Brief Trip Report!

[dleafy]

Well, the wife & I have just spent a fabulous 4 days in Gran Alacant.
We’ve been before so we know the place well.
The South facing bungalow we had on Novamar II was fantastic. It was obviously new to the rental market and had been done out in a very modern style. We thought the fact that there was no uk tv would be a problem, but we spent no time inside at all….other than sleeping.

We went to see what the weather was like in the ‘cooler’ months, but as it turned out, it was showing 28 degrees on the rental car most days. I believe it’s changed to the seasonal norm now.
I guess we’ll have to try it in January or February to get the real picture.

We went to the beautiful Carabassi beach a few times. Wow, what a great beach!
We tried the Indian restaurant in Masa square which was nice but we spent most evenings down the Carabassi bars and restaurants. I must say; we were really impressed with the quality of the food and the price of the drinks!

We also managed a trip to Santa Pola Marina which was great too. The adaptor plug for the sat nav gave up on us as we were leaving, but we know our way around now and got a replacement at the GA market last Thursday anyway. I reckon we could make a fortune at the markets over there. If we’d jumped in the De Lorean and went back 30 years, I think we’d still see the same stuff as they’re selling today!

Whilst the house we stayed in was fantastic, we are still probably going to buy one of the new properties they’re building next to the dog park. We were gonna book one for next June but the cost is around £1300 for a week which is a bit steep.

Was sweating a bit with the Jalopy Record Go supplied at the airport. It was only £29 and they did try the hard sell when I picked it up but stuck to my guns…..even with a  €955 hold on my credit card!
Two days into the trip and the key wouldn’t enter the lock on the driver’s door . There was no lock at all on the passenger side. (Fiat Panda).
Luckily the doors were open so we just left in unlocked and hoped for the best.
I was going to email or ring them but decided to just return it. After all, it was obviously normal wear and tear on the lock….nothing I’d done.
Luckily enough they emailed me 6 hours after we got home saying our unused fuel money had been returned and the excess fee too.
It did take my bank another 4 days to take the hold off, but all’s well that ends well.
All in all we had such a relaxing break and can’t wait to return.

Cheers
Davy !!!

[Spurs]

Glad you had a good time if your going to hire cars on a regular basis it's best to get an annual car hire excess policy that covers everything the one they try to sell you at the desk does they will still block your card for €950 euros but this policy gives any charges they make back to you . I always have one and it's only  £40 try insure4carhire.com

[dleafy]

Thanks, I'll check it out

[Brandon]

Good advice there Spurs,

I have been over & back to GA a number of times a year for the last 6 years renting cars and never had a problem until recently ( also with Record Go).
They claimed €512 from my credit card for damage that was on the car before we got it.
Their response was that we should have photographed that car when we got it.
We picked it up after 11pm at night and there paperwork showed about 40 scratches on it already.
It was dark and i trusted the paperwork.....big mistake.

I did fortunately have the car hire excess insurance (€48 for the year)
Thankfully they paid up after about 6 weeks (the delay was in getting paperwork from Record)
Car Hire Excess insurance is a must !!

By the way.....
We were back in GA again while the claim was ongoing for a few days and we had already booked with Record again before the first incident occurred.
When picking up the car, they asked if I wanted their insurance.
As my claim was ongoing for the first issue, I thought it safer to take out Record excess insurance (approx €50).
I told them I would take their insurance as they had stitched me up the last time....
i then asked what it covered & they said pretty much everything.
I told them to expect a minimum of €500 euro worth of damage when it came back...
His jaw nearly hit the counter & he said you cant do that or you will be blacklisted from Record.

I brought the car back without any damage of course, but it was nice to watch them sweat for a change....
Would I hire from record again?..........probably.
I think the key message is not to take it personally, it is all a game.
just make sure you are covered from an insurance point of view.


I have hired many times with no travel excess insurance and just left them block my card.
thankfully there was no issue on those occasions.
In future, I would always have the travel excess insurance.

well, thats my tuppance worth..

[puddy-woo]

I have an annual ins policy now, as has been said it cost 40. Also I was told by someone to always make sure they stamp the form  they give you when you return the car.  Have never done this before but did on my last visit.  The guy in the office in the carpark wasn't enthused when I asked for it to be signed off and said I would have to wait a while but we actually only waited about 5 mins. The chap who had originally given the car the once over had another look then radioed back to the office and the form was stamped. 


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[dleafy]

I genuinely didn't know this kind of insurance was available.
Even though I hate paying for insurance, I do recognise that its a pretty good deal overall.

[Tony Gillam]

The excess insurance companies are not perfect either. Back in May I had a big argument with Car Hire Excess insurance who said that the policy didn't cover the inside of the car. Fortunately I had a 'Key Features' document and managed to argue the case based on that. Bear in mind that such insurance may not quite provide 'universal' cover.

[puddy-woo]

Dont mince yr words Victor


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[dleafy]

I'll probably not need to hire a car for a while so I'll look into it at the time

[Corporal Jones]

You cant beat a good mince especially at this time of year. Back to subject i think the time will come with the excess insurers that theyre completely fed up.with the bogus inflated claims arising from ALC car hire companies.

[llamedos]

People need to be smart and take lots of detailed pictures inside and out of the vehicle to stop them making these spurious claims.


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