Sixt Hire Cars in Paris

I had a flat tyre, no spare, my wife and I were stranded, I called assistance several times before getting through to someone who spoke english, the car was towed away after we had a friend rescue us taking two hours of driving. I called to get a replacement car over two full days and a total of 26, yes twenty six phone calls, promises of a replacement car, promises of a taxi, hour and hours wasted and my holiday ruined. Eventually after waiting in the hot sun for an hour and a half and a further three phone calls a taxi arrived and drove me for one hour to the replacement car. I began this final journey at 2pm in the afternoon and didn’t arrive back at our accommodation until 7pm. The replacement car was smaller than the original so in effect a downgrade. This is by far the WORST service I have ever experience at any time in my life. Outsourcing your support, no spare tyre may be financially advantageous for you but for your customers thus is an absolute and unmitigated disaster, it is literally insane that I had to make so many phone calls, wast so much of my time when in 10 minutes I could have changed the tyre. The assistance service is a complete circus and places your customers a huge distress and inconvenience, its almost unbelievable how bad this experience was. I have run my own business for more than 20 years, I don’t know how your corporate team can make such poor decisions about service, it is a complete and unmitigated disaster.

Appalling service and appalling company to deal with. I’ve rented cars from many different locations, and I’ve never ever dealt with such horrendous customer service. The original man serving me at pick up swindled me into a different car which was €300+ more expensive than the car I originally booked - deeming my original choice as “insufficient”. Upon driving on a highway in Paris (130km) the car came up with a warning about the tyres - when I stopped at the nearest service station to check the tyre pressure MULTIPLE tyres were close to flat.. Incredibly unsafe and should have been checked before letting someone take the car. The car itself wasn’t that tidy - with crumbs and dirt on the inside on collection. When trying to contact customer service via phone, I spent over 2 hours being hung up on and talking to multiple different people and receiving multiple different answers. The customer service team were trying to reach the rental location - during business hours for that specific branch - and were unable to contact them. So I’d continuously be hung up on instead of receiving any help whatsoever. The final man I spoke to told me there wasn’t anything he could do - and when I questioned him on whether that was appropriate customer service he retorted with “that’s not what I said” - yet he’d said it to me multiple times. When asking to speak to a manager or supervisor I was advised “that’s not going to happen”. I asked what time the supervisors would be in “I’m not telling you that because you aren’t able to speak to them anyway”. I then drove to the original location, just to be told that “yes of course I can return the car to a different location, it’s just €99..” which then became €140 because apparently it isn’t a set fee - “some days it may be €0, and some days it’s €180”… I’ve never ever ever had an experience of a rental company simply deciding on the day what they would charge for the different location drop off fee. All in all, the rental for 6 days ended up costing €800+ which is a far cry from the €349 (approx) I was quoted originally when booking… Absolutely shocking. The whole company are complete scammers and rip off artists who have no interest in providing any level of customer service.. they simply want to take your money and be done with it. I would never rent a car with these people again, and I will be letting everyone I know who is travelling abroad to avoid these people like the plague. Absolutely appalling service, I’ve already sent a formal complaint to their offices regarding everything because this is a disgusting way to treat paying clients.

The Sixt staff member in Paris was great assisting us in a last minute car rental to Bordeaux recommending the right car which was excellent. We experienced the same friendly and quality service when we returned the car.