Buchbinder and Thrifty’s Car Rental Terror!!
Jul 14th, 2014, 01:11 PM
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Buchbinder and Thrifty’s Car Rental Terror!!
Renters beware of Travelers Scam. I am an avid traveler and have rented cars in multiple countries and I have run into a nightmare with these affiliated companies. I booked my car while I was still in Canada through Thrifty’s and when I arrived in Berlin the rental was through an affiliated rental agency, Buchbinder, this happens all the time so I didn’t think to much of it.
I arrived in Berlin, Germany late April 12, 2014, to find that the company did not have the car type that I had requested (not a big deal, I just needed a car for the week), so we did up the paper work and I was rushed out the door and told my car would be on the 3rd level of the parking garage and to have a good night. I did a walk around that night not seeing any significant damages, a few scratches and scrapes but nothing out of the ordinary for a rental car (lesson learned to take close ups of every angle of the car and have them uploaded to the company). The week with the car was awesome, it ran perfectly, there were no incidents and everything went off without a hitch, that is until the return. I returned the car in Munich on April 19, 2014, only to be told that I had cracked a fog light, I truly don’t believe that I had damaged the car, but there was no way to prove that I had not cracked the fog light, so I signed off the damaged fog light and the return agency let me know that the airport rentals (that’s where I picked up) always have issues and they never fully document the damage on the cars and he said he always has this problem. He said he would submit the info to Berlin and hopefully I would not get charged. If the fog log checked out then the 600 Euro damage deposit for the car would be returned to my credit card or if they deemed it damaged by myself only part of the damage deposit would be returned (he thought approx. 160 Euros). April 21, 2014 the deposit was returned fully on to my credit card. I was very relieved and thought things had worked themselves out.
Only once I had returned home from Germany did a charge on April 29, 2014 show up on my credit card for 660 Euros. Even with the insurance I purchased they are stating that $1034 CND (660 Euros) dollars is the “deductible” for the damages they found. When I enquired about they “damages” they were speaking about , they stated the fog light cover and scratches on the paint. When I received the report of the damages they were very small scratches and scrapes, regular wear and tear that you see on rentals all the time. I then contacted the agency again stating that these were not noted on the return and that these could have happened in the parking lot or in the wash bay after I signed the car off. I have been going back and forth with Buchbinder for 2 months on this issue now and there has been no resolution. I have been caught in a couple of traveler’s scams in my 20 years of traveling to over 30 different countries, and this is definitely one of them. This company will do anything they can to steal money from the traveler. This rental when I originally booked should have costed $750 CND, now the rental has costed $1800 and being back in Canada and not speaking German is there way of ensuring they cannot communicate back with the customer. My recommendation is to stay as far away from this company as possible. Enterprise is amazing, I have rented with them 3 times in three different countries and they are fantastic!
I arrived in Berlin, Germany late April 12, 2014, to find that the company did not have the car type that I had requested (not a big deal, I just needed a car for the week), so we did up the paper work and I was rushed out the door and told my car would be on the 3rd level of the parking garage and to have a good night. I did a walk around that night not seeing any significant damages, a few scratches and scrapes but nothing out of the ordinary for a rental car (lesson learned to take close ups of every angle of the car and have them uploaded to the company). The week with the car was awesome, it ran perfectly, there were no incidents and everything went off without a hitch, that is until the return. I returned the car in Munich on April 19, 2014, only to be told that I had cracked a fog light, I truly don’t believe that I had damaged the car, but there was no way to prove that I had not cracked the fog light, so I signed off the damaged fog light and the return agency let me know that the airport rentals (that’s where I picked up) always have issues and they never fully document the damage on the cars and he said he always has this problem. He said he would submit the info to Berlin and hopefully I would not get charged. If the fog log checked out then the 600 Euro damage deposit for the car would be returned to my credit card or if they deemed it damaged by myself only part of the damage deposit would be returned (he thought approx. 160 Euros). April 21, 2014 the deposit was returned fully on to my credit card. I was very relieved and thought things had worked themselves out.
