Anna O

I rented a Mercedes Marco Polo from Roadsurfer Düsseldorf/Cologne for one week. From the moment of pick-up, it was clear the van had not been properly prepared.

Van condition issues:

-A broken shelf was flagged during check-in. Although the assistant attempted a fix, it broke again during the drive and kept swinging open while in motion.
-Both grey and clean water tanks had been left full. -When I asked the assistant to empty them, he only emptied the clean water, leaving the dirty water in the van for the duration of my trip.
-The windscreen washer fluid was completely empty.
Two toilet units had been placed in the van instead of one.

The gas bottle — a clear breach of their own policy:

When I asked the assistant whether there was gas, he confirmed there was. In reality, the bottle was completely empty. Based on his assurance, I planned to cook breakfast the following morning, only to find that nothing worked. A helpful neighbour helped me diagnose the problem: an empty gas bottle. This wasted time and caused real stress at the start of my trip.
I contacted customer support, and "Laura" initially told me to replace the gas bottle myself and that I would be fully refunded. However, upon my return, when I followed up on how to submit the receipt, she reversed her position entirely, stating it was now my personal responsibility and that they would not cover the cost (€38,90).
This is not only inconsistent and dishonest — it directly contradicts Roadsurfer's own published policy, which states that a gas bottle is included as standard equipment with every rental, at no extra cost.

Overall:

Roadsurfer's team is not adequately preparing their vans for customer use. When things go wrong, they deflect responsibility rather than honour their commitments or even their own written policies. Promises made by staff are later denied. Many issues (tyre pressure, fluid levels, gas) are impossible for a customer to independently verify at pick-up, which makes their lack of accountability even more problematic.

On a positive note: the Mercedes Marco Polo itself is an excellent vehicle — smooth, comfortable, with well-designed beds and great use of space (5 stars for the van itself). The second assistant I encountered was more helpful and communicative. For customer support overall, however, I would give zero stars if the platform allowed it.

If you rent from Roadsurfer, verify everything yourself and get any promises in writing.

Can someone finally respond to my emails? You are attempting to cancel a service that I have already paid for! This is completely unacceptable.

You seriously need to fix your payment platform before offering customers long-term contracts. Ever since I switched to this plan, your system has repeatedly failed to record my payments, and now you’re cancelling my subscription again. How is it even possible that I’ve supposedly been using my phone without paying for 15 months? Are you serious?

Please resolve this issue immediately and stop sending me these pointless and frustrating emails. I expect a clear explanation and confirmation that my service will remain active without further interruption until my next payment in December.

Unfortunately, I have to share a very negative experience with Congstar due to what I feel is an unnecessarily complicated payment system, one that even customer support struggles to navigate.

I was offered a 6-month contract, and instead of simply having the amount debited from my bank account twice a year, I have to log in and manually top it up. The system feels outdated and slow, and when selecting the amount to top up, there’s a long delay that sometimes results in more top-up than intended, creating big issues with the payment department.

In this case, I accidentally used the wrong bank card for a payment. When I tried to pay again with the correct card, that payment option was no longer available, so I used another method provided by Congstar. Unfortunately, the second payment was never registered by Congstar; the system simply lost it, even though my bank confirmed that the payment was successful. After I sent proof, including the reference number, date, and exact time of the transaction, I was told the team would investigate and get back to me. Nearly two months later, without any prior notice about the investigation’s outcome, my contract and phone number were cancelled at 3 a.m.

After many emails back and forth, and much confusion from the support team, Aaron eventually found the issue, but by then, the damage was done, and my contract, which had been fully paid for, was already cancelled. I’m extremely disappointed, as my phone number is linked to my bank account and other important applications, and I currently have no access to them.

I’m now waiting for Congstar to respond about reinstating my account, but so far there’s been no reply. This is one of the most frustrating payment systems I’ve ever dealt with, which is a real shame, because until this happened, I was very happy with the service itself. SOMEONE IN CONGSTAR, PLEASE HELP!

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Update- 13/08/2025: My missing payment was finally found, and Congstar reinstated my contract and restored my service. Unfortunately, they are now demanding an additional €50 on top of the €50 I already paid, which should cover me until early December. No apologies, nothing offered for cutting my service, which was already paid for. The nightmare continues…

And to the person who replied to my negative comment — it seems you didn’t fully understand the situation, as your advice doesn’t address the actual issue.

