CarDelMar 

Short story - 2 hours after I picked up my rental car booked via CarDelMar from Hertz, I was told the contract based on which I took the car, and the zero insurance policy I thought I purchased didn't really exist, because of some system issue/lack of confirmation. The local partner, Hertz (and not some dodgy firm with poor systems) and I were blamed for going ahead with the rental and left to deal with each other directly, all done in a very abrupt, rude and unhelpful way. Some of the issues that led to this:
- very poorly designed system, for an online aggregator. CarDelMar can take 72 hours to confirm a booking, but the website allows you to attempt renting a car for tomorrow, with no warning. By doing so, you basically give them your card details and the option, but not the obligation, to rent a car for you for the next 72 hours. If they haven't confirmed it by your pickup time, tough luck - you might not get a car. And since they haven't rejected your request, and they have your credit card details, you don't have the option of making alternative arrangements, or you might get charged twice.
- customer service hours are 8am-5pm. This is meant to be sufficient in a 24x7 travel business, in jetsetting Europe, in 2016...
- their system seems to miss confirmations from their local partners - in my case, I didn't receive a voucher, but Hertz did have all my booking details in their system, and had confirmed to CarDelMar the availability, at the time of the initial request
- culture of shifting blame to their partners, and pointing fingers, instead of taking responsibility and ensuring the customer gets the service they paid for; no consideration to dangerous situations like leaving a driver uninsured

After taking extra insurance and putting a claim, Cardelmar said they will credit my account within 2 weeks. That was in November 2015!
I have wasted my time phoning them and sending them numerous emails. They are totally incompetent and useless. They claim they tried to make a payment on my credit card but they simply haven't, instead they close my ticket as if the case was closed. They owe me almost Euro300 and my next step is to take them to the European Small Claims Court!

AVOID CARDELMAR AT ALL COST!

I booked a car last minute with cardelmar, receive their confirmation, call their partner to know how to get there from the airport and they told me on phone that they did not have any car available and not to come. CardelMar charge me and it's been two month I am in the process to get reimbursment. Last news, they said that their partner had car available and that I did not show up. They are lyers and can not be truster. They used the fact that most people are not carefull enough with their expense and don't have the time to do reclamation. It's a shame.

Was not happy at all with the final vendor (goldcar) but cardelmar and their insurance service was great

I cancelled a booking two weeks ago because I made a mistake with dates. I then rebooked with the correct dates. I have had no refund for the first booking and four emails querying that have been ignored. Both bookings were said to be with Hertz.

Because I had become suspicious, I asked Hertz to confirm the second booking but Hertz said they had no such booking. I will recover the money through my credit card company's disputes procedure but CarDelMar are a company to avoid like the plague.

Made my booking and received an email saying they would confirm within 72 hours with their local supplier. Instead, they did nothing - when I called them 5 days later they told me that they hadn't been in touch yet. They then did nothing for another 4 days. Unsurprisingly, a week later the car was no longer available!

If you want to make a booking with a car hire company that doesn't know how to hire a car, then this is the one for you!

Overcharged by nearly EUR80 onsite when collected car. Company agreed to repay, sending me a message to send my bank details. As I was away, I didn't reply, only for the company to close the ticket completely and ignore all emails and calls (when anyone bothers to answer).
A pity, because otherwise good rental experience and price let down by terrible after service.

