[MartynSinclair]

Wondered if anyone has used the above car rental company.

Booked a rental, price seemed very competitive which should have been a warning. Chose to include full car insurance, which took the rental from £70 to £140, still not a problem.

Once booked, I decided to google the firm and what a horror. Makes Avis look like play school.

* the office staff handling car returns appear to be on a commission structure for ‘damage revenue’

* despite having full insurance, i would be liable to pay the cost of any damage and claim it back from the insurance at rentalcars. My understanding about car hire insurance, is one of the benefits of using the hire companies insurance is they cover all the payments.

* the online reports detailing ‘damage’ (£400 for a scratch that could be polished out), scares the living daylights out of me and reminds me of the Jet ski scams in Phuket where the firms used to damage the jet skis purposely when they are returned to claim extra fees.

* despite paying rentalcars.com by AMEX in advance for the hire, i needed to use a VISA card at point of rental for a £1,500 deposit.

Hire now cancelled and full refund made.

Any one else used this firm and any recommendations for London car hire (non airport).

Happy Christmas and prosperous new year one and all…

[capetonianm]

If I were to say that Green Motion are the Ryanair of car rental, I would be insulting Ryanair.

Earlier this year, I travelled to LGW with a friend and we each rented a car for the the same period of time. Mine with Europcar priced at £150, his with GM priced at £60, so he was delighted that he was saving £90 and I was the fool for paying more.

Fast forward an hour, he was still waiting for his car at the GM office somewhere in Horley after an argument over extras. I was in Weybridge having lunch having walked out of the terminal and picked up my car within 5 minutes.

Fast forward a week. I returned my car and was billed £150, he returned his car to GM, there was another argument as they wanted to charge him extra for ‘damage’ and some other spurious charge. They kept him waiting so long he missed his flight out.

Another one to avoid is Easirent (nothing to do with easyJet).

I would always avoid the ‘cheapest’. All companies have similar cost structures and if one appears significantly cheaper than the rest, there are reasons.

[Edski777]

I used, or better tried to use, Greenmotion at Bristol Airport twice in the last few months.
The first time in October went fine. I flew in from Amsterdam, was picked up by a shuttle bus and ferried to the Greenmotion office which was just off the airport.
I was given a decent car with some damage that was listed on the rental form. I had booked full insurance, but nevertheless had to make a deposit of UKP 1,500. Indeed, Amex not accepted so had to use a Mastercard.You are in trouble with them when you only carry your Amex card.

On return no problem. Dropped off at the airport with the shuttle bus. All in all a decent experience.

A few weeks later I did the same trip from Amsterdam, again booked via Booking.com and rentalcars.com. The early afternoon KLM flight was taken out so I was rescheduled to a later flight. No problem there.

At the airport no shuttle bus available. I called the Greenmotion office and was told that I was too late (??). Greenmotion claimed I was over 4 hours later than indicated in the reservation so they cancelled. I asked them to reinstate the reservation and get me a car. They rudely refused and told me that they would not refund any money. If I needed a car I would have to book with them again and pay again (!!).

As a result I rented a car at Europcar, obviously at a 23% higher rate, at the airport and made a complaint to booking.com. Booking.com, however reluctantly, handled the situation and “as a matter of courtesy to a loyal customer” (their words, not mine)refunded the amount I paid to Greenmotion via them.

So, be very careful to use rentalcars.com and definitely stay far, far away from Greenmotion.

Happy travels in 2020.

[MikeSmith]

No No No. Don’t rent through them (or easirent as one of the other people mentioned).
At LHR, you have to take a local bus (and pay for it) to get to the office and then wait…and wait some more.
Watch out for damages…they will ding when you return for anything…and it’s funny (or not) because they walk straight to the area of the car and point it out. It’s a setup. That’s how they offer low rates because they make it up and way more on these ‘damages’.
If you do decide to rent, take very clear pictures of the entire car including wheels…like take 20 pictures!
Same thing in city centre locations with them.
Had some good experiences with Enterprise, Hertz, Europcar with airport and central London locations.

