Kougo

Jan 16, 2025

Shocking

We hired a car at Lanzarote airport and returned it there. We asked the TopCar guy at the airport if there was an office at the port as we had foot passenger tickets to Fuerteventura. He said no, but advised that we could return the car instead to Fuerteventura airport the following day, and just pay £30 insurance and an extra day's car hire. On the basis of *this advice and suggestion by a TopCar employee*, we scrapped our foot passenger tickets, and were able to book a last minute car ferry ticket. We asked the guy if we needed anything in writing and he said it wasn't necessary, we could just sort it out at Fuerteventura. We then tried to get out of the car rental garage at the airport, and weren't able to as we needed a ticket. We returned to speak to the TopCar guy, and he helpfully let us through the barriers. This can presumably be confirmed either by CCTV or coding from the barriers. When we took the car back to Fuerteventura airport, they told us it wasn't allowed. TopCar Customer Service have said that they're going to charge us 800euro for breach of contract and having to return the car to Lanzarote, even though we acted on good faith due to the misinformed advice of their employee in the TopCar returns garage. They're refusing to listen or take any responsibility for this, and their customer service is absolutely appalling. Edit 27/3/2025: Today TopCar have replied on this thread. They have completely failed to address us being misinformed by their employee who clearly stated there was no need to speak to the office or have it in writing (we specifically asked him about needing it in writing), but that we could just sort out the additional payment when we dropped the car back at Fuerteventura. Interesting that there is a Spanish car hire ombudsman, of which TopCar is not a member. Maybe our case is isolated, but really cannot recommend this car hire company.