Poor customer service
Complaint
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.
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
Extremely dishonest and I wouldnt go near them next time with a 10 foot poll.
Ive put in a dispute with my bank for the incorrect credit card charge...in hopes that that will bring some justice.
The car broke down 0.5 miles from my flat in Sheffield at 09:45 on Sunday 09/02/2014.
The AA came out to me and tried to fix the repair but were unsuccessful. They advised that the leads to the spark plugs had been arcing to the carburettor shield and had burnt out but that if we went to a local spares shop I could buy replacements which cost me £49.99. This did not effect a permanent repair as the ends were not exactly similar.
The AA gentleman rang Europcar and they advised to tow me to the local Seat Dealer and insisted that the car and I be taken to Manchester Airport where there was a replacement vehicle. The AA gentleman’s shift had finished and I sat awaiting the next AA gentleman.
At 16:00 I was to taken to Manchester Airport in an AA transit van along with the broken Seat.
At Manchester Airport I explained the direct costs incurred to the Europocar staff (Maurice) but they would not reimburse me as their duty manager Sarah Newall was not in till Monday and hence could not authorise any refund which included the £28.90 for a prepaid hotel in Brighton where I was travelling to which I could not get to until 23:00 at best (check in was 16:00).In order to ring the AA and Europocar I had to pay a minimum charge of £17.25 with my mobile company for the 08 numbers as these are not covered in my mobile plan.
I therefore travelled back to my flat in Sheffield and arrived at 19:00 incurring approximately £10 in fuel costs.
At 03:00 I then travelled to Crawley (my place of work) to mitigate any further costs incurred as I am a subcontractor on a dayrate and arrived late for work at 09:00 incurring the wrath of my new boss.
The Europcar staff rang me on Monday 10/02/2014 apologising and said that they had e-mailed their Customer Services who would contact me (they forwarded on the e-mail to me).
Europcar have not contacted me to-date.
The AA staff were very nice along with the staff at Manchester Airport, however, I believe I have been reasonable, have mitigated costs incurred and been left with direct costs at no fault of my own.
Dear Madam or Sir,
We had rented a car from your Paros agency (Caldera/Europcar) starting on June 2, 2014 1425 hours and ending on June 4, 2014 0945 hours.
To start with the rental agreement we signed did not carry any document number.
We met a highly unprofessional and unfriendly office clerk (Andreas) who first of all informed us that we were too late in picking up the car and that we were lucky that he did not cancel our booking due to no-show. The contract does not mention any kind of this term. Secondly he did not acknowledge our valid booking of a second driver. He then proceeded to show us the car and we went through the state of the car in a detail that if we had really covered all the existing damages (bumps, scratches, dents) would have taken over an hour to complete the car state form. We naturally only covered the major problems.
The car was returned way ahead of the due time (1230 hours), but Andreas claimed we were too late (0945 hours). We inspected the car together which was covered in a mild dirt crust as a result of the rain drizzles during the previous day. Being a Greek company you surely know what I am talking about. Without going into any details according to the car state form Andreas claimed to see two scratches all along the right car side. He commented that the car will need to be repainted and left saying that he will deduct the necessary amount from the credit card deposit. We proceeded to remove the dirt crust from the right side showing now scratch of any kind. Unfortunately Andreas was not in a mood to have a second look at the car. The local police did also not show much interest in acting as a witness. One of the cleaning assistants of Caldera/Europcar we called to have a look for scratches on the right sight after removing the dust told us that he could not see anything that even faintly resembles a scratch.
We took pictures of the cars sides. None of them shows any scratches that Andreas claims he saw.
I have been renting cars in Paros for the past 12 years and never encountered any problems with rental agents. Luckily I never had to deal with Caldera/Europcar and will make sure in future that I will avoid them.
The behaviour of Andreas is very bad propaganda for your agency, for Paros tourism and for Greece in general. This negative experience ruined our overall excellent short vacation on Paros.
Please, send a detailed report of the damages that Andreas claims we are responsible for to my Athens lawyer xxx together with a qualified cost estimate by a legal repair shop. She will examine the case and get back to you.
