Auto Europe
Reviews and Complaints

A debit of US$37.53 = N$726.19 was debited to our company card on 11 Sep 23 of which we have no knowledge of authorising, We have not received any invoices or supporting documents of this debit. We have emailed the following e-mails and have had no ack. of receipt of mails and also no undelivered messages - we mailed the South African office as this is the nearest office to Namibia but also mailed the worldwide office. We asked to redirect the mail to the correct department if the recipient cannot assist - no responses whatsoever

customerservice@autoeurope.co.za

reservations@autoeurope.co.za

reservations@autoeurope.com

aiden@autoeurope.com

Dear Sirs,

My name is Marian Catalin Ciuca and from my card has been taken, without my autorization, by your company 545.15 EUR on 15.11.2019 02.00 AM.

I discussed with the representatives of ING Bank on same day 15.11.2019 around 10.00 AM that I did not authorized this payment, and they still authorized it on 20.11.2019.
I will sue the bank for illegal authorization, and I want from you:

1. the request I have made for your services (which I did not required);
2.a copy of the invoice you have sent to me, based on this services I have supposedly asked from you ( which I did not);
3.date, hour and place of receiving by myself of the car and proof of my signature on this papers and also of the representative who received the car back, including date, place and hour.

I am waiting an answer from you today, if not I will fill a complaint to the Data Protection Body in Germany for unauthorized use of my data without my consent and authorization.

Sincerely,

Marian Catalin Ciuca/Romania
0040.744.325.216

Dear Mr. Khalidi,
Dear Mr. Mcdevitt

I am sending you this e-mail regarding a bigger problem I have with your company.

I have tried multiple times to address the matter at hand to the customer service in Germany and was utterly mistreated and called a fraud and a liar! The employee proceeded then to shout me out and hung up on me! I tried called again again, and by some dumb luck ended up at the same employee again, were she rigorously hung up me again, 3 Times.
When I called again and had someone else, I asked for a supervisor or manager, i was deniet contact with them, and again hung up on.

- I really do NOT appreciate being called a liar.

- I really do NOT appreciated being treated like fraud or someone that is trying to hustle money from your company.

- I really do NOT appreciate being shouted at on the phone.

- I really do NOT appreciate being hung up on, multiple times.

- I really do NOT appreciate being denied service, or speaking with someone in charge.

- I really do NOT appreciate being charged money for a rental that did not happen.

- I really really do NOT like that the employees kinda ganged up on me, and stated all cutting me off and hanging up on me.

Dear Mr. Khalidi,
Dear Mr. McDevitt,

Please advise, I would very much appreciate an Answer and a solution for this Problem, I demand an apology from said employee and customer services in Germany. I hope we can solve it via this channel and don't have to complicate the situation

PS.:

To loop you in about the essential problem:
Voucher Nr. [protected] in Göttingen, DE.
The local agent did NOT provide the car, due to a malfunction in said car, the car was withheld for inspection, and he didn't have alternatives, so he confirmed that the rental is cancelled, and there would of course be no charge.

BUT I did get charged, and all I asked on the phone is to deal with problem, the employee accused me of lying, she said I was not charged, I should stop repeating that I was, she will not believe me if I were just to repeat my self!

Following is the Bank Transaktion:
image1.png

With the utmost respect,
Sincerely,

Adel Berakdar

I did the reservation of my car for a family vacation with Auto Europe. Auto Europe sent me a Voucher / a contract, in which all the conditions of this rental were set. Thus Auto Europe is my contact company, my addressee in this matter.

Maggiore is one partner company of Auto Europe for Italy, and they should have provided me the reserved car (I already had paid the car rental costs at Auto Europe). But when I wanted to pick up the reserved car in Milano, I was told by he staff of Maggiore that that car was not available. That is, in my point of view, a breach of contract. By not providing me the car that I had reserved, Maggiore broke my existing reservation! The staff in Maggiore then told me that he could give me a similar car. In any case, standard practice in such a situation is that the company will offer a similar car for the same price to the client. Because it is only the company's fault, if the pledged car is not available. It is not the client's fault.

Maggiore then forced me to sign a new document (contratto) and to take the other car. The staff of Maggiore lied to me by telling me that I would get a "similar" car. He did not tell me that that car would come at a higher price. So when I thought about the standard practice in such a situation and the staff told me about a "similar car", I automatically assumed that that replacement car would come at the same price as the pledged car. The document that I signed was in Italian language. I don't understand Italian, and the staff of Maggiore refused to explain to me the content of the document. He only marked the places in the document where I had to sign. I signed everything, because of the reasons explained above ("standard practice"), and because other people were already waiting there and complaining that my transaction took too much time.

