1. When renting the car, they promised someone would pick us up at the airport. We provided flight information in advance, but after waiting for half an hour, no one showed up. We had to use our phone with international roaming to call the store, then waited another half hour.
2. An employee at the store tried to overcharge us, asking us to pay an additional 25 euros for highway fees, which we refused. They then claimed that they had already upgraded us to a diesel car and demanded more money. It turned out that highways in Turkey are free and the store only has diesel cars.
3. We used a credit card to pay, but the employee insisted my credit card couldn't process local currency (even though it worked everywhere else). They forced us to exchange euros to local cash with a bad exchange rate. Eventually, they allowed us to pay in euros but still refused to accept card payments. The rental was supposed to be 304.2 euros in cash, but we paid 305 euros and received no change.
4. We booked the return location as Downtown, but we were told that the Downtown and Airport locations are the same and we could only return the car at the airport. We were forced to pay an additional 20 euros to return the car in the city center, which was not in our budget.
The staff did not make notes on the damaged areas and assured that there were no issues. When returning the car at a different location, they did not communicate with their local colleagues in a timely manner and blamed us for the damages. They did not provide a proper response! Additionally, the car was very old and frequently indicated engine overheating on the highway, requiring maintenance!
Our group of 9 arrived at Kisseli Airport but didn't find the car rental company's pickup staff. We called the store, but the staff couldn't speak English. After seeking help from airport staff, the pickup arrived after 15 minutes. The pickup only took 3 of us to the car pickup point, which was 1 kilometer from the airport. At the location, there were only the boss and one staff member. They did not acknowledge the additional driver fee confirmed in our domestic order and doubled the price. They spent half an hour trying to sell us insurance, but we refused since we bought comprehensive insurance beforehand. The boss became impatient. After confirming the car, they took us for refueling and asked for a tip. Our remaining 7 companions waited for over an hour at the airport.
I was not satisfied with my car rental experience in Turkey. Firstly, the information provided by the car rental website was incorrect. ESSENCE rental company did not have a counter at the airport and did not provide shuttle service. It is essentially a lesser-known company. After picking up our luggage, we spent over an hour and made numerous international calls before finally finding the rental staff in a café outside. Then, we had to wait another half hour to complete the formalities. They gave us an old car with worn-out tires. After my strong insistence, they replaced it with another old car with slightly better tires, but it had over 80,000 kilometers on it and was heavily damaged. The clutch and gear shift were severely worn out, it had an empty fuel tank, and the side door was broken. During the trip, the remote key ran out of battery, and we couldn't open the door. We couldn't contact anyone by phone and had to solve it by ourselves. This was an extremely unpleasant car rental experience, utterly speechless.
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