Gary Coughlan

Hi,

I'm on holiday at the moment, again. Unlike you guys I don't like to fly and therefore at the mercy of the english weather, I'm currently holed up in a cottage in Somerset trying to keep my two boys amused.

I am sorry your child seat was not reserved as confirmed to you over the telephone. I would appreciate it if you could forward your reservation details to gary.coughlan[@]sixt.com. I'll look into this for you on Monday and will answer the points you raised above.

Best regards
Gary

WilcoRoger

I was surprised learning that if I rent a Mercedes/Audi/BMW/Volkswagen in Vienna, Austria, I'm not allowed to drive to either HU or SK. (So I had to drive away in a Citroën) Is this a general Sixt policy or an Austrian one? These countries are no "Wild East" places after all. Had no trouble with Avis or Europcar, a simple border crossing fee was charged.

Gary Coughlan

Hi,

Please refer the information below for Cross Border Rentals & Territorial Restrictions for Austria:

Cross Border Rentals are allowed to the following countries:
Andorra, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Cross boarder rentals with Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and VW cars as well as with Jeeps/Offroader are not allowed to the following countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithunia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
It is allowed to enter these countries with all vehicles of car groups IVMR, SVMR and FVMR (including all Mercedes-Benz) and vans.

In case of offence against Cross Border & Territorial Restrictions all insurances lose their validity.

I hope the above information helps.

Best regards
Gary

Gary Coughlan

Good Evening,

Please accept my apologies for the problems you experienced. I hope you received my e-mail which includes most of the below, I look forward to receiving your feedback.

To address your last point first, it is our practice to obtain an approval on a customer's credit card at the start of each hire to ensure funds are available to pay for the rental at the end of the hire. The amount requested as a security typically varies according to the group reserved, product and insurance liability. As we don't know the actual cost of the hire until the vehicle returns and is checked the security obtained ensures that funds are available to pay for the reserved rental days and any non reserved items such as fuelling and damage when the rental terminates, this is common industry practice. On occasions it is not possible to automatically obtain an approval from the rental system and the branch therefore contact the credit card company to manually request an approval. This is of course no reflection on you personally or your ability to pay.

In your post, you advised that you called us prior to the start of the hire to request the baby seat, that we checked the details with you to establish the size of the seat required as is our procedure and confirmed that the request had been noted. I checked the booking and there were no remarks on the booking recording your request but I of course believe what our customer says. The only conclusion is that the remarks were not saved which was probably due to a mistake by our agent. Unfortunately, we caused the problem, the branch in Italy had no request for the baby seat and had none spare. I am very sorry that we let you down very badly in this respect.

Our call centre in Germany is prone to the same mistakes that occur in all walks of life. The reality is that mistakes happen, no mistake is intentional we have no procedures to make mistakes. That's why we have a customer service, that's why I am here to help and also in your case to give your feedback to the Reservations Manager.

We consider excellence in customer service to be our highest priority and actively seek out customer complaints and are happy to answer them openly on forums and engage in an honest conversation. I have found Flyer Talk .com to be the most relevant and I am grateful to you all for making me feel welcome.

Best regards
Gary

snorkmaster

Gary,

I recognize the following question probably isn't in your domain, but I am wondering you might be able to point me to someone who can help.

I am considering renting a ITMR class convertible (BMW Serie 1 Cabrio, Peugeot 308 CC, VW Beetle Cabrio) out of the Madrid Airport location and am trying to get an understanding of how diminished the trunk capacity is when the roof is down.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide or for redirecting me to someone who can help.

Best,

Travis

another_shot

Thanks Gary for your feedback and email, which I've just answered.
I believe you doing the right thing by picking up questions/reports here and providing feedback straight away. This makes many people (at least here) assured that Sixt cares about customers.

WilcoRoger

Thanks Gary, well noted.

