Very bad customer service and car in dangerous condition
Complaint
Benoît
Country: Switzerland
We made a prepaid reservation of a small 4x4 over the internet for our holidays in Oman. As expected, the reservation was confirmed and my credit card was charged.
When we arrived at the Europcar counter at Muscat airport, they told us that they made a mistake and gave our car to someone else with our contract! After after a while they pretended seeking for a solution (their counter was a pure mess and they were not able to find the actual contract they gave to another person), they said that we will take another available car, a really really big SUV.
They then pressed us (it was around midnight) to quickly leave the place without giving us any updated contract and no proof at all that they screwed up our reservation and that they tried to somehow correct their mistake.
At that point, it was still more or less ok, apart of the fact that we expected a small, agile and economic car for our holidays and we ended up with the exact opposite.
Problems started the day after when a warning light illuminated on the dashboard indicating a low tire pressure. This is when we stopped at a service station to pump the tires that we realized the dramatic condition in which they were. And what was inevitable happened, a few days later a tire burst, fortunately on a road, but in the middle of nowhere with an outdoor temperature over 40°C. We were fortunate enough to find a place where they could change 2 of our most damaged tires.
It's worse to mention that the same problem could have happened while driving an off-road track, lost in the middle of nowhere, which is very common activity in Oman.
We contacted Europcar to tell them about the problem but they just replied that flat tires were not covered by insurance and we had to repair them at our own expense!
Icing on the cake, after all these troubles, when we were to return back the car, they asked for our credit card to pay for it. It was a prepaid reservation!! They said we were wrong and the car was not indicated as paid in their "system". They even tried to convince us by waiving a fake contract with our name, probably in place of that of the person who took our car in first place.
We refused to pay anything and they let us go by claiming that their manager would contact us. Two days later, I received an email without any form of politeness asking a proof of my reservation. I forwarded the confirmation email that I received from Europcar and it is now a week since I have not received any news from them.
This is clear that Europcar lost a customer.
When we arrived at the Europcar counter at Muscat airport, they told us that they made a mistake and gave our car to someone else with our contract! After after a while they pretended seeking for a solution (their counter was a pure mess and they were not able to find the actual contract they gave to another person), they said that we will take another available car, a really really big SUV.
They then pressed us (it was around midnight) to quickly leave the place without giving us any updated contract and no proof at all that they screwed up our reservation and that they tried to somehow correct their mistake.
At that point, it was still more or less ok, apart of the fact that we expected a small, agile and economic car for our holidays and we ended up with the exact opposite.
Problems started the day after when a warning light illuminated on the dashboard indicating a low tire pressure. This is when we stopped at a service station to pump the tires that we realized the dramatic condition in which they were. And what was inevitable happened, a few days later a tire burst, fortunately on a road, but in the middle of nowhere with an outdoor temperature over 40°C. We were fortunate enough to find a place where they could change 2 of our most damaged tires.
It's worse to mention that the same problem could have happened while driving an off-road track, lost in the middle of nowhere, which is very common activity in Oman.
We contacted Europcar to tell them about the problem but they just replied that flat tires were not covered by insurance and we had to repair them at our own expense!
Icing on the cake, after all these troubles, when we were to return back the car, they asked for our credit card to pay for it. It was a prepaid reservation!! They said we were wrong and the car was not indicated as paid in their "system". They even tried to convince us by waiving a fake contract with our name, probably in place of that of the person who took our car in first place.
We refused to pay anything and they let us go by claiming that their manager would contact us. Two days later, I received an email without any form of politeness asking a proof of my reservation. I forwarded the confirmation email that I received from Europcar and it is now a week since I have not received any news from them.
This is clear that Europcar lost a customer.
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