Buchbinder

AVOID BUCHBINDER but if you do rent from Buchbinder TAKE MANY PICTURES!
I always take around 25 pictures BEFORE I get into any rental car and drive it off the lot. I do that with any car company in any country.
In April 2015 I rented a car from Buchbinder at FRA airport and after I returned the car they charged me around 1000 Euro around $ 1,400 at the time.
The pictures they sent me showed damage which can be seen on my pictures at time of pickup. In other words, they tried to make me pay for old damaged that I did not cause.
They gave me an immediate refund after I emailed my pictures to Buchbinder.
I will never again rent from BUCHBINDER. I would rather walk or ride a bicycle.

About 4 months ago, I booked a car through
. I found a minivan for only 339 $ for 13 days. Yesterday, my husband read the
reviews on Buchbinder, the car company we were to use, the rating was only 1.5 stars and over 50 reviews. All complained of the exact same thing. Apparently, you can only use a gold/​platinum Mastercard or Canadian Visa Card. Only these cards are accepted for their rental car insurance.
After reading all these poor reviews, I decided to call
to cancel my reservation. I spoke to Robert there who decided to attempt to reconcile this. He called Buchbinder for me and spoke to «Outay Garaboski» who stated as long as we bring in a credit card that had raised numbers and name, it would be accepted. I specifically said we will bring in a Chase Sapphire preferred Visa card and he said it would be accepted as long the numbers and letters are raised which they are.
My husband went to Buchbinder today to pick up our minivan and they refused to accept his card! When my husband stated we called and talked to Outay Garaboski yesterday who said it would be fine, their representative stated there’s no one of that name! They refused to let us rent the vehicle period!
Don’t let the low prices fool you. Find another company and DON’T use
. They refused to help me find another vehicle. In fact, they told me to walk around the Frankfurt terminal and find another car rental company who would take my credit card!
I don’t know how this company stays in business!

This is a SCAM!
I reserved an Audi A3 or similar and received a Skoda that was extremely unsafe and was nowhere close to the car I paid for. This car felt unstable on the road, it was shaking when I slowed down and it was also shaking when I drove it faster than 110 km/​h. I had to drive it in heavy rain and had to go very slow to avoid putting my family at risk. The car seats were also very uncomfortable.
I called the company and they said they would get back to me but they never did.
With the car, I also rented a navigation system. I was given a TomTom GPS navigator that did not always work, had maps that were 59 months old, and got us lost in several occasions. I have pictures of the GPS displaying a warning message to update the 59 year-​old maps. I also have a video of me and my family getting lost in the german countryside and the GPS not knowing where we are. We had to buy a map and give up on the TomTom, wasting a lot of time.
When I returned the car nobody was willing to help me.
This was without any doubts my worst rental car and customer service experience. In the civilized world this is called scam, or fraud.

Unilocal’s rating system really should allow negative values.
I am yet another victim of Buchbinder’s insurance scam.
And, they tried to charge me 26.24 Euros for refueling a full gas tank. (Mastercard reversed the refueling charge after I disputed it, which is very easy on their Web site.)
Oh yeah — they wouldn’t accept my Citi Double Cash M/​C card, but they accepted my Universal M/​C card (which is administered by Citi).

