Caroutis Reviews 

Worst experience ever. Caroutis have cancelled me the reservation without asking for it. All this because I have refused to take extra assurance from them, even that I already had one. I will complain forward to ANPC.

Rented a car here. On arrival it was not available and was rented out to someone else. There was also no other car available. Money collected but zero service. There was also no response to the claim. Be warned and never rent a car here!!!

Avoid at any cost!!
dirty cars, takes ages for them to pick you up from the airport. non existent customer service. they will charge you for anything.

The car was pretty good, but most cars come with scratches that aren't accounted for and after you return it, they'll say you did them. Those guys charge hundreds of euros for not even an inch of a scratch. I was lucky because I had photos before of the car, otherwise, I would have been taxed extra unfairly.
Also, it seems that when they fine someone for those scratches, the money just goes into their pocket since most of their cars are full of scratches. Stay away if you can, otherwise be sure to take detailed photos of the car beforehand.

They are scammers. Don’t sign anything when dropping off the car, if they subsequently charge you for unreasonable damage or a pre-existing scratch you’ll be able to request a chargeback payment to your credit card company. Without any signature you might win the chargeback request and get your money back. They will try to threaten you to sign, because then they know you’ll not have any legal recourse against them. So take many pictures of the car, take even a picture of the car well returned at the rental company, and LEAVE. Walk to the airport it’s better than signing a paper to get their ride. Afterwards call VISA or MasterCard from home and claim they took illegally money from your credit card or from your deposit (you’ll need proof, so take pictures).

Simple procedures and Perfect

IF YOU CONSIDER RENTING A CAR FROM THIS COMPANY PLEASE READ THIS! DO NOT GET FOOLED BY THE DECENT RATING LIKE WE DID! If you look a little deeper you will see that there is either excellent reviews or very bad ones. First, let me make clear that I do not normally write reviews, but this is a special case and I do not wish for anyone else to go through what we went. Some of the persons in this company (not all) are the most dishonest and rude people I have ever come across. In my opinion, what they are attempting is stealing and they should be charged.

We arrived at the car rental as planned after which they insisted that we needed an extra 250 euro insurance because they claimed that my credit did not work so they couldn’t block 1200 euro. I called my bank that confirmed that it worked, but then I realized that the person that I was talking to behind the desk in the car rental company put in wrong numbers on purpose. In the end I had to stand next to him to make sure that he put all the credit card numbers correctly into the computer. Meanwhile he was threatening me that other customers were coming so I would have to make up my mind quickly about getting the extra insurances of 250 euro. In other words, if I could get the car or not. I was waiting with my family and our little toddler, but I stayed calm and just insisted to work it out with my bank. In the end he had to accept the fact that my credit card worked after more than an hour of waiting for my family. He then went on to give me this car where not all the damages were indicated. I pointed that out and took a very thorough video of both inside and outside of the car to document everything. They of course were offended but we knew that things would get even worse upon return of the vehicle. And we were right!

When we returned the car, we were met by this guy (not sure his name but he was a big guy). He was simply the rudest, most unpolite, mean and dishonest person we have met. He immediately started pointing out damages, and I told him that I had video of everything so I could document they were there before we got the car. Then he said the car was not clean on the outside and we should bring it to a carwash, and I told him nicely that they did not specify this and that I was not aware of any places (I have rented cars all over the world) where you have to wash a rental car before return. His rude answer was “these are the rules in Romania”. So I asked him were to get a car wash and he very reluctantly pointed out a place nearby on google maps after I insisted. We (my wife and I) went to the place and found this young guy who was extremely nice and agreed to wash and clean our car fast so we could make it back in time and not pay for an extra day or miss our flight. Then (believe or not) the big dishonest guy from the car rental company shows up. In Romanian (we only picked it up because my wife speaks Romanian) he demands that the young guy not to wash our car, but instead wash his car. In this way would we would have been late and had to pay extra. He left in great anger when the car wash boy decided to wash our car first. However, problems were not over. We made it back to the car rental company and we were happy to see that there was another person at the front desk. This person was nicer and I told him we had washed and cleaned the car. We were hoping that he would check our car, but the big guy suddenly showed up and were trying to take over our case again. Fortunately, the new person told him that he would deal with us and he was OK nice and did not point anything out with the car and unblocked the 1200 euro on my credit card.

Overall, this was by far the worst experience I have had with any car rental company. My impression is that they have created a system that allows them to “steal” your money. One thing is their own insurance, which they will push on you and threatened you not to get a car if you don’t accept it. When you’re standing there with perhaps your family and small kids it is very difficult to decline to insurance, because you’re sort of lost without a car. The second thing is that they will try to find small things on the car upon return that they can charge you on. Again, it is very difficult to prove and you usually have limited time because you have to catch a plane. It was also my impression that the paint on the cars is not durable manufacturer’s paint, so it more easily gets fine scratches. Never in my life have I written such a bad review, and I hope I will never have to again.

The worst experience I had in rental car company, i had problems with the car, tried to contact them,they didn’t help and were ignorant!

The process to book a car has been easy and fast.
All info available.
One thing that can be improved is the membership subscription. Process that in my case did not work.

Absolute scam of a company. AVOID AVOID AVOID. They WILL try and charge you for previously existent scratches ,which (conveniently enough ) are left off the check list when you pick up the car. They are rude, aggressive and completely unprofessional. If you do not buy their overpriced insurrence at the beginning you will be charged. That is a guarantee. I have never , ever in all my years of renting cars ( all over the world ) encountered such a scam company ( the location itself is very telling - some garbage , off road parking lot behind a petrol station). They were our last option as we left it late to book a car. Absolutely disgusting "company" and behavior. Whilst we are covered by our own insurance so will suffer no monetary loss ( they tried to charge hundreds for scratches that were there before ) They are literally thieves. Disgusting.

