We picked up a car from the Florence city branch and though the collection was OK, it was everything thereafter that became problematic. The company promised to send various documents (car collection and return confirmation) via email. These documents never arrived, even after I had followed up with both the Florence and head offices. I did, however, receive an email meant for another customer. So I queried whether there was an email address mix-up, and received zero response until I reported a potential data breach. As it turns out, there was a simple typo in the email domain name and an efficent customer support agent sorted the issue. But had I not escalated the matter to the Data Protection Office, my contact details would still be incorrect. More unsettling, neither HQ or the Florence office bothered to even respond, despite having raising concerns about my private data. If you read reviews on Google and Tripadvisor, you will observe that this company employs a generally unethical approach to its rentals. I will not rent a vehicle from Sicily by Car again.
City/airport:
Shaun's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 20 June 2024
Efficient and friendly service
jas's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 20 June 2024
Verified ReduceMyExcess customer
Very easy purchase with the cover needed to ease driving abroad.
Woodmaster's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 17 June 2024
Like others, we have had a pretty frustrating and poor experience with this company while renting a car through them (via sunnycars). To start, they are extremely slow at processing customers to pickup your car. During the trip we got a flat tire while near the southern coast on the island. The car had no spare tire in the back... We purchased coverage and figured this would be a simple fix, but it was an actual nightmare. We were in contact with an emergency service center who only gave us the option to come tow our car (which we wouldnt get back) and for us to then find a way back up to Olbia from the highway we were stranded on 2+ hours away from the airport, in hopes that the rental office could give us a replacement car. We told the service center to wait until we could confrim from the Olbia office that we can get a new car and the very expensive taxi ride was covered by them. The office did not pick up the phone as we continued to call them for over TWO HOURS, stranded in the heat with our 2 year old. In the end, luckily, our agriturismo hosts helped arrange their own tow truck and we got the wheel fixed ourselves after a grueling 7-8 hours of effort and broken english/italian conversations. In the end, this company refused to re-imburse these costs because the tow truck and mechanic we used were not "approved by the olbia office", the same office who would not pick up their phone or answer their emails. But wait, it's not over. 2 weeks after we got home they also sent us a damage claim, charging us another 500 euros for: (1) a scratch we have photos of upon picking up the car, (2) a "different" tire, since we had to get a new one or be stranded on the highway, and (3) the use of the tire repair kit which did nothing to help us anyways. To add to all this drama, out contact through email during our vacation afterwards (about the tire costs) was negative and they purely blamed us for the costs as we "made our own rules" when we decided not to get the car towed through their emergency services. The same situation that would have left us stranded, unknowing if we'll have our 2.5hr taxi trip reimbursed if we taxi'd to olbia away from our accommodate, without knowing if the office was even open or had a replacement car for us (since they just never picked up the phone). What a novel! The feeling now is that they took our heated email conversation personally and are now trying to charge us for bogus damage costs out of spite. If you're traveling anywhere in italy, avoid this company and save yourself the hassle!
MS's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 28 May 2024
Good value and efficient
Scooterboy007's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (4.5/5) on 16 April 2024
Drove from Rome to Siena and all wonderful. Went to pickup friends at bus station and car dies, smoke fills cabin and the nightmare begins. It’s Easter weekend and there is no support. Lucky to get car towed. Now without a car. Now they are saying I burned out the clutch. I’ve driven clutch most of my life so something is not right. They see North American and an Asian residence they try to play games. I have insurance but that’s not the issue. How can they know the clutch was not going to fail with a load that was what the car specified. Between them and rentalcar.com all I can say is stay clear of them. A company that has no support and worse yet scams people is worse.
Scammed be Sicily By Car's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 18 May 2023
I booked a car through Car rental more than 2 months in advance. It was an automatic car from the Car Group: Opel Grandland X or similar (because due to my back problems I cannot drive small cars with small seats). When I arrived Catania airport they did not have such a car and I was forced to take the only available automatic car - SEAT Arona. In addition to aggravations and back pains which I suffered, the company compensated me with A negligible sum of less than 10 EUR, while the total cost (including 1 way payment) was 300 EUR.
