Family’s holiday hire car nightmare
Afamily was stranded without a car and left almost £600 out of pocket when a summer break to Barcelona turned sour. Kevin Ward booked the 10-day trip in July for himself, his partner Sam White and their four kids – aged between four and 15. To make sure they could get around easily he paid £585 in advance to international firm Goldcar for a seven-seat people carrier, to be picked up at Barcelona Airport.
However, the holiday got off to a bad start when their flight with easyjet from Liverpool Airport was cancelled – and they couldn’t get on another one for a further two days.
Kevin, 40, drove the family back to their home in Dumfries while waiting for the new flights to be sorted.
“I called Goldcar immediately to explain the situation,” he said. “I was told not to worry, that everything was in hand, and to just call the next day with my new flight details.
“I was told another car would be waiting for us in Barcelona on our new arrival date.” However, when Kevin called back the next morning he was then told his reservation had actually been cancelled. He also found out his money had been lost as it was recorded as a “no-show”. “There is no way I was going to give this company a further £600 for another car until this was all sorted out,” Kevin said. “It was infuriating because no amount of emails or phone calls I made to them would make any difference. “They would not reinstate my booking and I got no reply to numerous requests for a refund.”
The family had arranged to stay at Torredembarra, south of Barcelona. Not having a car was going to make things very inconvenient, Kevin said.
“For a start, it was £100 each way to our hotel from the airport in a taxi,” he said. “On top of that we then had to get public transport anytime we wanted to go anywhere, which was challenging in itself.
“Not having a car changed the nature of our whole holiday and we never got to see a lot of the places we had intended to.”
A pre-booked trip to a water park with the kids became a nightmare, he said. “It took five hours to get there and back on trains and buses in blistering temperatures, when it would have been no more than half an hour by car. During the course of the week we must have spent close to £600 on taxis, buses and trains.” When he got back to Dumfries, Kevin again tried to contact Goldcar to ask for a refund. But once more he felt he was banging his head off a brick wall.
At the end of his tether, he wrote to Raw Deal for help. We contacted Goldcar on his behalf and asked the company to investigate. Goldcar soon admitted the fault and has refunded Kevin his £585. A spokeswoman for the firm said: “We have checked our
records, and have seen that Mr Ward’s booking should have been reactivated on his arrival to Barcelona.
“We feel terribly sorry for all the inconvenience caused, and I’m pleased to confirm that Mr Ward has been reimbursed.” Kevin thanked Raw Deal for stepping in to sort out a stressful situation.