Rentadora El Chacal — Attraction in San Miguel de Cozumel

Unpleasant Experience with Car Rental in Cozumel – Rentadora EL Chacal - Charly Lopez

I recently rented two cars from a person named Charly Lopez, who posted car rental information in a Facebook group (see attached picture). The initial communication went smoothly, and I knew that gas costs would be part of the rental agreement. However, since I had never rented cars in Mexico before, I asked Charly about the gas return process. He told me, “I’ll give you the gas full and you can return it full, please.” Based on this, I assumed the cars would be given with a full tank, and I’d return them with a full tank.

When I picked up the cars, neither Charly nor his associate showed me the gas level. The cars looked okay on the outside but were clearly worn down inside, with strange dashboards that made it difficult to tell the fuel level. When I returned the cars, I filled them up at a gas station to a full tank, and it cost me over $50 USD for a small sedan, despite driving only around the island. It was only then that I realized the cars weren’t full when I picked them up.

I told Charly about this upon returning the cars, but he refused to acknowledge what he had said about providing the cars with full tanks. Whether it was an honest mistake or not, his refusal to take responsibility left me feeling tricked and disappointed. While I should have double-checked the gas level before driving off, his lack of accountability makes me reluctant to rent from him again.

There were also other issues:

Manual Transmission: Charly never mentioned that the cars were manual transmission. Fortunately, I had read online that cars in Mexico can sometimes be stick shift, so I asked him. Luckily, I knew how to drive them, but not everyone may be prepared for that.

Carlos & Charlie’s Resort Misrepresentation: Charly gave us tickets to a resort called Carlos & Charlie’s, claiming that by booking through him, we’d get free access to chairs and umbrellas. I confirmed with him that it was free to use the chairs with no additional obligations. However, when we arrived, the waiter told us we had to buy something to use the chairs. The food and drink prices were exorbitant, and the resort’s water was poor quality.

After our trip, I looked up his company,Rentadora EL Chacal , and found that it has a 2.8-star rating on Google with many other reviews describing similar experiences of being scammed.

I don’t typically post negative reviews, but I hope sharing this will help others avoid a...

NEVER RENT FROM EL CHACAL RENTADORA We are experienced travelers, 20 years + to Cozumel, and now know NEVER to rent from El Chacal in Cozumel:

We rented for 11 days and on the 7th day “someone” from El Chacal unlocked our rented March nissan on the Malycon and took it away. We were only in the store “Lolas” for 10 minutes. We come out of the store and the car is GONE!

A very nice tourista policia woman helped us…after several hours El Chacal brought our car back.

MAIN POINT: The men/man did not have the right to unlock the car and take it away with our belongings in it. El Chacal “man” said our car was in danger of getting a ticket because you must park 10 meters away from a cross walk however this was just a lie he told the police as we were parked in a legitimate parking spot when they ‘stole’ our car with all our belongings in it. It then took the police several hours to recover our rental back from Rentadora El Chacal who were incredibly rude to us throughout the ordeal which was mind boggling as they were the ones who absconded with our car illegally.

The officer recommended we get another rental car from another company. We learned from our hotel staff that El Chacal can be translated as a wild dog (like a hyena) … an ever smiling trickster. I did tell them ( the “company” that i would write this negative review. Plus this incident used up a 1/2 day of...

I have never ever been so mistreated in my whole life. We rented a scooter. When we bought back the scooter no one was at the shop we had to call and wait half an hour for a short chubby man to show up, he was aggressive straight away about the fact we had returned the scooter with half a tank of fuel (this was the first time this was mentioned and not in the paperwork) We had plenty of time to go get fuel as we had returned it early, but that was not what the he wanted, he wanted to keep our 1000 pesos deposit. he started to be very rude trying to make us to lose our temper so he would have a reason to simply close the door and keep the money. he called us drunk, made reference for the fact I was a woman (I was the driver) made fun of my Spanish accent ( it is not my first language) said we had no money that is why we were complaining, he tried to take our copy of the paperwork off of us. Unfortunately for him I ( the driver ) never drink and I have the time to spare I called police and only then we could have a civil conversation. 2hs later I managed to leave the office with my deposit and according to the police office that was the second time that week he was called to this place for the same reason. They should be closed the least. And that man should not be working with human being.I still don’t know why I...