County Car Rental - Scam?

groupthink

Has anyone got any Experience with this company? I have a booking with this company based out of Dublin Airport (actually a nearby Hotel!) and I'm wasn't familiar with the company's name, so I did a bit of Googling on the topic. I was shocked to find several pages of past customers with nothing good to say! Most of them were swindled out of a lot of cash by this company and it's shady policies. I'm quite worried that I'm walking into a trap, which will stop me from enjoying my trip to Dublin.

Most of the posters were Americans, as I guess Irish people generally don't rent cars from Dublin Airport, but I would be curious what is the reputation of this company according to Irish people? Has anyone got exeprience of renting from them? I have a couple of day tleft to change my booking, but needless to say the price jump to the next crowd is substantial! (curiously low prices compared to all of the competition is usually a sign of severe cutting of corners!)

munchkin_utd

their terms and conditions are quite strange, FIVE years driving experience for example. Normal max is 2.

Also, they charge you for a tank of fuel in advance, and you dont need to fill the car on return. Of course if you only use a few litres of petrol, theres 50euro+ of petrol in the tank that you have paid for that you arent going to use.

You also cant even go up the north!

Anyhow, I've rented from enterprise and hertz at the airport.
Hertz arent cheap but they are professionals. And they are right there beside arrivals.
Enterprise have a depot 2 min drive from the airport and theyll collect you from arrivals. Between dublin and cork we have used them about a dozen times over the past 18 months and they are spot on pricewise. i.e. the wife is in Cork for the week and has a corsa for something like a tenner a day from Enterprise.
Maybe check out enterprise to avoid getting shafted by that other crowd?

(BTW: enterprise also get some slating reviews, to be fair with ANY rental crowd, YOU should ensure that the car is 100% before driving off. Nearly had that cost me a set of fancy alloy rims for an rented opel insignia over the summer that i didnt notice were gouged ta f*ck till I was parked up at home!!)

bookerboy

These guys were know as South County car rentals.Their head office is on Rochestown avenue,Dun Laoire(near bakers Corner)
You would be better off picking up the car from head office.Check in advance carefully for damage and make sure they mark it clearly on the rental agreement.
Car rental companies like to catch you for a few quid on petrol.They have petrol pumps at head office.If the car is full when you get it,bring it back full.There should be no charge.
If you are really worried,you could change your credit card number after you rent the car but before you bring it back.
This way they cannot make an deductions without your permission.
The MD of the company(Bernard Loughrin)is based at head office.If there are any problems i'm sure he will sort them out for you rather than listen to you screaming and shouting in his office upsetting other customers.
You should be ok,this company are established for over fifty years.

groupthink

Thank you both for your comments.

I've rented before with many different companies, but I usually go through car trawler, who present the best prices from a group of companies. The thing is that you can't see who the rental agent will be until you've paid your deposit (or in the case of this agent, prepaid full cost). Every other time I've had no problem with car trawler, it's been a great success.

I've read through County's full t&c's and returning the car full of petrol is a no go, as they clearly state (although in small text) that they don't permit this. This policy in itself is a complete scam. I've always made sure to return car's full, as generally I'm not doing a lot of driving during my rental periods, hence I don't usually use the full tank, and refilling yourself get rid of any room for debate on how empty the war was and hence how much petrol they had to put into it. Usually the extra you can save on this alone is like 20-40 euro on a medium sized car.

My next problem is that I will be picking up the car late, around 10:15pm, so they say that there will be nobody at the airport desk and I'll have to call a number and wait for a bus to come and pick us up.(not ideal seeing as its so late) - then we get brought to a "nearby" hotel where we pick up the car. Obviously I will need to check the car, as I always do, but this will be difficult in the darkness. I always find that rental companies are really dismissive of this process, "Ah it'll be alright" kind of attitude. Which is OK as long as that's the way they are when the car is returned (most other companies are actually like this). But from reading the reviews of County Car Rental, it sounds like they are scrutinising the car upon return almost in the hope of catching you out. One poster said that the car was really bumped and scratched when he picked it up and hence it would be impossible to record such marks on a small 2d plan drawing of the car. Then they screwed him over when he brought it back because of a scratch which "wouldn't rub out" (900 euro they charged him).

