Terrible Experience with Goldcar - Poor Customer Service and Lack of Transparency
I had one of the worst car rental experiences of my life with Goldcar. I booked a car for a road trip in Sicily from May 7 to May 14, 2024 (7 days), paying approximately 340 euros in advance.
During the flight to Palermo, I lost my physical credit card necessary for picking up the vehicle, but I had the same credit card virtually ready for payment. Despite this, the Goldcar staff in Palermo categorically refused this option and any alternative forms of payment (debit card, cash, prepaid card), showing a complete lack of empathy and assistance. They didn’t even explain why they could only accept the physical card when they just needed the card number and the cardholder's name (something that the company I eventually used later accepted without issue).
I want to emphasize that in no prior communication was this detail mentioned, and I had booked with the KEY&GO option, which supposedly did not require a security deposit. Even here, the clarity in communication was poor since at the counter, they told me I would still need to pay a 100 euro deposit.
Despite my repeated complaints and refund requests for a service paid for 7 days, of which I did not even use an hour, Goldcar ignored my messages and did nothing to resolve the situation, continually giving me standard responses without attempting to look into the matter.
I lost 340 euros for no reason, and my travel experience was ruined.
In the end, I had to turn to another company, SRC, which accepted my virtual card without any problem and allowed me to salvage part of the trip. So, I ended up paying for another rental on top of the one with Goldcar.
Goldcar has shown a complete lack of respect for its customers and a significant lack of empathy. I would never recommend this company to anyone and hope others avoid finding themselves in my same situation.
Rating: 1 star (if I could, I would give 0 stars)
