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
[***]!!! DO NOT USE EUROPCAR..YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED....!
I am from India and i bought one Audi Q-7 from Chandigarh, Punjab,India dealer in the month of Feb., 2009 IN THE NAME OF MUSKAAN POWER INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED. At the time of finalization of the deal the concerned officers assured me that they will provide me the TEFLON coating at the time of delivery which they did not and told me that since the time was short we will do the same in few months time and our driver will come to you & will take the car from us. Also they assured me that whenever i need service of the car - they will send their Driver to us for pick & drop facility at no extra cost but now they are refusing saying that the person dealing with us has left them and they donot have such facility &if i need the service i have to pay extra to them
Further from the day one the car had a knocking problem for which once they sent their engineer once to me who too told that he will arrange to pick up the car from us and will get the same rectified but till date nothing has come out.
MY EXPERIENCE TILL DATE IS VERY BAD & I HAVE DECIDED THAT I WILL NOT RECOMMEND THE SAME TO ANY OF MY FRIENDS. I FEEL I HAVE BEEN CHEATED BADLY BY THE TEAM OF AUDI DEALER AND THEY ARE RUNNING FROM THEIR COMMITMENTS.
Ravi Mahajan
Director
Muskaan Power Infrastructure Limited
+919814112450
The only difference is that we IMMEDIATELY told our credit card company NOT TO PAY the unauthorized charges. The law in the U.S. is that if you notify your credit card company about unauthorized charges on your card, you are not required to pay more than $50. Many people don't know this.
Okay, heres my story. last week i rented a car from the palermo station in sicily(fiat 500). As i did not have a credit card europ car were the only rental company i could find to give me a car on short notice. I was told a cash deposit of 250 euro was required which seemed perfectly reasonable. On arrival I completed all documentation and was told that there was a scratch on the rear wing left hand side of the car which i found on inspection later. After further examiniation I saw another scratch on the right hand side rear wing, so went back into the office and told the girl about thye scratch. She marked it on the documentation and said it was okay(didnt even bother to look at the car). I drove off happily and had a great holiday. The following Sunday I returned with the car(full tank, exact same condition I recieved it) and handed the keys back. The girl proceeded to check the car out while I waited at the office. Fifteen minutes later she came back and told me I had cause damage. A scratch on the rear end(see where this is going) and I would have to pay for this out of my deposit. I went to check the car out and after much searching eventually found a tiny scratch. I did not think I did this but since I never showed her beforehand. I had not a leg to stand on. Went back and after much discussion said I would pay as my flight was almost due. On hearing I would have to pay 228 euro I was getting mad but when I was told I would also have to pay an administration charge of 90 euro I completely lost it. The girl tried to justify this by telling me it was a very large scratch so I asked her to show me. When we took a look at the car, sure enough she was trying to do me for the large scratch pointed ouit to me first day and was even marked on the documentation. After much debating I finally got my full deposit back.
Never ever use europcar, they are gangsters and will try to screw you every way possible.
The telephone robot gave a number to call if we have any comments about the quality of service. Sounds helpful. Of course the customer pays to call this number and it is very expensive. I called it and got Frederick. Although I was polite, Frederick wouldn't listen to my request for help and wouldn't connect me to a manager as I asked. This was no help. On 19 February I got a wire transfer. The amounts I was charged but never used (the amount I was overcharged) totaled $980.92, as stated by Carol Hesry and also as they appear on my bank statement. But the wire transfer to me was only for 965.92. I pointed this out to Ms. Hesry but she ignored my email again. In addition, my bank charged me $12.00 for the wire transfer. Can you believe Europcar charged me the $15 for the wire transfer? So to this day, they have not returned all the money. And I spent a ton of time and stress trying to motivate Europcar employees. I have received no appologies, no interest for the time they kept my money, and nothing to attempt to make up for this problem. Nothing to show that anybody cares, except for Kosana's words. I told my friends early in the ordeal that they should never use Europcar. I guess they have enough customers that they don't care about a few serious mistakes. But no-one should have to go through this. No-one should run the risk. No-one should use Europcar.
Now I know Europcar France was at the bottom of this. When I booked this car rental online I used europcar.com rather than europcar.fr, and I paid with a U.S. bank card with a U.S. billing address. The only reason my booking went to Europcar France was that I was in France when I made the booking. I don’t know if booking physically outside of France is safe or not. The guys in the Belgrade rental location were nice, but they were not the ones who charged my card and they could do nothing about it.
