Ladies and gentlemen, beware! I recently rented from SixT in Keflavik and am fortunate to still be wearing my shirt. Believe me when I write, this disorganized rental car company is out to belittle you and swindle you in the worst way possible.
My girlfriend and I were exhausted after our eight-hour journey from the States to Iceland. When we arrived, we took our number (411) and noticed a sign on the wall with SixT wifi network name and password. We took a seat. The next number to be called was 303. ****. The wifi network did not work. ****. After biding our time, they finally my number, and I walked up to the desk where I met the SixT attendant. She stated that we would have to pay somewhere around 500 euro for the car. This was my second time to Europe, so I asked her simply for the euro to dollar conversion. She said, “look it up yourself.” I explained to her that the wifi network did not work. Then she grabbed a rock from her desk, which had a different wifi network name and password underneath. I attempted this access this network with no success and explained this to the attendant. This time she said, “well, I guess you’ll have to look it up when you go home.” I noticed that she was texting someone on her phone as she was talking to me and couldn’t help but wonder why she could not simply look up the conversion from euros to dollars, so that I could calculate how much I would pay for my rental vehicle. After asking around, someone finally told me the conversion. Given the dearth of cars in Keflavik, I had no choice – I unfortunately had to rent from SixT.
My girlfriend and I went out to examine the car. There was damage to the underside of the bumper of the vehicle (by the way, this is damage that anyone could have easily missed). We tried to show the attendant this damage, but she simply blew us off and told us to take pictures. She did not bother to inspect the car. Let this be a lesson to everyone, always take copious pictures of the car you are renting, particularly if you make the mistake of renting from SixT like I did. This becomes particularly important later in my story.
Fast forward 5 days. My girlfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Iceland; everyone, not at SixT rental car company was so kind to us. We drove back to SixT to return our car. There was the same attendant, who will enter back into the story soon. At first, we returned our car with another attendant. He inspected the vehicle and pointed out the damage to the underside of the bumper. Had it not been for the pictures we took, I swear these guys would have charged us for a new car. Be careful people. This attendant told us that I signed a contract for limited mileage of 600 kilometers or something - the original attendant never explained this policy at all, and she very well may have pulled 600 kilometers out of thin air when she put it in the policy. We, of course, drove way more than this, and so the new attendant brought the original attendant over to reconcile this issue. We pointed out that she never explained this policy to us and that she never explained the costs associated with limited mileage vs. unlimited mileage. To this the original attendant said, “I did; I never miss this; it’s his word against mine. No one else was around.” At this point, I asked for the manager. The manager came over; the new attendant left; and now we were talking to the original attendant and manager.
The manager first said that we would have to pay for the excess mileage in our limited mileage policy. We told him that nothing was explained to us; from the beginning, we were blown off. Had we known that there was a limited mileage policy, we obviously would have taken pictures of the odometer before driving the car. By the way, if you do rent a car, make sure you do this. The original attendant did not even inspect the car with us and could have written any mileage she wanted to on the contract. After we explained this to him, he said to charge us under the unlimited mileage policy. None of these policies were explained at all to me when I rented the car, but under the unlimited mileage policy, I was asked to pay 100 something euros vs. 300 euros in the limited mileage policy. As all of this was being settled, the original attendant told me multiple times that “I could complain” and “get her fired.” I know that I can complain – hence this review – but I have no intention of getting anyone fired, and I did not appreciate at all being made to feel that my discontent with how I was handled would result someone’s job loss.
So now I will summarize SixT rental car company for you using six words: disorganized, condescending, unhelpful, negligent, chaotic, dishonest. Best wishes on your future travel. Do not let these types of experiences, should you have them, color your journey.