Additionally upon return there is nobody there to check the car, you just have to drop the key into a box. After which point anything can happen to the car which has nothing to do with you, but which they will attribute to being your fault. The drop off being at a hotel and not at the airport is another nuisance. Catching a flight at the airport is already full of enough uncertainty without creating more with having to wait for a bus to take you to the departures terminal.

In general the company's whole process smacks of strategically placed holes to make things difficult for you and easy for them to screw you over!

I 've read that the company is around for 50 years, and I'm confident I can photograph the car at pickup, and correspond firmly with the company to keep my back, but its just all the time and stress involved in such a process which is annoying. These companies shouldn't be allowed to run such a show.

the groutch

my dad rented a van off them once (from their head office near Dun Laoghaire), don't know the particulars of their policies/proceedure, but he had no issues, and got the job he wanted done for about half of the next cheapest company

foggy_lad

you will usually get what you pay for and this crowd being the cheapest by a large margin should ring alarm bells. firstly you will be charged in advance for the full tank of fuel even if you return a full tank and like buying a used car or any other item you should not have to pick it up in darkness as pictures taken with a flash may not show a level of damage thay later blame you for. i would not use this company no matter how long they are around!

SuperS54

I've used these guys before, got the booking through Argus as the cheapest rental. Picking up the car was a pain as the desk is sloooow in the airport ~ 3 ahead of me averaging 20mins per person. Bringing the car back empty is now becoming common way for all rental companies to make a few extra quid although if you check out the terms and conditions on Argus or County's websites it is clearly stated, personally I syphon whatever isn't needed to get back to the airport and leave it back dry. Had no issue with any additional charges although returning the car was also a pain as there were no spaces in the Clarion car park, had to call their office who called local rep in the hotel who eventually came down and took the keys and signed the paperwork. Living abroad I regularly hire cars on home trips, last time I got National in the Argus lucky dip, their conditions also state return empty though they will allow return full on request (due to many complaints in the past they said ~ make sure you get it in writing on hiring).
Slightly off topic but I note having used Argus for the last few years that hire companies seem to have a diferent set of "low rental" cars from their normal fleet, usually get a 3~4 year old fairly bashed car as opposed to a new/1 year old on the premium price. Doesn't bother me as minor sins are covered up by the existing multitudes and price is a fraction of the normal rental fees, soemthing to note though if you are hiring for a special occassion where you might want something fancy and fresh. As with any hire, take numerous photo's on pick up and on return with a date/time stamp enabled.

corklad32

Hi guys apologies if this is in the wrong location but hopefully someone might move it for me. Ok here goes I arrived in faro in Portugal today and picked up a car from europcar faro airport. The procedure is very weard from someone coming out to the car with you and pointing out minor scratches etc. And filling it out on a form and u sign. I didn't notice much at the time but there's lots of marks on the alloy wheels on front. They only marked two on the form for each wheel whereas in reality there must be ten marks. I started goggling faro airport europcar and have since discovered there running a scam and they will definitely try it on with me on sat when I return the car. I took pictures of the wheels before I left the pickup but am afraid they will still attempt to dispute it to the value of the excess which is 1500. I think I will bring the car back early maybe thur and get a hertz or avis for the remaining few days. I also believe I will have to get the police brought in. Has anyone any experience dealing with the police in faro as to how good or otherwise they might be for something like this. Scary when you read the same scam being pulled on loads of people at europcar faro airport. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it's already ruined day 1 of my hols

elgriff

thats standard procedure. you should be okay, maybe go a few hours early so you have time to sort it out if there is issues. If you have pics you will be ok.