Extreme rudeness and ripoff at Buchbinder! Stay away!
Extremely rude manager at the front desk at Buchbinder in Cologne airport
made 3 hours of our vacation time near to unbearable. All the way we were proceeding with taking a car from him was a nightmare because of his rudeness and contempt.
He started from rolling his eyes and sighing heavily in respond to our «Hello». It made us feel like we were the reason of all his troubles. Then he tried to cheat with charging us extra money for one way trip which had been already payed. Just after we insisted twice on double checking he agreed not to charge for this. He was obviously not right but never apologized.
On my question which car he was going to give us, he simply told us «wait» and didn’t announced it until he gave the key. It turned out that we’ve got Skoda Octavia which is 1 meter longer than ordered VW Golf and thus was not convenient at all. He answered cynically that «Skoda is also made by VW» — what a nice joke!
The worst thing happened later — Buchbinder’s navigation system Tom Tom didn’t work properly. He didn’t tell a word about the specific of those navigators — they take about 5 kilometers of driving don’t-know-where away from airport to start receiving GPS signal — very unexpectedly and not very much comfortably.
So we just could not move on as we didn’t have a map, we just made a circle around parking lot and came back. When I came to the desk asking to change the navigation he became angry and tried just to get rid of me — no sorry, no care, no help. He chucked another navigator at me.
Then the story repeated — we made wider circle around airport and it didn’t turn on so we had to park somewhere and run another kilometer by foot to change it once again. When he saw me for the second time he became absolutely furious and gave the 3^rd one with usb port which at the end didn’t work in a car (we tested it on Iphone — no connection).
The battery got off and I made my 3^rd kilometer to the Bunchbinder desk to change. No sorry, no concern — instead he burst out shouting at me that «you couldn’t pay for a car with built-​in navigation, what do you want from me!!» ©. What a tolerance, what a customer oriented approach, what a service! Why should I spend 3 hours of my time being abased and sorted out navigation fails? Which became my own problem.
Finally we just got it and made our way to nowhere, after 5 km driving in opposite direction it found a satellite.
When return a car remember that you will have to drop a navigation to another Buchbinder office in airport — you must carry it to arrivals which is very inconvenient because you actually need departures.
Do not use it!!!

I hope I can give negative 5 for this company. I rent a car from this company twice this year.
First in March at Vienna, when I return the car I add gas to this car, but it is a Diesel engine car, all customers from US need to pay special attention on this since not many this kind car in US. One gentleman helped me to call rental car company, and they sent a driver to help me, since this gas station is less than 200 meter away from rental car return, the driver told me it is okay to drive this short distance, and he drove car to there, and he told me it just need pull all gas out and refill it with Diesel, it will cost me 50 Euro for this, and I went to rental car center and report this accident to them, they said it is most likely and I will pay 50 Euro in future, but the very small chance that engine may be damaged, then I need to pay more, I told them your driver said it is okay to drive this car with short distance even with gas fuel inside. They agreed and said it will be 50 Euro only for bill me. One month late my credit card was charged $ 3125 from this company without any notice. I call my credit company right away, and let them to investigate this, I was told engine was damaged and the cost for repair is $ 3125. And my visa company don’t want help me to stop this payment.
Second time is 3 week ago at Munich, I booked my car from
and rental car company is Dollar, and I also paid insurance when I booked online, when I arrived Munich, I went to rental car center, and find out Dollar, Thrifty and Buchbinder share same counter, I started having bad feeling, when in my turn, I told them my name, and they quickly find out my reservation, and told me the base price is 144 Euro instead of $ 144 which I got from
, and told me the insurance I bought from
is not work in Germany. So I paid full insurance on this car which cost me 376.59 Euro, insurance has 600 Euro deductions. They also charged my insurance deduction at same time. When I return car, they checked very carefully, and find a tiny dent on front window, it is imposable for anybody to see it if you don’t look at that spot within 5 inches, my wife used her finger nail almost removed that dent. Today I find out this company just refund me $ 105 for that 600 Euro insurance deductible.
Stay away this Buchbinder rental car company, and Dollar and Thrifty if you need rent a car in Europe.

While it sounds like other people have had problems here, I had minimal issues. I booked through another provider online, and the car Thrifty gave me was a little bit larger than what I expected, but it sounds like that is more an issue of the site I booked it on than anything else.
The reason for the four star rating instead of five: the deposit was HUGE because I refused the insurance they offered (about $ 1300 USD) and stated that it would be covered by my credit card. I got this entire deposit back no problem, BUT be aware that this probably WILL happen if you refuse insurance. Also, the line at the rental counter was not very long (maybe 10 people MAX) but it took over an hour and a half for the two desk clerks to finally get to us. I realize it can take a bit, but it averaged to about 15mins per transaction. Ridiculous! Especially after a twelve hour flight.

