Vega Rent a Car - Athens — Local services in Athens

I don't usually write bad reviews so I will try to do this the clearest way possible so nobody get scammed like I was. I know this is long but please take the time to read all the way to the end before booking with them.

I was looking at renting a car for 11 days in Greece. Since I am 21 years old, car rental companies tend to have certain policies. I contacted Vega in late January (before making the reservation) to make sure it was fine with them (you can look at the screenshot numbered "1" to see my message.) My question was about if I could rent a car with a driver's license less than 1 year old. Implicitly telling them I'm 21.

They answered (screenshot number 2) " It is possible to rent and drive a small car category even if you don't have your driver's license for more than a year".

Few weeks later, I'm doubting the information they gave me + I have another question so I ask them, specifying I'm 21 and have a license less than 1 year old so they could correct me. You can look the screenshots for my question and their answer.

So I feel like asking 2 times was enough and I decide to make my reservation, this includes a payment of 112.21€ and the rest is paid later when I bring back the car. I make the payment + I send them a picture of my driver's license and my passport. So they have my age information for a 3rd time. They tell me "thank you we don't need anything else the reservation is completed".

On March 20th I'm now in Athens and I go to their office ready to get my car. When I arrive in the building something looks off, I still can't explain why but it looks like they weren't expecting me and they are weirdly looking at me.

They ask if I have a reservation and I show them. I give them my license and they tell me "It is not possible because you are 21". I show them the mails and they speak in Greek for a few minutes before calling me back at the counter. They say "it is not possible because your driver's license is less than 1 year old". They say there was a mistake and the person who answered me by mail didn't say the correct thing.

So to put back in context I'm now in Athens and all my travel plans rely on that car that they don't want to rent me. I understand mistakes can happen, there are policies they have to respect. So even though I just lost a lot of money I get it but this is not why I'm giving a bad review.

Please let me tell you about their unprofessionalism.

I ask them "will I get a refund", they answer " of course you will get a refund we are really sorry about this" . Since I made the payment with a guest paypal account I show them an address they can refund, they say , "we will contact you by whatsapp when the payment is made". Then I left.

I know I should've stayed until they refunded the money.

So five days later (March 25th) I contact them because I don't have any news about that refund. (see screenshot 3). They tell me they need 1 day since 25th is National Holiday. 2 days later (March 27th) I contact them again, no answer. So I send them a mail, maybe there is a problem with whatsapp, no answer. Yesterday (March 29th) I contact them AGAIN by mail AND whatsapp, no answer on both (They've been reading my messages everytime).

So I'm writing this review as a last resort. I'm also putting a screenshot of the bill with the amount they owe me (number 4). I understand their policies for the age even if I think this is rather unprofessional to tell me the wrong thing 2 times I get it. What I'm highlighting is the unprofessionalism, they owe me money and are avoiding me, not answering my messages. I'm not from Greece I don't know about rules and policies but I'm pretty something like that is not legal.

They ruined my trip, made me lose a lot of money and don't even bother to try and make up for their mistakeS.

UPDATE : they did end up getting back to me and I got my refund a bit more than 1 week later so I added 1 star. They were nicer this time and answered faster. If I had a service like that the whole time I would've definitely...

Terrible experience renting from Vega in Athens. I read the reviews before using this company and given their rating, I moved forward with booking. I made our reservation in advance, received written confirmation with all of the correct details and they still managed to screw everything up. The appeal of using Vega was that they promised to bring the car right to the exit door at Athens International Airport, so that we could leave moments after picking up our luggage. I'm a native speaker so I called prior to arrival to confirm and spoke to the owner, George, who assured me that they make everything easy. Elena and I spoke the day prior via WhatsApp and she gave me a number to call when we arrive and said the car would be there within 10 minutes of calling. Much to our disappointment after 15 hours of travel (10 of them on a plane) and very long travel day ahead, they didn't even have our car in their lot when I called to say we arrived. I was told that the person who rented the car before me, hadn't returned it. Someone from the office eventually came to get us and brought us to a rest area where we proceeded to wait almost 40 minutes in the car on a 95 degree day with a very tired toddler (!!) so that the owner could meet us with another car. On our reservation we requested a child car seat and they forgot that too! So now we had to be taken further into Athens so that the owner of the business could provide a car seat because apparently only the employee who picked us up had the key to the closet where the seats are stored. The car we received had less than a 1/4 tank of gas and was filthy on the outside. I lost it. We arrived at 8:30am in Athens and didn't get our car until 10:30am and still had another 3 hour commute in front of us. They ruined our entire first day because they cost us so much time and stress that when we got to our destination, we were absolutely exhausted. We decided to return the car 2 days early because we knew they would cause us problems if they promised to meet us at the airport on the day we were leaving. When we requested the early pickup they had the audacity to tell me I would be charged $15 euro for the pickup (which I refused to pay) and that they would not credit us the 2 days. Once I said that I would be sure to "write about this" the owner reached out to see how he could make things right and for the first time, apologized. He would have never made the call had I not threatened to write a bad review which is why I'm still moving forward with the review. He ultimately gave us credit for one day but it was too little too late. He did it out of desperation so that his terrible business practices wouldn't be exploited. Terrible way to treat people. Do not use this company unless you...

I rented an Opel Corsa - Compact Diesel Automatic, twice during our stay in Athens in July-August 2019. Booked the car online and received confirmation immediately and was requested to send copies of the IDL and passport. Also made a deposit payment online using PayPal. The reservation of the car was smooth. I picked up the first car from the Athens office early (for an additional charge) and it was to be dropped off at Piraeus. The car was handed to us on an empty fuel tank which was annoying because as a tourist I wanted to get on my way instead of looking for a gas station in Athens. After our 3day drive the car was suppose to be returned at Piraeus but I was requested to drive to the Athens office to drop off the car, and I was driven back the hotel in Piraeus by a Vega staff member. The AC was not working intermittently and I notified about this to the office as I had another reservation in a couple of days. One thing to note is that Vega does not have multiple offices in Athens but arrange for personnel to pick up the car from different locations when needed. The second car I rented was the same as above and was brought to my hotel in Piraeus for an additional charge (again almost empty fuel tank) and I wanted to return the car at the airport. Even upon informing about the AC not working after the first trip we were given the same car the second time around and the AC was not repaired. Driving in the summer without an AC will be one experience we will not want to repeat. I chose Vega because I wanted to support a small local business but on hindsight I don't think they are equipped to handle such an operation and to provide the necessary support specially during a breakdown. As the AC was not working for most part of my journey in both instances when I rented the car, I requested for a refund. After some to and fro emails some money was refunded by Vega which I appreciated. Overall it was not easy dealing with Vega. The cars provided were old and unclean. I would not recommend Vega for car rentals for...