Besides the Obvious

Recently we got the worst experience with a car rental company. Therefore we decided to share this case with all our readers, why never rent a car at Klass Wagen. In order that you can avoid them and the same mistakes we have done. Klass Wagen is located in some other countries as well, but we are talking about now the Budapest branch.

We know that renting a car is always challenging, and we have seen many, but many tricks during our travels. Here you can read our comprehensive review about car rental companies. But the behaviour and customer service this time was really at the bottom of the bottom.

Facts

• We fly to Hungary very often due to my family is based there, in the countryside. Hence we always rent a car that we can pick up at the airport.
• We always use rentalcars.com to check the best prices and rent via the application.
• Overall to rent a car in Budapest airport is way more expensive than in many other capitals. Hence we always tried to choose the most economic option for us.
• Majority of the times we have chosen to rent the car from Klass Wagen, as they had the best prices (seemingly!) on the market.
• We never needed a special car, with any special features.
• The purpose of our car rental was always just to visit my family. By using normal roads to get there & normal roads to get back to the airport. By parking the car in a residential and safe neighbourhood.
• This was at least the 5th or 6th time that we rented a car from Klass Wagen. And this was the last time for sure.

Why never rent a car at Klass Wagen?

The answer is simple: because of their recent business model.

Once you arrive to their office, you will have two options. To take their full insurance or don’t take their full insurance. If you take it, you will be the best client, who is served the best way, and who gets the best car. If you don’t take their full insurance, they will treat you like they couldn’t care less.

Take their full insurance – after they receive their commission

• If you choose their full insurance, you will be informed that within the quote you will get: 24 hours full assistance by phone & the high-way tolls are covered. The quote depends on the number of days, the car you picked, and most likely the profit they still miss this month. There is not a chart to calculate it, it is just written on a little post-it, that today this would be the price of full insurance.
• If you don’t have external insurance coverage, maybe you would say it’s even worth it. And indeed, if you don’t have external insurance coverage, definitely go for this option. Otherwise you will regret the denial once you return the car and you face the additional costs you need to pay.
• This is the option after they receive their commission. So this is the option that they will try to sell to you so-so hard, that it’s really uncomfortable and so obvious.

Don’t take their full insurance – so they receive zero commission

• If you don’t need the company’s full insurance package. Then of course they will ask you “why?” And normally you can give the answer “because we have an external insurance coverage”. This answer normally is enough for many car rental companies. Here no.
• Even though you were offered by two options in the beginning, suddenly it feels that there is only one winning option, and you shouldn’t go without their full insurance.
• Suddenly you need to pay extra for the high-way for the same car – that previously was covered.
• They will keep asking which external insurance company you use, but you are not obliged to name it.

What we experienced after not taking their full insurance

• After that we (reoccurring customers) received a visibly & hearably damaged car with clear engine problems. Later, during our trip the dashboard was even showing error codes, and we had a limited engine capacity for a period.
• Once we took over the car, the sales person let us guess where the damages were and not helping, nor showing where they could be. We needed to screen the entire vehicle by ourselves, and spot or guess where the scratches, damages could be. The sales person was just standing there, and openly admitting that this is part of their business model, as none of the customers will be able to spot all the scratches of the car that is marked on the company papers. So they can charge for that later.
• Once we brought back the car to their office, they found some new scratches on the car. We took pictures before we took over the car, and the same scratches were already visible on the pictures.
• The salesperson said, meaning lied to our faces that he cannot see the scratches on the pictures. So he need to charge for them.
• The same salesperson also refused to speak in Hungarian language in Hungary with a Hungarian person.

More reviews by others about Klass Wagen

We can read many bad reviews about Klass Wagen on internet. Many unpleasant stories. We have just made a selection from the “best” ones. All reviews are open to public and accessable at Google reviews.

The idea of a Blacklist

We hope that you will be able to avoid this company. Even though their prices are always the lowest, you will need to pay much more in the end, thanks to their business model. If you had the same experience with this company or any other car rental company, please share it with us in the comment section. We would like to create a Blacklist for travel / renting companies to avoid – to help our community further.

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