I also wish I had seen these reviews before I rented my car from (Thrifty) Buchbinder in August 2014.
The agent told me that my United VISA card’s insurance was not acceptable. I rented through a broker (Auto Europe) and I specifically checked the coverage prior to booking. I had the rental agreement with me – there was no disclosure from the broker that a «letter» would also be necessary. Despite my protests, the agent would not release the car to me prior to my «accepting» the Thrifty coverage. I would gladly have walked across the hall and rented from another company, but since I went through a broker, I was faced with risking the entire pre-​paid rental fee by walking away. Was charged 164 Euros for the insurance and a 600 Euro deposit.
The agent seemed practiced, as though she has done this before many times to unsuspecting travelers. Now like the others, am faced with disputing the charges.
I will never rent through Thrifty or Dollar again — ever and anywhere. For Germany, I will use SIXT next time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t read the reviews. Buchbinder is Dollar Rental if you book through Orbitz, so make sure to avoid Dollar in Germany. It’s a complete rip-​off and the customer service agent was rude — not just arrogant and cold, but Fawlty Towers-​style rude.

Note that there is only 1 positive review from 2 years ago, everybody else complains! I wish I had checked on Unilocal before renting a car from Buchbinder at Frankfurt Airport.
VERY IMPORTANT: if you return the car and get accused of damage DO NOT SIGN DAMAGE REPORT! Do not fill out the bottom part defending yourself! Just ask for copy so you can dispute any future charges with your credit card company. Do not let them intimidate you because they’re good at that!
I rented a car from July 18^th to the 28^th through
, they charged my Visa and I got confirmation and voucher from AutoEurop with instructions to pick it up at a third company, Buchbinder.
International flights arrive at Terminal 1 so you have to drag your luggage to a shuttle to Terminal 2. It’s a very small, very BUSY terminal with one hard to find, tiny sign for rental cars. I had reserved a car in the «Oberklasse» which was supposed to be a 3 series BMW manual or similar. Similar to me means Audi, Mercedes, maybe even VW. No, they had an Opel Wagon. So the hassle began and I kept looking at the TV screen in the back where it said «Marhaba», Arabic for «Welcome».
Opel is a crappy GM car that is NOT similar to BMW! But the «nice» guy offered me the 3 series BMW alas automatic which is, surprise, 10 Euro/​day more. And it had GPS which is also 10 Euro/​day more but he made me a «deal» where he would not turn off GPS (is that even possible??) and would charge me only 10 Euro/​day for both. Heck with it, I was tired from a 12 hour flight from SF, spending almost 1 hour to get a key for a darn car, so I went for it. But wait, now he has to reserve 1000 Euro on my Visa as a security deposit and I have to sign the slip. Major alarm bells going off!!! I had prepaid the car so I had no choice.
I finally got to the car, dark blue BMW, it was dirty, garage wasn’t lit that well, I walked around the car didn’t notice any major damage (I.e. Larger than a dollar bill, as is customary in the US) and took off.
Upon my return, every centimeter of the car was checked! Scuff marks on rear bumper, scratch on right side, dented scratch on left side, both less than 1 inch and of course no record in their system of this being an existing damage.
I’m used to driving a 2013 MB 550 SL at home, believe me, I have cautious parking down to a science, I’m used to always park away from other cars and there is no way that those were new scratches!!! The car was parked most of the time in an underground parking garage between 2 huge pillars, no car couldn’t even get close enough to slam a door into my car. At no time at all was there ever a car parked next to me, because I parked either parallel to the curb or far away from everybody when I had to take it out of the garage.
A few days later there was that 1000 Euro charge on my Visa and an email from a fourth company, Terstappen, about additional charges. It wasn’t clear exactly what they were charging for, so I sent a reply to please explain it. Have not heard from them. I did get a partial refund but they still owe me $ 429. Now I hope my credit card company can help me and get an explanation from them.
From reading all the comments it seems to me that this is a very crooked company that operates under Thrifty/​Dollar Germany. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company!
I think that in the end I’ll probably end up paying more than if I had rented from Hertz with my AAA discount.

