Economy Bookings Reviews

FRAUD rental company - don't book a car with them - nobody cares about their customers- nobody cares about a complaint - just fraudulent behaviour from A-Z.

We tried to rent a car with Economic Bookings, and we started having problems since the beggining to pay for the renting, for some reason their website was not accepting my card anymore, even when I've already rented a car with them and the same card.

We tried to rent a Jeep Compass, they sent me the confirmation, they debited from my account the amount, and finaly the day arrived, traveling to other country, I received the confirmation in the day that I supposed to take the car. I though everything was fine, untill I arrive in the car rental company. The car rental company told me that the Compass was already rented to other person, that they didn't confirm my rental. I rented the car for 10 days, I was not expecting for that at all. I call Economic Bookings to try to solve my problem, was a satuday, they told me to SEND AN EMAIL TO THEIR SUPPORT, in other country, with hotel reservations, with no way to go to the places that I planned to go and with the car payed. I sent the email, and the answer was that they were going to answer me 5-7 working days. I didn't want my money back, I want a car. It took me the entire day to find another car, worst one ( Fiat 500L), also smaller and MORE EXPENSIVE. I travelled to other city to have it, I spent the entire day trying to have the cara, as my flight arrived at 10:30 and I got the car at 17:30. Yesterday (after 8 working days) they answered me saying that they are eveluating and it can take up to 28 days. Now they are with my money, I spent more money that I was expecting, I loose 2 days of travel with hotels and everything, as I need to take public transport to go to the rental place in other city to take and return the car, and the are EVALUATING my problem.

UPDATE: TODAY I RECEIVED AN EMAIL SAYING THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO REFUND ME!

When making the booking it clearly - black over white says - the entire amount was paid in prepayment! I double checked it says 0.00 to be paid on pickup!

You create false image of fully paid rental, while in the terms it says under inclusion that it includes license and fees, then you state payable at pick up - 0.00

It's mentioned a few times

VAT is mentioned only as - applying certain condition to certain visa or citizens, and the way it is written is to make you think it's included so the person can't know it will be an additional payment upon pickup! As it literally says everywhere there's no sum to be paid on pickup.

It's completely orchestrated to get me to think it's already paid in full and then

Add 18% to the total - which makes it super expensive and not worth the price! It's way above the normal rate per day here. And I've been contacting you and trying to get your cancellation all day now!

DO NOT TRUST. I have not received a email response. I had a reservation and tried to modify it- in doing so it was cancelled- while i was on the phone with their customer service representative they told me that their manager said I would not be able to complete my reservation AND i was going to be charged the full amount. They then told me that I could directly contact the rental car company (as they are only a third party) and the rental car company told me they receive no payment until you rent your car. So they just took my money and lied to me. I have been trying for months to contact them and get no response. I am furious as my booking was over 500 dollars and cant believe I cant get a hold of someone.

This company is absolutely terrible and unprofessional. It is impossible to get a hold of them and when you do you have to click the booking prompt because seems like they only care about getting a booking. The rep I finally got a hold of interrupted me while I was talking and then hung up the phone on me. It was such a hassle to get a refund, it’s been a month and I still haven’t received anything. DO NOT book with this horrible company.

A nightmare to get a refund after cancelation. Using an excuse of 14 (working) days due to high season? It takes minutes, at least with your competitors.

'Your refund has been calculated as follows:

• Cancellation fee: 0,00 EUR

• Refundable amount: 285,17 EUR

The reason for cancellation:

• You found a better deal elsewhere.

What’s next:

Due to the high season, the refund will be made within the next 14 business days depending on your card provider. Now that your booking has been canceled you don't need to do anything. We'll let you know if we need anything else.'

Over 3 weeks after no sign of money or any comunication.

Avoid this company!!

Booked car in Spain - Malaga...However reading again and again their conditions (all in small letters - be aware!!)I have decided to cancel my booking..I had an cancelation insurance however it's is now a month from cancellation and still no money refund! I am reporting today to Bank and Police about the fraud!