Only once I had returned home from Germany did a charge on April 29, 2014 show up on my credit card for 660 Euros. Even with the insurance I purchased they are stating that $1034 CND (660 Euros) dollars is the “deductible” for the damages they found. When I enquired about they “damages” they were speaking about , they stated the fog light cover and scratches on the paint. When I received the report of the damages they were very small scratches and scrapes, regular wear and tear that you see on rentals all the time. I then contacted the agency again stating that these were not noted on the return and that these could have happened in the parking lot or in the wash bay after I signed the car off. I have been going back and forth with Buchbinder for 2 months on this issue now and there has been no resolution. I have been caught in a couple of traveler’s scams in my 20 years of traveling to over 30 different countries, and this is definitely one of them. This company will do anything they can to steal money from the traveler. This rental when I originally booked should have costed $750 CND, now the rental has costed $1800 and being back in Canada and not speaking German is there way of ensuring they cannot communicate back with the customer. My recommendation is to stay as far away from this company as possible. Enterprise is amazing, I have rented with them 3 times in three different countries and they are fantastic!
Jul 14th, 2014, 01:25 PM
#2
Why aren't you contesting this through your credit card company, Jess? your contract is with them not with Buchbinder. When we rented through them in Vienna they also gave us a very different car to the one we'd booked, and we had a large "excess" and were worried about this, though in the event when we returned it, there were no problems.
but you need to get onto your credit card company.
but you need to get onto your credit card company.
Jul 14th, 2014, 01:29 PM
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First time poster, not credible post. A scam? Stealing your money?
Next time, read the fine print - rental companies in all countries hit you with a minimum charge for damage. As for complaints, why are you complaining only to the German agency? Thrifty is a US company and you should have it intervene with you (and challenge your card.
Seems like someone who lounges under bridges to harass caprine pedestrians.
Next time, read the fine print - rental companies in all countries hit you with a minimum charge for damage. As for complaints, why are you complaining only to the German agency? Thrifty is a US company and you should have it intervene with you (and challenge your card.
Seems like someone who lounges under bridges to harass caprine pedestrians.
Jul 14th, 2014, 01:42 PM
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If you visit other travel advisory web sites, you will see literarlly hundreds of similar experiences with Thrifty and Dollar in Munich, Frankfurt, etc. Turn the problem over to your credit card company for resolution. You will never succeed on your own.
Jul 14th, 2014, 02:32 PM
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It looks like you took CDW with excess. I think it puts the consumer in the weakest position of the "covered" contracts. The company offering the CDW and the rental company are partners whose unified interest is to extract maximum payment out of you. The credit card companies involvement in this case would be limited to whether the charge was in accordance of the fine prints on the contract. Their insurance if any, if not a Premium Rental Insurance like the one offered by AMEX, was never activated since you took the CDW.
Had the insurance been provided by your credit card company or other third party, then they would deploy corporate resources to make sure the payment to the rental company would be challenged. Each office can act differently on what constitutes a "damage." The rental offices can be franchises as opposed to corporate locations. A good experience at on office does not translate to other locations "affiliated" to the same big name company. I have been saying no to this type of damage coverage since my first car rental when I did not have a premium credit card.
Had the insurance been provided by your credit card company or other third party, then they would deploy corporate resources to make sure the payment to the rental company would be challenged. Each office can act differently on what constitutes a "damage." The rental offices can be franchises as opposed to corporate locations. A good experience at on office does not translate to other locations "affiliated" to the same big name company. I have been saying no to this type of damage coverage since my first car rental when I did not have a premium credit card.
Jul 14th, 2014, 02:36 PM
#6
Rental car damage isn't a 'scam' as such. One should ALWAYS note pre-existing damage and take photos. An 'avid traveler' should know this . . . let your cc company handle this - and be VERY happy if you get relief.
(But he probably won't see our suggestions -- He registered just to post this and likely won't be back.)
