Poor customer service

Complaint

0
clarion
Country: United Kingdom
I rented a car from Europcar in April while in France. I was not satisfied with the service offered and the additional charges I received afterwards.

First, I had to wait more than an hour to get my car which I rented and paid for well in advance. I was on a tight schedule and that delay unacceptable.

Second, When I returned home, I received a bill from Europcar where they charged me for two extra days, and some damage charge. I tried to investigate what damage was done to the car that I needed to pay for but got nowhere.

Comments

  • 0
    Kelvyn
    Europecar - Modern day Highway Robbers. Avoid using them at all costs!!!!!!!!!

    After arriving at Nice airport we were greeted by rude and very unhelpful staff whose arrogance left us speechless. They charged me for 2 drivers which we wanted but only put 1 on the paper work which we didn't find out until our return to the UK.

    This was pointed out to them and the money reimbursed. Within a few days of recieveing the money back in my account and an ammended invoice I then got a letter stating that they had been contacted by the police and that they were imposing 'Fees following French authorities request for penalty process traffic rules' and deducted 25 Euros from my account.

    Europcar have been asked to provide the official police paper work, photgraphs etc. and you've guessed it - no response.
  • 0
    Susan
    My husband and I hired a car for 3 nights renting the car in Lyon and returning it to CDG.  We were quoted a price of 179E - a lot for only 3 nights but we needed a large vehicle for our baggage.  We returned the car one enitre 24 hours period earlier.  When were looked at our charge on our credit card statement they had charged us $789.!!!!!!!!!!!  Had I not been looking for something else on our statement this would have gone by unnoticed!  I have contacted my credit card company and am contesting the charge as I wrote Europcar and have heard nothing from them.  OUTRAGEOUS!!!
  • 0
    corporate customer
    EUROPCAR BIRMINGHAM AIPORT UK IS [***]. THE CAR PARK STAFF ARE THE MOST CHILDISH AND MISERABLE I HAVE EVER SEEN.


    NO HELLOW HOW ARE U TODAY, BYE NOTHING

    THE FLEET MANAGER IS THE WORST OF ALL.


    AVIS OR HERTZ FOR ME NEXT TIME
  • 0
    nikos
    geia se olou opou k an vriskeste....eimai apo ellada....emas pou mas lete tempekides k ola ta kak tou kosmou....sas enhmerwnw....oti sthn europcar elladas oi upallhloi einai aplhrwtoi peripou 6 mhnes....loipon mhn noikiazetai ap authn gt ta lefta sas den pane s autous pou ergazonte alla ta trwne t afentika....
  • 0
    PHILIP JEDLICKA
    I recently rented a car from Europcar at Orly airport in France. After a search of the Orly South building for the counter I was informed I had to go to Orly West. I followed the Europcar signs at Orly West which led me into a parking garage. When I got to their lot, there was no office. The people at another rental company said I had to go up a level. I found a booth of theirs but they said it was for drop offs only and directed me to another booth at the other end of the garage. I cued up there only to be told that this was the pick up location and that I had to go to the kiosk in the terminal. Once I was done at the terminal kiosk, I had to go back to the garage "pick up location". We had kids and lots of luggage in tow and this running around was [***]. It ended up taking 4 hours to be finally in the car, which later on I noticed was missing a rear window wiper.

    I am Canadian and French, so I have no anglo bias against the French per se and I am fluent in French but this piss-poor level of service is unacceptable.

    GO WITH THE COMPETITION!!!!!!
  • 0
    Elaine
    We used Europcar twice recently in the UK.

    In England we had prepaid the car, returned it with a full fuel tank and then to our surpise found over $200 had been deducted from our Mastercard not once but twice in the week following our return. I rang Customer Service who promised to follow up and email or phone me. that was four weeks ago. I then got on to the  office from where we rented the car and did find someone who would return me emails. She managed to get one of the payments refunded but hasn't been able to do more.

    I have now spoken again to the customer service department and resent the receipts and bank statements. Depsite an assurance I would receieve an acknowledgement of my emal none was forthcoming. I sent another email asking for an acknowledgement a received one saying "do not reply" ect - you will be responded to within ten days.