When I returned the car 9 days later, I was shocked to learn that the car company asked me to pay additional car rental costs! It turned out that they had not given a "similar" car to me, but a slightly "better" car, and they wanted additional money from me. Even though I protested against this, they later withdrew the additional costs from my credit card.

I then wrote 4 e-Mails to Auto Europe, explaining the matter to them, and asking them to refund me the amount that was deducted from my credit card for the use of the replacement car.

But Auto Europe just ignored my e-mails, they did not reply to me anymore!

After this bad experience, I will never book a car through Auto Europe anymore ...

Dear Sirs
Re: Auto Europe voucher number UK4895972-1
Green Motion reservation number AEU-[protected]

We were due to collect our hire car from Green Motion (Luton) at 19.30 hrs on July 5 2019, our flight was delayed only slightly 10 minutes or so landing at approximately 19.15, plus delay through passport control and baggage, however, my wife was haemorrhaging blood after the flight so we needed to stay close to a toilet at Luton Airport.

At approximately 20.30 hrs we called Green Motion and explained the situation, they said we must get there before they close at 21.00 hrs, we stated that all our documents for the car hire stated opening hours Mon - Fri 07.00 - 22.00 hrs 10.00pm they denied this and said it was 21.00 hrs.

You will see from the attached documents that we collected the hire car at 21.02 hrs which they charged us £30.00 plus vat £36.00
They informed us that we should apply for a refund from Auto Europe due to incorrect trading times.

We would appreciate your understanding in this matter and hope that you can reimburse us immediately for the £36.00

Many thanks.

Kind regards.

Mr Les Meyer

Hi all,
Auto Europe does not process insurance refund although all nexessary documents provided. They even do not reply emails. I recommend to avoid this services of this company.

We rented car through Auto Europe. Local car provider/vendor gave a car and the tire was flat after 40min after driving. We made all documents with local vendor and I paid to vendor. We called to auto europe and they said thay I have full insurance and I will be refunded. I made refund claim and provided all documents but because first email was missing english reclaim summary and credit card details (only copy of accident summary and payment receipt) they closed my case. I provided rest of the documents needed but they stopped replying my emails. Most strange thing was that they had refund claim templates in finnish thus I compeleted them in finnish but then they came back to me because all need to be in english since they do not have finnish speaking person.

The issue that I have experienced was: I booked my car last night with autoeurope. the car was supposed to be picked up at the Hertz in Victoria coach station. On the website i booked to pick up the car at 5.30pm because i couldnt leave earlier because of work. i got to the pick up place at 5.20pm and it was closed ! I could see the employee checking the doors were closed, a small man with a beard, looked spanish or italian. I called Hertz and autoeurope and i been told disrespectfully to call in the morning as they were closed. They said i couldnt cancel my booking because i didnt do it 48hours prior the pick up, even though i booked less than 24hours.
I managed to book on the website for 5.30pm pick up even though Hertz closes at 5.30pm, this does not make sense. I was there before closure and it was closed !

It occurred on: 6/06/2019

This meant that I was standing there in front of the office like an idiot, i called and was hanged up by the call center twice, we had booked a room for the weekend, and without a car we cannot go. My girlfriend is pregnant and we were supposed to leave london for the weekend for her birthday and now we are stuck.
I feel powerless and upset about the situation and having been talked down by the customer service.

I would like a full apology, a full refund of the car and a refund of the hotel we booked and couldnt attend.

I look forward to your prompt response on this matter. As recommended by Trading Standards, I would like to keep a complete record of my case.

We rented a car via Auto Europe on September 2nd for the period September 29th till October 17th 2018. The total amount for this rental period is $683.63. On September 2nd we made a down payment on the car of €358.68 (approximately $406.93). After returning the car on the airport on October 17th, my credit card gets charged the full amount on the invoice $683.63 (€608, 68), making a total of $1, 090.89 (€967, 31). After months of trying to get our money back, Auto Europe hasn't event given an acceptable response. I demand a refund of €358, 68 which is the amount we got overcharged.

I reserved my rental vehicle through Auto Europe several months in advance. When I arrived in Italy to pick up my rental, I was given a different vehicle than the one I rented. I rented an SUV and was given a sedan. The staff at the location was unable to assist me and told me that they didn't have any SUVs to rent at that time.