Total RIPOFF in so many ways!
First, we showed up at the desk at Frankfurt with a 10-​day economy-​car reservation that had already been paid via Travelocity only to learn that Buchbinder decided to charge us an extra $ 350 USD (!!!) for insurance AND required a $ 500 USD deposit.
We paid for full coverage, because we were told by many sources that German rental-​car companies were particularly fraudulent. Two days into our trip, a faulty tire went flat, and the vehicle had no spare tire, no jack, no tire-​iron. Nothing. We called Buchbinder – which took an eternity – and they assured us they’d call us right back to tell us what to do next. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. And then called Buchbinder again only to learn that they had closed for the night. Fortunately Germany’s public system of highway-​repair personnel are fantastic; eventually they came along and helped us out. So we were towed after several hours, and then we were finally given a new vehicle.
When we returned the new vehicle to Frankfurt, we’d since misplaced the initial damage inspection paperwork. When we told the staff this, they IMMEDIATELY found «two previously unreported scratches» on the vehicle despite not having the damage report on the vehicle, which was issued to us in Nuremberg. (Very suspicious and almost certainly opportunistic fraud.) The «new scratches» theory was total BS, by the way – the vehicle was pristine. Now, remember, we paid for FULL insurance coverage. When I reminded the clerk of this, she politely told me that I was right: since we paid full, we’d be reimbursed no matter what, but it might take her a few hours, so I should just go ahead and get on my plane and leave the country.
Well, more BS from Buchbinder. It’s been a week and I still have not received my $ 500 USD deposit reimbursement, nor have I heard back from Buchbinder’s staff despite repeated attempts to contact them.
AVOID this company, even if it means paying a bit more. You’ll be glad you did. It was by far the WORST car-​rental experience I’ve ever had.

Is there a lower than 1 star rating?
Unfortunately I did not read these reviews nor all the fineprint on Dollar’s webpage when I made my reservation. I have rented from them many times in the US and there they are a decent operation. But my experience in Frankfurt was the same as most of the others: no accepting my Visa Signature Insurance coverage and insisting of buying winter tires while the temps outside where lovely 25C.
Their practices are very well known by the other car rental companies who are getting many of their disgruntled clients, unless they have prepaid and are really out of options. Fortunately I only reserved and did not prepay, so I could walk away from my Euro138.– deal for a VW Golf for one week that would have cost me at the end close to Euro 500. – . Sixt was sold out but told me how awful they feel for all the clients day by day getting screwed by Dollar. Enterprise, who also confirmed the fraudulent activities by Dollar/​Thrifty/​Buchbinder, did had a car for me and lucky me, I ended up only with double the cost for a small car (VW Polo instead of VW Golf). But I must say, Enterprise did try hard to find something reasonable for me and gave me a rate, normally not used with walk-​ups.
Like the other comments on this side: Do yourself a favor and take ANY other Car rental company besides DOLLAR/​THRIFTY/​BUCHBINDER to avoid any disappointments and much higher cost that you have anticipated.
I did contact Dollar directly about my experiences, but after reading these comments, there is no way, they are not aware about the dealings of their German agency (they are not running it themselves but using a fulfilling agent). So I do not expect any meaningful answer. They have lost me for good as a customer for all my US travels (I am going back and forth between my residency in Ecuador and my home and company in Florida).
I will contact Capital One, the issuer of my Visa Signature card I am using for all my travels year round. I will make them aware about the discrimination of VISA card holders by the company DOLLAR (yes, they are using an agent but I still feel Dollar is fully responsible for what is going on in Germany).
Let’s just hope, this little shack in Terminal 2 that houses Dollar/​Thrifty/​Buchbinder will disappear as more and more potential clients are avoiding this scam, and it will dry up their business.

I realize so many people have shared their story about how awful this company (budget /​buchbinder rent a car) really is. Same insurance and tire scam happened to me in the Frankfurt airport and of course not knowing about the insurance I said ok to their lower deductible even though I had a credit card with insurance included.
After returning the car for a total of two days a scratch no more then half an inch across was located by the inspector upon return. He said that he had to mark it down because his boss was after him and he would be fired if he did not. BS… this is a scam to make more money off of you.
So the company takes my full deposit as my insurance had 600EUR deductible and of course Visa insurance we are not paying because you agreed to their insurance.
I finally tell capital one I am not paying this and they refund my ridiculous charge. now two months later I get a mail from Budget saying I still owe 600 Eur and please pay immediately.
Does any one know of a class action lawsuit against this company as I would really like to get involved?
DO NOT USE this company. Use Sixt or EuropeCar.