    I am not going to let this drop and will even resort to legal action if necessary as they should not be able to get away with this.

    The second hire we had in Ireland and there were no financial  issues with although the electronic brake on the car we had did not always work and locked up. The staff here were friendly and helpful.

    It is scary when they have access to your credit details and seem to be so inefficient.
  • 0
    Angie
    I rented a car from EUROPCAR last week from the Brussels Zaventum Airport. I just checked my bank statement, and they have charged me 1100 USD for what was supposed to be a 450 USD rental. I've been trying to get a response from EUROPCAR with no success. This is terrible! I actually found this site as I was trying to get alternate contact information for them, since I haven't had any luck reaching them by phone.

    Even though it looks like I'll be out of 650 USD, I still consider myself "lucky" enough to happen upon this page and read about all the people still being charged MONTHS later with bogus fees. I just reported my credit card to my bank as stolen, so if they try to tack on any more charges, they will be declined.

    I have to wait until tomorrow to dispute the excess fees, as it is Sunday in the states.

    With their questionable business practices, I can't believe they haven't been sued yet.
  • 0
    leading manager of Europcar France
    Contributing so number of complaint pages gets higher then 10, hopefully Google will here us first so it comes earlier then europcar website!!

    Needless to say, I got ripped off as well.

    EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS EUROPCAR SUCKS
  • 0
    Cittizen
    I was in France for couple days. Rent a car for one day and returned it undamaged and with full tank of fuel. After 3 weeks my CC was charged 995 EUR for some damage and fuel. No reply from the customer service more then month. I'm trying to dispute this transaction.
    NEVER USE EUROPCAR
  • 0
    Don't trust Europcar
    I just had costs added to my credit card bill for a chip on the windscreen, which was already there.  Before taking the car out, I had to add many other scatches and chips to the damage form which were not already recorded there.  I missed that particular chip, which was hardly noticeable (and the windscreen was still dripping wet from just coming out of the car wash).  However, Europcar deemed the chip sufficient for a tidy little charge.  I wonder how many times they've used that one!!
  • 0
    CM
    I rent a car in May at Europcar Pisa Airport, the entire has been paid for 1 week rental.

    Now 4 months later, they withdraw 48 Euros on my card !?

    It is scandal.

    DO NO RENT FROM EUROPCAR.

    //
    CM
  • 0
    VERY Unhappy europcar customer
    i hired a VW UP for two days at the cost of £36 last week, the car arrived without a parcel shelf, i emailled the company about this and was surprised to get an invoice three days later for £677 and to find that an additional £250 had also been taken from my bank account. Oh and i had already paid the £36 (which i was happy to pay and had authorised) The company accept that they should have spoken to their 'local' office to whom i had sent the missing parcel shelf email and not charged me £927 extra, but as the process was already in motion, i would have to wait for 10 days to get my £927 refunded.
    Not only will i NEVER use Europcar again, i will make sure as many people as possible hear my story and boycott the company entirely. This behaviour must be criminal, given the number of complaints on this site, the compnay must profit from freuqent over charging, even if they EVENTUALLY refund payments to customers. i for one thought i had spent £36 last week, seems i spent £963.00... Completely wrong. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY EVEN AS A LAST RESORT.
  • 0
    kiwi aussie
    same here have been charged 2 amounts a mth after renting a car in london this was pre booked and paid for long before we got the car (not the one we ordered)  was filled with fuel and no damage on so why the extra charges  have told my bank these amount are fraud
  • 0
    nomad europe
    Hired a car in August from Europcar Italy and on the last day the clutch gave in. I hardly managed to get to the drop off zone, nearly missing my flight back.

    For all those of you who think that paying for Supercover will cover you for everything, FORGET IT.

    A couple of weeks later my credit card was charged with over EUR700 being the cost of replacing a burnt clutch, reason was "negligent driving". I contested the charge but the reply was that negligent driving is not covered.

    I have been driving nearly 40 years and have never had a clutch replaced, either through wear and tear, or negligent driving.

    My advice to you all is. Do not use Europcar who are not sympathetic to your arguments. Secondly if you have such problems, cancel your card and get a new one with a different number. This will make it impossible for the company to take money out of your card.

