Destination Europe


Mar

14

Sixt Car Hire in Paris Sucks

Filed Under France

Whenever I hire a car in Paris I use Hertz, mainly because they usually offer unlimited kilometres and you can pay a little extra so you don’t have any insurance excess, which I like because I almost always end up denting or scratching the car.

I was about to book my hire car for my current trip and at the last minute thought it might be a good idea to read the terms and conditions of the rental, something I never do. Lucky I did because it turns out you cannot take any Hertz hire cars into Eastern Europe. Seeing as I was going to Hungary, Czech Republic and maybe Poland, this was a bit of a problem.

I checked Europcar and a couple of other places and they don’t allow you to take cars there either. I guess they figure the risk of theft is too great in those ‘dodgy’ countries so you can’t go there. Those damn thieving Eastern Europeans!

In the end I found that Sixt will let you take their hire cars east but not any German cars. I guess no one wants to steal Peugeots or Renaults!

I originally planned to book the BMW 3 series but seeing that was out I booked the Peugeot 407 automatic. I figured we would be doing a lot of driving and as there are four of us, I wanted to be comfortable. I booked and payed over the phone to be sure I got the right car and it was fine to go to all the countries I was interested in.

When we arrived at Sixt in Paris, the first thing she says is that I need to pay. I had already paid and had seen the transaction on my credit card so I knew it had gone through, even though I hadn’t received any confirmation as promised. After about 10 minutes of her refusing to give me the car because I ‘hadn’t paid’ she finally said it was ok. She didn’t admit I had paid or that she had made a mistake she just said it was fine now. I love it when people refuse to even acknowledge they are wrong, let alone apologise for their mistake.

Next problem with Sixt, they didn’t have the car I ordered. After all the trouble I had gone to, to make sure I could travel east, they said it wasn’t possible with that class of car because of the risk of theft. They never should have let me book it so why did they? Because they don’t know what they’re doing. In the end they offered me a Renault Scenic manual, nothing like I ordered or wanted.

I was pretty annoyed and in the end they agreed to refund me my money without charging a cancellation fee but then that would ruin all my travel plans. So I took this smaller car which was a manual instead of an automatic and which barely has enough room for all our luggage. It also doesn’t have heated seats or assisted parking and all the other little features I like.

Another problem, they didn’t refund the extra money I paid. For the car I expected, I paid 1700 euros but for the car I got it should have been less than 1000. They said they’d give it to me when I return the car. So that’s like a 700 euro loan I’ve given them.

Last problem, I read on the internet and double checked with the sales woman when I rang that there wasn’t to be any excess with the package I got but suddenly that wasn’t the case and there is 1000 euros excess.

Sixt sucks.

Update: Gary from Sixt customer service in the UK contacted me and has sorted out all the problems with the excess and has arranged for a refund for the difference between the car I ordered and the car I got. Kudos to him.

Comments

11 Responses to “Sixt Car Hire in Paris Sucks”

  1. Leesa on March 14th, 2010 1:02 am

    OMFG!!

    I can’t believe those Mofos!!! You know that NOTHING like that would EVER fly in the U.S….. I always rent from Enterprise when I go back to visit and they’re so good they always give me an upgrade without charge and often times give me a 10-15$ discount on the car… Of course, I have it for a month and take the insurance that costs more per day than the car… but hey!
    Sorry to hear about the problems you had with Sixt.. Sixt SUCKS!! I’ll make sure to NEVER rent from them and if you have the name of the woman, give it to me and I’ll call her and give her a word or two!!! The nerve of them…. They’re crooks!!!

  2. Leesa on March 14th, 2010 1:04 am

    So, they took a 700 euro access the amount from you… ??? And after that they charged another 1000 euros?? WTF? Man! That shows that the customer is at their total mercy.. though they have none!!!

  3. Andrea on March 14th, 2010 9:49 am

    Lol, you’re funny :) You should call that woman!

    I paid the total amount of 1 month rental in advance which was 1700 euros but that was for the car I didn’t get. If I had booked the Renault Scenic it would have cost much less so they need to refund me the difference which they won’t do until I return the car.

    I might have to take you with me when I return the car because I have my doubts as to whether or not they are going to refund me the extra I paid. You can bully her into giving it to me :P I’m hopeless in these kinds of situations and just want to cry!

  4. Gary Coughlan on March 15th, 2010 12:51 pm

    Hi Andrea,

    I am the Customer Services Manager for Sixt U.K

    I can certainly understand your annoyance with the additional cost of the excess that you have had to pay for your vehicle.

    I suspect that your initial booking was through our Holiday Cars website which has a “Carefree Guarantee” Unfortunately, as the terms of the booking could not be met an alternative booking was made at the branch which would have reflected our normal terms and conditions and insurance excess charges.

    I do empathise with you over the additional cost and would be more than happy to look into this situation for you in more depth and to further investigate why the original booked vehicle could not be supplied to you. Perhaps, you would like to forward some details to me on my personal e-mail address. gary.coughlan@sixt.com and I will do all I can to help.

    Best Regards
    Gary Coughlan

  5. Andrea on March 15th, 2010 7:18 pm

    Hi Gary,

    Yes, it was through the Holiday Cars website and I tried to explain that to the manager at Sixt in Paris but he seemed to think I had misunderstood the terms because it is in French but that wasn’t the case.

    I will email you with the details.

  6. Leesa on March 16th, 2010 3:06 pm

    WOW!! I’m certainly IMPRESSED that Mr. Couglan contacted you personally on your blog and gave an explanation and offered to help out.. What OUTSTANDING customer service.. I retract my statement of “Sixt Sucks” and just say that the woman at the car rental agency didn’t know how to explain it correctly to you … or that their policy has some holes in it.. What if you didn’t have the “extra” money on hand and actually needed that money for your travels.. You’d be screwed!!! I know I would have been and I probably would have had to cancel the car and take an expensive flight to my destination!!!
    Let me know how things turn out and I hope that everything goes smoothly… Let me know if you need me to go with you to return the car… I can at least translate for you …. and try to help out..
    Maybe if this Mr. Couglan is somewhere in the Paris area, you can go see him personally. : )
    Take care and have a great trip!
    Miss ya!

  7. Jennie on March 16th, 2010 5:49 pm

    That’s good to know about Eastern Europe. I would love to drive through the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia but I don’t know where to rent a car that will allow me to do it (and I don’t have anyone who’s adventurous enough to do it with me.) I’ve never rented from Sixt and I probably never will because their awful, sexist ads about women drivers last year made me so mad. I hope you get your money back!

    (I still can’t access your blog from home. I always get a server down message. I can access it at work though. so bizarre.)

  8. Andrea on March 16th, 2010 11:33 pm

    I thought it was going to be challenging driving in these countries. In particular I was worried about not understanding the language but everything has gone smoothly. It’s just like driving around France or anywhere else.

    I definitely recommend driving here if you can, you get to see a lot more I think.

    Who knows why you can’t access my blog. My hosting sucks so that could have something to do with it.

  9. Andrea on March 17th, 2010 8:51 pm

    Just to update, Gary has sorted everything out. He has arranged for the difference of the rental to be refunded asap and has included an extra refund of 1 days rental as well.

    He also confirmed that the terms of the original booking will be met so there’s no excess.

    Plus he apoligised numerous times so what can I say, Sixt doesn’t suck, just the Frenchies suck :)

  10. Jennie on March 21st, 2010 1:10 pm

    I turned on HotSpot Shield and now I can access your blog while at home. :)

  11. Richard Palumbo on March 25th, 2010 3:38 am

    Sixt Sucks

    The company and cars suck. I will never rent from them again. I will spread the word.

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