Ripoff!
booked a car in Germany through the Thrifty site, and when we got there the name was Terstappen, and they had a laminated notice that you HAD to have at least $ 75k USD coverage or buy their insurance (our cc only covered $ 50k), and I searched for this info before the trip & even contacted Thrifty, but was never given this info which is clearly a ruse to force you to buy their expensive insurance. Oh and I did have the letter stating our coverage as $ 50k & was told that was not enough, so why is this infomation not available clearly presented? No, it is hidden so you don’t know until you arrive tired & already having paid for the car.
Never again, will always use Sixt if renting in Germany.
google terstappen & see all the warnings!
oh & they tried to make use fill a claim on a mark where the suitcase rubber left a smudge on the bumper! I flatly & calmly refused. Clearly a scam to make money off the insurance company.

DO NOT RENT FROM this place. I wish there was a lower rating that I could give. Everything the other reviews state is true! Bait and switch and they didn’t honor proof of coverage. They rely of the fact that you are tired, need to get to your final destination and that you will pay the extra because an on the spot rental with another company would be even more expensive. They also gave us a vehicle that was unsafe (bad brakes) which of course means returning the vehicle. Pay the extra for Enterprise or Hertz. It will cost less in the end. I didn’t think Dollar could get any worse than in the US, but I was wrong. This place is unbelievable!

Scumbags.
Extra $ 19/​day for insurance (unless you have a MasterCard gold or platinum WITH a letter stating that they will cover the car). Utter crap bait and switch. Of course, we were too exhausted from the flight with a crying baby, to find another car. Evil, horrible company. Do not rent from them.
Also, they are ONLY in Terminal 2 (which is a LONG way away from any US arrivals).

Frankfurt Airport Thrifty car rental is a scam.
They quote the lowest price on several third party websites (http://arguscarrentals.c…) but then require an extra payment, typically for CDW insurance even though you have your own coverage, or maybe winter tires. They can be quite nasty if you object, and if you’ve already put down a deposit you are trapped.
While at the return counter, there were ongoing disputes over damage charges on returned cars, I suspect they charge for the same small scratch over and over, if the renter does not notice it at pick-​up. Pickup area poorly lit, return area brightly lit.
There are other renters there, pay an extra couple of Euros, or better yet, take the train into town and avoid the mandatory Airport surcharge. Frankfurt is a great city.

I did my due diligence, researched rules and came prepared with two letters, one from Mastercard, another from Visa. They didn’t take Visa’s letter but took Mastercards letter and truly waived insurance fees to my great relief. We were promised Ford Mondeo Estate (name for Station Wagon) or similar but got Seat Altea XL which fit us well.
Desk and garage staff were nice to us and our kids. Wanted to pump up the rating seeing all are upset about being refused just their card with no letter. They are a discounter and have some probably hard to explain rules dictated probably by they lawyers… Desk people aren’t at fault by demanding what their procedure says. All, bring letters from your Mastercard and you’ll be good.
Car served us well for France-​Lux-​Belgium-​NL-​Germany long roadtrip.

