Sixt Rent A Car

I have been renting from Sixt in Florence, Italy since January 2020. 3 long term rentals from 48 to 60 days each. Cars are in above average condition, clean and without any major damage. As expected some will have cosmetic imperfections. Counter personal is efficient and well trained. Both their website and app are OK. The problems start when you have to deal with their backoffice. On my rental back in November 2021 I manged to scrape the rim against the curb. The paint on the rim was damaged. Sixt documented the mishap and I confirmed that it was caused by me. After a long delay I was presented with the estimate to replace the rim from the independent company. I would have much preferred the authorized BMW dealer estimate or the actual repair invoice. The estimate put a price tag on the generic "rim" and it was about 20% higher that the BMW catalog shows for exactly correct replacement part. Oh well, it is difficult to argue this over long distance, so I accepted the estimate. By the end of January 2022 I received email from Sixt notifying me that the amount will be charged to my credit card in 14 days. This should have closed the case. However, the Damage Italia Team decided to play some games. They did not charge my credit card. Quietly, without informing me they were printing remittance notices and finally mailed a bunch of them to me by bulk mail from the Netherlands (!) threatening legal action because the bill remained unpaid. At that point they succeeded in losing a customer. Several emails to the Damage Italia Team and company management are simply being ignored. Even small things like refunding customer for purchase of Diesel additive (AdBlue) for EUR 20 could not be completed at the car return time. Two Customer Service reps have to be involved and now 45 days later I am still waiting for the funds to be deposited into my account. Apparently just deducting it from the final bill was too complicated. Overall it is a great business case how an inept backoffice clerk can destroy marketing and front office efforts.

Lots of people on here saying bad things so I'm going to start with the good then explain the bad and why I only gave 3 stars. I rented and prepaid $265 ($38 a day after taxes etc.) in March for their Mercedes E Class or similar level of rental for 1 week in September (6 Months advance notice) for my vacation in Tampa Florida, their online process was easy, filled out all required info. declined all insurances at booking. When I arrived they did not have the level I booked so offered me an upgrade (more on this later) what I drove off the lot with was a BMW X5 4.0, with all the trimmings, the car was wonderful, it ran flawlessly for the whole week, it was clean, comfortable, and well looked after, there was some minor dings and things which were already listed on the paperwork as being present, we photographed that damage anyway to be safe. After a faultless wee riding around in a very nice car, The return process in Tampa was simple, pull into the return line, leave the keys inside the car, Person comes over, checks over for any new damage, level of gas in tank etc, Good to go. Swift and easy return no issue. So now the bad. what upset me. So after I gave them 6 months notice of me wanting a Mercedes E class or similar, they did not have one, the guy at the counter was very nice, friendly, polite, well spoken. "Very sorry sir we don't have that class on the lot right now so I can offer you an upgrade to a BMW X5, would that be ok?" "sure that would be fine, thankyou" So o.k. on we go through the process, he verifies my ID, asks if we want insurance etc etc regular check out process. Until almost the last part of the rental agreement process where he's going over the charges, and gets to a $30 a day upgrade fee.....I stop him right there and protest that, it's not my fault you didn't have my car, so Why are you trying to charge me almost the same again for the car, He tried to con me off saying it was standard for upgrade, I continued to protest, if i go to enterprise and they don't have my car, they upgrade for free. He calls his manager on the phone "they don't want to pay for the upgrade" he comes back to me, would $20 a day be o.k.?, I refuse again, he goes back to the manager as he's talking with the manager I look up the rental cost difference on their app, between the Merc and the BMW, it's a $13 a day difference to book it on their app right there. I show him that and as I'm tired and just want to get to my hotel to lay down for a bit I agree that $13 a day would be fine. He confirms with his manager, hangs up and rewrites the bill, shows me the $100 total extra charge, I sign and off we go. This is why they get 3 stars not 5 from me. If you don't have a car and offer an upgrade, that upgrade should be free. I could understand you arguing if I book the car the day before or something but I gave you 6 months notice of my rental so any failure to provide is your fault not mine. This Company was great except for that. I would rent again but I'll probably just buy from the counter when I get there instead of prepaying and being upset. It's a little more expensive to pay on the day but the few $ extra would be worth it to avoid the "Forced Up sell"

They weren't explicit about how the toll road system worked in the Tampa Bay area. Basically, there is an administrative fee for using toll roads that has been passed on to the consumer because there is no option for renta car users to pay tolls directly or pay-by-plate directly. In order to use toll roads I needed to pay an $8.99 per day fee on top of the actually toll. That's complete BS and exploits the consumer. Also, had a random fee show up on my bill: "AP Concession Recovery Fee 10.00 - 24.01 USD" So I ended up paying $112 above the prepaid total for a 5 day rental.

Do not prepay your rental! If you do you will not receive a refund, at all. Read their contract carefully before giving them the payment. We cancelled our rental over a month before the rental date and were not allowed to get a refund, even though Sixt confirmed our cancellation.

Arrived to pick up vehicle and they didn't have the one i request. Finally received my bill and was over charged $258.00. Not impressed so now I have to play phone tag to fight and get a refund.

Took a car here and wasn't satisfied with the assistance they provided. The car had some damages before i took it but weirdly, for some reason i became the responsable one to pay for it's fixing job.

I have only found Sixt to be in one of the airport that I travel to. I use them when they have the best deal on car rental sites. The cars are good quality and in good shape. I have rented Cadillac's from them. It helped me realize that I would never want to own a Cadillac ATS, or a convertible.

I found Sixt Rent a Car to be unreliable and a bit sketchy. I did not feel like the process of renting it was as clean and seamless as it has been with other car rentals.