National Car-rentals
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Horrible experience and do not rent with this company
Do Not rent a car with National. I have recently rented a vehicle with National car rentals at the Edinburgh Airport location and can say this was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. Firstly, the vehicle I had booked was not big enough to take all of my luggage as I was travelling through the UK. When I spoke to the agents, they had explained that they did not have that type of vehicle available, but they would look at whatever else was available. They then had another vehicle which was large enough available to take my all of my luggage and when we checked the car for damage the fuel filler cover fell off when the agent was doing the walk around. The agent quickly then tried to reattach the cover in which did go back on, and he said that it was fine, and he would add this to the report. I then jumped in the vehicle to start the car and the service light came on to say it needed a service. I then approached the agent and advised that the car needs a service and he came back to the vehicle and reset the service light on the dash. He then looked at his iPad and said he can guarantee that the care has had its last service. So I took him on face value and then proceeded to drive the vehicle from the carpark but as soon as I applied the brakes, a large metal scrapping noise could be heard and the brake pedal went to the floor. I applied the brakes 2 more times hoping this was just a little condensation on the discs but this kept happening. I asked my wife if she could hear this as well in which she agreed. So I drove the car straight into the rental carpark and mentioned this to the agents. They said without looking at the vehicle that this was just water on the discs, I then had a look at the front drivers side disc and it had a 3 cm gouge on the disc and looked in very poor condition. As you could imagine I was not happy and said that I am not driving this vehicle and do you have something else. The agent apologized and gave a me a third vehicle which was a 2019 SEAT Atteca Small SUV which was luckily big enough for our needs but the agent did not go around with me to check the vehicle and as I signed the ipad for the third time I thought nothing of it as it was not a new car but it will be fine for my needs. So my first experience with National was not off to a great start but I had a vehicle and went on my way. When returning the vehicle 5 days later, I dopped the vehicle off at Edinburgh airport and I had one of the agent do a quick check of the vehicle as all hire company's I have rented with do. All of a sudden, he has indicated that there was some damage on the right rear quarter panel. It looked like 2 large scratches with dents and a very small amount of paint missing but to be honest it just looked like some damage that any car that is 5 years old would have. He said to me that did I have an accident, I replied at no time did I have any issues and that the car was secure the entire time of my rental. He then said to me that he would need to have a look at some photos of the vehicle to see if the car had this damage before. Conveniently he had a number of photos of the car but nothing of the rear quarter panel in which was damaged. I said you have to be kidding me if you think I have damaged the vehicle in which he said do I have photos of the car to prove other wise. I said no as I believe that rental car company's have condition reports for all rental vehicles, in which he replied no this is usually done at the time of the pick up of the vehicle. So I had already paid more to have my excess reduced to 250 pounds at the start of my rental agreement and National takes an additional 200 pounds off every customer as a hold until the vehicle is returned. I had a flight to London that I needed to catch so I asked the agent to do some more investigating into if this vehicle had damaged before and to contact me via my mobile later that day. I was contacted later that day and was told that he could not find any photos to basically prove the vehicle was damaged before and that I would need to pay the additional 50 pounds. As I was driving another rental car in England and with a reputable hire car company in which I have used before and had no issues within the past, I asked for him to send me all of the details of photos and documentation of the damage so I could then take this up further with the Damages claim department and said he could charge the additional 50 pounds. I have a number of issues with the process as detailed below. - All rental vehicles should be inspected for any service issues before issuing to customers as a matter of safety and overall customer experience. - If National are to rent out vehicle to customers they should provide a condition report either by hard copy or electronic, so customers are confident in the vehicles condition on return. - If you cannot prove the car was in good condition before any rental, you should not charge your customers. Please refund.