Ian C.

I've rented from many car hire companies in my life and this was by far the worst.

It was a simple rental but somehow they found three opportunities to make me feel cheated.

I booked a rental car with GreenMotion through AutoEurope.com. During the booking process I was asked to specify whether I would be driving to any country other than the rental country (NL) and I filled out the form to say that I would be traveling to Germany. I got to the final price and paid, assuming of course that the fee for traveling to Germany was therefore included in the price. When I arrived at the rental office it turned out that they required me to pay an extra 75 euro to cross the border plus whatever cost they were charging for winter tires.

Additionally, as I only had a debit card they insisted I pay a non-refundable 200 euro to reduce the amount I would pay in the event of damage to the car. I asked if I could instead give them a large refundable deposit as I've previously been asked to do when I had no credit card for a car hire with a different company. That was not allowed.

At this point, feeling that I had been treated immorally I asked for a refund but that was not allowed so I had either to pay the 200 euro or else simply lose the ~115 euro I had already paid for the rental. I paid the 200 but instead of paying the fees for driving into Germany I changed my plans to get to Germany without the car.

I contacted GreenMotion with these complaints. They pointed me to their terms and conditions, said they were justified in their actions by these and that was the end of that conversation.

Note that they will charge you a cleaning fee of around 12.50 euro for any tiny quantity of dust and mud on the floor mats. As if you're going to travel with a vacuum cleaner!