also invaluable in our continuing efforts to improve all aspects of our customer experience including the information provided by our staff."
