Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. After a terrible experience with autoUnion earlier this year at the Athens airport (there was no evidence of autoUnion to be found at the airport, but I was charged anyway), I decided to give them one more try (I learned you can probably find their shuttle if you know where to look and have the time) since finding a company that will rent a car for more than 31 definitely limits your options. I was told my car rental would total around $1K for approximately 6 weeks. When we arrived in Athens this time, knowing where the "shuttle" area was, it took diligent perusal of the shuttle area outside the airport, which meant watching dozens of vans and buses coming and going, in a confused and congested area, and then we finally saw the autoUnion shuttle. We did have to call twice to ultimately get the shuttle. After a ten minute ride to the off-site autoUnion shuttle office it took 30 minutes or so to finally get our car (which seems to be a more basic model than we have gotten with other recent rentals in Europe -- with no backup camera, for example). They forgot to include the GPS they were supposed to included. When we mentioned that they gave us a rather worn TomTom, without instructions. The fellow at the counter said we would be charged $200 extra, that would be refunded, so the paperwork showed a final bill of $1200. More than I had been told when I reserved the vehicle, but I trusted that the unexpected $200 would be refunded, as we had been told. Turns out the final bill of $1200 was the total we were expected to pay, instead of the $1000 we had been told when we reserved the car. Unfortunately, autoUnion (conveniently) had not send me an email confirming the rate, so I was at their mercy when it comes to disputing the charge. So, if you don't mind waiting 30 or 45 minutes for a shuttle that you will be lucky to find, a ride to an off-site office where you will wait another 30 or 45 minutes for your outdated vehicle and then being ripped off by autoUnion financial shenanigans the, by all means, use autoUnion. Word of advice: when booking online screenshot everything and keep any screenshots until you get an email confirmation verifying the information you have been given -- without everything in writing you are at the whim of unscrupulous players.
RESPONSE TO AUTOUNION 11/7/22:
We definitely did not tell your colleagues at the station that we were pleased with your services. The car is performing adequately, although it is hardly new (nearly 32,000 km) and it is very basic (no back-up camera, rear windows manually roll up and down, etc.). We have no major issues with the car but we definitely have issues with your services. My complaints with AutoUnion are well and accurately documented on TrustPilot. Other car companies are not constantly ignoring customer problems by referring to the "fine print" in a voucher. Other car companies, if they have a shuttle, have obvious signage directing customers to a shuttle area. Other car companies don't make you wait a long time for their shuttle or, once at the rental office, make you wait a long time for your car. Other car companies send you, after you have made a reservation, a simple confirmation email very clearly stating the total cost of your car rental, to avoid confusion. As opposed to providing a "voucher" that has to be opened separately and that has confusing language regarding the total cost of a customer's rental. To your credit, since my first complaint to AutoUnion you have changed the information in the voucher regarding how to get to the shuttle at the Athens airport, even though the process of actually finding the shuttle in the shuttle area is still problematic (but, as I have stated before, having to find a voucher in your email and open it up to find shuttle pickup information, especially after long and exhausting flights, is no substitute for airport signage.) Most importantly, other car companies do not brush off customer complaints or concerns by telling customers "you should have looked at the fine print" (especially when there is confusion regarding the "fine print"). Other car companies seek to retain customers, and offer some sort of refund or discount in an attempt to retain customers, instead of stubbornly sticking to the "fine print" argument. I will be renting many times in Greece in the future. AutoUnion could have retained me as a customer and could have earned a positive review on TrustPilot (and gotten negative reviews removed). Instead, AutoUnion has chosen a path where it will lose more money from lost rentals in the future than they have already gained from me by not being responsive to the issues I have had with AutoUnion.
