Disappointing staff availability to check car on return

Counter staff tried to pressure me to buy additional insurance which I had already purchased in the uk. I was also told that if the car broke down or I was involved in an accident there was no breakdown or recovery included in the rental. In her words ‘ you are on your own’. The car had a lot of dents and scratches and the interior was dirty. The woman in the pick up cabin was not interested in helping me to identify all of the damage on the car bodywork when I collect the car.

ACE in Bordeaux is Gold Car, a company I avoided, despite being cheaper, due to its very poor reviews. It took over 2 hours to collect the car. Car received had class 1 damage, with very few panels not damaged. Drop off took around 15 mins. Gold Car have offered compensation for delay, before I have complained, of 1 days rental. However, my final invoice has shown no credit. We shall see.

The wait to pick up the car was rediculously long, especially in a warm airport with 2 young children. Counter staff were quite rude and once we realised car was far too small, we weren't able to upgrade. Wait for return was also quite lengthy.

Booking was smooth and easy to include all waivers.

ACE was dire. The pick up took over an hour. After a flight with a 6 month baby and a 5 year old, this was far too long to wait to get to the desk to be served. English was poor, and it was a battle to convince them of the insurance I had already paid for with AXA via Easyrent. They even tried to con us out of 20 Euros for petrol to fill up saying the nearest petrol station was over 30km away from the airport. I had been to the airport several times and the petrol station that was 5km away has always sufficed.

Not use again simply because on picking car up, we were told that we were not covered for anything on car unless we paid €188 for their insurance. I had paid extra when booking the car for initially for coverage. They told me at counter it doesn’t count and we would be charged for anything wrong on return of car. We opted not to take it but puts an amount of anxiety on you during by whole holiday.