Hi,

Myself, my partner and my two little boys age 7 and 9 have just returned from a weeks holiday in Mijas Costa in Spain. I had booked a car online from carhiremalaga.info also known as zenithsl. We had booked a small car for 182.57 euro and were to be met by a rep at the airport. Anyway, after waiting for about 40 minutes, we were eventually taken to a car and driven approx 2 miles away from the airport to a dingy little backstreet office. The car we were getting was a fiat cinquecento but we were then offered an upgrade to a renault clio for an extra 15 euro which I accepted. We then had to pay for a tank of fuel as it runs on a full/empty policy which cost us a further 60 euro which we thought of as pretty exhoberant considering the size of the car but handed over the cash nonetheless as at this stage our boys were getting very disturbed by the heat. The woman we were dealing with who also appeared to be the owner/manager took a clone of my credit card and a rep came out of the office and proceeded to show my partner in the dim light of the garage 2 dents on the car and got my partner to sign a form. He thought this strange as we have hired several cars in several different countries before, including spain and he has never had to do this. Anyway, we set off and had an enjoyable week in Spain. On 18th August we returned the car at the agreed time to be driven back to the airport. This is where it gets really hairy. A rep came out and started examining the car. He then beckoned to my partner and pointed out a small little black line on the side of the front spoiler. My partner assured him we knew nothing of this and it must have been already there at which he produced the document my partner had signed when we first rented the car and pointed out the two dents. In hindsight we believe that this mark was already there but my partner, in the first instant did'nt really bother to scrutinie the car, and in the second instant would have found this mark very hard to see in the dimly lit garage. Anyway, this woman, Irene, called us back into the office and informed us we would have to pay either 90 euro in cash or 104 euro by card. My partner was about to hand over a card but then thought better of it as at this stage he did'nt trust them at all and, after much argument we handed over 90 euro. She then handed me back my credit card clone. Our luggage was then loaded into another car to take us to the airport. As we were making our way to this car, we noticed this woman, Irene, again making obscene gestures to the rep and looking inside the car. We were called over again, she said the car would need a special clean and he would have to pay a further 20 euro. At this stage, I lost it and told her there was no way she was getting any more money off us. The car was already old, a good hoover would sort it out and for god sake, we had kids, what did she expect? At this, she instructed the driver of the car meant to bring us to the airport to unload our luggage, which he did, and then drove off, leaving us stranded there on a backstreet two miles from the airport. My kids were very traumatised at this stage. We went to a car hire place next door and were informed it would be virtually impossible to get a taxi at that stage. We then went another door down where there were, two mechanics I think. My partner explained we were stuck there and would there be any chance of getting a lift to the airport and he would pay them. One of the men, to which we will be forever grateful drove us to the airport and only took 10 euro for it. But, only for them, we would have missed our flight. Avoid this shower of chancers at all costs!!! I would hate to see some other poor unfortunates left in the same situation as we were!!