AVOID AT ALL COSTS
I rented a car via carrentals.co.uk and selected an agent called 121carehire which sent me to Green Motion in Heathrow. My experience was as follows:-
1. No bus to pick you up from the airport and ended up on a 40 minute to a Holiday Inn some considerable distance from the airport!!! Definitely not an Airport Car rental service!!
2. I have always taken the basic insurance package from every car hire company and have always opted fro the excess option which for the level of car I hire is generally 1, 000.00 pounds sterling when renting in the UK.
3. It was only when coming to sign the Green Motion agreement that I noticed that the excess of 1, 000.00 pounds sterling did NOT cover windows, lights, underside of vehicle, roof of vehicle and wheels... I was told it only covered the body work to the side, front and back of the vehicle so presumably did not include the engine. or interior This was the first time I have ever come across this in some 30 years of renting vehicles!!!
4. To get the level of cover I normally enjoy with the 1, 000.00 excess from any mainstream car hire company I would have to pay Green Motion an additional 30.00 pounds sterling per day which was more than 60% of my daily hire.
5. I was told that if I was involved in an accident that I could very well end up paying for the entire vehicle if it was written off even if I was not at fault. For example if I was struck by a driver who did not have insurance. Bearing in mind that there are almost 1.5 million drivers on UK roads that are uninsured then this become a very realistic risk.
6. The office did not have a copy of their insurance cover and was unable to reassure me about the level of insurance cover in the event that my family or I were injured.
It should be noted that non of the above was in the terms and conditions that I reviewed when I accepted the 121carhire quote.
This company claims to be "Green" and environmental which is absolute rubbish... they are not and hide behind the statement that there cars have low emission which is a UK Government requirement anyway!
At the earliest opportunity I called the Green Motion customer service people and frankly wasted 40 minutes of my time. I ended up returning th vehicle and renting through a reputable company. This cost me over 50% of my rental cost which was for 19 days in total and I only had the vehicle for 3 days so I accepted a major financial hit.
For me it was worth the loss of money purely for the peace of mind not to worry about the poor insurance cover and policies of this company.
I had no problem with the staff who were nice people however even they were embarrassed by the company's attempts to upcharge on every possible opportunity. I was not the only one who was misled as a gentleman from Dubai also has the same problem and when I returned the vehicle another Lady was shocked that she was not covered by insurance as she had been led to believe when she booked the car on the internet.
This is a blatant attempt to increase the car hire charge by over 50% and as such this makes them far more expensive than the reputable companies such as Avis, Hertz, Thrifty, National, Enterprise and Europe Car... Avoid this company as their tactics are very underhand, sneaky and duplicitous!!!
One final point is that we were planning to take the vehicle to France for a few days however the charge levied by Green Motion was over double that charged by the mainstream companies including an outrageous daily insurance charge... if your agent suggest this company then cancel the booking immediately if you wish to save an aggravating and worrying experience!!!
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