Review Time
Arrived at the Reading Downtown pick-up point 30 minutes before my rental was due to start. The instructions said to get directions from reception in the Regus office building - which was unmanned, nobody about. Called their contact number, rings and rings and rings. Eventually had to get the booking cancelled by the agency who booked it and had to find another rental company at short notice. Avoid.
I booked through what I thought was easy jet car hire (first lesson - always book direct with a reputable car hire company in future). When I arrived at Edinburgh airport, there was no ‘Drivalia’ desk to provide help. I eventually found through another company that I needed to get a shuttle bus which took me to an industrial estate about 15 minutes drive away. There, I found a large portakabin type office. I was given a pager and told to wait in the waiting room, where I was kept waiting for 25 minutes - with two members of staff at their counter and one customer with one of them. A male with a grey goaty beard, balding, wearing glasses and with a ‘weave’ tattoo on his left forearm was THE most rude, obnoxious and unfriendly individual I have EVER dealt with; This individual spoke very abruptly, never once said the words ‘thank you’ and repeatedly gave me a look of contempt. His manner towards me as a customer was disgusting.On bringing the car to the collection point, no conversation was had; he ignored me and without saying a word, walked around the car with a clip board and so I started taking photographs of all sides of the car as he continued around it.I was given no explanation of the car’s features nor any information about it other than the fact that it had a quarter tank of fuel and that was what it had to be returned with.This individual demonstrated no customer focused skills whatsoever and another couple waiting outside commented about his rudeness and agreed with me that he should absolutely NOT be in any customer facing job. I would NEVER use Drivalia at Edinburgh again after this highly unpleasant experience. This individual was a disgrace and I pity any other customers who have the misfortune of having to deal with him in the future.
We paid around £90 to rent a car for 5 days with Drivalia through rentalcars.com. We then paid around £50 or so for the accident insurance with rentalcars.com. I couldn’t find my credit card before the trip, so had only a debit card. It does state credit card, so I was a little bit anxious, but assumed we would be able to sort it out without any extra charges etc. We ended up paying £184 for insurance again, this time with Drivalia, because apparently this is what has to happen if a credit card is not provided. I would have been willing to pay the deposit amount they reserve on the credit card and then get a refund upon returning the car, but this wasn’t an option apparently, so lost £184 which was more than the total cost of renting the car. Left a very sour taste in the mouth and will now never use Drivalia again, regardless of whether this is a common policy amongst rental car companies. Very bad start to our holiday and also we had to wait around 30 mins to be picked up by the private Drivalia bus from Manchester Airport, which wasn’t ideal. Rafal on the front desk appeared to be sympathetic and said he had given us a better car and unlimited miles (We would have done less than 500 anyway) but you never really know if that’s just to sweeten us up after making us spend so much extra. Nothing against him personally, but the company policy seems to be very harsh and has insured next time we visit my family we’ll be hiring a car from one of the other companies instead.
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