My wife and I live in Spain. Before our recent visit to the UK we booked a hire car at Stansted Airport, using CarJet, which had quoted a very attractive £178.26 for a week’s rental. It was only when the voucher arrived in my inbox that we realised that the vehicle would be supplied by Green Motion Rent a Car. Our previous experience of this company had not been ideal. Green Motion’s offices are never at the airport terminal but at least a bus ride away. At Stansted they occupy a portakabin in the car park of the Novotel. Shuttle buses run on the half hour, so if you miss one you are in for a long wait. Then there’s the speed, or lack of it, at which Green Motion does the paperwork, never, in our experience, much less than an hour. SLOW MOTION would seem more appropriate. Other firms do it in ten minutes, and I refuse to believe that even Green Motion employees all suffer from underactive thyroids. As my new driving licence had not arrived by the time we were about to leave Spain, I had to amend my booking so my wife could be sole driver the rental car. On accessing the online form I discovered that Green Motion had added a charge for their Platinum insurance package which had more than doubled cost from £178.26 to £403.00. As I had not opted for this package I removed it. I then received an email from CARJET offering me additional insurance with AXA for £24.38 to which I agreed. When we went to pick up the car, the person we dealt with at the Green Motion office attempted to scare us into accepting the exorbitant Platinum package on the grounds that the AXA policy was only third party and inadequate to protect us from a range of hideous consequences which would probably result from our refusing to fork out yet more cash. Green Motion and Carjet appear to be singing from different hymn sheets. This may be simple incompetence. Or not. The paperwork process was drawn out further by the fact that ‘our’ Green Motion rep became involved in a dispute between two of her colleagues and an indignant customer complaining about damage he was alleged have caused to his rental car. Warning bells ought to have begun to sound, but by this time all we could think of was to escape and begin our long-delayed journey. Our return flight to Spain was scheduled to leave at 8.05 a.m. which meant that we needed to be at the airport for 6.00 am at the latest. Every other car rental firm we have dealt with has an out of hours key drop facility The Green Motion office opens at 6.00 am and the return guide states ‘We do not accept out of hours returns. You remain responsible for the vehicle until it can be checked by a member of staff’. Online reviews speak of customers being fined exorbitantly for being unable to comply with this rule. As we could not risk missing our flight, we were obliged to return our vehicle a day early, which cost us a night’s hotel accommodation and two taxi rides. We had made only one journey in the rental car, which had spent the rest of the week in secure off-road parking. When we returned the vehicle the GM vehicle inspector was all smiles until we refused to accept responsibility for an almost invisible scratch he immediately claimed to have found on a wheel trim. This, he said, would cost us £160.00. (I wonder how many customers they charge for the same scratch). At this point the charming Green Motion rep barked at me ‘You will not be allowed to rent from Green Motion again. (As if!) The fuel is OK. You can go and get the shuttle’. In fact, when I later looked at my credit card statement it was clear that Green Motion had charged an extra £50.00 for fuel and not refunded the £35.00 they owed me for unused pre-paid fuel. To put it another way: We had used £15.00 worth of petrol and they tried to charge £85.00. A recent Guardian Money feature detailed some of the large number of customers who have been ‘caught’ by Green Motion’s practice of charging huge bills, sometimes of £1,000 or more, for minor scratches and blemishes. The article comments that ‘firms selling car hire too cheaply will lose money if you don’t take their insurance, so will try to recover their profit by ‘finding’ scratches and damage that are billed to you at extortionate rates.’ There are reports of inspectors heading straight to ‘damage’ located in such inaccessible places as under the car or behind bumpers. The Guardian article reveals that Green Motion vehicle inpectors’ remuneration includes a bonus scheme and it is crystal clear that Green Motion charges for ‘damage’ on an industrial scale. Green Motion’s prices may appear to be low, but you can easily end up paying vastly more than if you rented from a reputable company such as Avis or Alamo with premises conveniently in the airport complex or the car rental village. Beware!