I had no choice but to take the vehicle. When I contacted Auto Europe to tell them about the situation, they refused to help and told me that the vehicle I received was considered an upgrade. It doesn't matter to me what they consider it - I rented and paid for an SUV, I wanted to receive an SUV...

The worst part is that the customer service was rude and had attitude.

I recommend staying away from Auto Europe! Very disappointed.

I tried to make a formal complaint to AutoEurope but have had no response or acknowledgement. My experience is as follows: re: voucher number 4562793.

I booked and paid for a hire car in Brisbane Australia for the dates 15/9/18 to 30/9/18 through AutoEurope. The hire car company was East Coast cars. I flew in a day late on 16/9/18 and contacted East Coast cars from the airport. They told me they didn't have an active reservation under my name as I had not picked the car up on 15th September and was marked as a no show. East Coast cars told me I had to contact Auto Europe to send through the booking again before I could pick up the car on the 16/9/18.

Once I purchased a phone card, I called Auto Europe on the number given on the booking paperwork (+[protected]). The call went through to the USA where I explained that I had arrived a day later, and that I needed Auto Europe to send the booking again to East Coast cars for me to pick up the hire car a day later. I was put on hold while the American Auto Europe staff member called through to East Coast cars - he came back on the line and told me that he had discussed the situation with East Coast Cars and said it was sorted and that I could go and pick up the car. When I arrived at East Coast Cars in Brisbane airport, the staff there said they had not had any contact from Auto Europe - even though the American staff member had just told me on the phone that he had talked to them. I called Auto Europe again and it went through to the Australian branch who said they could not do anything, and I would have to talk to the UK office. I then waited until the evening in Australian time (on the 16/9/18) for the UK Office to open. When I talked to them they told me something completely different - they said they would not re-send the booking to East Coast cars and 'quoted' that the Terms and Conditions of Auto Europe stated no refund was possible after 48hours prior to the pick up date. I explained I did not want a refund, I only wanted to pick up the car on the 16th September instead. I was put on hold a number of times while they tried to contact Brisbane East Coast cars - they came back and told me they couldn't contact them. They then said that they would make the amendment if the car hire company East Coast cars was happy to do this. I then had to wait until the evening of the 17th September when both the Brisbane East Coast cars branch and UK Auto Europe branch was open so that I could call them and physically pass my mobile phone to East Coast cars to talk to Auto Europe (as Auto Europe still said they couldn't contact them). I was then informed by a different staff member of Auto Europe that no amendments would be made and the staff member continued to 'quote' the no refunds clause of the Terms and Conditions - No refund is possible for cancellations less than 48 hours prior to the reserved rental start date & time and for cancellations after the planned pick up date.

Again I said I did not want a refund, I only wanted to pick up the car I had paid for, and that was still waiting at the Brisbane airport branch of East Coast cars. The Auto Europe staff member refused to send the booking again to East Coast cars and refused to put me through to the manager on shift as they said they had already talked to them. When I asked the manager's name they would only give a first name - Kelly. AutoEurope told me the only thing they would do was to make a new booking and pay for the car again, and then write to customer services on the 30th September. Of course there was no way I was going to give any more money to Auto Europe, and I made a new booking directly with East Coast cars.

In summary, I am appalled at the service Auto Europe provided, in particular for:
- the inconsistent and conflicting information given by multiple staff in multiple countries on the given phone number (+[protected]).
- the 'quoting' of the Terms and Conditions of no refunds when all I wanted was to pick up the car I'd already paid for a day later. There was nothing in the Terms and Conditions that said I could not pick up the car at a later time / day
- the unwillingness for staff to help me in the situation, and refuse to let me talk to a manager or supervisor
- the additional cost of international phone calls and travel to and from the East Coast Cars branch to try and sort everything out
- the eventual need to pay twice for the exact same hire car and the consequential need to cancel a day of my holiday to sort out a car

This company is not following its own terms & conditions, and is not taking any responsibility for the situation that they put me in (and probably a lot of other people)

I refer to my Hertz car rental at Athens Airport on Sept 21 st.
I recieved a GPS which was not fully charged and when i fitted the charger to the car charging slot it was loose so did not charge..with the consequence i did not have a GPS system about an hour into our 2 wk itinery.
For a company like Hertz to supply a faulty system lije that is poor service.
I subsequently contacted Pedro Fernandez
Internet Reservations ..who advised me to to register this complaint.