(But he probably won't see our suggestions -- He registered just to post this and likely won't be back.)
Jul 15th, 2014, 06:28 AM
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I recently returned a rental car to Munich airport to a garage where it seemed like a car was being returned every couple minutes. I was the only one in the long line photographing the car. Many didn't even know to show a receipt for a recent gas fill up. It led me to believe most travelers don't do much research and haven't read about the Thrifty/Dollar car rental in Germany.
May 17th, 2015, 01:31 AM
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Extremely rude manager at Buchbinder front desk in Cologne airport made 3 hours of our vacation time near to unbearable. All the way we were proceeding with taking a car from him was a nightmare because of his rudeness and contempt.
He started from rolling his eyes and sighing heavily in respond to our "Hello". It made us feel like we were the reason of all his troubles. Then he tried to cheat with charging us extra money for one way trip which had been already payed. Just after we insisted twice on double checking he agreed not to charge for this. He was obviously not right but never apologized.
On my question which car he was going to give us, he simply told us "wait" and didn't announced it until he gave the key. It turned out that we've got Skoda Octavia which is 1 meter longer than ordered VW Golf and thus was not convenient at all. He answered cynically that "Skoda is also made by VW" - what a nice joke!
The worst thing happened later - Buchbinder use navigation system Tom Tom which didn't work properly. He didn't tell a word about the specific of those navigators - they take about 5 kilometers of driving don't-know-where away from airport to start receiving GPS signal - very unexpectedly and not very much comfortably.
So we just could not move on as we didn't have a map, we just made a circle around parking lot and came back. When I came to the desk asking to change the navigation he became angry and tried just to get rid of me - no sorry, no care, no help. He chucked another navigator at me.
Then the story repeated - we made wider circle around airport and it didn't turn on so we had to park somewhere and run another kilometer by foot to change it once again. When he saw me for the second time he became absolutely furious and gave the 3rd one with usb port which at the end didn't work in a car (we tested it on Iphone - no connection).
The battery got off and I made my 3rd kilometer to the Bunchbinder desk to change. No sorry, no concern - instead he burst out shouting at me that "you couldn't pay for a car with built-in navigation, what do you want from me!!" (c). What a tolerance, what a customer oriented approach, what a service! Why should I spend 3 hours of my time being abased and sorted out navigation fails? Which became my own problem.
Finally we just got it and made our way to nowhere, after 5 km driving in opposite direction it found a satellite.
When return a car remember that you will have to drop a navigation to another place in airport - you must carry it to arrivals which is very inconvenient because you actually need departures.
Do not use it - Stay away!
He started from rolling his eyes and sighing heavily in respond to our "Hello". It made us feel like we were the reason of all his troubles. Then he tried to cheat with charging us extra money for one way trip which had been already payed. Just after we insisted twice on double checking he agreed not to charge for this. He was obviously not right but never apologized.
On my question which car he was going to give us, he simply told us "wait" and didn't announced it until he gave the key. It turned out that we've got Skoda Octavia which is 1 meter longer than ordered VW Golf and thus was not convenient at all. He answered cynically that "Skoda is also made by VW" - what a nice joke!
The worst thing happened later - Buchbinder use navigation system Tom Tom which didn't work properly. He didn't tell a word about the specific of those navigators - they take about 5 kilometers of driving don't-know-where away from airport to start receiving GPS signal - very unexpectedly and not very much comfortably.
So we just could not move on as we didn't have a map, we just made a circle around parking lot and came back. When I came to the desk asking to change the navigation he became angry and tried just to get rid of me - no sorry, no care, no help. He chucked another navigator at me.
Then the story repeated - we made wider circle around airport and it didn't turn on so we had to park somewhere and run another kilometer by foot to change it once again. When he saw me for the second time he became absolutely furious and gave the 3rd one with usb port which at the end didn't work in a car (we tested it on Iphone - no connection).
