Today I want to tell you about the other side of an idyllic trip to Iceland: what can happen when you rent a camper van, and the company doesn’t measure up.
We rented from Go Campers, a well-known local company with good reviews, at least on the surface. We arrived after midnight on June 18 to pick up the van, tired but excited. The delivery was quick, too quick. No one did a joint inspection of the vehicle with us (something that is mandatory by law), and they simply told us that we could take photos the next day.
Shortly after, they would send us some photos of the vehicle taken three days before delivery. In other words, there was no real proof of the condition of the van when it was handed over to us. Between that and the “coincidentally” unclear angle of the windshield image, it was starting to smell fishy. But we didn’t know it yet.
It should also be noted that the vehicle was dirty, the duvet was dirty, the pillows were messed up, etc.
Two days into the trip, with more sunshine and the windshield already dirty with Icelandic bugs, we saw what looked like a small chip in the glass. At first, we didn’t think much of it. But on the morning of June 21, that small mark had turned into a crack. When we started the engine, it doubled in size in a matter of hours. We were driving through Iceland with a cracked windshield, wondering what would happen if the glass couldn’t hold any longer.
We urgently wrote to Go Campers asking them to change our vehicle for safety reasons. And what did they do? Nothing.
They ignored us for days. They only replied on June 25 (without any solution), and when we wrote to them again asking for the immediate replacement of the vehicle, they ghosted us once more. That’s how it was until July 1, when we returned the camper van with the crack much bigger, scared, and stressed out from driving for almost two weeks on remote roads knowing that something could go wrong.
Here comes the worst part: when we returned the vehicle, the employee who attended us had no idea what had happened. We explained everything again, and his first reaction was to tell us that we would probably have to pay for the damage.
Only when we insisted and mentioned that we had all the emails, that we had notified them from the very beginning, and that we would call the police, if necessary, did they decide to “remember” our messages and let us go without charging us.
But the damage was already done.
Traveling like this is exhausting. Not only because of the fear that the glass would break while we were driving, but also because of the uncertainty, the lack of answers, and the feeling of being completely helpless.
The most outrageous thing is that when we wrote to ask for information before making the reservation, they always responded immediately in the friendliest way possible.
In fact, when they didn’t respond to Diego’s emails, I wrote from my account asking for information about a vehicle, and they responded to that email in less than 24 hours.
Go Campers is a company that didn’t even fulfill the basics: delivering a vehicle in good condition and being available in case of an emergency.
Furthermore, it is mandatory by law to conduct a joint inspection of the vehicle and provide after-sales support.
Upon arriving in Porto, we proceeded to file a complaint with the consumer office in Iceland (paying 35 euros) requesting a refund of the total amount we paid for the damages caused to us by the lack of assistance and for having traveled for 13 days in an unsafe vehicle.
A few weeks later, we received an email from the consumer arbitration court with Go Campers’ response, in which they refused to refund the money claimed. We wrote another reply (as requested) and are now awaiting the final decision.
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