Gemut Car Rental Experience

Sorry to hear all this.

You say your original price was $266. That was with international drop off? Couldn’t be.

We’ve used Andy Bestor many times for our car rentals in Germany. My experiences were always positive. Andy himself handled two incidents we during our rentals and got us refunds very quickly. All it took on my part was sending one single email to Andy at Gemut. We’ve never had any surprises in price or in follow up when needed by us.

Again, sorry to hear, but we will continue using Gemut for our car rentals.

Several years ago Gamut and I did not work out. Cost about $30 @ Madrid Airport. Auto Europe saved us!

I am familiar with the Gemut name but am really unfamiliar with them as a company.
But I too have gone through AutoEurope a few times over the years without any issues.
AutoEurope is a New England based travel consolidator. They deal with a number of different car rental companies depending on the location. They are a marketing company, not a car rental company.
When I go to Europe, I will first check AutoEurope's rates--looking for locations that are obviously Hertz company locations. Then I go to Hertz,com and inquire on rates form the same cars using my old Hertz fleet account discount. Sometimes Hertz beats AutoEurope's rates and sometimes they don't.
I prefer to rent directly or indirectly through Hertz because they are usually company operations--not franchise locatioms. Many of the familiar rental names in Europe are independent companies that don't operate in ethical ways and they often have customer complaints. Hertz is more consistent.
AutoEurope is also a flight consolidator which means they contract with an airline or airlines to purchase X number of flights in a year at a big discount and they market the flights at a profit. They are able to undercut the airlines' direct prices.
Your experience is an illustration that close attention has got to be paid anytime any reservation is being made.

Ok, I'm going to tell you straight. Your complaint is really hard to read, follow, and make sense. We sense your anger and frustration, but your post is lacking details. It's really not clear what happened. Was the agency closed for the day, closed for lunch, or closed for vacation?

It seems you were trying to avoid the airport and cross-border drop fees by picking up at a small city agency, a franchise. When you found the agency closed, you dialed a number, got Autoeurope and accepted a rental with a cross-border drop fee. Was there a reason you didn't call the Gemut number in the States when the Autoeuropa agent didn't know of Gemut? Was there some reason you had to do this quickly, had to accept the Autoeurope rental, and couldn't wait?

The lack of clarity, along with the assumptions in the later paragraphs, muddy your points. I suggested you go to the travel consumer advocate, Chris Elliott's, website. They will ask you to write it clearly, with bullet points and will find out where mistakes were made and if you are due compensation.

“When the Hertz in Germany was closed I was forced to rent a car at the airport in Basel. The $400 fee was for international transfer.”

Sorry, please explain the above.

I have only used them once, this past September in Germany, but my experience could not be more opposite from the OP's. Everything was handled flawlessly and it was an absolutely seamless experience.

Hi all- thought I would chime in on this for what it is worth. I used to use Gemut exclusively and always ended up with Hertz or Avis. Then one year I was charged with a drop fee in Germany- Pickup in Frankfurt and drop in Munich. When I called Andy after the trip he said I shouldn't have been charged a drop fee, washed his hands of the whole affair, and told me to contact Avis directly for a refund. This was over 20 years ago and I have not used Gemut since then. I have used Auto Europe several times but now I stick mostly with Hertz. Hertz has treated me fairly when minor damage has occurred, and pointed out pre-rental dings that I didn't see on several occasions. And they have never given me any static when I pointed out minor scratches pre-rental. They even gave me a different car due to prior damage in several cases. I have always rented several months in advance when I receive information about reduced rates from Hertz or AA or some other company or bank on-line. FYI

Count me among those who would rather deal directly with the company from whom I renting. Aggregators add a layer of complexity, which increases the likelihood for mistakes. Like Kenneth, I use Hertz. The website is easy to use and shows the hours of each location when choosing the pickup site. Customer service has been uniformly good for me. I once used Sixt in France and also had a good experience with them. In that case, I accidentally scraped a wall while parking in the tiny spaces in the drop-off garage in Rouen. Happily, I had purchased full coverage. When I turned in the keys, I told them I had scraped the wall and damaged the car but had bought the full coverage. They verified that, said "ok," and sent me on my way. I never heard from them again.

harkonnen2635,

It appears you miss the opportunity to learn a very important lesson from this experience. It is your responsibility to check, double check, and triple check the arrangements for a trip to Europe (flights, lodging, car rentals, train connections, etc). While you should be able to trust an aggregator to get things right, the reality is you can't because they (like you and me) make mistakes, and any mistake they make has a much greater impact on you than on them. You should have (1) closely checked the "corrected" dates from Gemut and (2) checked the hours for the Hertz location yourself. You can be bitter and spew venom on Twitter, Facebook, and travel forums OR you can take some personal responsibility, chalk the lost dollars up to "stupid tax" (as one financial guru calls it) for not doing your due diligence, and enjoy the awesome life you have (in a world full of war, poverty, and political oppression) that allows you to travel to Europe.

I have never actually used Gemut, although I have often received quotes from them while making a comparison with public transportation vs car rentals for each trip I take. My problem with them is that they can't follow simple instructions. I always specify a rental with CDW. With public transportation I have no liability; I want to compare apples to apples. Gemut always quotes a rental without CDW and says to use my credit card's insurance. What part of "with CDW" don't they understand! I don't want to rely on my credit card's insurance. I've heard too many horror stories (some on this forum) about credit card companies finding ways to deny insurance claims. I read the fine print on my own credit card insurance, and it says that I first have to pay the claim, then try to get reimbursement from them, for which I must provide them with any and all documentation that they might request. No thanks.

But no worry. Even without CDW, car rental has never come close to being competitive with public transportation. On my last trip, 21 days for 2 in 5 venues, mostly in Germany, I could have used a car on 12 of the days. My cost of public transportation for those 12 days came to 277.85€ ($330 at my exchange rate). I used one advance purchase Bahn ticket, three Bayern-Tickets, two local Tageskarten, and a few local train or bus tickets. In two places, everything was in walking distance, in another two I used a bus pass that I got with my accommodations, and in the last place I paid about 8€ for local bus trips.

I got a car rental quote from Gemut for $461. Fuel for most of my trips would have come to $134 according to ViaMichelin. I did not include fuel for the trips for which I paid 8€ for the local bus nor the day we used our Pfronten bus pass to shop in town. $595 total for a rental car vs. $330 for public trainsportation. No comparison.