[NorskSaint]

I have to say I’ve used Greenmotion 10-15 times either at LHR or LGW, admittedly this was a year or so ago, so the sales pressure could have got a lot worse.

I didn’t ever take the additional insurance with them and only once was I billed for damages to the car. This was handled swiftly by my excess insurance, although I do have to say they asked me to push back on the “claim” by Greenmotion, and when I did miraculously the cost dropped by 50%.

However I would agree the service at any of the centres is woeful. I’ve now got access to our corporate rates at EuropCar, and won’t lie, everything seems simpler and less second-hand car salesman (no offence to them) now I’m back with one of the main rental agencies, although let’s be honest even they are known to try and game the system when they can. Quite honestly a rotten industry…

Norsk

[FaroFlyer]

When I book a hire car I have one simple rule: If the actual rental company do not accept Amex I do not book the car. This then rules out most of the tricksters.

[AMcWhirter]

BBC ran a report on this firm almost one year ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46974240

And Evening Standard covered this around the same time.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/car-hire-workers-were-paid-to-find-phoney-damage-a4050411.html

[DavidGordon10]

Whoever thought of calling a company “Green Motion”? It just makes me think of a hospital paediatric ward during a rotavirus epidemic.

Clearly, also, from the comments, they really are a s*** company….

1 user thanked author for this post.

capetonianm

[capetonianm]

One of those names that clearly hadn’t been thought through.
It reminds me of the joke about dirty public swimming pools.You don’t swim, you go through the motions.

[Tom Otley]

Recent story from Fleet News

Green Motion reports rise in customer satisfaction scores

[capetonianm]

Rise in customer satisfaction. Not difficult to achieve when previously it was zero.

[MartynSinclair]

Having made a reservation with Green Motion, then researched the firm (I know I did it the wrong way round) & from reading the comments from posters, I must say, nothing would convince me to give the firm any chance with my business. The thought of going into battle with a firm where staff appear to be financially rewarded for overcharging questionable repairs goes well beyond the results of any internal customer satisfaction scores.

I like the advice from FaroFlyer “If the actual rental company do not accept Amex I do not book the car”. This is especially relevant when the booking was originally made by an Amex card.

The only reason I tend to take the comprehensive coverage offered by hire firms (and not third party firms) is to avoid laying out for any damage if it happens. Most decent car hire firms will sort out any insurance claims for damages themselves, if you take their cover.

Bottom line for me and mainly thanks to the BT forum, I don’t trust Green Motion or rentalcars.com and will avoid them.

Thank you for teaching this 58 year old a lesson or two in car hire…

[Tramor01]

Hi Martyn – I recently (December 14th) booked a car from Hertz via rentalcars.com in Bangkok (Pickup DMK drop of at BKK) and had no problem at all.
Hertz were showing limited car availability, and were quoting silly rates on their site for a 4X4 (even with being President’s Circle member).
I looked at Rentalcars.com and they were offering me a car via Hertz for £85 less than direct from Hertz (4 day rental), and that included Super CDW cover in the rate.
OK, I was still asked for a deposit by Hertz, but that’s happened when I’ve booked via Expedia in the past too.
I didn’t have any problems when picking or returning the car to Hertz, and I would consider using them again.
Apparently Rentalcars.com are owned by the same company that owns Booking.com and are just a broker

1 user thanked author for this post.

capetonianm

[capetonianm]

I agree that the problem is not with the brokers, it’s some of the dodgy providers they send you too. I have booked (not very often) with brokers such as autoeurope, holidayautos, rentalcar, kayak and apart from the one time when I was stupid enough to book Easirent through Autoeurope, never had a problem.

Same with hotels, it’s just that I usually find for very little more money, you can book direct and cut out the potential of problems caused by using a middleman. It oftens turns out better value as you may get an upgrade, free additional driver, etc.

[juniors717]

cape, I do think that it’s the best choice they could offer.

[Author]

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