MS's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 18 April 2023
SCAM ALERT!! They refuse to refund me 260 euros!!! I had to pay an extra 80 euros fee because I didn’t have a credit card, and was told this would be refunded when I wrote an email upon return of the car (Rome to Palermo). I subsequently booked and paid for another car (for Palermo to Syracuse), and was told when I went to collect the car that I couldn’t take it because I didn’t have a credit card. I told her how I’d paid the 80 euro’s previously, insisted she ring her manager, and she still refused to let me take the car. Left high and dry without transportation! She told me I would get a full refund of my 180 euros I’d already paid online. No refund has appeared. Finally received an email back today saying that as it’s in their T&Cs that you need to have a credit card, that I will not get a cent back of the 260 euros they owe me!! I hope people see this review and use SRC (Sicily rental cars) instead. Local company too and they were wonderful and flexible and helped me a lot with this debacle.
Kristen's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 13 February 2023
do not use this company, rental price was finaly doubled than the first offer, very unprofessional, never again with Sicily by Car
Martin's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 19 January 2023
Scam company. They are nowhere to be seen when you need help so impossible to contact them unless you go to their office in the airport and then they take random money from your account
Suley's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 6 December 2022
Great price but quite a long wait to pick up but quick and easy booking
Sue's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (3.5/5) on 17 October 2022
Good overall. Bit slow on collection but return was efficient and friendly. Car was fine.
Steve's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (4/5) on 18 September 2022
No issues, late opening office hours was very useful
Kevin's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (4/5) on 14 September 2022
Scam bags, I highly recommend to stay away from these scammers they'll try anything to steal your money in the way we'll organise.
Tomato Dragotto's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 27 August 2022
Regarding Contract # 940574876 . I have attempted to reach this company since June 18 2022 without a single acknowledgement. Here is my sad story. On May 30, my friend & I picked up one of your cars at the Catania airport. On May 31, I drove the car to Portopalo Sicily. Whilst attempting to climb one of the many steep hills en route to Portopalo, the car's engine over-heated and stopped. (Photo attached). Here we were 2 lone women stranded on the highway in a foreign country. The car overheated & stopped functioning. We pulled over & allowed the car to cool down. After waiting for approximately 10 minutes, we attempted to start the car once again. It started, the car overheated once again so we stopped the engine out of fear. After a few attempts, we were finally able to roll into the only gas station in Portopalo. At this point the car was completely dead & inoperable. The engine wouldn't even turn. This was approximately noon. Thanks to the gas station attendant, after approximately 2 hours, we were able to reach roadside service who sent a flatbed tow truck to take the vehicle away. However, he left us stranded in Portopalo with no taxis in sight to get us back to Marzameme where we were staying. We finally got through to your Catania service desk who proceeded to tell us that they were unable to send a replacement car and that the onus was on us to pick it up. They said they would reimburse us for a taxi to take us to the Catiania airport location. We tried your Siracusa location however they didn't have any vehicles available so we wound up having to work our way back to Catania to pick up the replacement. Our new friend the gas station attendant finally secured us a taxi from Siracusa to pick us up and drive us to Catania. AT 6 pm we were picked up for the long drive to Catania. Our entire vacation day was ruined as we were stranded and NO ONE at your organization cared that we were 2 middle aged women alone in a country & town we had never been to. We finally arrived in Marzameme at 9:00 pm. Also, cab expense was $180 EU because we had to source a cab from another town. I ask that Sicily by Car do the right thing by us however they're choosing to ignore me. We ask for reimbursement for the following items. 1 day car rental 1 day insurance fee eu $180 cab fare to Catania eu $36 fuel used in the broken down car . Why are they not acknowledging my complaint?
Angie's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 22 July 2022
Fast efficient pick up and return of car. Car had only done 1000km so in perfect condition. Friendly staff and did not try and push any extras onto you. Car hire very expensive this year but this was the best price I could get from a reputable company
Jim's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 17 June 2022
Extremely polite, professional and helpful. From collecting through to returning, the process was extremely easy
Sam's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 11 June 2022
Very smooth process. Efficient and professional. No quibbling over insurance.
