Centauro Reviews 188

I would not use them again. Staff are extremely rude and spiteful.

They insisted the hub cap was scratched and deducted €250 from our deposit. The scratch was minor and we are certain it was already present on pick up. However without video evidence they would not budge and as we had a flight to catch they had us snookered. Absolute joke.

Original hire price was £90 ended up being
£300. We also paid extra damage insurance which they would not accept.

Vile place. Avoid

Rented a car in March only to hear upon arrival Sunday evening there was no car for us and we would have to find one ourselves as they were overbooked and would not help find a solution.
Note: they could have told us that the day before so I could have rented another car from the comfort of home!
Despite the hour and day we found a car (one of the last) and Centauro promised us to pay the difference in price.
This never happened. They do not react to emails or calls and refer to their HQ etc etc. Excuses, excuses, excuses. They try to wear you out this way so you give up eventually....
After many months of insisting (I was so pissed off by their attitude, I did not give up), I received the money but only through the broker I booked with. Never got a decent reply from Centaur even not after visiting their sales office in person.
I was a returning customer for Centauro but will never rent from them again. It would have been cheaper and better for them to provide me with proper service. Avoid them.

We received a 360 Euro claim for a minor scratch on a wheel cap, charged as 'tyre', while as per their books this was rated at 205 euro. We tried several paths to come to an understanding, but they simply refuse decent contact or any follow-up response. Don't trust them without full coverage.

Long wait for shuttle bus from Lisbon airport to rental centre. Over an hour and a half wait at desk. Unexpected large preauthorization charges. Excessive charge for very small superficial scratch on alloy wheel, less then 2 cm. Was told only scratches over 5cm count, so didn't record any damage less then 5cm. Long wait, more then an hour shuttle bus back to airport.

Excellent experience at FARO brunch.
David was above and beyond to meet all my expectations, we traveling as family of 5 (including a 2 Years baby) the car was great, and he made all the process very easy and swift, that’s exactly what we need after a long day traveling.
Joao was very kind and helpful during the transport from the airport.

We have some less good experiences in Porto, but Faro was amazing for us and we use them again for sure.

Thank you

Cheap, but also cheap service and they try to get you when you return the car.
Never got refunded my gas deposit I have put on the car even if they told me they would, so never accept to pay this deposit. They are closed between 11pm and 7am. So good luck if you have an early or late flight. No flexibility at all. My flight was at 8:30am, I waited for the opening, an employee showed up at 6:45 and refused to take my keys, saying I will be charged for negligence. No key box no nothing like the other rental companies. I missed my flight because of the delays of the employees when it opened and because of there negligence when they got there. Overall bad customer service.

Centauros customer service does not work - their customer service does not answer us!
All negative Trustpilot-customer get the answer: contact our customer service.
But we can tell You: they will never ever answer!!!!

Is this what customers can expect from Centauro Rent a Car ?

It is legally and in every sense completely unacceptable, that Centauro has not refunded 604 Euro from a timely correct cancelled rental.

We booked the car 24.1.2024 - booking ref. 240124-780580
Unfortunately we had to cancel our holiday - and cancelled the booking on 6.2.2024.
We have sent You documentation - a bank statement.
We have also sent you a copy of your petrol refund.
We still need a refund of the car rental - 604 Euro.

The only answer we get is this one (two months ago):
"Your case 811335811 is being managed by the correct department, please wait for an answer on the ticket 811335811.

Kind regards,
Marta F. "

We made one mistake. After the cancelling we deleted our account (by mistake)
Our refund disappeared from the account - and it was gone when we restored it.
604 Euro.
Somebody must have removed our 604 Euro - who has the access to do that?

We have made several complains and asked you for the refund.
No answer - yet!

Don’t use this guys they are not professional not serious they laugh at you when you ask questions or they take everything personal they don’t know how to deal customers clearly the company just hire anyone without training I know is hard Portugal for people to do the job properly because they don’t get pay enough so the do minimal work. Just bare in mind this company will charge you anything extra be careful is not what is advertised on their sites etc hidden fees becareful they will over charge for anything rather use more legit company. This Spanish company is a scam becaerful

SCAM! Avoid at all cost. I've booked (and paid online) car just for one day trip(Reservation confirmation 1277183124) at 11.30 today. I've been there on time. On arrival been told to take a ticket and wait in sittin area (ticke number N005). There was about 10 people there, everyone waiting for car. After half hour my girlfriend asked at reception how long we have to wait. They just told her to sit and wait. After almost an hour we gave up and left this place without car or money (no point to wait hours for car for just few hours trip)
I understand, sometimes might be busy but there were four people in reception but only one was working.
I've been renting cars many times in many different places but that's happened to me first time. I regret I didn't check reviews before booking as there are lots of people having same problems. I lost only 50-60 quid(can live with this) but I hope nobody will ever trust this bunch of monkeys.That was the worst experience I ever had.

Review Title: "Challenging Experience with Centauro Rent a Car in Portugal"

I recently rented a car from Centauro during my trip to Portugal, and unfortunately, my experience was less than satisfactory. Here are the key issues I encountered:

1. **Location and Shuttle Service**: One major inconvenience was that Centauro's rental location is not at the airport. I had to wait for their shuttle service, which took nearly 45 minutes to arrive. This was a frustrating start, especially after a long flight.

2. **Customer Service**: Upon arrival at the rental office, which was surprisingly empty, the assistant's demeanor was immediately off-putting. He was rude when asking for my ticket as I queued up, making the initial interaction quite uncomfortable.

3. **Aggressive Insurance Upselling**: The assistant aggressively tried to sell Centauro's insurance, dismissing my worldwide car rental insurance. He insisted that my policy wouldn't be accepted and that any fines incurred would not be covered by Centauro, which felt like a scare tactic to persuade me to buy their insurance.

