Buckle up for this wild ride - literally. We used Sixt at the end of July while in Toronto, but…read moreupon reading other reviews it seems that this company is horrible everywhere. We experienced problem after problem with no resolutions. We found Sixt online & ordered the car. Upon arriving to the address, we were faced with a building that had no signs for anything and zero personnel to help us find where to go. It wasn't until we rode the elevator up and down and went through what seemed like the backrooms that we finally found a lovely custodian who wasn't even sure where to send us but sent us off anyway in what turned out to be the right direction. We finally reach the desk (30 minutes late) which was tucked away in the corner of the least busy part of whatever this building was (a mall, offices, liminal space, who knows). I gave my name and my documents only to be told that we can't actually rent this vehicle because it was a 7 seater and I was not of the age to rent a car. They said if we had rented a 5 seater vehicle then I could drive that car and when I asked about a young renters fee, they said they couldn't do that because of the type of vehicle. I asked if we could change the name on the booking (we had another person with us who was over the age of 25) and we were told no because the reservation window has passed. I explained that there were zero signs pointing in the direction of the desk and even staff of the building had no idea where to send us and we couldn't find the location. At this point I asked for our money back to which we were again told no because the reservation window has passed and they didn't have access to it anymore. I was told that if I called Sixt corporate and got permission from them that it was okay that the man helping us at the desk could change the name. So I sit on hold for another 10 minutes, finally reaching a lovely lady who was very helpful. I told her the situation, she said that they can't change the name because the reservation window has passed, so immediately I'm feeling frustrated because of the contradicting information. She mentions the young renter fee to which I explain what I was told and then she says that I should be able to rent if a pay that fee no matter the car - again, more contradicting information. I ended up handing my phone to the man behind the desk who spoke with her. This ended up being another almost 10 minutes of them conversing about the policy. They come back and tell me that there's nothing they can do, but then the man who has my phone at this point says "That's a great idea, I didn't even think of that, let's try that." He hangs up, tells me that they can add another driver, make that person the main driver and make me an additional driver to keep my name on the invoice so there are no problems with the payment. Now it's almost an 1.5 hrs past our original booking window. They were able to do what they said, charging us another $200 deposit for the vehicle that we were told would be returned to us. I asked if there was any way we could extend the rental to compensate time to which we were told we could return it before 8am the next day (spoiler alert: we returned the vehicle at like 3am). We picked up the vehicle, went about our day, no issues.
Fast forward to a little over 3 weeks from the trip, we're back in the States and the deposit has not yet been returned to us as promised. We call Sixt. 3 times.
Phone call #1: We get through, I explain the situation, then silence from the other end. I hear "Hello?" I say "Hello?" Then boom, I'm hung up on.
Phone call #2: We get through, I give my name as the additional driver. "I need to speak with the main driver." I tell them that the main driver does not speak much English and is not present at the moment. I'm told that the main driver needs to be the one to call. I said my name is on the booking to avoid issues like this. Again, I'm told they cannot speak to me. I ask for a supervisor to which I'm told "The supervisor is going to say the same thing so I'm not going to transfer you." I hung up on the person.
Phone call #3: I call back with the name of the main driver, get through to a lovely lady who was able to help us (notice that all the women I have spoken to were the most helpful). I explain the problem to which she breaks down the invoice for me and says that we were charged an extra fee for not returning the vehicle with a full tank of gas (we were not told that we must do this, nor did I see this in any email upon booking the car.)
In reviewing everything including bank statements and the invoice, it looks like were charged correctly, but it took 3 phone calls to figure this out. However, I did a deeper dive in their website to which it states that a person under 25 years of age can rent any vehicle if they pay the young renter fee. So this all could have been avoided if the company knew about their own policies. This company is a scam!!!
