I rented a car from Malagacar.com from 30 October through 6 November. DO NOT RENT FROM HERE! Here are the problems I had/am still having with them: 1) When we picked up the car, my card was declined even though I told my card company I was traveling in Spain (more on this later). No problem, I paid with another card. I called my card company half an hour later to see why it was declined, and they said Malagacar.com was flagged as fraud because they charged me twice within the same MINUTE - once as an online transaction for ~$180 USD (this is correct, this is for the contracted cost of the rental car); and then a second, manually keyed transaction for OVER $1300 USD! Turns out the company places a hold/pending charge of 1300 Euro on your credit card for the time you have your vehicle, in case of damages - so the $1300 USD charge was for the 1300 Euro minus the ~$180 cost of the actual rental. This policy was not mentioned ANYWHERE on their website or ANYWHERE on the booking confirmation email (trust me I have double- and triple-checked both since I've been home); nor was it explained to me in person when I picked up the car. It is vaguely mentioned in the fine print on the paperwork, which is how I went back after the fact and figured out what it was, but it's not very clear at all - i.e. it's not explained that the pending charge on your card will be the difference between 1300 Euro and your contracted rental price. Malagacar.com: YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. This is TERRIBLE customer service. I understand this is not fraud, because it is in the paperwork and I did sign it, but you need to verbally discuss this with your customers so when they get a call from their credit card company, they don't think their card information has been stolen/skimmed. 2) I returned the car, with no damages or issues and was cleared by the company employee, over a week ago and this charge is still showing up as pending on my credit card!! Over $1300 USD is not available to me because this company won't remove it after more than a WEEK! I have emailed them 3 times trying to get this fixed: the first time they told me they "don't have access to the money anymore so contact your bank". So I did, the card company told me the vendor aka Malagacar.com has to remove it on their end. I emailed them back, they said "well sometimes it takes 7-10 days for the charge to be removed, if it doesn't come off tomorrow contact us". That was last Thursday, it's now Monday and the charge is still pending, I emailed them again this morning to that effect and they have not responded. Very disappointed and very frustrated with the level of service I received from this company, and I'm still working on getting the pending charge cancelled from my card over a week later. Will not recommend.
Reply by Malagacar.com:
Dear customer,
We are sorry you were unhappy but you or your bank is not right. We charged you just once at 21:53 for an amount of 156,26 € and at 21:55 We tried to block a deposit (
Not charge) so if the car was declined this had to be because there was a limit under that amount. You say this is not mentioned but I like to think you didn’t read the term and conditions or maybe you forgot this step because the car was booked a month prior your arrival:
When you looked the site and prices, you could read the conditions:
.jpg)
2. After you choose the car and before you accept to make the booking, you could read again the term and conditions and this is next to the “Book car” bottom.:
3. And when you received the booking voucher, you could read again
With these points, we consider this condition is explained and I am sure my colleague explained at the desk as well.
The amount blocked is not in our account so this is blocked for a maximum of 9 days only.
Regards,
J. Alberto Anglada
