I rented a minivan back in May, with two booster seats. I would never rent from malagacar again, or recommend it for anyone.
1) Their office is located outside of the airport -- which is fine by itself, but this is definitely something to consider when your flight arrives at an odd hour.
2) The booster seats were not the same ones pictured in the website. The website clearly showed highback boosters, but the ones we got (apparently the only ones they have) were backless.
3) There was a €1000 "refundable" deposit for the rental - not a "hold" but an actual "charge". I was told (AFTER I had already swiped the card) this is because I was using American Express. I had never seen an actual charge go through for deposits at other rental agencies, but this being 1AM already, I decided to just take their word for it. The agent told me the refund should show up within a week of returning the car. Here is how it played out:
5/17: return car, everything checks out fine, no damage to the car, gas is correct amount.
5/26: credit card bill is due, and the amount is still there. Figuring this is a simple mistake, I have AmEx dispute team contact them so that I wouldn't have to make international calls.
6/20: AmEx gets back to me saying malagacar claims the €1000 was a "franchise fee" that is non-refundable. I sent AmEx copies of my original email receipt saying that the amount is refundable deposit.
7/6: AmEx gets back again, malagacar still denying they overcharged me, even sending copies of documents that apparently show that this is a "franchise fee".
At this point I called malagacar, and on the phone the rep admitted that I was right and the refund should go through that week. This does not happen that week, or the following week.
7/26: I file another dispute with AmEx, this time with a recording of the malagacar representative saying that they are going to refund €1000.
9/28: More than 4 months after I returned the car to malagacar, AmEx finally decides I'm in the right and €1000 is credited to my account.
The part that infuriates me the most is their insistence to my credit card company that the amount was a non-refundable fee, while telling me at the same time that it was a deposit that will be refunded. This was not a case of incompetence, but clear fraud. read more