Car rental company: Sicily By Car Based in Olbia, Sardinia (Italy).

I have returned the car rental on 1 August However, upon looking at my credit car statement it is showing two transactions from Auto Europe on 29 July - one for £532.91 and the other for £554.36. I was told that €600 would be used as a holding transaction for the car hire however my credit company have confirmed this transaction was actually taken on that date and not a holding transaction.

Please can you tell me who I need to speak with in order to get this refunded as soon as possible.

reservation number [protected] and I have had the car rental agreement signed back to say no damage had been done - so the €600 transaction should not be taken. Can you also confirm if this was done twice accidentally by yourselves? I have two transactions showing this deduction.

Thanks in advance

First and last experience renting a car with auto europe. Starting by saying they did not accept my driving license at the counter desk of maggiore in fiumicino stating the expiration date was not visible anymore (one week ago they had no problem accepting it in another location), I had to call autoeurope to cancel or modify the name of my reservation. Clearly to complicated I got treated in an extremely poor way, hang up by their customer service representative, and lost the reservation money for a car I never got.

Voucher number uk4497720-1 / reservation number aeu-1484589-1460311

I booked car hire specifically for my convenience at euston station. I got a confirmation through with all the confirmation saying london euston station, meet & greet - call prior to arrival. Nowhere did it state that I needed I needed to get the company to arrange a member of staff to come with the car and meet & greet me. I arrived at euston station, to find no hire company there with the name of green motion.

To my surprise, I was told that they were based in hilton hotel in edgware road when I called them up. I had to then travel further, with more travel expenses incurred, on arrival I had to wait 40 minutes to be seen by an agent, another 20 minutes to get all the paperwork through and late to get home because of the traffic home. This is unacceptable. I have been mis sold a deal whereby it has caused me extra money, inconvenience of travelling back and forth to a place where it was more difficult to get to from my home address. Furthermore, I hired the car for a special occasion which was made unenjoyable because of this whole experience. I had less time with the my family and has caused me a lot of frustration and stress from all the occurrences.

Experience with them was dismal, I rented a car for travel in France from auto Europe. I was required to prepay. Rate seems attractive. The reservation had been cancelled by the car rental company but I was not informed. What is even worst is I have sent 4 emails and also communicated with their agents over Facebook messenger but they either have not responded or redirected me to email which also elicited no response. I was patient and tried to resolve this with them over a course of 3 weeks but total lack of response. I have not had any refund of the sum I paid. I am writing this to warn others of their poor practices and customer service. I must say I am quite stunned that a company that is operational can just ignore emails and agents on instant messaging would not respond at all to such a serious complaint

Good day
I booked a vehicle in AUGUST 2017. Auto Europe said they could not confirm that vehicle and would find another. In the interim they deducted the full rental of R9411.00 ZAR from my account on the 24th of August 2017.
They then proceeded to try deduct another R8700 ZAR from my account, however Visa blocked this transaction. They claimed it was for the second vehicle they sourced. I have written to them and they said i would be refunded within 7 to 10 days. See attached.
1. Why did they deduct the funds instead of placing a reserve on my card?
2. 14 days have passed and I dont have a refund?
3. Why try deduct again without explanation?
4. I am now paying interest on the funds still outstanding?

Please may I have an urgent response as to exactly when I will receive my credit.

REF -ZA97611
S LODER
+[protected]

on arrival at Alicante airport we got to the holidaycars.com desk, with our receipts of full payment of 2 cars for the duration of our holiday!we gave our letters to the lady behind the desk who"s English was not particually good to be dealing with british holiday makers.She asked us for our credit cards which my dad had, and proceeded to tell myself that I would have to pay £1083.00 to be able to take the car?my dad said that he would would put me on his credit card but this was unexceptable they the continued to tell my dad that it would be another £1080 for breakdown cover which we had to take out and also it was a re-fule policy which meant it would cost even more than originaly stated.Due to the added cost placed upon us we decieded not to take the cars also due to the fact she wanted us to sign for the cars without first checking them for any bumps or marks, we found this very unexceptable, after all we had a later in front of us stating

"TOTAL TO PAY ON ARRIVAL: £0.00"

Worst service I have ever received. My flight was delayed. Booked for 10am pick of car. Cause of the delays I arrived at 12.15. I rang the Payless agent (Auto Europe's agent). He said he has given the car away (in a very rude way) and hung up on me. I had to book another rental through another company (there was literally one car available in the whole airport) at great expense. When I rang the Auto Europe call centre 2 weeks ago. I was on the line for 2 hours and then got cut off. How was I suppose to know it was a bank holiday in Portugal? I have rung up since then and no refund will be offered. WORST SERVICE EVER. Clearly not my fault at all. They are pretty much just taking my money with no service provided at all.