I've been using Congstar for years and have always been satisfied with the network coverage—it’s reliable and serves my needs well. However, one recurring issue has been a significant drawback: the payment and top-up process. I have a package with direct debit set up, yet instead of automatically debiting my account as expected, I’m repeatedly prompted to top up my balance manually.

When I do top-up, the system often shows an incorrect balance, sometimes reflecting zero due to what seems to be technical glitches. On the last occasion, it even deducted twice the amount needed, leaving me with the hassle of resolving unnecessary discrepancies. This lack of clarity and consistency in the payment system is frustrating and undermines an otherwise excellent service. It’s disappointing to have to spend time fixing problems caused by a system that should work seamlessly. I hope Congstar addresses this issue soon.
*****
22/1/25
Thank you for your response, Congstar. However, your system was supposed to process direct debits from my account automatically. Instead, I kept receiving messages prompting me to top up manually. When I attempted to do so, your system failed to respond multiple times, only to later top up double the intended amount!

This is clearly a technical issue within your payment system that needs urgent attention. It’s unfair to place the burden of these errors on your customers. My experience so far has been frustrating and unnecessarily complicated as I’ve tried to resolve what is ultimately a mistake on your end.

I strongly urge you to address these bugs in your system to avoid further inconvenience to customers. Thank you for your understanding. After 2 months my problem still hasn't been resolved!

I was extremely impressed with the exceptional service and attentive care I received at the Düsseldorf branch. The representative was incredibly helpful, polite, and considerate—I would happily give him 10 stars for his outstanding support.

Unfortunately, my experience with customer support has been disappointing. It’s now been three weeks since I returned the car, and despite assurances that my deposit was released under a specific code, my bank confirms it is still being held by Hertz. Customer support has not responded to clarify or resolve the issue, which has left me feeling frustrated and I would not be a return customer.

I’ve been a customer with WISE, formerly Transferwise since 2012. I love to use them as I’m travelling quite a bit and it’s always so easy to pay with different currencies without loosing money on the exchange rates. If I have any questions, customer support is always there and willing to help. I also have business accounts with them. Although, it was a bit of a hick up to set them up, now they are running smoothly and I’m earning interest. Overall, I strongly recommend WISE to anyone and a lot of my friends and family members signed up for WISE after my recommendations. The platform is always improving and offer very reasonable rates. The speed of some transfers is instant and I can pay for services within seconds and not slow down my business. After 10 years of being their customer, I would give it 5-stars!!!

What can I say... I loved my HP 6970 printer until HP started regularly updating its software. I used my beloved printed for a few years and bought the original in a mix with compatible ink. My compatible ink cartridges are not compatible anymore. Because I typically print in black, HP blocks their original black ink from printing (pages come blank) and asks me to insert a super expensive coloured ink that I do not need.
After many years of enjoying my wonderful printer, it needs to be fired and replaced by an alternative one from a different manufacturer.
Thanks, HP for making me hate using your products after I was your biggest fan!

From the very beginning, it was not easy to deal with Regus. There was a constant chase about onboarding, missing documents, unexplained retainers...
The company is not innovating! They kept 2 months of retainers and after me cancelling the contract with them, you manually need to go and request for those retainers to be paid back to you within 30 days. Such information is not being provided to you upon termination.
30 days have passed, and no refund reached my bank account. Please, do not waste your time and energy with Regus or any IWG umbrella companies! There are much better alternatives if you take your time and look a bit longer.
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I would like to add an update (5 Oct 2023):
after I left this negative comment, only then did Regus start the refund process. Today I received an email from them stating that it might take a few more business days to get my retainers back. And that would be ~45 days and not 30!
"The payment is scheduled to be sent to your bank on 06 Oct 2023.
Please allow 5-7 business days for it to show up in your bank account after that date..."

My advice==> don't waste our time and avoid them!

