RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Recently hired a car in Ireland through this Europcar which I booked through Argus Car Ireland. have used many car hire companies in the past (including Europecar) and they are truely the most rude and unhelpful company. Their representative was extremely aggressive when I queried something in the contract when we arrived. An undisclosed charge (surprise surprise). Europcar/Argus Car Hire motto should be "not only is the company never right, should they have a question you shout at them".Never ever again would I use this Europcar.

I must firstly say that i am not one who usually complains... i can never be bothered but feel i have no option with this company than to let other people know...

I booked a hire car through Argus Car Hire 2 weeks ago for a trip to Ireland where i had no alternative transport to get me from Dublin to Donegal. I booked the car hire on my Maestro card and the deposit was taken from that card. I turned up to hire my car at the desk in Dublin airport, firstly having real problems to find where i had to go as there were no signs to say where it was, they just expect the average person to automatically know that they are now part of Irish Car Rentals. I was going round all the car hire companies asking them where Argus Car Hire was, finally to arrive to the last one and the lad on the desk then phoning a colleague to ask 'did we takeover Argus Car Hire?' and then replying 'yes' to me!

Things just got worse from there. I went to pay for the remainder, it having been implied on the booking form that i should take the same card as i had used in paying for the deposit. I was told that they couldn't take Maestro. Now, having been told the reasons why they actually need a credit card, of course i understand why, but this was my first time booking a hire car and i was not made aware of the policy before that. Needless to say i didn't have a credit card on me, i don't actually own one. He said it was not their policy to accept Maestro and so i could see myself stuck there, having made the trip over from Madrid to Dublin to then drive up to Donegal for a wedding the following morning. There was no other transport i could take as everything else had finished for the day.

Of course, having been informed that i couldn't use this card, i initially was angry at the man on the desk. However, it is not his fault ; he is only a small part of a company that can't provide the correct information. He told me that my only option would be to go and get 276 euros out of the bank to pay him for now and that i would get 100 euros back when i returned the car, which i received on the Sunday.

The problem was that with this, i had to take out every possible insurance going, raising the cost from 45 euro to 100 euro. I had gone with them in the first place as they were one of the cheapest... so i thought!

If i hadn't had that 276 euro in the bank, i would have been in trouble and would have been stuck. This is just a warning to all others who are considering using this car hire company. Perhaps they will also find some way of advertising that they have been bought out by other companies and may even give the name of which company to go to so that other people aren't wandering round looking for them too.

I won't use argus again. I needed to shorten my rental by one day and it took numerous uses of their peculiar website and numerous calls before the change was made. When I checked my credit card statement I found they had charged two "unrefundable" deposits. I called again and they admitted their mistake but then refunded the smaller of they two deposits. They have little idea of customer service.

Be aware of Argus Car hire and their supplier National Car Hire. Despite them promising that they 'search the net for the cheapest prices so you don't have to' we had an appaling experience with them and National Car Hire at Carcassonne Airport at Christmas and they are not recommended!

In summary they downgraded our car without notice from a c class (Focus/Astra) to a Citroen C1 - as four adults with cases and bags we couldn't fit in the car - it was Dec. 27 and we had no travel alternatives. We had to duplicate trips to get eveyone to our destination with significant inconvenience and cost. We were cautioned by the police for overloading the car on the one occasion that we squeezed everyone in. Our holiday was ruined as we couldn't really use the car and since then they have refused to refund us the cost of the car (which also had no rear wiper - when we went back to the office to point this out it was closed).

They couldn't care less, do not man their phones as stated 364 days a year (we couldn't get them in head office on Dec 27 to see what we could do) and Hertz was cheaper at their own admission. We have tried to speak to Greg Turley - Argus MD but he refuses to return our calls. In conclusion Argus and National overbook, you run the risk of a ruined holiday and neither could care less. Do not use them - they are appalling.

I must really have a lot of time on my hands in order to be writing a review of my favourite car rental company but here goes anyway... I have used Argus a fair few times (I travel abroad for work now and again and I insist on driving wherever I go) and Argus have hooked me up with the best deals every time. The thing that sets Argus apart - and this is certainly what the finance deptartment at work likes - is that they just keep on coming up with the most ridiculously low prices. So basically I just log on to their website and book my rental (and they have a LOT of locations worldwide: 7,000 of them according their website) and then fly to my destination and pick up my car at the airport. I have rented half a dozen times now with them and encountered no problems - even getting an automatic in Europe has been a breeze so far. The only time I had to ring customer service - which is just about my least favourite thing to do - was when I was running a day late. A very pleasant French lady (despite Argus being based in Ireland!?) ammended my booking accordingly and the delay didn't cost me a dime. I don't really know what more I could ask for? (Then again, a personal chauffeur would be nice...)