I was patient and polite for 8 months. Europcar wouldn't respond to me and Europcar consistantly doesn't care. With its attitude, Europcar doesn't deserve to have any business.
Allegedly, Europcar is the largest car hire company in the UK. How they can afford to run their business in such a way is beyond my comprehension. That’s why, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I have filed a grievance against Europcar to an Employment Tribunal in Liverpool. My experience with that company is absolutely horrible. My advice is to avoid them at all costs, as all that they can offer is humiliation, lies and disregard for the law.
Weekly e-mails plus two calls to Customer Services (called Customer Relations, actually) via +44 1923 811 340 (waiting times of 20-35 min) did not resolve the issue over a month. Will be interesting to see how long this will take...
Utterly unacceptable, both in terms of service and communication.
I usually book Avis - should have gone with them, even though they would have been slightly more expensive - if europcar had charged the amount stated on the contract (now I have more cost + hassle). Wouldn't recommend europcar.
I hired a car for my family's two-week holiday in Italy and have been "charged" (de-frauded is perhaps a more accurate description):
- A fuel surcharge for returning a "temporary" vehicle (it was temporary because they did not have the Volvo estate I ordered and gave me a Fiat Qubo!) a day later to swap it for the Volvo. I refused to top up the quarter empty tank of the Fiat (why should I pay the fuel costs of returning the vehicle due to their failure to provide me with the correct vehicle to start with?) and was subsequently charged £40. Needless to say, I was not offered a discount on the cost of the little Fiat, the daily hire charge of which was about the Volvo...
- a days additional hire charge for returning the car at 6pm instead of 5.30pm on a Sunday evening (I had already prepaid a £30 "out of hours" opening charge - despite the fact that every man and his wife seemed to be returning their car also on Sunday evening) and
- a further "surcharge" of £75 with absolutely no explanation.
Whilst I would not dream of giving my credit card details in the form of an unwritten cheque to anybody else, this seems to be the only way you can hire a car. It is massively exposed to abuse of course and apparently little in the way of legislation exists to prevent what I think is literally an act of extortion on the part of Europcar. Its high time the EU enacted some laws to stamp this out. In the meantime, I will do everything I can to discourage everybody I know to boycott Eurocar.
I collected the car was given a key and fob and a small slip of paper for when I return the vehicle and I drove away. On 21st July having parked my car in a car park in Moraira, I returned with my wife, to discover that a Citreon C8 vehicle had reversed into the front offside wing of the hire car. The driver of the C8 returned a short while later and stated that he had parked on the opposite side of the car park and he must have forgotten to set his hand brake and the car had rolled back into ours. He was very apologetic and admitted full liability. He asked me for my insurance details so I went to the glove box in the car only to find that there was no paperwork in the car at all for Europcar. All I had was a small slip of paper for when I check the car back in. There was nothing in the car with Europcar's contact No's or any means of seeking assistance.
The other driver gave me his name and address. The car was a Citroen C8 . I took photographs of the vehicles in situ including index No's.
I was completly unaware of the procedures in relation to the insurance details etc as I had no paperwork to which I could refer.
I reported the accident to the Alicante Office by phone later that day and the lady advised me to attend the Calpe office to collect a form and that she would make an entry on the system recording the details.
I drove to Calpe that day and spoke to a lady in the office she gave me an insurance form to fill out however the form was in spanish and I was unsure where to put the details of the other drivers car. She then took the form and filled in the details. She then said that the form waas worthless without the other driver's signature. I explained, again that I did not have a form at the time to fill in so I could not get a signature. She advised me to report the matter to the police.
I went back to Moraira and went to the police station but they would not deal with me without an interpreter.
I realsied at this time that I still did not have an insurance form or details of the Europcar insurance in case I had another accident so I called the Europcar office in Calpe and at Alicante but could not get anyone to provide me with these details, so I drove back to Calpe and spoke to the same lady who seemed unable to find the details and eventually had to go out ot a hire car and copy the details from the paperwork in the glove box.
