Customer Service – A Question Worth Asking
Not long ago, someone asked me a question that immediately set my mind in motion: Do you actually use customer service ratings as a reference point when renting a car? Do you read what other people say about a company before booking?
When it comes to customer service at car rental companies in Mallorca – or anywhere else for that matter, that question opens up a much bigger conversation than it might seem. For someone who has spent over 25 years in the travel industry and who has rented cars in destinations all over the world, it touches on trust, experience, price, and what we’re actually willing to accept when we travel.
My honest answer? Both yes and no.
It Depends on the Trip
When the whole family is travelling together, I want everything to run smoothly. A long queue at the rental desk, an unresolved complaint, or a car with a technical issue can ruin the mood from the very first hour. In those cases, I absolutely take customer service reputation into account.
But other times — maybe a solo trip or a short visit — a great deal from a company with mixed reviews can genuinely be worth the risk. Price matters. A 40% saving doesn’t disappear just because a company has a 2.5 on Trustpilot.
The truth is that most people who leave reviews do so when something has gone wrong. That creates a natural skew. A company with thousands of rentals and a few hundred negative reviews may still be delivering a perfectly acceptable service to the vast majority of customers.
So the question isn’t just is the customer service good? — it’s what kind of experience are you looking for, and what are you willing to trade off?
Putting It to the Test
That conversation sparked an idea: rather than relying on review scores alone, why not contact the rental companies directly and see how they actually respond?
I reached out to 21 car rental companies with offices at Palma de Mallorca Airport — the same companies featured in the no-excess car rental comparison. I sent each of them two straightforward questions, both based on real situations I had encountered:
- Lost items — If a customer leaves something behind in a returned vehicle, how is it handled, and how can they retrieve it?
- Vehicle complaints — During a previous rental, the windscreen washer fluid was empty and the radio didn’t work. How are these types of complaints handled, and is there any form of compensation or goodwill gesture for future bookings?
I intentionally kept the questions simple — the kind of thing that should have a clear answer, but that I noticed wasn’t addressed on any of the companies’ websites. I also informed each company that the responses would be compiled and published in an article on www.mallorcadrive.com/. The goal was to give every company a fair and equal opportunity to respond, without requiring any complicated internal approvals or decision chains.
The question was simple: who would bother to reply?
The Results: Who Responded?
Out of 21 companies contacted, only 9 provided a response of some kind. Of those, only 3 gave answers that actually addressed the questions. Here is the full breakdown:
| Company | Trustpilot ★ | Response Time | Direct Reply | Auto-Reply | Follow-up | Approved Answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiper | 4.6 | 15 min | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| VIMA | 4.0 | 1 hr | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| OK Mobility | 3.7 | 3 hrs | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Europcar | 2.2 | 28 min | ✔ | ✗ | ||
| Goldcar | 1.4 | 1 min | ✔ | ✗ | ||
| Centauro | 2.8 | 1 min | ✔ | ✗ | ||
| Sixt | 4.2 | 2.5 hrs | ✔ | ✔ | ✗ | |
| Clickrent | 3.6 | 3 hrs 20 min | ✔ | ✗ | ||
| Hertz | 2.9 | — | ✔ | ✗ | ||
| Alamo | 1.8 | — | — | |||
| Autos Mallorca | 4.9 | — | — | |||
| Avis | 1.2 | — | — | |||
| Budget | 1.2 | — | — | |||
| Drivalia | 2.8 | — | — | |||
| Enterprise | 1.6 | — | — | |||
| Go by Car | 4.1 | — | — | |||
| K10 | 1.4 | — | — | |||
| National | 2.7 | — | — | |||
| Recordgo | 2.6 | — | — | |||
| ROIG | 4.2 | — | — | |||
| Wiber | 4.6 | — | — |
Ranking by Response Quality and Speed
Tier 1 — Responded with substance:
🥇 Hiper (15 min, direct reply, approved answer) — Lost items are handled through Komunika, a specialist company that manages the entire retrieval process. Complaints should be reported directly to on-site staff, who aim to resolve issues immediately. The company was upfront that no extra compensation is generally offered.
🥈 VIMA (1 hr, direct reply, approved answer) — Found items are logged and the customer is contacted; the item is then shipped to the customer’s chosen address. For vehicle issues, staff are to be informed immediately so the problem can be resolved or the vehicle replaced. They noted that each case is reviewed carefully to ensure the best possible support.