Best regards,
Manfred Weis
When I took the car at the airport in Great Britain, the exchange with the rental agent lasted less than 30 seconds really (many people were waiting for...): no proposal of a specific insurance, only the endorsement about the state of the car, the keys and the number of the outside park location. Nothing else. I didn’t get any arm’s length agreement in a paper form.
After 8 days, I went back without any damage and with a full tank, as usual.
Two days after my back, I received an invoice with an undue payment of 189 £ for specific additional insurance, directly taken by Europcar from the deposit guarantee. I thought it was a mistake in the process, I couldn’t imagine a fraud. I wrote to the Europcar customer service.
I was extremely shocked by the negative answer. Europcar said: there are two circles around SPAI and GoZen (in a column named “Extension rates”) on Europcar internal paper (that I didn’t get at the airport!). I don’t know who made the circles, and when! Anyway, without my signature.
Incredible attitude: a compulsory sale (similar to a fraud) to double the price thanks to specific additional insurance.
I never got a problem with another car rental company in 40 years. Twice car rental with Europcar (because of easyJet): twice problems, one in Italy (but issue only 3 euros, without answer from the customer service), one in Great Britain (amount of 189 £).
“Europcar sucks”. Never use Europcar. EasyJet should change its partner.
We rented from Perpignan Airport and upon reciept of the car were told to return with the tank full.We don't need to be told this we allways do.
When we started the car we nowticed that the tank was not full the needle was between the 3/4 and the full mark.It was a small Clio and we debated if someone from the company had access to the car and had been using it.Never the less it was a small amount and we decided we would not bother mentioning it.
At the end of the holiday we did the usual thing and filled the car up at the supermarket right to the brim.
When we got to the airport we noted the the needle was still reading full and therefore the levell of fuel was well in excess of what it was when we first hired the car.
Imagine our dissapointment and anger when weeks later we recieved an invoice saying nearly 70 euros had been taken from our credit card because we had not filled up.
So beware this is not a trustworthy company.
The second experience was in Australia when I was charged for damage which had been incurred by a previous renter. Europcar did not investigated my complaint that I had not damaged the car, provided no evidence of the damage and simply debited my account by $AUD 400 for what they said was a small scratch which required painting (no panel beating). They say that they will refund and compensate me but it has not happened.
I think Europcar applies these false charges, relying on the inertia of the renter in the hope that the false charges will not be challenged. It's a shocking service and Europcar should be boycotted.
We recently hired a larger car from them because we were going on holiday with children and grandchildren. Everything went smoothly for the holiday and the car was returned before the due time. However, we were invoiced, and the money taken from my bank account, for an additional days hire. Although I had returned the car in good time, the recorded time of my return and hence the invoice reflected something different.
Luckily I have documentary evidence of the time of filling the car with fuel and my whereabouts immediately after returning it, showing that there timing is wrong. Without the evidence I would be considerably out of pocket and it appears that I am far from alone in experiencing the questionable honesty of this company. I have registered a complaint with Eurocar and have a reference number for it; I now wait to see their response. Whatever that response is, I will never use Eurocar again and at every opportunity advise others not to use them. There are other providers that value both their company name and their customers, use them.
Continuous miss selling from top sales people and all management are turning a blind eye as it brings in profits and reaches branch RPD targets. Front line staff do not say anything, as they will not get the support from management. Management creating cliques with staff means that they exchanging favors for personal gain. Here’s some of the evidence: -
Fleet manager always excused from selling, the main dirty truth is that he is checking out customers the top seller can’t sell on. Also leaving his logging open for his duty manager close friend to use it as dust bin check out. He has checked out sometimes 200 days. That’s allot of days so if fleet manager is checking out then he should be selling and certainly not be checking out retail customers as this is done at front desk.
The top seller has been earning between £1,500 – £3,400 commissions for over 7 years yet most of the time everyone else is struggling to earn just over £1,000. Allot of this is keeping key corporate accounts to yourself getting to know there faces, email etc. Then doing middle shifts or swop shifts so agent always gets these customers.
