Greenmotion

I tried booking a car from Gatwick airport from greenmotion car hire via economybooking.com on 26th June 2018. The advert stated that I would have full accident waiver and comprehensive cover. I paid extra money for this benefit.
When I went to greenmotion they wanted an extra 拢20 per day for accident cover. Their staff were very aggressive in their sales pitch stating that if i did not purchase extra insurance they would find a scratch or speck when i returned vehicle and i would be fully charged. The office manager Debbie was also involved in this behaviour. Other customers were trying to cancel their contract in front of me. Debbie would not allow me to use wifi to contact economybooking.com at her office which is 10 minute drive from Gatwick airport. When I asked for my money back the manager said, " You booked through a third party. We do not recognise the insurance cover. We cannot reimburse you any money as we have not received any money from this company." I had to go back to Gatwick airport to obtain wifi so that I could contact economybooking.com. They informed me that I could not cancel contract as i had to give 24 hours notice. I went back to greenmotion to try and see if i could salvage something from the original agreement. Debbie the manager stated that my original car hire contract had been cancelled. If i wanted to hire a car they could do this but it would cost far more than the original car hire agreement. She was totally unhelpful. I had to take a bus to my destination as this was too stressful. I have been hiring vehicles from Gatwick airport for the past 30 years and have never had a problem. I would suggest you avoid greenmotion and economybookigs.com.
Tim the driver at greenmotion was very helpful and alleviated a lot of stress. Maybe he should be office manager. I would have thought with a little help we could have resolved this problem between greenmotion and economybooking…
I will always use the main strteam car hire companies from now on.

Do not, under any circumstances hire from these guys without having fully comprehensive insurance. I have successfully used insurance4carhire for many years its about 45 quid for a year for european cover & recommended by moneysavingexpert and worth every penny. I only took this greenmotion company because I already had insurance4carhire in place.

Rates per day : excellent. Collection and delivery via Manchester airport was great, two lovely drivers, although more details about the collection point would make it easier for those with no UK phone credit.
Car : excellent. Mileage allowance good. Fuel replacement was fine and open.

Staff – slow service but charming except the guy who reluctantly (I had to get him away from his mates) took me to the car. He was rude and repeatedly told (not asked) me to sign the handover paper before I had finished checking the car. He made no pretence to explain anything about the car and when I asked where the spare wheel is he said call a number if you get a puncture – as if I was a moron. He was Eastern European at a guess – other staff were mostly local and charming.

The charges for one tiny stone scratch to a wheel and a small scuff (T-cut would have fixed it in 5 minutes) in paintwork was amazing and was almost 450 GBP. In the past, with other car hire companies, they tend to call stone marks and small scuff marks on wheels as fair wear and tear especially when you hire for 7 weeks or more.

Be aware that they will block a hefty sum on your card. While I was waiting and waiting and waiting to return my car and complete the paperwork a woman hiring a car was unable to meet the rental, the HOW MUCH A DAY? insurance they offer and the deposit.

Apart from the surly man who obviously had better things to do than hand over cars to customer, 2 stars states with a lot of friction… there was no friction with the staff but 3 stars seemed too good.

BEWARE – VERY VERY POOR Experience so far….

I hired a car from the Heathrow (Holiday Inn) location –
1. Customer service was terrible, 3 people behind the desk who were more interested in discussing Love Island than dealing with my booking despite being one of only two people in the shop. The other customer was being given the hard sell to buy additional insurance coverage to lower their excess (should have been a warning sign to me!!)
2. They couldn鈥檛 give me the car I had hired and paid for originally, a VW Tiguan – they wanted to give me a four door saloon…what do i do with the luggage and kids ??
3. The hut where you eventually go and pick up the car from – Kevin the teenager who was manning it gave customer service a whole new meaning, when I asked him if he was going to do a walk around the car with me to inspect for damage, he gave me a look that might be loosely translated as go and play with yourself (another warning sign)
4. Car had been 鈥渨ashed鈥?but not dried so water stains everywhere on paintwork – unless you are running your Hands all over the bodywork and there are obvious scratches on the body, impossible to see indents / bumps
5. When returning, Kevin the teenager walked round and pointed to a 鈥渂ump鈥?and said NEW DAMAGE, you鈥檒l have to pay for that….with my nose to the paintwork and for the life of me, I couldn鈥檛 see what he was talking about…took 10 pictures or so
6. Asked to sign the rental agreement acknowledging NEW damage – i refused, signed and made written alterations / added additional comments to the agreement
7. When Kevin and I were discussing 鈥渄amage鈥?in his hut, another customer interjected and said he was also told minor bumps and scratches were considered wear and tear – Kevin told him to mind his own business and shut up!
8. 2 days later, a nice email from Greenmotion informing me that they will be charging an additional GBP250 for said 鈥渄amage鈥?below 40 mm as per their pricing matrix…