🥉 OK Mobility (3 hrs, auto-reply + follow-up, approved answer) — Customers with lost items should complete a form on the company’s website. For vehicle issues, OK Mobility recommends contacting their roadside assistance service directly, which is positioned as the primary point of contact for such matters.
Tier 2 — Responded but without answering the questions:
Sixt (2.5 hrs) — Responded with an auto-reply followed by a follow-up, but no direct answers to either question. Customers are directed to create a separate case for each incident, after which staff will investigate.
Centauro (1 min) — Auto-reply directing to the FAQ page and the general terms and conditions. The questions were not addressed.
Clickrent (3 hrs 20 min) — Responded, but asked for a reservation number before being willing to help. Without one, no information was provided.
Tier 3 — Auto-reply only, no follow-up:
Europcar, Goldcar, and Hertz sent acknowledgement messages but never followed up with actual answers.
No response at all:
Alamo, Autos Mallorca, Avis, Budget, Drivalia, Enterprise, Go by Car, K10, National, Recordgo, ROIG, and Wiber did not reply.
What Does This Tell Us?
A few observations worth noting:
High Trustpilot scores don’t guarantee responsiveness. Autos Mallorca (4.9), ROIG (4.2), Wiber (4.6), and Go by Car (4.1) — all well-rated companies — did not respond at all. Conversely, Hiper (4.6) and VIMA (4.0) both responded quickly and thoroughly.
Low scores don’t mean bad communication. Goldcar, despite a 1.4 rating, sent an auto-reply within one minute. It never turned into a proper answer, but at least the initial contact was fast.
The companies that answered well, answered well. Hiper and VIMA in particular gave clear, human, and practical responses that would genuinely help a customer know what to expect. That kind of transparency is underrated.
Most companies simply didn’t reply. Out of 21 contacted, 12 didn’t respond at all. This was not a trick question or a complaint — it was a pre-announced information request. The silence speaks for itself.
Customer Service: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Customer service serves a genuinely important function — and in certain situations, it can be the single factor that defines how a customer feels about a company. Answering straightforward questions is no great art, and many companies now have chat functions that handle a lot of the basics efficiently. But what happens when something actually goes wrong and a real issue needs to be sorted out? That’s when the automated responses dry up, you get transferred to a human agent, and suddenly that personal contact realy matters.
I’ve experienced both sides of this firsthand.
A few years ago, I rented a car that turned out to have a gearbox problem. Being almost at your destination but 50 km from the airport, all you want is to reach someone at the office quickly and sort out a replacement. But it was impossible. It took around 20 calls before I got through. You know the feeling: “All our lines are busy, please try again shortly.” The following day I finally managed to arrange a car swap, but when I arrived at the desk, the first thing I was asked was: “Why isn’t the tank full?” Not exactly what you want to hear after everything that had already gone wrong. My instinct was to fire back: “Why did you give me a broken car?” — but I held back. And despite all the friction, I came away thinking the company was professional. The problems were resolved, the communication eventually came through, and I’ve rented from them again since. If you’ve read the reviews on MallorcaDrive, you’ll probably know which company I’m talking about.
But it can also go better than you ever expected. And there are plenty of examples of that too.
I think of the desk at one of the larger rental companies where, on two separate occasions, I had emailed in advance to ask whether it would be possible to get the same car model we’d rented before — and both times, they made it happen. Or the agent who, late in the evening with his shift already over, stayed behind to sort out a change to our rental contract. Or simply the warm welcome at the counter: “Thank you for choosing to rent with us — we’d like to offer you an upgrade to a premium car at no extra charge and with the same terms.”
As I said earlier — it often doesn’t take much. A small gesture, a friendly manner, taking a few extra minutes for a customer. That’s what makes someone feel valued. And more often than not, that’s what makes them come back.
Does Customer Service Matter When Renting a Car in Mallorca?
Coming back to the original question: yes, it matters — but perhaps not in the way we usually measure it.
A Trustpilot score is a useful starting point, but it doesn’t tell you how a company will treat you when something actually goes wrong. This small test suggests that the companies most willing to communicate proactively are not always the ones with the highest review scores.
If you’re renting a car in Mallorca and want a company that’s likely to be reachable and responsive when you need them, that’s worth weighing alongside price and included coverage. For a family trip where things need to go smoothly, a slightly higher price at a responsive company may well be the better investment. For a solo trip on a tight budget, you might decide to take the chance — and that’s a completely valid choice too.
Either way, now you know a little more about who actually picks up.
Questions were sent to all 21 companies on Monday, 23 March, by email provided on the websites or via the contact form. This summary was compiled three weeks later.