Then there’s the more illegal thing that the top seller does is check out the customer 2 days before they arrive and then put notes saying they have taken the key with them at Germany over the weekend and will take car on Monday instead the key is hidden by work colleague Nayra who is close with top seller and handed to customer when he arrives. Company has no limit on extra spending just secure the car which is why it such a lucrative deal for sales staff. Here’s the evidence see this RA: 13261822 on 26/01 check scanned RA for further evidence and notes on system. Made duplicate res for the actual day customer arrives res number 981795485 but res made on day it was checked out then keys hidden.
Another illegal tactic is to swipe the card for half the amount to make look like the customer is paying less and when customer has left charge the rest of the money. RA: 136152166 Katharina Trapp. Surcharge of £704 taken after. Any complaints from customer or customer services will go straight to agent and then delete inbox.
Then there’s the dummy reservations made at branch level to secure upgrades £40 a day for 4 weeks. Duty managers help the top seller to secure this booking as previous year email was sent making own reservations to secure upgrade would lead to displinary action. Res number 982451862 name Jones.
Then there’s top seller just adding an upgrade charge without telling the customer and when customer complains duty manager will add allowance so bestseller still gets the upgrade. On top of that when company low in fleet telling customers we have no cars available apart from higher grade which will only given if customer pays for upgrade if customer refuses then customer will be told to wait for 1 hour. If customer waits then agent will get someone else to do it. Hence why there’s always customer waiting around when this top seller dealing with customers.
Top seller continues ask work colleagues to make reservations for her so she is free from making changes when customer arrives. Then there’s not following procedures just to get anything from customer. Making very high discount rates with cash to secure additional products RA: 135693184. On top of that top seller helping duty manager out so she can return favor by covering her illegal activities. RA 135536246 / DAVID JONES rental increased from 14 days to 35 days.
The best seller is friends with branch manager Rachael Kerr on Facebook, what’s that all about?
All comments here are depressingly familiar. Money stolen from our credit card...all communications ignored...letter sent to wrong address...no email contact. Shocking apology of a company. I will write to the CEO listed above, suggest everyone else does too, but presume that he is satisfied with corrupt nature of his empire. What a world when this type of behaviour is accepted.
Ps. My google review for the Glasgow, UK office was removed! They appear to have some clout!
Booked an Audi A4 estate in March With Auto Europe for June collection at Fiumicino airport Rome. Arrived at Locauto to collect the car and after an hour queuing in their unair-conditioned office was informed that I would need TWO credit cards to guarantee the car as it was 'nice car'.
In 30 years of renting cars I have never come across this.
I started to offer my wife's card, as I only carry one credit card but was told - NO. It must be TWO cards in my name, which I did not have.
I offered the card of the secondary driver - NO. It must be TWO cards in my name, which I did not have.
I was informed that the two credit card stipulation was in the terms and conditions and I asked to be shown where.
Lo and behold, there it was in minute 6 point type on buried at the bottom of page 4 of the Ts and Cs.
Not exactly the right place for such an important piece of information.
After some argument, I accepted a lower spec car and asked for the significant balance to be credited.
Nothing to do with us, said Locauto, contact Auto Europe when you get home.
So I did.
Auto Europe's customer service department put me through to a surly American who refused to accept that page 4 in tiny type is in any way hidden.
Despite the fact that it clearly is.
They have point blank refused to repay the difference between what I paid and what I got. They refused to discuss it, blanked my questions with silence and ending up hanging up the phone on me, though I had neither raised my voice nor lost my temper.
AVOID THIS COMPANY!
i rent this car Fiat Scudo 7 seater ,and im using it for 6 persons and i need to check if its good to carry 1 bagge for each person..
thanks kenneth
After the return of the car we were constantly told the amount never had been deducted, even though our bank confirmed this multiple times! It has now been months and we are still fighting to get our deposit back, we have talked to countless Eurocar customer service agents and they keep telling us that the amount was either not deducted, we should wait for longer, and when we provided them with proof for the bank they didn't accept it, telling its not from their rental!!!!!
This is incredibly frustrating!!!!!
Why would the customer service constantly deny something that their own staff at the Europcar counter told us and deny any proof?????