Red Spot Car Rental

My advice, is DO NOT TO RENT WITH REDSPOT. I rented a car with REDSPOT online for 5 days at Perth International Airport T1-T2, between the 14th and 18th of May 2024, with a Super Collision Damage Waiver (SCDW). In other words, the top insurance option.

I had an incident on the 16th of May 2024, running over a kangaroo, on a man-made compacted road (gazetted unsealed road), which according to the contract terms can be driven on. Over the first phone call, REDSPOT was supportive, and they told me to wait. … 18 hours later (after lunch on 17th of May 2024), they told me informally via the phone that the contract had been breached because I was doing OFF-ROAD. As I was 900kms away (within the permitted area to use the car if rented in Perth which it was), a Redspot representative told me to find a solution by myself to get me and the car back to Perth.

Not only REDSPOT didn’t care by then, but also I sent them an email asking for the reason for why breaching the contract, and two weeks and a half later, I still don’t have a reply from them. Then on the 4th of June 2024, they sent me the cost of the liability of the vehicle and 14 days to pay it (dated from the 3rd of June - already cut me off 1 day) - 7350.29$ as well as a rate of 142.8$ a day for “loss of use” for 10 days = 1428.0$ (arbitrarily picked by them in both cases, as reference values are not available on their website) this value is also absurd as I was paying a value per day of 74$.

This is a very unfair treatment of customer service! No one from REDSPOT explained to me what was covered or not! Or you read every line of the terms and conditions or you are going to be trapped, and even if you read it, they still bend them to put you the blame. IF YOU RENT WITH REDSPOT, YOU RISK GET SHAM like I was, and when you try to solve it, you will get SILENT FROM REDSPOT in a total lack of respect towards the customer!

Not to count the endless hours that then you will need to spend to deal with it.

WARNING DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!!!

I hired a vehicle from Red Spot and had been hiring long term from them. My wife and I were on our way to my doctor because I have chronic Crohn's and have a 10cm stricture in my bowel and am waiting to have surgery. We were unaware the hire company had been trying to get in contact as they usually took a payment for the period of a week which we had done and did not think there was anything owing and were unaware they had been trying to get in contact, which had not been an issue in the past. All of their listed email addresses bounce back and all of my attempts to contact them by phone had been ignored. I had to call in excess of 15-20 times on occasion because their one listed phone number for Brisbane airport would ring out and there was no where to leaven a message. After trying that day and the previous day without success to contact them we were pulled over by the police and arrested at gun point. No apologies or explanation, they even told the police they had report the vehicle stolen on the 25th of April because of non payment yet we have proof that a payment was taken on this date. They also told the police that we paid for the entire period up front which was also not the case and as a consequence we were both arrested and held for several hours where I was denied my medication and proper decent human treatment.

There was some minor damage to the vehicle and since this has occurred I have tried every day for 3 weeks to get in contact with Red Spot to find out how much is owed and how I can pay the balance of what is owing. I spoke to a very friendly Manager who could not believe our story and said in these circumstances the charges are usually dropped once contact is made and the vehicle is returned and could not understand why the other person had locked my file and would not return emails of phone calls. I have tried phoning multiple times per day since the incident and followed up with emails. I have only had one call back and no information has been sent to me, I do not have a way to make payment and until today had no idea what was outstanding until I received the brief of evident from the prosecution. They claim there is $4,400 owing and no payment has been made yet they have deducted $1,000 which has not been reflected and they will not return emails, phone calls or any kind of communication to get this matter sorted and finalised. I have also tried contacting the CEO without success who responded by phone to an employee and said I would need to speak with the person who is handeling the matter but ignores all phone calls and emails. I have left countless voicemails and emails which have gone unanswered and fail to understand why they don’t want a speedy resolution or payment for what is owing. The only conclusion that I can come too is that they are trying to stitch me up which I think is disgraceful. I have made every attempt to get this matter resolved and think it’s disgraceful they would treat a customer this way.

They don’t care about customers, they treat people like dirt and even when they try and do the right thing they seem more interested in seeing people punished. It’s not a company I will ever do business with again, I was a good paying customer and have never been treated like this by any other company in my entire life. They don’t deserve your business and they simply don’t care, it’s all about the dollars and cents to these people.

BEWARE AND HIRE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Like previous reviewers - we had similar experiences, except that our parked hire car was hit by a reversing driver. The other driver's insurance company accepted full liability and assured me that there would be no cost to Red Spot. When we took the car back they said they would charge us $4,000 excess, even though we'd taken out full CDW insurance with rentalcars who then sub-contracted it to Red Spot. When I pointed out to the person on duty that we had full cover, she said it wasn't with them, it was with rentalcars. Like all the other reviewers we were told that we would receive a rebate once the car had been repaired and the cost of the repair was known. Again, like other reviewers, we can't get anyone to respond to phone calls or emails. We also had $4,472 debited from our credit card - $4,000 excess + GST + $72 bank charges. This whole thing it a scheme and I have filed a formal complaint with Consumer Protection in Perth. I have also written to the West Australian newspaper, so I am hoping that someone can do something to stop this blatant rip off of customers. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Redspot is the ONLY company, out of 10 plus others, arranged NO-ONE to do the pre-check with us, even they have staff available... well I thought they were pretty easy-going!