I did not have a very good experience with Regus from day 1. It took them over 2 months and a lot of complaints to onboard my company; I lost my valuable time chasing them and they couldn't release important correspondence to me while the team was on-boarding me; the salesperson didn't mention all the additional "retainers" when you do not complete certain steps, they just take money from your account and you need to chase them to figure out what that charge was for; they missed very important company documents that were sent to the address but unfortunately on 3 occasions were never "delivered"; upon termination, they applied "Restoration Services" aka "closure of the contract", and I thought that the rent you pay should already include the usage of the desk. These very strange practices just don't make any sense!
The only good I can say is that one person on the team has done everything in his power to fix all the problems, everyone else, seems like they didn't care at all! I already thanked him separately but unfortunately, I cannot stay with Regus because I lost my trust in them.
I hope you will have better luck!

I've been using Wise for about 6 years now and very happy with it! I could see how the technology has developed and improved over time, the customer support is always great and super helpful! I love to travel and instant currency conversion is such a great bonus! I would highly recommend Wise to anyone who likes smooth banking.

UNAUTHORISED MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION! SCAM! BUYER BE AWARE!!!
I purchased 2 shampoos from Falinas, the price was only OK, very similar to other online providers. After the purchase, they charged me more than I bought for, even though the invoice they sent me was correct. After I contacted them, they said that it was a monthly subscription. This information is hidden when you are trying to buy something from Falinas. They told me that they cancelled the subscription and confirmed it in the email. The next month, they charged me the subscription again. Extremely hard to get a refund or cancel it. Please avoid this company like a plague and buy from a more honest online retailer.

The app itself is OK. The thing which I do not like about Babbel's dishonest practice is that they do not provide you with an option to choose "I do not want an automatic renewal". Instead, they want you to write to them at the end of your subscription and ask them to cancel it. Of course, a year later, I forgot that I have an active subscription with Babbel. So the company just went ahead and took money from my account, WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTIFICATION, NO ELECTRONIC INVOICE, NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that they took money from me. I find this type of practice very dishonest, it's like they want you to forget about them and just keep charging you. After some complaining, they gave me a refund for half out of the full year. Based on this experience (which happened twice to me and the same concerns have been passed over to Babble a few years previously) I will not give this company a chance again and will not recommend them. I found a good competitor with more friendly T&C's. A final thought ==>> STAY AWAY FROM BABBEL IF YOU ARE A BUSY PERSON & WILL FORGET TO SET A CALENDAR REMINDER TO CANCEL BABBEL!!!!
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Reply to Babbel:
it would be great if you could==>>
1) have an option during purchase "automatically renew subscription" if the person wishes for it, if the person doesn't, the subscription should stop automatically after 6/10 months.
2) send an email confirmation that you have charged the account + invoice, instead of just taking money from the account without any e-notifications.
3) I have contacted your team already and I'm getting the same response every time. You have trained robots who cannot think outside the box.

50% of the time GLS couriers never deliver parcel stating that no one is at home and dropping it at the nearest picking up location. I work from home and 99% of the time available to open a door. It is really frustrating to receive an email from GLS stating that no one was at home and go and collect your parcel yourself.
Extremely poor service and I would never pay for their unreliable service. I personally choose DHL every time for all my shipments.

First of all, all the phone number to contact customer support for IDEALO are not working. Secondly, after placing an order through idealo (Ebay seller), it took longer than expected to receive it and it turned out to be a totally different item than the one I have purchased. A lot of wasted money and I cannot even reach the company which has processed the sale!!!!! Super unhappy!!!

I had to call an Ebay Germany. Awful people, rude, don't even have single English speaking personnel. In Belgium and Holland, they will offer you a few languages to choose from. The whole of Europe is so multinational now. Germany is still stuck in the past and thinks their language is number one. English is not my first language but it is a business language and it really works in many countries. As an international company, Ebay should cater to multi-national European groups.

My little shih tzu had some problems eating the doggy food since she was a puppy, so we had to give her some of the human food (big mistake!!!, but she is our first dog). It was very hard to find a dry alternative, as the standard supermarket brands just didn't go well with her, so we tried tails.com. Kaya has been on the food for over a month now and start putting on weight and feels more energetic and happy. I will definitely recommend tails.com as a much better alternative to the cheaper supermarket brands (Kaya is getting 4kg of food for less than 15 pounds, which I think is really good as P&P is free).

Easy to order and good descriptions on the products. The only thing negative is that I've paid extra for a 1 day delivery, but my products arrived 5 days later.