We always use Car del Mar but now we had a bad experience in Pisa with Interrent.
1. on the prepaid voucher of CdM it is stated Car Group: Fiat Punto e.g. (no more info). At the location it appeared that a Fiat Panda is part of the e.g. The group is nowhere mentioned. According to the CdM employee it is on the voucher = we cannot find it, but he still is saying: yes it is mentioned? For 10 Euro per day (Interrent) you can have another car. Why should we pay more while we normally get same type of car or higher (if not available).
2. then suddenly a deposit of 1.465 euro is needed. Nothing mentioned in the paper. According to the CdM employee it is mentioned in the voucher. We cannot find anything in the voucher. CdM stated: this is normal? I checked this myself because we have another car rented by CdM from Budget Venice with NO deposit. Finally we could not get the car at Pisa because our credit card had a max of 1.000 euro. This means: a lot of stress at the airport and your holiday starts wondelful. We had to make extra cost to solve the problem ourselves. CdM didnot do anything because this should be normal procedure. On both bookings at CdM we made (active) we cannot find the word deposit of 1.465,= euro and a summary of car ranges. Finally I ask for the name of the CdM employee in order to refer to our call conference: he hang up the phone. Very professional.

BEWARE This is not a real company it is a scam. We are having our attorney look into this matter.

They just took my money away. That's it. I paid for my car and when i arrived to the destination they told me that they are sorry but they cant give me the car. I've written 3 emails to Car del Mar, still no answer. No refund, nothing. They simply robbed me.

BE AWARE. DON'T USE THIS COMPANY!

do not do business with them interrent/europcar, cardelmar... let them scum suffocate and go bankrupt...scammers - interrnet, europecar and cardelmar, could not provide proof of address for my uk license, wasted 2 hours late night in stansted, then 2 hours next day, scum, returned next day with bank statement, voucher already gone, no car, no money back, no refund, ignoring me...no, effin equifax credit check, nobody gives a ... just scum everywhere, wasted two days of my life, ruined my stay ... MFs!
easirent is so much nicer, was out with a 4x4 car in 5 minutes, twice!


o contactus
I did not get the car nor money?
Where is my refund?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: documents cardelmar.com documents cardelmar.com
Date: Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 8:58 PM
Subject: Your CarDelMar reservation 3206965
To:


Thank you for your reservation.

Attached you will find your voucher, invoice as well as other important information to your reservation.

The voucher contains your rental information as well as the current terms of hire and also serves as your means of payment at the local rental company.

Please print the voucher out and present it to the personnel at the station during collection of your hired car.

Please take note that you are required to present your valid drivers license as well as a valid credit card under the name of the driver, which is needed for the deposit.

We debit your credit card for the full amount of the booking at the time your booking is made. For all on request bookings, please note that we will debit your credit card on confirmation date of your booking.

If you would like to amend your pick-up or drop-off time (e.g. as a result of flight-time changes) or if you have any questions and comments, please send your email to contactus cardelmar.com or simply call us on 0871 0 75 75 75 (GBP 0.10/min.) from the UK or +49 40 180 48 36-302 from abroad.

Sincerely

Your CarDelMar Team

Attached:

- Voucher
- Invoice
- Terms and Conditions
- Reservation information

Please take note:

1. The invoice and voucher are usually sent together in one single E-mail. In rare cases it may happen that these documents are sent separately.

2. Cancellation caveat:
CarDelMar reserves its rights to withdraw from a reservation, inside of 7 days of the reservation confirmation, should the local rental car company turn down the rental of
the vehicle. CarDelMar will contact you by Fax, E-mail or letter. Should your payment already be completed, it will be fully reimbursed.

Fwd: Your CarDelMar reservation 3206965

Honestly people avoid CarDelMar. I read these reviews and ignored them foolishly. I thought "there's no way a company could be this terrible".
Basically I bought a so called 'fully-inclusive' all included car that would have no hidden nasties at the airport. Having been stung several times before hiring cars abroad I went for a supposedly all-inclusive company. The biggest mistake I made. Ruined our holiday.
On arrival to Gold Cars desk after our night flight with two young children, I was told Car deal Mars suppose fall inclusive car rentals are nothing but a ploy to get customers. They say whatever and charge whatever they like - once you get to the actual rental company they dismiss any claims the broker made to grab your custom! We was forced to pay $280 Euros plus $100 petrol tax there and then or not have the car! I explained I had already bought a fully inclusive package from the broker car deal mar and was as good as mocked for believing the sales pitch. So a small car for 1 week cost me 500 Euros. I will not bother contacting Car Del Mar as having been left on hold at my expense for 1 hour already I assume they are nothing but Cowboys. Avoid Avoid Avoid. Do not be a fool like I was thinking these reviews are just the odd bad case. No such thing - every single customer will be left high and dry!