Ange's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 5 June 2022
I did rent a car in Champino airport , they frizzed £650 on my credit card and it should release after 10 days of bring the car back , still after 23 days they did not unblock my credit card i did try many times to contact them but no one answer the phone and I did even email them no response . I am not happy and I have no good feeling for this company . I will try to report them , I will never use them anymore
Martin's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 24 May 2022
Great service from Sicily By Car, easy pick up and return, no issues at all and really great car
Denis's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 17 April 2022
Great service and value for money
Erste's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 8 April 2022
We received a car that wasn't fit-for-purpose. Hazard lights flashing regularly and once needed recovery as brakes failed in very light snow. Also as journey back to the airport took an extra 2 hours there was not time to fill the tank before returning the car. I was charged 70 euros for less than a quarter of the tank. My 3 emails about all of this have been ignored.
k12's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 13 March 2022
Nice easy car hire, no hassle at all. Local staff was very helpful and polite.
Alex's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (5/5) on 23 February 2022
I wish I could give them a zero star... DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! I rented a car from SicilyByCar at Bergamo Airport. During my trip, a street camera caught my car on a street that was closed, it was snowing and I didn't see the sign. Local Police sent Verbale no. xx with a fine of 64.60 EURO, they sent it to the car plate number registered address (SiclyByCar address). SicilyByCar rental company forwarded the Verbale to my email address and I paid it immediately online via PagoPA using my credit card. I then sent the payment confirmation to SicilyByCar for their records. The next day, SicilyByCar charged my credit card the amount of 61 EUR and they said it represents the administrative fee for handling the ticket file. The first paragraph in Rental Agreement states: STREET CODE VIOLATIONS IF I GET ANY FINE FOR VIOLATIONS TO THE STREET CODE, SICILY BY CAR S.p.A. WILL PASS MY DETAILS (NAME, SURNAME, ADDRESS AND SO ON) TO THE AUTHORITY WHICH HAS ISSUED IT. THIS IN ORDER FOR THE FINE TO BE NOTIFIED TO ME DIRECTLY. I HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE AND COMMIT TO PAY EURO 50,00 + VAT TO BE CHARGED DIRECTLY TO MY CREDIT CARD AS PAYMENT FOR THE ADMINISTRATION SERVICES RELATED TO THE SINGLE FINE OR MOTORWAY TOLL, WHICH I HAVE FAILED TO PAY. I EXPRESSLY AGREE TO PAY ANY FINES FOR WHICH I MAY BE LIABLE TO THE COMPETENT AUTHORITY DIRECTLY IN ORDER TO AVOID THE CHARGE OF THE HERE ABOVE MENTIONED ADDITIONAL SERVICE. I WILL NOT BE CHARGED IF I PAY DIRECTLY FOR THE FINE WITHIN THE EXPECTED HANDLING PERIOD NECESSARY STATED BY THE AUTHORITIES, AND OF COURSE I AM OBLIGED TO SEND A COPY OF THE DOCUMENTATION TO SICILY BY CAR S.p.A., AS A PROOF OF PAYMENT. Also the Contract General Conditions I signed, Paragraph 2.2, letter e) on page 2 states: e) The renter shall be financially responsible for all fines and/or highway tolls and/or parking tickets occurred during the rental period and to pay, in case the Renter has not paid for them immediately, the amount of € 50,00 + VAT, for the additional service related to fines and/or highway tolls and/or parking tickets; In both places, the contracts state I will only be charged the administrative fee if I fail to pay the ticket, which I paid immediately and forwarded the confirmation to the rental company. SicilyByCar refused to cancel the administrative fee, although I contacted them through email, they stated they are entitled to charge the fee.
mimi's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 29 December 2021
ver bad customer service of the main office!! do not rent your car here! on the road the rental car needed to be fixed, we tried to contact sicily by car a lot of times but got disconnected every time. we were stranded so had to act. went to a local garage to get it fixt. SicilyByCar will not pay those costs back. been trying for months, don't even answer. finally an answer: will pay nothing! because we did not follow procedure. how can we if we could not reach you??? 185 euro i payed and a full rental day gone... so watch out for this guys, they rip you off!!!!
josien's rating of their experience of Sicily By Car: (1/5) on 5 September 2021
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