Also, no response from the Economybookings about the refund!

There is literally 0 customer support. You cannot get through to a person for anything. So, forget it if you have any questions or concerns. The menu call drops after you select any of the menu options.

Avoid this company. It is a total SCAM. Finished up paying £581 for a weeks car hire and the car was crap. Do not use this company!

Hands off..

better book somewhere else.

Cancellation credit will only be returned 1 MONTH later !!!

I highly recommend not using their service, only after initial payment additional fees and restrictions are added by the car rental company.

Even though I inserted my age in the search and checked tons of time before initial payment if there's any problem with my age it didn't show anything, only after I paid my initial payment another restriction showed as additional fees for crossing countries in Europe, a whopping 130 EUR!, and crazy daily fee for age below 26, even though I entered my age as 24.

And it's not free cancelation, cancelation fee in my case was 60EUR ! , So please make sure to stay away and not take any risks and believe the showed price...It more than doubled in my case.

If I could, I would rate zero for this scam EconomyBookings.com. This is scam agency...a big mistake booking a rental car using EconomyBookings.com.

It asked to pay full amount up front with lower price but finally when I showed the voucher at rental car company Enterprise rent a car Zurich Airport, they told the voucher was not valid so they didn't provide me any rental car. I couldn't get a refund from this scammer. DO NOT USE bookinggroup.com, bookingcar.com, economybookings.com, and bookingcar-europe.com because THEY ARE ALL SCAM. I believe both EconomyBookings.com. and its partner, Enterprise rent a car Zurich Airport, are a scam.

Worst booking company on the planet. Their insurance is a scam, don't even bother. If I could give them - negative stars I would.

A total scam of a company. Arrived in Bilbao to pick up our car. Wanted to extend the rental for 6 hours. Was told by the company providing the car that they couldn't change the drop off time even though the car was available for the additional time and that we had to contact Economy directly to do that. The problem was that the insurance on the vehicle would lapse at the previously arranged drop-off time.The car provider didn't have a phone

# for Economy!!!! After an exhaustive internet search we located a # but the menu options didn't include an option for changing the reservation....hit "new rental" and got a person who couldn't help us but was transferred to someone who apparently could help. Told her what we wanted to do.... her response was "your file is closed and I can't access it". Apparently if your pick up time is !0:00 am it can't be accessed at 10:06 am when we called. The local guy spoke to her and she gave him the same BS. She then transferred us to "customer service" who can only be contacted by email and they will respond in "3 to 5 business days"! NOT HELPFUL! Bottom line, these people are scammers and exist only in the ether. The local agency told us the same thing. In fact they told us to NEVER use a broker to rent a car. In the words of the agency, "you only want to deal with the guy who has the car and is going to hand you the keys". The insurance issues as between broker and the agency are a nightmare and for which one needs a law degree to understand! DON'T USE THIS COMPANY OR ANY OTHER BROKER! DEAL WITH THE COMPANY....DOESN'T MATTER WHICH ONE-AVIS, SITX OR A LOCAL COMPANY....DOESN'T MATTER. ECONOMY WILL RIP YOU OFF AND MAKE YOUR LIFE DIFFICULT. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

I waited 5 hours only to learn there were no cars to rent on my arrival.

DON'T BOOK THROUGH ECONOMY BOOKINGS! I rented a car with Europcar through Economy Bookings because it was cheaper, and that was a mistake. My connecting flight was delayed, so I arrived at my destination 30 minutes later than expected. I figured that this would not be a problem, but when I got to the Europcar rental pick-up, it was closed.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, and came back first thing the next morning to pick-up our car. Europcar said they could not issue us a car until Economy Bookings manually changed the booking to reflect the new pick-up date/time. We called Economy Bookings, and were told that they were unable to change the booking and there was nothing to be done. They said that a refund would be no problem, and we proceeded to find a different rental car and get on with our trip, planning to deal with the refund when we got home.