2. Nightmare came when we landed HK after dropping off the car at 05:35 on 31thDec15 in Adelaide Airport, an email saying they charged my CC AUD3300. The damage descibed in 4 words only "large scratch back bumper". We checked after drop-off and 100% sure there is no damage as they described. I had a photo taken a night before showing damage free over the area...I should retake again after the drop-off!

3. Their description of the damage is vague and unprofessional. They should specify if the so-called scratch causing abrasion of paint, or any indentation etc... from the low resolution photo they sent me, its like a dirt mark only which could possibly erased by car wash!

4. I did ask them when they did the checking after my drop-off? They just replied "shortly"... well how short is shortly. I specified the time I returned... if they are not cheating in the first hand, how they could ensure if no other people making that scratch...? Together with the "easy going" pre-check, they dont have reliable and effective procedues to safeguard clients' benefits.

Well the good news is I set the limit of transaction. If they are less greedy and charged me less, I could have my money lost to them!

My experience with Redspot was similar to many of the others posted here. Redspot debited my credit card for $3,354 in August 2015 for some old scratches on the alloy wheels which were already there before I rented the car.

The car had done about 55,000 kms and already had numerous dents, marks and scratches, so I didn’t report the damage on the wheels when I picked it up because it appeared t o be wear and tear consistent with the generally shabby condition of the car.

Fortunately my private travel insurance paid for some of the amount claimed by Redspot, but I am still hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

Unfortunately for Redspot they sent me some photos of the damage which I sent to an automotive expert who reported that it wasn’t possible for this type of damage to have occurred during the preceding few days that I had the car.

If anyone else has been charged for wheel damage to a BLACK NISSAN PULSAR 4 DOOR SEDAN - Rego. No. 1A***6QC (number plates may have changed) and still has the paperwork, I would be grateful if you could please contact me by clicking on 'Send a message' on the left.

Thanking you in advance and thanks for reading my post.

We found the Red Spot car rentals to be very good, Staff were very helpful and the car was very good. We had the car for 10 days while driving around Tasmania and it was problem free. Well done Red Spot.

I hired a Redspot car for a week in Australia, picking it up at Brisbane airport and dropping it off at Sydney airport. I declined excess insurance since I had taken out an excess policy in the UK. Up front I will say that I was naive and didn't check the car for damage when I picked it up and didn't take pictures of the car when I dropped it off. That said, I wasn't asked to check the car for damage at pick up and there was no one there to check it for damage at dropoff. I got an email when in departures to say they had found damage. I can't swear there wasn't any but I certainly didn't see it. They charged A$3300 plus a credit card fee of over A$50 to my credit card. They would then refund me after the cost of repair was known. They did refund me after almost 2 months and as well as the cost of repair - A$1050 there was A$700 for 7 days loss of rental income, A$220 administration fee and A$30 credit card fee. My excess insurance did not cover the admin cost and credit card fee. Communication with Redspot about the claim was terrible. So a bad experience all round.

If you do hire from Redspot and especially if you don't take their excess cover (A$25 a day I believe) remember to check for damage very carefully and take plenty of pictures when you drop it off.

Pulled in to Sydney domestic car park , waited around for an inspector to come and check the car as is normal practice .

After waiting I walked around the car park and eventually went into another firms office and they told told me I had to go into a desk at the airport.

I eventually found this and gave them the key .Nothing was said about waiting to have the vehicle checked , he just said ok.

When we were nearly ready to board the plane a text came through that the car was damaged .

Of course we could not go back and check it. They know you cannot go back and they have got you .

I believe the whole company and the repairer is involved . How many times are they claiming on the one car or a car that has already had a claim paid on it .DO NOT USE THEM NO MATTER HOW CHEAP THEY LOOK .You will pay in the long run .

We hired 2 children's car seats but when we turned up at Melbourne airport, they didn't have any. From the outset they were completely rude about it and offered absolutely no solutions. They said we could go to the local Kmart and buy car seats (which is what we had to do). I can forgive a system error (no matter how inconvenient) but what I can't forgive is the absolute rudeness, refusal to help, and absolute lack of service. We rang the head office to see if they would be more helpful given the lack of competence at Melbourne airport, but the head office operated with the same level of apathy and rudeness. I will never hire from red spot again.

I am giving only one star because RedSpot's business model for handling claims is terrible. We rented a car in Hobart for 1 week and drove around Tasmania without any problems. When we returned the car, my husband noticed a very small chink in the windshield. We did not experience it happening and didn't notice it till he took a longer look at turn-in time. He was honest enough to report it to the agents at the desk. One of them went out to look. The other charged our credit card $1016.50 AUD. $1000 plus fees. We were told we would hear from the claims department in a few days. We were just beginning a long trip that included Australia and SE Asia.

After more than a month with no word, I contacted them to ask what was going on. I finally got a claim document that I was to sign absolving them of any more disbursement. The damage amounted to $50 AUD plus some other charges. The total was less than $200 AUD. I compared these figures to my credit card charge in USD. Because of their lengthy delay with NO response, the exchange rate changed significantly. The amount of credit (from the $1016.50 AUD) being offered is more than $50 USD LESS than what it would have been if Redspot had acted promptly in informing me about the repair. The car was out of use for only one day.

From reading other reviews, it seems this practice of levying large charges to one's credit card while claims are being processed is widespread with RedSpot. Delaying the refund process with no word to the customer is a very unethical, at best, practice. I wrote to complain about this difference in the amount I should have credited to my US credit card. I have had no response to that request.