    Let them fight it out .
  • 0
    Morgan
    Europcar is the worse rental car company in the world, I'm shocked they are still in business.  Never use them, they are a complete waste of time, go with a larger more established rental car company that actually has customer service.
  • 0
    Ben
    What rip offs
                          I was in Italy back in August from Australia and made the mistake of hiring a car from these clowns; 3 months later I receive my credit card statement and it has a charge for $70 from Europcar. As you can imagine it thus far has cost me nearly this much in phone calls to try and sort it out but still haven't got an answer as to what the charge is for or why I have been charged. the car was returned in good condition and signed for.

    it might only be $70 but it's the principle of the matter that counts.
  • 0
    Seymour
    This is a message I sent back to Europcar in Italy after being blamed for burning out a clutch

    Thank you Mr Di Marco.

    I am grateful to receive a reply.
    You will not be surprised to learn that neither I nor any of my friends will  ever consider using Europcar on  our trips to Europe in future.

    It is impossible and I guess pointless for me to challenge your assertion that the damage was caused by us  since we are in far away Australia.

    You say the car was checked out as OK following the previous hire. I guess this must mean  the clutch was pulled apart to determine that  if it was already partly burnt out and ready to fail??.  What about the possibility that a fault in the dreadful automatic handbrake could have contributed to the clutch problem? 60000 of Renault Scenics I understand were recalled by the manufacturer. I repeat that myself and my co driver have over 50 years driving experience each of all manner of cars and we do not burn out clutches!!

    The Europcar  staff in Naples were indifferent to say the least.  Our explanations were not believed and hardly listened to.  Yet we are expected to accept  and believe that that disassembled clutch in a dark  grainy  photo on the floor of some garage was  from the car we hired - a photo of the front of the car was included I suppose  to help us infer that it was.. This would not hold up in any court would it?  But this matter  is too trivial to be a legal concern isn't it?

    Incidentally when I booked  the  Europcar hires  both for the UK and Italy  from Australia  the price quoted included an additional driver and  return to Naples.  This was overlooked and we were charged again for , second driver, and non station return.   The  lack of courtesy in Naples and the determination that it was our fault made us think we were dealing with a branch office of the Camora.!  We think we have been ripped off.!!

    Well I have had my say for what it is worth. I note from the web that I am not the first person to feel outrage at their treatment by
    Europcar. I can only conclude that the competitive prices  are at the expense of  a more solicitous treatment of your customers.
  • 0
    chris brooke
    Dreadful company .I totally agree with everything that is written about them.

    We ordered a car from the Southhampton office having prebooked and paid beforehand as our cruise ended here.There was no one to pick us up from the terminal as promised so my partner stayed with the luggage as only he could move it and I walked to the office.
    It was a long walk and when I arrived the queue was endless.People were waiting all around the outside of the office and inside as well,even in the staff room.There were no cars available!
    We had booked a car for 9.30am to drive to North Yorks and finally got a car at 1 40pm. That meant that we had to stop and have a meal on route ( extra cost) and arrived home very late.
    We could not return the car that day because it was so late so had to returned it the next day which was inconvenient and totally their fault.
    American Express recovered our money plus £10 to help with the cost of a meal.My advice is get an American Expresscard asap. They have helped us out before and when travelling something invaribly goes wrong however AE have always saved the day.We will never use Europcar again.
  • 0
    JSBaker
    The email address of the group UK MD of europcar is Ken.McCall@europcar.com
    I am sure he would love to hear from you!!!
  • 0
    realist
    My rental car was parked unattended, somebody reversed into it and drove away. Police have found the driver and are prosecuting. I completed accident form within Europcar branch and gave them the police crime number with all details required, they took £600 excess. 6 weeks later I chased to be told they have closed the case because the driver never replied to their telephone calls. I have phoned and I Wrote several letter of complaint, they have not even a reply. Their insurers told me that if you have damage to the car they will NEVER refund excess unless they get paid from another insurer 1st. So if ANY damage is done to your car you will not get refund without a registration plate AND the culprits insurance. That was their exact words! Going legal.

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