Sicily By Car
Check in was quick and the car in good condition. On return a confirmation that there was no damage was received promptly. Happy with the service received and good value
Between October 17 and 21, I rented a car from 'Sicily by car' at Palermo airport. I paid a deposit of 100 euros upon receipt as a guarantee of a full tank. I dropped off the car without any problems, with a full tank, at the requested time, they took it over. Unfortunately, the 100 euro deposit was not refunded to me until today even though I asked by email and by phone. They just don't answer.
They charged 150 euros for "sanitization", because of garbage left in the car. Yes we should have cleaned up, but who charges 150 euros for that?? It's 5 times more than what a regular car wash would charge. I have rented cars in various countries for several years and never had a similar situation. I have sent them emails and they never responded. Now I am reading other awful reviews from other people and it is so frustrating to be ripped off like this and there are no consequences for them!
How can Sicily by car only forward a traffic fine after the 60 day expiry period to pay a reduced cost? Rented a car in June and only received the fine in October? Now we must pay double what the fine was worth because Sicily by car did not do their due diligence and the on top of that pay a 50euro admin fee. I want to lodge an official complaint against Sicily by car and will insist any way necessary to pay the original traffic fine cost due to negligence on part of Sicily by car. I advise you make contact immediately before legal steps are taken.
Efficient and friendly service
We picked up a car from the Florence city branch and though the collection was OK, it was everything thereafter that became problematic. The company promised to send various documents (car collection and return confirmation) via email. These documents never arrived, even after I had followed up with both the Florence and head offices. I did, however, receive an email meant for another customer. So I queried whether there was an email address mix-up, and received zero response until I reported a potential data breach. As it turns out, there was a simple typo in the email domain name and an efficent customer support agent sorted the issue. But had I not escalated the matter to the Data Protection Office, my contact details would still be incorrect. More unsettling, neither HQ or the Florence office bothered to even respond, despite having raising concerns about my private data. If you read reviews on Google and Tripadvisor, you will observe that this company employs a generally unethical approach to its rentals. I will not rent a vehicle from Sicily by Car again.
Very easy purchase with the cover needed to ease driving abroad.
Like others, we have had a pretty frustrating and poor experience with this company while renting a car through them (via sunnycars). To start, they are extremely slow at processing customers to pickup your car. During the trip we got a flat tire while near the southern coast on the island. The car had no spare tire in the back... We purchased coverage and figured this would be a simple fix, but it was an actual nightmare. We were in contact with an emergency service center who only gave us the option to come tow our car (which we wouldnt get back) and for us to then find a way back up to Olbia from the highway we were stranded on 2+ hours away from the airport, in hopes that the rental office could give us a replacement car. We told the service center to wait until we could confrim from the Olbia office that we can get a new car and the very expensive taxi ride was covered by them. The office did not pick up the phone as we continued to call them for over TWO HOURS, stranded in the heat with our 2 year old. In the end, luckily, our agriturismo hosts helped arrange their own tow truck and we got the wheel fixed ourselves after a grueling 7-8 hours of effort and broken english/italian conversations. In the end, this company refused to re-imburse these costs because the tow truck and mechanic we used were not "approved by the olbia office", the same office who would not pick up their phone or answer their emails. But wait, it's not over. 2 weeks after we got home they also sent us a damage claim, charging us another 500 euros for: (1) a scratch we have photos of upon picking up the car, (2) a "different" tire, since we had to get a new one or be stranded on the highway, and (3) the use of the tire repair kit which did nothing to help us anyways. To add to all this drama, out contact through email during our vacation afterwards (about the tire costs) was negative and they purely blamed us for the costs as we "made our own rules" when we decided not to get the car towed through their emergency services. The same situation that would have left us stranded, unknowing if we'll have our 2.5hr taxi trip reimbursed if we taxi'd to olbia away from our accommodate, without knowing if the office was even open or had a replacement car for us (since they just never picked up the phone). What a novel! The feeling now is that they took our heated email conversation personally and are now trying to charge us for bogus damage costs out of spite. If you're traveling anywhere in italy, avoid this company and save yourself the hassle!
Good value and efficient
Drove from Rome to Siena and all wonderful. Went to pickup friends at bus station and car dies, smoke fills cabin and the nightmare begins. It’s Easter weekend and there is no support. Lucky to get car towed. Now without a car. Now they are saying I burned out the clutch. I’ve driven clutch most of my life so something is not right. They see North American and an Asian residence they try to play games. I have insurance but that’s not the issue. How can they know the clutch was not going to fail with a load that was what the car specified. Between them and rentalcar.com all I can say is stay clear of them. A company that has no support and worse yet scams people is worse.
I booked a car through Car rental more than 2 months in advance. It was an automatic car from the Car Group: Opel Grandland X or similar (because due to my back problems I cannot drive small cars with small seats). When I arrived Catania airport they did not have such a car and I was forced to take the only available automatic car - SEAT Arona. In addition to aggravations and back pains which I suffered, the company compensated me with A negligible sum of less than 10 EUR, while the total cost (including 1 way payment) was 300 EUR.
SCAM ALERT!! They refuse to refund me 260 euros!!! I had to pay an extra 80 euros fee because I didn’t have a credit card, and was told this would be refunded when I wrote an email upon return of the car (Rome to Palermo). I subsequently booked and paid for another car (for Palermo to Syracuse), and was told when I went to collect the car that I couldn’t take it because I didn’t have a credit card. I told her how I’d paid the 80 euro’s previously, insisted she ring her manager, and she still refused to let me take the car. Left high and dry without transportation! She told me I would get a full refund of my 180 euros I’d already paid online. No refund has appeared. Finally received an email back today saying that as it’s in their T&Cs that you need to have a credit card, that I will not get a cent back of the 260 euros they owe me!! I hope people see this review and use SRC (Sicily rental cars) instead. Local company too and they were wonderful and flexible and helped me a lot with this debacle.
do not use this company, rental price was finaly doubled than the first offer, very unprofessional, never again with Sicily by Car
Scam company. They are nowhere to be seen when you need help so impossible to contact them unless you go to their office in the airport and then they take random money from your account
Great price but quite a long wait to pick up but quick and easy booking
Good overall. Bit slow on collection but return was efficient and friendly. Car was fine.
No issues, late opening office hours was very useful
Scam bags, I highly recommend to stay away from these scammers they'll try anything to steal your money in the way we'll organise.
Fast efficient pick up and return of car. Car had only done 1000km so in perfect condition. Friendly staff and did not try and push any extras onto you. Car hire very expensive this year but this was the best price I could get from a reputable company
We retreived the vehicle on time, full tank, clean and without a scratch. Still, no deposit refund yet. They don't answer emails or through their website at all! Stay away, robbery in progress...