The battery got off and I made my 3rd kilometer to the Bunchbinder desk to change. No sorry, no concern - instead he burst out shouting at me that "you couldn't pay for a car with built-in navigation, what do you want from me!!" (c). What a tolerance, what a customer oriented approach, what a service! Why should I spend 3 hours of my time being abased and sorted out navigation fails? Which became my own problem.
Finally we just got it and made our way to nowhere, after 5 km driving in opposite direction it found a satellite.
When return a car remember that you will have to drop a navigation to another place in airport - you must carry it to arrivals which is very inconvenient because you actually need departures.
Do not use it - Stay away!
May 17th, 2015, 01:24 PM
#15
<<The worst thing happened later - Buchbinder use navigation system Tom Tom which didn't work properly. He didn't tell a word about the specific of those navigators - they take about 5 kilometers of driving don't-know-where away from airport to start receiving GPS signal - very unexpectedly and not very much comfortably.
So we just could not move on as we didn't have a map, we just made a circle around parking lot and came back.>>
Do you not think that having a map would have been a good idea, just in case your GPS didn't work? Especially if you hadn't ordered one.
As you say, the TomTom was in fact working normally. We have a TomTom and you do need to wait for it to "warm up" - everywhere. so if you'd just waited for a few minutes, it would probably have been fine.
And didn't you know where you wanted to go anyway? there are loads of signs around Berlin airport - in fact we went wrong outside the airport because we trusted the GPS rather than the road signs.
If in doubt, take a map.
So we just could not move on as we didn't have a map, we just made a circle around parking lot and came back.>>
Do you not think that having a map would have been a good idea, just in case your GPS didn't work? Especially if you hadn't ordered one.
As you say, the TomTom was in fact working normally. We have a TomTom and you do need to wait for it to "warm up" - everywhere. so if you'd just waited for a few minutes, it would probably have been fine.
And didn't you know where you wanted to go anyway? there are loads of signs around Berlin airport - in fact we went wrong outside the airport because we trusted the GPS rather than the road signs.
If in doubt, take a map.
May 17th, 2015, 03:58 PM
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Agree that I would never drive anywhere without a detailed paper map - IMHO often much more useful than GPS. Also - could;t you tell from the signs where you needed to go? don;t you look at maps before you leave to get an idea of the shape of the trip?
May 17th, 2015, 05:50 PM
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Annhig & NYtraveler,
I have a friend who does not go a block from her house without the GPS on. It drives me crazy. She can live somewhere for years and not be able to tell you how to get to a local drug store or supermarket. If she makes a mistake in following it, she is completely lost with no sense of how to reverse direction.
Besides a map, I like to have photos of addresses and surrounding streets - mini maps of every place we are going. It is the best thing I do with the i-pad when we travel.
I have a friend who does not go a block from her house without the GPS on. It drives me crazy. She can live somewhere for years and not be able to tell you how to get to a local drug store or supermarket. If she makes a mistake in following it, she is completely lost with no sense of how to reverse direction.
Besides a map, I like to have photos of addresses and surrounding streets - mini maps of every place we are going. It is the best thing I do with the i-pad when we travel.
May 18th, 2015, 05:23 AM
#18
In fact we just spent a week touring SW France without a GPS, ours having decided to give up the ghost the night before we left.
fortunately we have a load of maps of that area from an earlier trip [30 years ago!] and DH had bought a couple of more up to date ones the week before we left, so we were OK.
And the road signs were pretty good too.
fortunately we have a load of maps of that area from an earlier trip [30 years ago!] and DH had bought a couple of more up to date ones the week before we left, so we were OK.
And the road signs were pretty good too.
Dec 29th, 2016, 05:13 AM
#20
It does seem to be the predominant type of post for "appear once, never to be seen again" posters.
I'm not a frequent car renter - probably no more than once a year, but every time I have used a service, the cars have been listed as something like "Compact" Opel Astra or Similar rather than guarantee a specific model.
I'm not a frequent car renter - probably no more than once a year, but every time I have used a service, the cars have been listed as something like "Compact" Opel Astra or Similar rather than guarantee a specific model.