I located an interpreter (at my own expence) and went to the police station at Bennissa to report the matter. The officer that we spoke to said that he was unable to make a report as he had not been to the scene but that as I had details of the other car and driver Europcar could contact him and deal withhis insurance Co. He then phoned the Calpe officer for Europcar and spoke to the same lady as she recalled me coming in. She apparently toldd the officer that the only reason that she recommended me to report it to the police was that she did not realise that I had the detail;s of the other driver etc. This is untrue as she filled in his details on the form.
The police officer told me that the lady at the Calpe office was going to make an entry against my reservation record so that there would not be any problems when I returned the car.
I returned the car to Alicante Airport on 29th July 2009 and spoke to the lady at the desk I explained about the accident and she said that there was no record on the system and that as I had not obtained the other drivers signature then I would be liable. I pointed out that there was a note on the insurance form that said that by signing the form the person was not admitting liability. I provided copies of the photo's of the accident to the lady along with the insurance form with all of the details of the other driver etc. She said that in her experience that as the other driver had not signed a form I wuld be liabel for an excess penalty. I provided her with contact details in case this was an issue and asked that she ensure that I be contacted before any "excess payment" was taken from my credit card. I was never given any details of what the excess charge would be ( I have checked the documentation provided at time of booking also)
I have checked today (11th August) and found that on 3rd August the sum of £623.10 was taken from my card, this was the same day that payment was taken for the hire of the car.
I clearly am not happy that I have been put in the situation by not being provided with the relevant paperwork in the car on hiring it, I am also not happy about the lack of assistance that was provided to me by the staff at Calpe and Alicante and feel that I was put in an untenable position which resulted in a lot of stress for me, two trips to Calpe office, two trips to the police station and interpreters costs all for nothing, I might just as well have ingored the damage and returned the car in a damaged condition.
Why was I not conatcted before the charge was applied to my card as I requested?
In addition, if the charge applied to me is an excess charge then I am keen to find out an excess of what. Was the car repaired by the 3rd August when the charge was applied? What was the final repair bill? I must have been quite high if the excessis £623.10? What concerns me is that the bumper that was scratched and dented in this accident was already scratched as detailed ont eh one slip of paper that I was given when I rented the car and the rear driver side wing was badly dented and distorted (again recorded on the checking slip) so has the car actually been repaired? If it has then I can understand the excess charge but if it hasn't then what I am I being charged for?
I would like to see proof of the repairs that have been done the cost of these. I would also like to know the views of your customer services in relation to the appauling way in which I have been treated. I am also keen to know what enquiries the Insurance company has made to cotact the other driver to claim back any additonal costs that have not been covered by the excess payment. Surely if there is a higher bill they are not going to just accept the cost without some enquiries to try to recover the costs?
I would be grateful for the opportunity to speak to someone to discuss these matters at your earlist convienience.
Sent on 11th August & again yesterday - No response todate!!!! I won't hold my breath
Before I returned the damaged car, we (luckly)took several pictures of the key, just in case they tried to charge us .......and they really DID it.
During my vacations, I have emailed them and sen the pictures. They answered me asking for the pictures of the key, and all the documents I had about the type of fuel....I sent all that again....they returned, asking ....."your number of reference as your number of claim or your invoice number to treat your file?" .... Well,I didn´t want to worry about and had no time to look for it ; I was in a 40 days journey in Europe....- so, I answered that they had, in the key and in my contract, all the information they needed .
Returning to Brazil .....SURPRISE.... In my American Express ,they charged me 318 euro more than the total . This was in August 12th, and since then, I´m writing to Europcar custom service in France, asking for a reply. THEY DO NOT REPLY ANYMORE !!!!!!!! THEY WEREN´T HONEST WITH ME ...now they have the money, why are they going to have the trouble?
I can see in several comments here that in Italy they had some problems.
I rented in Rome, also through Europecar and had no problem at all. That´s why I´m so disapointed about the way they treat me as a customer, in France.
Beat your experiences !
I prebooked via easyjet . When I arrived at Gatwick at 11.30 pm I was told there was no car -- there were about another 20 people in the same boat.
Staff said they could not help ! and told us to make our own arrangements
Complete nightmare -- had to get a train and taxi to destination and hire a car locally next day
I am still trying to get through to there customer services after 3 days of trying !!!
What a compte disgrace -- DO NOT USE - you cannot trust them to even provide you with a car !!
I have a complain to europcar and I'm looking for an europcar customer service e-mail address. Do you mind to send me a possible contact to procede.
My e-mail is arroyuelo4@yahoo.es
Many thanks
Miguel