Seriously… I wish I read the reviews before booking with Thrifty/​Dollar which is run by Rent Terstappen.
I landed xmas morning and went to the rental counter of Thrifty/​Dollar which was being operated by Rent Terstappen, the line was fairly decent so I waited for about an hour. Upon being helped I was asked whether I would like no deductible insurance for 23 euros a day or 16 Euro insurance with a 600 deductible. The following conversation took place :
Me: «No thank you, I don’t need insurance as my AMEX covers me in Europe»
Teller: «We do not accept AMEX Insurance, only VISA/​MC»
Me: «Ok fine, here is my HSBC MC» (It is an HSBC Premier card)
Teller: «We only accept the insurance if there is a written letter stating that the person is insured in Europe, it’s stated in the fine print of the contract»
Me: «So let me get this, you don’t accept insurance from AMEX, the biggest credit card company in the world, but you still take their card? And you will accept insurance from VISA or MC, but only if there is a written letter stating the person is insured?»
Teller: «Correct»
Me: «Is this like your little trick to get more money off people?»
Teller: «It’s not a trick sir, if you read the fine print it is in there.»
Me: «Miss, the fine print IS a trick. If you tell someone what their cost would be, then in the fine print say it will be additional, that is a trick.»
Teller: «Sir, you are more than welcome to go somewhere else»
(knowing that I was not sure of the rates nor availability of the other locations, plus I’ve already waited an hour,).
Me: «Fine.»
Teller: «It is also German law that anything under 7 degrees Celsius be required to have a Snow Tyre fee of 13 Euros per day»
Me: «Let me guess, in the fine print?»
Teller: «Yes sir»
Me: «Fantastic»
I was then charged a 600 Euro amount instead of actually a hold being placed for a security deposit, which screwed with my exchange rate.
The insurance thing is complete bullshit. And the Tyre thing I have no idea if it is a law or not, but I was NEVER given snow tyres. I had standard issue Goodyear Performance ZR16 tires on the BMW I rented. NOTHING was snow tire about them… they were tread patterns made to whip around the autobahn. So if it’s law, fine, but I’m not paying for something I was never given. Maybe their terrible company put in the fine print that you also needed to ASK for the tyres after paying for them.
Mech Issue #1: The check engine light came on and I found out there was no oil in the car. I know this sounds weird, but you need to have oil in the damn car for it to operate. There’s no manual in the car so I take a few minutes to try to figure out if there is any special oil that needs to be included… all the oil cap says is «BMW recommends Castrol»…awesome, cause that helps. I finally decide that it’s probably standard synthetic and go in to purchase oil. After comparing a few I find one is Diesel and one must be not diesel. I purchase that one for a lovely 17 euros and fill that car up.
Vehicle Maintenance Issue #2: Still worried I put the wrong oil in, sure enough the check engine light comes on again but this time its RED instead of YELLOW. which means bad news. So now I’m scared shitless of the car seizing up (for the second time) because I put the wrong oil in. While driving in a slight panic I am still able to figure out how to give me a code on the computer and it says CC-​ID 63… cause I have a fucking clue what that means. So I turn on my data on my iphone and start to google it (nice $ 23 charge in service for that one). Turns out its no tire pressure. So first no oil, now no air. Does anyone even review the cars before giving them to the customers? So I go off the highway for the nearest town and fill up on air.
I was told that since I signed a contract there’s nothing they will do for me. So fine, I got screwed. But I will never rent from Dollar or Thrfity again.

I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever… rent from Dollar again. Not in Germany and not in the U.S.
Worst car rental experience of my life… and I’ve rented a lot of cars.
First, they’re hard to find since they only have a presence in one terminal… and of course not the terminal we arrived in. We had to wander the airport with our 2 small children looking for this rinky dink operation.
I booked through American Express travel. You’d think that you could trust that. You can’t. I’m not sure why AMEX even does business with Dollar in Germany. Dollar doesn’t come close to the AMEX standards of customer service.
Anyway, I had booked an Audi A6 a month before our trip. When I arrived I was told there was no Audi A6, in fact, that location has never had an Audi A6. They blamed it on AMEX. I called AMEX and they blamed it on Dollar. So they offered me a minivan. Yep, a minivan.
Here’s where it really angers me. I was informed that Dollar Europe doesn’t accept American Express car rental insurance that comes along with my AMEX Platinum card. What’s worse is that I have supplemental car insurance through American Express that absorbs any and all risk. I am charged a $ 19.95 fee for each car rental transaction.
They don’t accept that program either!
I now must pay $ 600 for their car insurance!
I am livid. I go to other rental car counters and ask for cars. Not one car to be had in the Frankfurt Airport.
As I stand aside waiting for American Express to call me back I witness 3 other American customers go through the same thing. One guy loses his temper and starts yelling at the Dollar rep, kicking the counter loudly and yelling «You fucking idiots!» His anger was over the car rental insurance issue.
Let me tell you, Dollar in Germany are thieves. They know a lot of people have the AMEX insurance and they don’t accept it because they get to sell their own insurance.
DO NOT RENT FROM DOLLAR.
Dollar Corporate, if you are reading this, you might want to take another look at the policies of your licensee in Germany, Rent a Terstappen. They do not have American grade customer service and they are destroying any semblance of credibility you have one customer at a time.