Europcar

This is a brief write up of my experience of hiring a Europcar at Gatwick Airport. On arriving at the rental office I informed the agent I was there to pick up my hire car and that I did not require any extra insurance other than what my credit card covered. Agent informed me that I must get a written confirmation from TD Bank in Canada to avoid a premium insurance charge being added. This I did but then I was charged $700 at the end of my rental for extra insurance that I did not require. Reading other reviews it seems that other people have fallen for this SCAM. I strongly advise to use other mainstream Hire companies and give these crooks a miss. They take the money from your credit card and there is little you can do about it. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS THERE ARE BETTER CHOICES OUT THERE. I am a Canadian Citizen and on all my visits to the UK from arriving at the airport it seems that everybody is trying to Rip you off! But Europcar with their French staff have no integrity and no regard for customer service. On the plus side their cars are clean and spotless but make no mistake they are CROOKS and SCAMMERS

Hi,

I just returned from Pisa last month and wanted to relay a bad experience I had with Europcar. Everything was fine until I returned the car on the 25th of September and the attendant noticed a tiny dent on the side of the slit where the key goes into the passenger side door, not enough to impair the use of the key mind you. In fact the dent was so small he had to point it out with his little finger! In any case I was using the key fob button all week to lock and unlock the door so it was not damage that I caused (who uses the key anymore these days?). Regardless you could say I was responsible, fine. It's just that I got the sense they were 'nit-picking' and trying to find any way possible to charge me extra (and they did, in the end what started off as a €218 rental ended up being a €540 rental!).

Unfortunately my bad experience didn't end there. After being asked to sign 'something' (which turned out to be an admission of fault which was not explained to me in any way before signing), I asked for a final receipt and the attendant told me that was 'not possible' and that one would be emailed to me. Basically it felt like they were hiding the fact that they were going to charge me extra and hoping that I would only find out after I got home. Eventually after asking several times he told me that I could get a copy if I go to the main building. Luckily I still had time before my flight (probably another planned tactic). Only when I went to the main building (and waited in line once again) did I find out what my final bill would be.

When I wrote a complaint to Europcar,... no response. To be honest I've rented with Europcar before and had no problems,... I suspect that it's only the Pisa branch that's pulling these aggressive tactics,...

Terry

Beware, if you need to make any adjustments to your reservation, better not do it online. I learned the hard way. Had convertible reserved for 2 months to be picked up at Avignon train station, went online to update pick up and drop off times because it says in the contract if you don't pick up/drop off on time you will be charged 95 euros or full booking price. Once i adjusted the times, the system subsequently canceled my original reservation and created new one, which all seemed ok since all the information was the same (car, dates, pick up/drop off location). That is until i received an email saying that my reservation cannot be confirmed because the car is not available. WTH? I had that car reserved for 2 months! Spend next two days calling all the customer service numbers i could find, spending money on international calls. London customer service seemed to be the most helpful one, but even they couldn't get through to the agency in France to try and fix the situation. No one answers the phone there ever and there is no direct email to try and get in touch with the train station branch. BTW, sent 2 email inquiries online as well through the website, no response to either one. London customer service told me that this is not the first time they see it. Train station branch most likely didn't have the car in their possession and would've had to source it from somewhere else (makes me wonder if i would've had the car on arrival at all if i didn't make any adjustments to the reservation), so when i updated the reservation and the original one got canceled, they took it as an opportunity to get out of the arrangement. There was zero warning online that that could happen and didn't really cross my mind because it seems so ludicrous. After all that i had to reserve a car elsewhere and since it is now so close to my travel date finding the convertible was impossible. Conclusion: would not recommend.

Don't rent from these scammers! Europcar cheated us badly, and there seems no easy way to recover the $355 additional charges they forced on us!

At 8:30am on Jan 17 2023 we wanted to pickup our Europcar rental CTW*******, in Huatulco, Mexico. I spent over an hour arguing with a Europcar employee and finally the station manager, as they insisted that I have to buy their own CDW insurance if I want the car. I showed them a letter from my Chase credit card company that I already have CDW/LDW, they didn't care. They gave me the choice to leave without the rental (cancellation charges would occur), or pay over $693 for their own CDW. After arguing with the highest manager in the office, I had to pay for their CDW, which he discounted to $355.08. This still more than doubled our cost of the small and pretty dirty rental car!

It's not the fault of their employees, but a corrupt company that forces their people to sell add-ons. They ignore their own T&Cs, which I had printed out and read out loud to them. They force unnecessary insurance on you at pick-up. At rental return, they try to charge for pre-existing damages to the car. So, if you really must rent from this absolutely dishonest company, make sure you take excellent pictures of the inside and outside of the car. I saw other renters going through the same ordeal, so this seems their standard practice. My recommendation is to stay away from these scammers, you'll pay dearly if you don't. Cheaters!

Tip for consumers:
Go look elsewhere for a reputable car rental company.

BTW, I contacted them under mx_customersupport at europcar, but they didn't bother to respond.

1. I rented a car from Europcar in Jerusalem... next to the King David Hote.
2.The Car was great... the service lousy,
3. I was not told that the Car was not insured in the West Bank,
4.The guy running the pick up garage has a petrol scam going... You can't take the Car till you sign that you have a full tank. Then when we were on the road we discovered it only had a half tank... when reported the admin did not give a hoot,
5.The return was another hassle which took 2 hours,
6.The guy at the garage couldn't be bothered and was aggressive, barked rather than talked and then it took an hour at the office to get the transaction finished,
7. After return to Australia we noted a further unauthorised removal from our credit card,
8.We paid upfront with a deposit but cannot work out what we were and were not charged and sought clarification from Europcar,
9.At the office when returning the car we were confronted that we damaged the vehicle and a considerable amount was due... after 20-30 minutes of endeavouring to fathom what the delays were about and denying the accusation of extensive damage it was clear that what they were talking about was ademage to a Ford Laexis... we had rented a FIAT,
10. They gave us a Rental contract in English. Upon return they provided documents in Hebrew.We requested the documents in English. They were not available...
11. Endeavouring to resolve the issues seeking clarification we contacted Eupropcar customer Support by Email. Assured of a 5 days reply... its now nearly 2 months after and 31 emails I still have not managed to obtain the information as to money received, dates, and clarification of the issues requested, nor a reconciliation...