My husband and I travel a lot and have recently started using AutoEurope to make overseas rental car bookings this year. We are Australian and have usually made bookings via its Australian website and dealt with its Australian customer service team who have been prompt and efficient in processing our booking enquiries and requests.

Unfortunately, in my haste in booking a car in France this week, I accidentally made a booking via AutoEurope's US website, which clearly does not have the same strict advertising controls as Australia because, when I went to pick up my car today, I was confronted with the fact that, despite pre-paying what I thought was the total amount for my booking (US$149.81), I had to pay the following additional fees:

- Railstation Surcharge: EUR 41.76, VAT included, paid locally.
- Road Tax: EUR 3.60, per day (maximum EUR 28.80), VAT included, paid locally.

After calling AutoEurope's US [protected] number to complain, I found out that these charges were supposedly "disclosed" to me in a separate tab that I was required to click and read (an "Inclusive Rate" tab) and then acknowledge reading with a tick box. The representative I spoke to knew exactly what charges I was referring to when I called and was quick to point me to where they were on the "Inclusive Rate" tab and try to dismiss my complaint. It was obvious to me that he had received and dealt with many other customer complaints about the same issue.

If customers are complaining, then why does AutoEurope continue to bury these quite significant additional costs on its US website?

From my perspective, I did actually click on the "Terms, Conditions and Local Fees" tab and read these before ticking the box (or at least thought I read these). However, it turns out that I only read the information contained in the "Local Fees & Info" tab, and completely missed the second "Inclusive Rate" tab that was buried behind it. Noting that the above "railstation surcharge" and "road tax" are local fees, why were they not contained in the "Local Fees & Info" tab? Why were they in a separate tab detailing other fees which end up almost doubling the rental price quoted to me? This is VERY misleading and deceptive and is highly likely to be considered an illegal sales and marketing practice in Australia.

In Australia, the Competition and Consumer Act requires companies to quote the total price a consumer has to pay for any goods or services. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission specifies"

"When you present prices to your consumers, you should state the total price. This applies to advertising across all mediums. If you promote a price that is only part of the total price of goods or services, you must also include the total price (as a single figure) at least as prominently as the part price. The single price must include any tax, duty, fee, levy or other additional charges (e.g. GST or airport tax)." See: https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/advertising-selling/advertising-and-selling-guide/pricing/component-pricing.

Interestingly, AutoEurope's Australian site is set out differently and in a way that is not misleading and deceptive. All local fees are listed under the "Local Fees & Info", and there is no mention in this of a "railstation surcharge" or "road tax". The only other tab relates to the company's insurance package terms and conditions, which is understandably and logically kept separate. Had I made the same booking via the company's Australian site (as I thought I was doing at the time), I would have paid only AUD$214.34, and not (US$149.81 + EUR$41.76 + EUR$3.60 per day). That's a huge price difference for exactly the same car, with exactly the same pick up and drop-off details.

Getting ripped off by a company simply by making the mistake of booking via their .com (and not their .com.au) site is not something that I'd expect from a company that operates internationally.

On its website, AutoEurope claims to have "a reputation for excellence" and claims to be "a name you can trust" with "an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau". Perhaps this rating is simply because people are unaware of its unethical sales and marketing practices? I certainly do not trust them now. Will you?

I have emailed the company to request a refund of these additional fees but am yet to receive a response. I have also lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

I rented a car in September 2015 through Auto Europe Germany. I purchased in Auto Europe the insurance of access refund program. Unfortunately Auto Europe did not meet its commitment. Here are the details; It’s happened in Norway in a reservation named Peer Gynt A sheep was running toward the front of the car. The sheep remained unhurt but the car was damaged. The accuse of Auto Europe to avoid paying the access refund was that an accident with a wildlife need a formal report. A sheep to my knowledge is not a wildlife. Further more. It took them three month to give me a negative answer after mails and long distance call while they all the information was stated in the basic request. I don’t think this a good example of good service. Beside it, There are the disadvantage of auto Europe access refund program. You purchase this insurance to be covered from unexpected events. The exclusion of events like animal, unpaved road (this a tour not drive to the office) are not exactly giving you the right protection.