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
The car broke down and we arranged for the vehicle to be collected with over a 3rd of a tank of fuel in the vehicle on recovery and went to the local office and were given a another car. Before driving away in the replacement car, I noticed the tank was not full and went back to the office and they said the petrol gauge could not move to show a full tank and that it was noted on the hire documents that this was a fault.
When we returned the vehicle, I filled the tank until full.
A week later, I received a hefty bill for fuel for the broken down vehicle and for refilling of the car returned with a full tank and a charge for a missing high visibility vest.
When i checked the litres of fuel charged for against the car that broke down, that had more than a 3rd of a tank left in it. Then checked the fuel tank capacity for the vehicle, I noticed that they had charged for more fuel than the vehicle could possibly take. I disputed all 3 charges and over a period of 2 months managed to reduce the bill by over £100 pounds.
You cannot trust Europ Car and I would advise you meticulously document refueling to prevent from being 'taken for a ride' by Europcar
My friend had a similar thing happen to him when he hired a vehicle and was charged for fuel after he filled the tank and dropped it off meters from the petrol station he had filled used to refuel.
Shady staff or out rite fraud, either way, be careful!
A quote from an email I received this morning from the Deputy Client Liaison Officer:
"The additional charge of £7.64 that you have received is for Taxes that were not included in your original booking. In error, this was invoiced to your Tour Operator Cardelmar who rejected the charge and so it was passed back to yourself.
Due to the amount that has been charged and the delay in this being invoiced to yourself, I have made the decision to process a refund for the amount. Therefore, a refund of £7.64 has been processed back to your Visa card, please allow 3-10 working days for the refund to appear in your account."
Successful outcome for me, if you forget about my time and international phone calls. But the "Due to the amount that has been charged" doesn't bode well for many who have posted here regarding larger sums. I suspect I'm lucky that it would cost them more to fight this than merely to repay.
Good luck!
I rented a car in France and the car was not there when we arrived and they had no other cars available. We had to take a train to toulouse 2 1/2 hours away to find a car so we could drive to Italy and then later return to Nice France. I then split up with the Couple we were with and went to Florence Italy to pick up another which I had rented 6 weeks before was not available, which was an Alfa estate wagon, was not there and they only had a lancia which was filthy dirty along with no GPS. They drove off to find one which took about 1/2 an hour and then was intermittent in operation with no current updates. What a disaster I would never rent from Europcar again. I travel in Europe every year and they are hopless. I hope this helps in you decisions to rent a car in Western Europe.
They say they are "looking into it" but it has been 4 months and no progress.
Needless to say, NEVER rent from EUROPCAR.
1. Europcar operates in foreign currency, as in the currency of the country where they have a given office.
2. When they charge you in a currency other than your own, they are protected from disputes from card companies.
3. When they charge you in foreign currency, they use a conversion rate that is not fair or in your favor.
4. They have an international handling fee that they add on after the authorization.
I authorized 545 US dollars, but the bunk conversion rate bumped it up to 552, then add an 18 dollar international fee. They mentioned none of this prior to authorization, because, really, they don't have to.
Be warned. The best my card company could do was to prevent further charges from europcar.
Just this past month I was in France and when I picked up my car, I was told that I received an upgrade free of charge and it included a built in GPS, which I did not need since I had my own. All free upgrade. Needless to say they charged my card 200 Euro's for this free upgrade. Eldan is now in the process of getting the money back to me.
In short, I am certain that Eurocar over charge people as a matter of policy, thinking that they can get away with it with a certain percentage of people.
They charged my card 468 + 370 = 838 SFR !!!!.
After I claimed I got a credit and an answer that the 468 was by mistake but they still charge 370 SFR for this “free” upgrade!!!
looks like Eurocar over charge people , thinking that they can get away with it with a certain percentage of people.
This is a big red flag since they gave me no proof of how much they quoted me when I booked the car. I have never heard of a service that does not give you a proof of quote. I cannot think of a reason they would do this other than being able to charge you more later on. This also makes me believe that it was not an isolated incident as processes are made at the top. I would think dishonesty is embedded in their culture and other reviews here confirm that they do consisntetly overcharge.
After I insisted, they sent me an SMS with the quote.
When I returned the car, they claimed their computers were down, so they could not give me invoice but they will charge my card (which they had on file now) and send me invoice by email.
I did not receive any invoice but my card was charged more than twice the amount. I called them to ask about extra charge - they said thats the correct amount (despite me claiming I have SMS. They showed no interest in my SMS proof of quote.
After escalating it, they returned me half the extra amount charged. I doubt I will ever get the rest half. So overall I ended up paying 50% more than what they quoted, which was higher than other providers anyways to begin with. Next time I rented from a different providers (not mentioning the name so it does not appear that I am advertising for them) and it cost me 43% less than europcar.
My suggestion is - when you book, make sure you have a paper quote of the amount they quoted.
Who would you recommend to rent a car from at Munich?
I am very disheartened by all the poor press.
I have quotes from Holiday Autos (broker) for a Thrify car and also from Europcar (direct car hire)?
Kind regards.
Had the photos examined by a qualifed mechanic who couldnt see any problem with any of the parts.Am now awaiting a response to my reply. Am disgusted with the lies perpetrated by this company. I rang customer services and was told that the maximum amount that the client is liable for is the excess (€730)so how did they arrive at £816.00 ?
Will repost on my progress.
We signed a document which showed where the damage was on a diagram. As an afterthought, my partner asked what the damage would cost and we were shocked to be told 900 euros! The car's only worth about 5000 euros! So we had only the clothes we stood up in, paid £95 for an emergency passport, lost all our luggage, camera etc and felt we had been robbed twice.
On returning to England yesterday, we immediately advised the credit card company that we disputed the charge and had the card stopped. We will fight this but if my camera and phone hadn't been stolen, I'd have taken photos of the scratch on the car.
On the Easyjet flight the flight attendant was plugging Europecar as their 'partner' and pressing people to use them. I don't think this association with Europcar is at all good for Easyjet's reputation - they are thieves. It is a sad fact that it is hard to trust anyone these days. You really have to do your research before buying or hiring anything.
And a warning about 'free' holiday insurance you might be offered with a bank account - check the small print before you fly as it will be very basic and excludes almost everything you might need to claim for. I couldn't claim for anything electrical (hair straighteners, digital camera, hairdrier), jewellery and anything clearly on show in the car eg my jacket which was hanging on the back of my seat.
I am a muslim and during EID time this company put the prices up so can't afford to rent cars. They do it on EID and Divali.
They have more reservations then they have cars completly useless.
I don't if you don't always consider your worker's health.
All what you know is that they should work(Drivers)