Gold Car

I can’t see how Goldcar can be accountable for the demolition of a fuel station or their personnel negligent in not knowing about the station’s demise. They were just following their procedures when charging you the fuel fee

I agree, but surely 50 Euro is excessive when verbally at point of collection the price for this was 15 Euro plus fuel. This would have made 51Euro, not the 86 charged.
Sharp practice by a company I had come to respect, but obviously no better than the worst of the rest.£

Hmm. I've seen a lot of posts regarding car hire rip-offs in Spain and to me it seems they all involve insurance in one way or another. I think (and I could be wrong) that Spanish car hire companies like to advertise some incredibly low rates to attract customers. I've seen car-hire out of Alicante Airport for three or four euros a day. You can't make a decent profit on those rates so they must be making it elsewhere and my guess is that its through the insurance. When you add the insurance rates to the actual daily rental rates you wind up with car hire cost that's comparable with elsewhere in the world. So, if you don't take their insurance they're probably losing money so they have to filch it back some other way. Of course I can't prove it. Its just a hunch.
For the record, I've used Firefly a few times and have always taken their comprehensive insurance package. They've always been courteous, I've even had free upgrades and I've not had a problem with billing either on returning the vehicle or at a later date through the credit card route. BB

record car hire we use very good and if you join their club they give you discount.
we always take the policy with full cover when we get to the airport they just take car no problem

Calledali wrote:I agree, but surely 50 Euro is excessive when verbally at point of collection the price for this was 15 Euro plus fuel. This would have made 51Euro, not the 86 charged.
Sharp practice by a company I had come to respect, but obviously no better than the worst of the rest.£

If you new that the car had to be returned full but discovered the petrol station is no longer there why didn't you go and find another one about 5mins drive away and saved you all the charges.

Rip-off service by Firefly was instrumental in us buying our own car.

Calledali wrote:On Sunday I returned a car to Goldcar tank half full after finding the petrol station at alicante airport has been demolished. Because I had a full / full agreement they have very kindly surcharged me 50 Euro for not returning the car full, +36 Euro for the fuel This is after I had enquired at the hire desk if the petrol station was open on Easter Sunday, which they assures me it was.

I think Goldcar have just lost a regular customer, normally 5 hires each year from me let alone my family.

Can anyone recommend an honest car hire company with a desk in Alicante Airport, if there is such a thing.

Taking the emotion out of the situation what you have to remember is that with a full to full policy the car will need filling up for the next customer and that takes both manpower and time both of which cost them money, and more now since it's further to the nearest petrol station.

While I'm sure we can argue about the actual level of the charge it has to be punitive because if it were just the cost of the fuel itself then there would little or no incentive for hirers to fill up and the whole process of hiring a car would grind to a halt with staff preoccupied with ferrying cars back and forth to a petrol station !

It does surprises me that they told you the Galp airport station would be open over Easter as they must have known it had been closed down, perhaps there was a misunderstanding between that one and the El Altet on the N332a ?

A tip for the future: there are probably a dozen fuel stations within say a 10-15km radius of Alicante airport and unless the vehicle is a single digit mpg behemoth no fuel gauge is going to register the difference between a tank filled up at one of those or at one on the airport itself so next time fill up at your convenience somewhere else along the way.

If you've been happy with Gold Car until this incident then think twice about jumping ship in a fit of pique as it will likely cost you more in the long run.

We normally fill up before the airport and as long as you have the receipt they are happy with that

Chrisdee wrote:We normally fill up before the airport and as long as you have the receipt they are happy with that

We never had to produce a receipt, they just look at gauge when we take back..new!

Sorry but if you have a fill to fill contract then you have to fill up before you take the car back. The filling station has gone due to the widening of the road to the airport. The hire company are well within their rights to charge you as it costs them time and money to refill the car, having been in this trade for years in Spain everyone charges if you dont conply with the contract.

Sorry but its not the Gold cars fault you were charged.

I am not a fan of Gold car but fill to fill means just that sorry.