Guys thank you for your posts at least I know I'm not alone. Like most of you I don't live in the UK but I booked a car rental through www.Car-Hire-UK.com. The first sign of trouble came when they deducted 917.47 from my Visa card a full week before the Car rental was due to start. 600 pounds of this was an Insurance excess and 80 pounds was a fuel excess which should never have been deducted.

When I arrived at the airport to pickup the car the representative from car-Hire-UK.com insisted I signed a Visa slip for 940.47 again even though the money had already been deducted from my Visa card. This should have rung alarm bells, and I still don't know if they are going to try and hit me again for another 917.47 now they have this signed Visa slip.

I returned the car to the Gatwick Long Stay Car park as instructed undamaged and fully fueled, I placed the key and the Car Park ticket in the envelope and wrote the location on the back of the envelope before handing it to the shuttle bus driver again as per Car-Hire-UK.com's instructions. I then followed up with a phone call to their returns telephone number, all by the book.Fortunately since there was no car-shire-uk.com representative to inspect the vehicle I got my passenger to do a visual inspection with me in case they decided to claim damage at a later date.

it's now been 7 weeks since they took the money from my Visa card and 4 weeks since I returned the car. Phoning the company is pointless they always say the same it's with the accounts department, if you ask for somebody to phone you back they never do. Ask to speak to a supervisor and you get left on hold listening to music and as for emails, well as you can guess they never reply..

I have lodged formal complaints with trading Standards and spoken to David Buller regarding this company, I have also lodged a complaint with Bromley Police and filled in a dispute form with Visa.

Strangely enough after 3 1/2 weeks of unreturned phone calls and email I was phoned on Friday by guess who? Mr Michael Stephen Goodwin AKA Car-Hire-UK.com. Oh good I thought he's phoning to apologise and let me know he's going to refund my Insurance and Fuel excess that he should never have taken in the first place. He actually phoned to threaten that unless I withdrew my complaint with Trading Standards, The Police and Visa I would never get my 680 pounds refunded. Oh yes and he would sue me for libel. I think you can guess my response, basically no way in hell was I going to withdraw my complaint until the money was returned to my Visa card. I suggest we all contact Trading Standards and the police with our complaints so they understand the magnitude of the problem with this company.

One of the guys scammed by Car-Hire-UK.com put this on another forum, hope it helps some of you get your money back from Michael Stephen Goodwin AKA Car-Hire-UK. I think we should all pay Mr Goodwin a visit...to his real address!

Tracking down Car-Hire-UK.com


Did a domain name search and found the website is registered to

Car Hire UK
165 Masons Hill
Bromley Kent BR2 9HY
Administration Contact
Michael Goodwin (same address)

After researching at Companies House(UK Companies Register) I found the following. There is no company registered as "Elsinore Garage Ltd" but there is a company registered as "Elsinore Garage and Company Limited". I purchased a number of documents from Companies House and got the following infromation.


Elsinore Garage and Company Limited
Company number: 575284
Company Secretary: Michael Stephen Goodwin
Registered Company Office:
Mattison & Co
Chartered Accountants
10A Royal Parade
Chislehurst, Kent
BR7 6NR.
Company Business: Car Hire.


They breach The Companies Act as all business they must use Full Company Name, Registered Company number, and Registered Company Office.


This makes the Rental Contract void.

We booked a Group C Ford Focus for pickup for 7 days for the advertised £109.00 with waiver SCDW so low excess of £75.00 which was really good value. We were met on arrival by a very highful young lady who really made us feel at ease, the rental went fine and no problems. When we returned our vehicle we forgot to refuel the vehicle. We have called the company numerous times to tell them we have not received our fuel deposit back, and they tell us that they cant refund the fuel, as we returned empty, however we didnt mean not to refuel the vehicle, and think it is most unfair to charge us the full £45.00 for fuel, it could not cost more than £40.00 to refuel. Although this was our only complaint we feel it fair to let people know our experience although very good, the small print does say mind you about this. hopefully next time the service will be better for us

This company met us at Heathrow airport in June 2007 with an upgraded car and we signed a car and fuel deposit of £670 which they charged to our card and never returned. The car was returned in good condition and they confirmed this. I have rung them maybe 30 times and each time they promise it is a mistake and they will refund the money immediately but they never do. My bank is investigating but seem powerless to do anything without a "refund" voucher from the company, which of course they will not issue. A google search will bring up numerous complaints on this company. They have no physical address only a very professional looking website. If anyone has any idea how to get this money back or get them closed down please let me know! Beware!