I booked a large family car (we are 5) through CarDelMar 6 months in advance. When we arrived at the airport after a 10hr flight, the rental provider Thrifty said they would not honour the booking class and said we had to accept a downgrade or pay extra for the class we paid for through CarDelMar.

Thrify also tried to hard sell at extra charge things which were inclusive in the CarDelMar deal, like an additional driver and excess. We were forced to accept the downgraded car and request a part refund from CarDelMar.

We wrote to CarDelMar on their complaints case system. We have only had an computer generated response. Is CarDelMar cheaper than Holidays Auto because they don't give you the car class in the contract and then sell you extras which were inclusive?

I booked via cardelmar and arrived at Belfast with friends on time, exiting the airport I called the number provided on the booking form provided by car del mar which was answered by Edinburgh airport who were unable to provide a car, I then tried to call Internet who were the providers to find they had gone into receivership. Calling the cardelmar unhelp line I was left in the airport with no direction or more importantly car and it was only via the power of Google.and not their help line that I discovered eurocar had taken over interents bookings, shame cardelmar didn't know this one!! Eurocar were great so my advise is to go direct to them and by pass cardelmar who were useless

I booked a car with Car Del Mar Malaga online and although the booking was successful, 3 days later I've received an email stating that:

1. The booking has been "denied" without giving me any reason.
2. The company can rent me a car in a different category for about 3/4 of the initial price for a car at a higher category I wanted to rent...
3. ... but the price they quote may change (meaning increase?)
4. ... and the car may not be available on the day.

Needless to say Car Del Mar has just lost a customer but I am very surprised that they exist as a car rental company because with this kind of service they're wasting my and all the other customers' time.

MS

Just booked a hire car with cardelmar. Quoted £52 in total with no additional charges. After payment I received an invoice which said there would be a further 60 euro charge, so cancelled the order straight away.
I then received a message sying there would be a £52 cancellation charge, with no money to be refunded!
Have tried to complain but they advertise no email address and the online support ticket system doesn't work or recognise the order number they gave me so i cannot get in touch.
Only method of contact appears to be a premium rate number. This operation appears to be a fraud - beware.

Not the best hire company I have dealt with

Shocking
Dreadful
what customer service?
Still await a response and a refnd.

Dear CarDelMar,

Thank you for the response to my initial complaint, a mere 2 weeks following my original post and completely inaccurate in all accounts.

I have absolutely, 100% already submitted, as of August 12, all of the documentation you claim in your response you "require for processing". How can I be sure of this, you may ask? Because I spent 25 minutes of my life that I will never get back on the phone with one of your supposed customer service agents at my own expense, confirming that I have submitted/attached all documentation that is required INCLUDING proof of the over 600 euros that was taken from my personal bank account over two weeks ago. You are lying, and using delaying tactics for what I can only assume is a massive scam to get your naive patrons (such as myself) to pay fees that they have already paid YOU, CarDelMar, to cover via a premium insurance policy.

I will be reporting you as practicing fraudulent and exploitative business practices to the local ombudsman here in the UK. Think that doesn't matter because you are a German company? It does. You operate in the UK via the internet and transact with consumers holding UK credit cards and bank accounts. You are liable, and will be held accountable.

Obtained a car from easirent via car del mar. Have zero excess!. The sunroof shattered while the car was parked in an open car park.

Now easirent says sort it out yourself as the insurance is with car del mar. Car del mar says they cannot sort it out and refuse to even return our call. The local repairs do not want deal with it unless the insurers are involved!

All I can say is DO NOT deal with car del mar under any circumstances