text: Hire car company faces fresh complaints from holidaymakers despite vow to improve - Mirror Online
  Hire car company faces fresh complaints from holidaymakers despite vow to improve
  British holidaymakers are furious and claim Goldcar forced them to pay hidden charge
  The new complaints come after Goldcar promised to clean up its act (
  20:07, 3 Aug 2019
  Updated 09:21, 5 Aug 2019
  One of Europe's biggest car hire firms faces a new deluge of complaints despite ­promising to clean up its act.
  British holidaymakers say Goldcar forced them to pay hidden charges and billed them for damage that wasn't their fault.
  A new voluntary code came in this year meaning headline prices must match the final prices.
  But campaigners say this is being ignored.
  London-based Aussie bar worker Michelle Linke, 28, was charged a further £360 for airport tax, fuel deposit, tax and extra insurance on top of the £120 she had paid Goldcar for a six-day hire in Barcelona.
  A Goldcar rental car in Spain (
  Retired police officer charged £250 for three-mile taxi ride to airport
  Michelle said: "I asked several times why I had to pay these and why they were not in the contract."
  Goldcare charged retired policeman George Heron, 57, and his wife Louise, 44, of Durham, an extra £600 for a cigarette burn on the driver's seat of their Seat Ibiza in Majorca – even though they don't smoke.
  George said: "The cigarette burn was there when we hired the car because I photographed it."
  Greg Kirsch, 29, of Walsall, also photographed a damaged bumper when he picked up his Renault Megane in Malaga, but got a £320 bill when he returned it to Goldcar.
  Michelle Linke, who was shocked by her £320 bill
  He said: "It's disgusting. They are whacking on extra charges for pre-existing damage."
  Martyn James of complaints website Resolver said: "Goldcar is the worst for ripping off customers in an already tarnished industry."
  A spokesperson for Goldcar, said: "In February of this year, we announced that we would be embarking on a programme of change to ensure that our leading low-cost offer is matched by a good customer experience.
  "The scale of this overhaul should not be underestimated – we are making operational and cultural changes across eight countries, 88 cities and seven different languages.
  "Regardless, we are committed to delivering for both our existing and new customers and we're confident that we're making progress toward that, with some of the changes we have implemented so far including clearer rental agreements and simplified damage check-in statements."