4. **Digital Paperwork Challenges**: All paperwork was handled digitally, and I was compelled to approve extensive legal documents and a record of existing car damages on a small phone screen. This process felt rushed and not particularly user-friendly.

5. **Difficulty Acknowledging Pre-existing Damage**: The car had noticeable damage to a wheel and the bumper. Convincing the assistant to inspect the car and acknowledge these damages was a struggle. He initially refused to do so, stating it wasn't necessary. However, after persistent requests, he finally agreed.

6. **Issue with Updated Digital Paperwork**: After marking the damage on the rental agreement, the assistant was reluctant to provide updated digital paperwork confirming the pre-existing damage. Only after insisting did he briefly use the computer to send a revised agreement. Again, I had to rely on my phone to review this important document.

In conclusion, my experience with Centauro Rent a Car was marked by poor customer service, aggressive sales tactics, and a cumbersome digital process for handling paperwork.

Quite simply, avoid Centauro car rental from Lisbon!

Cannot be trusted. I booked through a broker and opted for private insurance. Upon returning the car, the inspector found no damage. However, I was later presented with a claim. They unjustly deducted extra money from my account for this claim. They provided a photo of the alleged damage, but it lacked any identifiable features like a number plate to prove it was the car I had rented. They claimed this was the only photo available and refused to provide the damage report. They couldn't explain the discrepancy between the inspector's feedback upon car return and the claim made afterward. The claim lacked any solid evidence. I believe they were aware I had private insurance and assumed I wouldn't pursue legal action since my insurance would cover the claim. It seems they fabricated both the damage and the claim.
Additionally, expect long wait times for both pick-up and drop-off.

Two hour wait to collect the car, yet they still expect us to have the car back at the original time. They charged us 24E more than the agreed in writing contract price for the additional driver. Lots of damage on the car which wasn’t noted in the contract. Very poor service.

Horrible horrible horrible service! We rented from Centauro in the Lisbon airport terminal in Saturday 2.9.2023 and we will NEVER do that again!!

The shuttle that takes you from the terminal to their location doesn't come often enough and there is no way that everybody who's waiting in line with you will manage to fit in the car. A person who was waiting with us said that this is already the 3rd shuttle that he can't get on to... We decided to take the airport's internal shuttle instead, which was the correct decision.

In the agency there were over 100 people in line! The company has no capacity what so ever to deal with the load of the orders, and there are at maximum only 4 counters open at any given time. When our turn finally came up they told us that our car is not fully fueled and still tried to charge us 100€ for fuel deposit without being being able to explain us the logic in it. A lot of the information they tried to pass to us was not clear and had to be repeated over and over again because their English, although pretty good, is not quite good enough and the service is really slow (in addition to the manpower capacity problem).

Eventually they found another car, which was fully fueled, and gave it to us as a free upgrade. The clutch on this car was pretty worn out and the shift stick didn't snap properly into the different gear positions. But the worst of it all was that it took us a total of 4 hours from the terminal to the successful departure with the car. 4 hours!

Our plans for the first day of the trip were ruined.

I rented a car from this company, I have nothing but great experience, efficient, friendly, proffecional, very good prices definitely will use them again if back in Portugal.

We rent a car in Madeira for one week and it was amazing. They gave us a great car (a class higher than we were expecting) at a very low price.

During our stay we had some issues because of the harsh conditions of Madeira's roads but Centauro assistance was superb. They promptly helped us out with all the problems we had. We felt safe and in good hands.

Highly recommended! I will surely use Centauro again. It was the best car rental experience I've ever had.

Pick up at airport on Lisbon chaotic, everyone trying to get on shuttle at same time. Worse at car pick up. Was waiting almost an hour and started complaining. Told I didn't pay for premium collection service, which I did. Only took us after constant complaining. Drop off was very slow and disorganized.

Will never use this company again. We arrived in Lisbon airport at 8.30 am and had booked the car for 9.00am. It was 10am before the shuttlebus was able to take us to their offices as the bus had to do 3 runs before it was our turn. When we arrived at the office there was what can only be described as an angry mob. After a further 2 hr wait we understood why everyone was so cross. There was 3 members of staff on the counters and over 50 plus people waiting. Lost 3 hrs of our 1st day and when we returned the. car we had to wait an hour to be taken to the airport. Just as well we had factored in extra time based on our horrendous experience when collecting the car. In fairness the car was brand new and we were happy with it but their system and staffing levels need completely overhauled to avoid these totally unacceptable waiting times. Ruined our first day.

Arrogant service and 4 hour wait.. Don’t try it

I had a great experience with Centauro in Lisbon. Courtesy bus from the airport to their location (10 minutes), super quick pick-up of the vehicle (10 minutes tops), great vehicle, fast return (15 minutes again), and the fuel and VIA-T deposits were returned as expected (the first one was returned immediately, the second one took a bit longer - maybe 10 days).
Service from the staff working there was great both at pick up and drop off.

AVOID RIPPED ME OFF ON FUEL
I hired a car from Centauro in Faro on May 10th. Upon receiving the car the fuel level was at 50% not 100% that was on the invoice so I returned to the office where they changed the reciept with a pen but the email reciept still said 100% fuel level on collection. I have the reciept. I had paid £181.89 ponds plus exchange fee of £5. I returned the car on May 14th with the same 50% fuel in it as it was when I collected it, and agreed by the people in the office. I made the person receiving it, when i returned the car , aware of the situation but he didn't seem interested. I received an email after this that should of returned the fuel deposit of €100 euros but it only returned €49.53 euros. There was another €100 prepayment for motorway tolls which I have received a refund of £86.03 pounds after 12 days. I have received £130.42 but I'm still owed £44.39p for the fuel deposit.