They will give you a lower class car and charge you the higher price claiming that the car you booked is not available ( their carpark was full of my chosen model but they said they are all rented). Avoid them and pay a few pounds more per day and get rid of any unpleasant experiences when on holiday.

Consistent behavior with the one described by others in this group. Rented a Dacia Logan from their Cluj office, they aggressively tried to sell their extra insurance, and despite being extra carfefull, when I returned the car this morning they spotted an area on the back side panel that you could only see it under a certain angle and claimed that this was a damage I had caused and charged me 100 Euro administration fee + 200 Euro for the damage. Of course the car had plenty of other damages - never been repaired. Stay away from this company!!!!?

Experience to forget.
     Due to a bank mistake, and the missing deposit of 1400 €, despite having the full protection of 88 € from the site, I had to pay another 300 € for a manual and dirty Skoda octavia breack. Instead of skoda karoq.     
      Indeed, for 200 € they wanted to give me a hunday, where not even the 2 large bags and the stroller were centered.
     The dirty seats, thrown in a box on the ground, and with non-functioning belts. They told us it is not their responsibility to make sure that the seats are functional.
   All this happened at 2 am, with the 2 kids, 2-year-old and the other 4-month-old crying in despair.
    The people in charge were very rude when we complained about how it went. And they said that we should have not accepted the seats, and that we have too many demands.
     At 2am there was only one guy and no manager to talk to so we were forced to accept the terms. And not to lose the 316€ paid on the rentalcars site.
    They took advantage of the situation, and the fact that we had no choice.
I will certainly never rent a car again.    
     Especially Caroutis... very disappointing

All the negative experiences I read here are consistent with my own experience.
I have rented cars many times in many different places, everywhere I was treated very correctly compared to these scammers.
The system of these scammers is childishly simple:
1. They give attractive prices through car rental brokers. (I will never use a broker again, who offer cars from Caroutis, I rented through VIPcars and that will be the first and the last time).
2. First you pay for the car, they almost force you to take their additional insurance. This insurance costs almost as much as the rental of the car. If you do not take their insurance, they become very rude and we had to pay a deposit of 2000 euros for a Dacia Logan.
3. Then they present a pricelist for all possible damages, these amounts are excessively high. Then you know that you will pay an additional substantial amount. Either through their insurance or afterwards through a claim. Since I have a “rental excess car insurance”, I did not take their insurance.
4. Before you sign the rental agreement, you check the car for damages. All their cars have damages, scratches, dents, glass damage. You do your best to note and photograph everything. One of the issues I saw, was a very small dent in a door, you could only see it under a certain angle. This is hardly photographable. The person from Caroutis, Mr Foca Mugur did not want to take note this dent; it is too small he said; don't worry about that.
5. We returned the car, nobody was there. After a phone-call, Mr Marica arrived after more then half an hour. (They know that you have to catch your flight). He suddenly had to make a "privat" phone call with Mr. Mugur before checking the car, remarkable the car itself is hardly looked at. On the other hand, the form on which the damages are noted is extensively studied. Then, without having a carefully look, the person of caroutis suddenly pointed at a small dent on the roof and in the door. The same dent in the door that was not worth to notice at the beginning of the rental period. Dents that you can only notice when you look under a certain angle and that are practical invisible on photo.
6. Finally, after a long and intense discussion I paid 300 euros in exchange for the release of my 2000-euro deposit.
7. Mr. Marica said that they would certainly sent me the invoice for the repair of these issues. Of course, up till now (one month later) I never received anything. They never repair these minor damages. These same dents and other minor damages bring in a lot of easy money. That is their little corrupt gold mine.

Please avoid if you’d like to save yourself from a lot of stress. We’ve arrived at the Cluj airport with our 2 year old daughter. They have tried to sell us their insurance for Euro 480 when we’ve already paid for the car and the full insurance. We have refused to pay the extra 480 so we didn’t get the car.
We had to travel by train instead with lots of luggages and an exhausted toddler.

Rates are cheap, but you have to pay for scatches which were already on the car. They have an agressive policy to contract an insurance with them. You have to pay an enormous amount of money for minor details. It is a scam.... They Will charge the next customer for the same scratch as it is hardly visible. I would recomiendo NOT to hire a car from them on Cluj.

Absolute scam of a company. AVOID AVOID AVOID. They WILL try and charge you for previously existent scratches ,which (conveniently enough ) are left off the check list when you pick up the car. They are rude, aggressive and completely unprofessional. If you do not buy their overpriced insurrence at the beginning you will be charged. That is a guarantee. I have never , ever in all my years of renting cars ( all over the world ) encountered such a scam company ( the location itself is very telling - some garbage , off road parking lot behind a petrol station). They were our last option as we left it late to book a car. Absolutely disgusting "company" and behavior. Whilst we are covered by our own insurance so will suffer no monetary loss ( they tried to charge hundreds for scratches that were there before ,on an absolute banger of a car !!) i absolutely will bring the complaints as far as I possibly can so this complete scam of an operation can be closed down. I have never wrote a review before about any other place ( frankly, cannot be bothered and I just take my business elsewhere) but these guys need to be taken out. They are literally thieves. Disgusting.