Got faulty car, informed Europcar but were still charged
Complaint
Jeroen
Country: Netherlands
On December 18th, 2012 I hired a car at Europcar Ibiza. The pick-up location was the Airport of Ibiza, Spain. Due to several negative events in the first hours of car-rental I am totally dissatisfied. I would like to summarize those events.
• On the booking agreement with Car Trawler, our middleman, it is clearly stated that the car will be picked up empty, and will be returned empty. The local manager simply said: ‘This is not our policy, we charge you for a full tank. ’ Even after showing the manager the booking details and contract he still refused to deliver the car as agreed. If I wanted to take the car with me the only solution was to pay for a full tank at the amount of € 87,-. The manager kept my booking confirmation and refused to give it back, so I was not able to immediately call Car Trawler. So I had no other option then to pay or get stuck on the airport. Furthermore i asked for a copy of the rental conditions in English, since i do not speak Spanish, he simply said: We don't have one in English and left to help somebody else.
• While driving the first kilometers I felt a deviation of the car. The wheel was pulling to the right all the time. After just 12 kilometers I noticed that my right front tire was flat. So by the side of the road I had to change tires.
• After a swift return to the local office and stating that the car had a deviation to the right and this might be the cause of the flat tire, I still was immediately charged with € 172,46 Euros for a new tire. There was absolutely no compassion or hospitality from any of the employees. They were very rude and unhelpful. When i returned home and saw my credit card debit there was another €52 withdrawn because of extra taxation, which nobody told me before. The claim of Europcar was that i did not have extra insurance so, bad luck for me, pay and goodbye!
As you can imagine those events stated above gave my stay on Ibiza a false start. First of all it took me several valuable working hours of my short stay. Second is that I’m charged with an extra amount of money that is roughly 6,5 times the rental fee. Third, and maybe most important, I was treated in a very disrespectful way.
Since December 2012 i am trying to contact Europcar Spain, they do not return my calls, nobody speaks English on their Spanish headquarters and no returns on my emails.
For me it is clear Europcar is a company which only cares about making money, i will never return there and i will inform all of my students (Over a thousand a year) never to hire with Europcar.
• On the booking agreement with Car Trawler, our middleman, it is clearly stated that the car will be picked up empty, and will be returned empty. The local manager simply said: ‘This is not our policy, we charge you for a full tank. ’ Even after showing the manager the booking details and contract he still refused to deliver the car as agreed. If I wanted to take the car with me the only solution was to pay for a full tank at the amount of € 87,-. The manager kept my booking confirmation and refused to give it back, so I was not able to immediately call Car Trawler. So I had no other option then to pay or get stuck on the airport. Furthermore i asked for a copy of the rental conditions in English, since i do not speak Spanish, he simply said: We don't have one in English and left to help somebody else.
• While driving the first kilometers I felt a deviation of the car. The wheel was pulling to the right all the time. After just 12 kilometers I noticed that my right front tire was flat. So by the side of the road I had to change tires.
• After a swift return to the local office and stating that the car had a deviation to the right and this might be the cause of the flat tire, I still was immediately charged with € 172,46 Euros for a new tire. There was absolutely no compassion or hospitality from any of the employees. They were very rude and unhelpful. When i returned home and saw my credit card debit there was another €52 withdrawn because of extra taxation, which nobody told me before. The claim of Europcar was that i did not have extra insurance so, bad luck for me, pay and goodbye!
As you can imagine those events stated above gave my stay on Ibiza a false start. First of all it took me several valuable working hours of my short stay. Second is that I’m charged with an extra amount of money that is roughly 6,5 times the rental fee. Third, and maybe most important, I was treated in a very disrespectful way.
Since December 2012 i am trying to contact Europcar Spain, they do not return my calls, nobody speaks English on their Spanish headquarters and no returns on my emails.
For me it is clear Europcar is a company which only cares about making money, i will never return there and i will inform all of my students (Over a thousand a year) never to hire with Europcar.
Comments
A few days before arriving I called the Ibiza office, and spoke to Hugo.
He assured me the rental paid included any late pickup fees, and that the office would remain open until I arrived
When arriving in Ibiza, I was then advised that I would be charged 60 EUR for the late pickup (Entire Rental was under 80 !)
I made a comment on the invoice that I disagreed with the charge, but the rep then refused to release the car until the comment was removed
I have noticed an identical complaint on the web, so this extortion is obviously fairly common.
Avoid Europcar, use someone else !