When dealing with the refund a week later, I was told over the phone that it could only be resolved by reaching out to an automated email, which I did, and didn't hear back from them for over a month, even though it says inquiries should be reviewed in 2-3 business days. We were told that we would not receive a refund because we didn't purchase/couldn't show proof of insurance.

Not only had we purchased insurance (I have the receipt still in my inbox), but that wasn't even the problem! We were never even given the opportunity to present insurance, just turned away. I responded that this was a completely incorrect assessment of what happened, and we would like a refund because we were never even given the opportunity to pick up our car. I never heard from them again.

Don't get scammed by booking through this company, you're better off paying a couple extra dollars and booking somewhere else.

Date of experience: February 26, 2023

The scam is that after reserving on your credit card, when you go to pick up the car, they refuse the same card and then insist on selling you very expensive car insurance. I already had separate cover and so had refused it previously, and it quadrupled from €70 before the booking to €350 at their desk ON TOP OF THE HIRE COSTS!.

The other thing that's horrible, besides being stranded and stressed out to hell is that there is no company called economy bookings at the airport and the papers say 'Surprise' which is a couple of kilometres from the terminal, but it's actually in office called auto one, which is never mentioned on any contract or email and is impossible to find. Absolute ********, do not book!

And regarding your response on trustpilot.com asking me to make contact, I have been calling and have already emailed my complaint and had no answer so far in 4 days. I've been forced to put my credit card on hold at great inconvenience. Don't pretend that you have any kind of customer support!!!!

13th march update, I finally get an email from support saying they will look into it and it will take up to a month. So 6 weeks forced to keep my credit card on hold against these scammers in a foreign country.

Update 21st April:

After being forced to have my only card on hold for 2 months, I finally get this email from economy bookings:

Email with responses in caps:

Dear Mr Page,

MY NAME IS NOT MR PAGE!

You did not inform us about the cancellation of your booking prior to your pickup.

I DID NOT WANT TO CANCEL IT! - I WAS THERE TO PICK UP THE CAR AS AGREED

You failed to pick the car up at the arranged time and date.

THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE LIE, I TURNED UP AT THE ARRANGED TIME AND WAS REFUSED THE CAR

You failed to provide the documentation that is required to pick the car up.

ABSOLUTE LIE, I EVEN CALLED AND EMAILED SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE TO CHECK ALL MY PAPERWORK AND LICENCE AND TURNED UP WITH THEM ALL

You failed to provide a credit card with enough available funds and with the main driver's name printed on it.

THAT IS A TOTAL LIE, MY CREDIT CARD HAS MY NAME ON IT AND THERE'S MORE THAN ENOUGH THERE TO PAY FOR THE CAR

If you were blacklisted by the car rental company.

THIS SENTENCE DOESN'T EVEN MAKE GRAMMATICAL SENSE!

Unfortunately, because we didn't know that you weren’t going to pick the car up, we cannot give you a refund.

I PHONED YOU IMMEDIATELY FROM THE CAR HIRE OFFICE AT THE TIME THE PROBLEM OCCURRED AND YOU DID NOTHING AT ALL!!!

NO SURPRISES THERE THEN!!!

********

Whatever you do DONT use this company, they are SCAMMERS and have ZERO point ZERO one levels of customer service.

[if you try to write a real review at 'economybookings.com / en / reviews / add' you get the error message 'Reservation with this number and email doesn't exist.']

It's fine when everything is going well…

If there is any problem with the app and rental and You are for example at the airport they will not take responsibility and ask You to write a claim via email because they don’t take claims by phone.

After you email them You will receive notice that it will take 5-28 working days to resolve your case and You have to fend yourself. Never more.

Bad bad bad experience, Do not use this website. I had to pay double amount to the broker, Economy Bookings doesn't have any services after you pay.,,, Don't give them your money....

This place is a rip off! The balance due of $159.00 turned into $600.

They have a bogus policy of a ridiculous amount of a security deposit that you may or may not get back…guy at the desk says “it depends”.

Unfortunately I’m stuck with it but I’ll never rent another car from this service. TOTAL RIP OFF!!!