Hidden charges

Long wait as computer system down. Staff were very pleasant.

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.

The only presence that ACE appears to have at the airport is a crudely desiged logo printed onto an A4 sheet of paper and sellotaped to the wall behind the Goldcar desk. It was almost impossible to find. Our booking voucher asked us to join the ‘Priority Lane’ but there was none. There were 79 customers waiting in a 3 hour queue ahead of us. There was nowhere to sit and we had to leave our children on the floor with our luggage. When we did finally pick up the car, the tank wasn’t completely full, despite being on a full to full contract, but by then we were beyond caring. We nearly missed the latest check in for accommodation because of the delays.

Car rental collection system appalling, completely ridiculous ticket system to wait your turn which was similar to playing the lottery. We waited well over an hour to collect the car but only by trading up our ticket number, we spoke to someone who'd waited 5 hours! Didn't appreciate the threats made in order to get us to buy the extra insurance for £200 which would ensure we could rely on help should we have the misfortune of being involved in an accident. Instead we were left worried for the whole week that we would be abandoned should the worst happen. We'd purchased excess cover insurance beforehand but were told that was no use! The car was not clean on the outside and in order to check the car properly we had to scrape off bird poo to check for damage, which included a windscreen chip which hadn't been noted already. Didn't think much to the car either, given it's supposed to take 5 people plus suitcases, a 1.2litre car to me is unsuitable. It struggled with motorway speed and felt like it had done 100,000 miles not 5000 as the clock said. All in all not an enjoyable start to a holiday!

No problems with easy cars, simple to book. Only suggestion would be to avoid selling ace/goldcar rentals on the site!

The car wasn't the same spec as I had ordered