Gary Coughlan

Hi,

The boot capicty is by and large lost when the roof is down, however once you've dropped your luggage off you'll be able to get the roof down and feel the Spanish air blowing around your ears.

Sorry, I can't give the precise dimensions,there will also be vairance dependant on model supplied.

Best regards
Gary

corvus10

Using sixt.com, a reservation from Munich City Center Sept 10-18 produces a prepaid price that is more expensive than the flexi tariff. 328 euros prepaid versus 268 flexi. That seems backwards to me.

I've varied the location, and this happens for several stations in Munich as well as Nuremberg. If I change the dates to Sept 9-16, prepaid is less expensive. So it seems that prepaying for dates that include Sept 17 or 18 are more expensive. I could understand if rates go up around Oktoberfest, but shouldn't the flexi rate increase as well?

More confusing, this doesn't seem to be the case on sixt.de.

I'm concerned that if I make a reservation with the flexi tariff, I'll find a surprise when I arrive at the counter. Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Gary Coughlan

Hi,

I attempted to replicate your booking but unfortunately the pre - paid rate is not showing as available for the dates mentioned. I checked several other dates and in each case the pre paid rate was cheaper than the flexi on .com.

You are right to expect to find that the pre paid rate is cheaper than the flexi tariff, I assume that this was noticed and rectified by our pricing department.

The comparison to .de is difficult to make as the prices differ compared to .com according to the market for the point of sale. .com and .de offer slightly different packages to reflect the preferences of the buyer. .com for example offers rates exclusive of insurance as U.S customers often provide their own insurance cover through their credit card. Differences in mileage limitations can also apply.

The comparison between the flexi rate and pre paid with the same point of sale for example when made on .com offer different terms and conditiions.. The flexi tariff is priced higher as this option offers the best flexibility, no cancellation charge or charge for amendments. The pre paid tariff is the cheapest option as this affords the hirer less flexibility. Cancellation charges, amendment charges apply. The different terms are available during the booking process.

I hope this information is useful, if you require further clarification, I will be happy to answer any further questions.

Best regards
Gary

YVR Cockroach

Gary,

Could you tell me if driving into Bosnia/Hercegovina and Montenegro is permitted for rentals from Dubrovnik? We'll be renting the car from opening to closing the same day as we're staying where the rental office is located (Hilton).

Gary Coughlan

Hi,

Please refer to the below:

Cross Border Rentals & Territorial Restrictions
Cross Border Rentals are allowed to the following countries:
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegowina, Czech Republic, Denamrk, Finland, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, VW and Audi vehicles may not be taken into:
Bosnia & Herzegowina, Hungary and Serbia & Montenegro.

I hope this information helps.

Please feel free to contact me directly gary.coughlan[@]sixt.com if you have any further questions.

Best regards
Gary

YVR Cockroach

Thanks! I'll have to make sure I don't get UG'd to one of the below brands!

fjord

I would like to share my experiences and voice my concern with your Panama City location.
My booking was for a small car for four days and my flight arrived in Tocumen around 10:40PM. My booking was for 11PM.
When I read my reservation I found out that there is no real airport location at the airport, someone drives the car from downtown Panama City to the airport and hands me the keys, no real problem there.
The instructions stated that someone will wait with a sign with my name written on it on Arrivals...I waited for over 30 minutes and no one from Sixt was to be seen, no sign with my name, no Sixt employees or vehicles.
The instructions also stated to contact Sixt at a given number if no one is present. I called the number to discover it is not in service.
I had to reserve another car with a competitor at a higher rate.
I really hope you make your service better in Panama because this is unacceptable.

Gary Coughlan

I am very sorry, not the kind of service you expect from Sixt. Would you be kind enough to forward your reservation details and a copy of your invoice for the alternative rental. I will need to check the finer details before I can commit to anything but I certainly do not accept that you are out of pocket for our mistake.

My e-mail address is gary.coughlan[@]sixt.com

Best regards
Gary