Unfortunately, I won鈥檛 lie down and take it…happy to pay if i am in the wrong and have rented plenty of cars all over the world and from different companies but I haven鈥檛 come across 鈥渟ervice鈥?like this before. I had another booking with them for a few days later, via the Rentalcars app, needless to say I cancelled.

FInally, last but not least, if you arrive at Heathrow Terminals, you will need to take a shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn – this costs GBP5 and Greenmotion tells you they will refund this when you pick up your car…my foot they do, they ask you to take a picture of your receipt then send it to their customer service department and then you will receive your refund! Small things like this which just shows the mentality of the company….

Long email to customer service, their CEO (Richard Lowden) and will pursue this with BVRLA who are the regulators for the car hire industry in the UK. It鈥檚 the principle, not the money!!

As a regular Weekly Renter im treated like as if their doing me a favor, Managers are always frowning the reps are always worried cant even offer a regular a basic upgrade or they'll get reprimanded etc… Super Crap service as a company.

As a staff the Heathrow location have some good people working their if they weren't so Micro Managed & tied to the Green Motion rope of fear the people to people service & relation would be much more pleasant.
At present very robotic.

The security deposit is always at risk whats on the damage waver is never up to date in the hope the customer misses a scratch then will have to pay for it later (in Other Words a Scam)

All in All Stressful. Good Luck.

If I could give less than one star, the I would !!
Stay away from this company if you want to keep your money and your sanity.
I was charged 拢156 for scratches on a wheel hub. The three scratches were 8mm, 1mm ( yes 1mm) and 3mm, but although they were in total 12mm in length, because they were 3 cm apart, GM deemed they were part of the same damage and outside of their 15mm cost matrix. Their justification was that none of the marks were on the car in the collection report ! I mean, who checks a car in or out for a 1mm scratch ?
I offered to pay for a new wheel – ignored.
I asked for a repair invoice – ignored after they told me they would not be repairing the car….
In short, their headline price is a carrot, but be careful, because they will always find a way to whack you hard with the stick.

Don't judge the book by its cover or a car rental company by its delightful sounding name. There is nothing green about this one. I booked a rental car online. The pick-up point was Gatwick airport and their prices were lower than the competition. All seemed promising.
Unfortunately, the pick-up point is actually a 10-minute drive from Gatwick airport, and the courtesy bus didn't show up. After a long frustrating wait, and several unanswered phone calls, we eventually took a cab. When we arrived at the 'business park' the gates were closed and there was no sign explaining how to enter. We called out, but none of the employees in the courtyard paid attention. Eventually, we managed to open the gates and the cab drove in.
We quickly summed up the scene at Greenmotion Gatwick. A temporary, non-airconditioned shoebox of an office, cars parked somewhat randomly ( normal, not eco) a long queue of frustrated customers, and two very sweaty, harassed-looking employees.
We weighed up whether or not to leave immediately or to settle in for a long wait. Having made it this far, we decided to wait. We waited and waited. It took an average of about 20 minutes to process each customer, and nobody was satisfied. There were stories of wrong details on contracts, wrong cars, ridiculously high deposits being demanded…There was much shouting, sighing and as far as we could hear, Greenmotion's staff neither explained nor apologised for the appalling service.
After over an hour, we picked up our car. To be on the safe side, we took every possible security measure – i.e. photographing the mileage, checking carefully for dents, and got full insurance cover. We're now waiting to see if our deposit is ever returned. Overall, this was a very stressful car rental experience. Not to be repeated.