I’ve rented a car twice from Green motion, once was by mistake, but both were really horrible experiences. A couple of months ago I rented via a third party website (wisecars), who redirected me to Green Motion. They advertised and accepted a booking for car collection in Kings Cross train station. The rental voucher Green Motion sent me listed Kings Cross station as the collection and drop off point. When I arrived at Kings Cross, I found that there was no Green Motion office there. I called the office and was told that in the fine print it says that their office is in fact in Edgware (a 25 minute drive away). Sure enough, buried at the bottom of the email it was there, but to describe it as misrepresentation doesn’t really do it justice. When I finally made it to the office they were mid row with another customer over the same issue. When I raised my own dissatisfaction, the two staff uttered between them aggressively. “Just cancel his car then.” They then proceeded to refuse to accept my credit card for the excess deposit, as it was a company credit card. Although not accepting company cards is not stated anywhere on their T&C’s that they could show me. Instead they offered to low the excess deposit so it could be taken from my debit card if I paid an additional fee. This fee was more than double the original price of the rental. Fortunately I had another credit card on hand, so was able to avoid this particular scam. It left a sour taste though, and I figured I’d never rent with them again. I had a couple of positive rental experiences elsewhere since then through other companies, so was pretty gutted to realise that I had accidentally made a booking through a different 3rd party website to Green Motion this past weekend. What didn’t surprise me, was that despite my suggestion, and official complaint about them misrepresenting their location before (which I was assured they were in the midst of rectifying), this rental was still booked under the false representation that the car was to be picked up and dropped off at Euston station. This time at least I knew where I really needed to go, so I figured, at least I’ll just have to collect it from further away, and that will be that. As I arrived there was an irate customer who was returning his car. He was being charged £135 for a scratch on the rear passenger alloy. He vehemently denied that he was responsible. He made a point to warn me, in front of the two men working there that he felt that their behaviour and the way they found the scratch was questionable and untrustworthy. Still, foolishly, I went ahead with the rental, thinking that provided I was overly cautious with them, and took videos and pictures of the car, I would be protected. Ironically, they gave me the same car that person had just returned and when I made my videos, I couldn’t actually see any damage to the alloy. I asked the rep to show me where it was, and after it took him over a minute to find it, he pointed out a mark so insignificant I felt it was shocking the other customer had been billed for it. My trip was a great one and the travel time uneventful. I returned the car early and was expecting a swift check out. Another customer was checking her car back in at the same time. The rep did a cursory walk around, checked the alloys, and the interior, before signing it off. When he then checked over my car, he suddenly started running his hands all along the underside of the bumpers, until he ‘found’ a scratch on the bottom edge of the front bumper. “Ooh. It looks like we might have a problem here sir,” he said. Honestly. I have never seen a rental car rep do that before. It was as though he knew exactly what to find and where. I checked the pre rental videos I had made, but obviously, you can’t see the under edge of a bumper in any of those videos, because who would film that. Not unless they were lying on the ground. The guy, to his credit, did seem to be genuinely empathetic about having to charge me, but it also all felt so terribly convenient. Especially in light of the experience that the previous customer had had too. In any situation like this, it becomes a he said, she said, so there’s very little I could do about it, other than to protest against it. They have my deposit anyway, so I really couldn’t stop them taking the fee. I can tell you for certain, that I was not involved in any situations that could have led to that scratch. The car travelled across London and down the motorway, before spending two night in secure off road parking, away from any other vehicles. Then it took the same route back. There was no off roading. No collisions. No scrapping on uneven ground. It was about as boring a journey as you could imagine. But, the rep told me that he doesn’t have to prove it was me that caused it. He has a damage log sheet, and when the car was rented, the damage wasn’t logged. If I couldn’t provide an image of that piece of the car undamaged, then I was responsible. As I said, the damage is not visible unless you are down on your stomach looking up under the bumper. Or unless you are running your hand underneath it to feel it. So, there is absolutely no way that unless it was pointed out to me, that I could have reasonably seen it to report it before taking the car away. My take away from this experience, outside of eating a £435 bill, is that my first instincts about Green Motion were right. There are some seriously shady practices taking place. The staff are dishonest and aggressive. The whole experience from start to finish reeks of a swindle. Of the three other customers I have interacted with on Green Motion property, two were complaining of the same issues I have faced. My advice would be that you avoid like the plague. But, if you’ve already booked with them, photograph everything. Record your conversations with the staff too. Be as vigilant as you can possibly be, because make no mistake, these guys are out to tuck you up.