easyCar.com
Reviews and Complaints

Keep well away from this bunch of incompetent cowboys! I rented a car from them for Malaga, Spain. My wife only has a licence to drive an automatic car so we orderd an automatic. Upon arrival in Spain, there was no automatic car available and we we offered a manual, smaller car. I explained that was was not suitable, nor had we contracted for it, and that I wanted a refund. The company, Crown, said that we would have to claim from Easycar once back in the UK. We had to hire another car, at significant expense, from another company.

On return to the UK, as was my right, I claimed for all consequential losses, including calls to the £1.50 per minute rather ambitiously labelled 'customer services'. To cut a long story short, it took 6 months and the issuing of legal proceedings in the County Court to get my money back.

Absolute cowboys. Do not touch them with the proverbial barge pole. I hope they go out of business.

I rented a car with EasyCar at Gatwick Airport for 9 days and received a Vauxhall from Alamo at the Airport. 10 minutes before returning the car I filled up the tank at a nearby service station. After turning in the car at Gatwick I receive a receipt from the attendant stating a FULL TANK. Upon arriving back home in California I found an invoice from Alamo Car for 57.01 British Pounds or US $ 98.03. I tried calling EasyCar from the US and wasn't able to do so. So I went to their web site support section and submitted my complaint, and copies of the check-in receipt, stating a full tank, plus copies of my credit card statement, stating a fuel charge of $69.72 on that day. The statement was dated one day earlier, because when I fueled the car it was just before noon in England but still before midnight [one day earlier] in California because there is a 8 hour time difference. After over 10 days of multiple submissions of my complaint and documents I still don't have an agreement from EasyCar to return the wrongfully charged fuel charge. I rent cars during my many travels all over the world and have NEVER come across a rental company that treats its customers with such disrespect and incompetence. I would NEVER EVER again even think of doing business with EasyCar - luckily there are many other competent companies out there that value their customer's business. My advice: STAY AWAY FROM EASY CAR and read the many other complaints posted on the web. Google EasyCar! BTW: I spent an incredible amount of time trying to get this resolved, and I know it doesn't make economical sense.

Below some excerpts from my and their postings on the EasyCar.com "customer" support forum, after having already submitted my complaint and all receipts 3x by email without receiving a satisfying reply:

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My post to EasyCar Discussion Thread

Customer (GH) 07/07/2009 23:13

Hello,
I just received an invoice for a fuel charge of 57.01 British Pounds
for my returned rental car. Before returning I filled the tank at
Morrison Petrol in Crawley. Also, when I returned the car I received a
receipt from the Alamo attendant, stating a full tank. I am attaching
a copy of the check-in receipt and a credit card record of my fuel
purchase on 6/25. The credit card statement lists the transaction date
as 6/24 since it is a US based account and at the time of refueling on
6/25 before noon it was still 6/24 in the US. Please confirm receipt
of my email and credit of the wrongful charge of 57.01 British Pound
to my account asap.

Thank you, GH

Attached below:
check-in copy
credit card statement for fuel charge
copy of disputed invoice # [protected]
original booking receipt [on bottom of email]

FYI: transaction post date is US Eastern Daylight Savings Time Zone on
6/24/09 5.50 pm EDT = 6/25/09 11.50 am GMT in UK

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Response (Heather Manson) 14/07/2009 08:54
Dear Mr H,

Thank you for your email.

easyCar has not charged you subsequent to your initial booking, it is likely that this amount has been taken by Alamo either in error or to cover supplementary charges incurred on your rental. Please check your documents to see if you have agreed to purchase items that would account for this charge, if you believe you have been charged in error please send copies of your rental agreement and your bank/card statement showing the debited charges. Please either scan and email these documents as attachments (PDF if possible, oversize attachments cannot be downloaded) in reply to this email or alternatively post them with a covering letter stating your booking reference number ([protected]) to this address:-

Customer Care Department
easyCar.com
Highbridge, Oxford Road
Uxbridge UB8 1HR
U.K.

I regret I cannot accept the copied receipts in the body text, I will need scanned/copy original documents.I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and look forward to hearing from you soon so as to resolve this matter.

Kind regards,
Heather Manson
easyCar Customer Care

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Customer (G H) 14/07/2009 15:40
I just added a copy of the unjustified fuel charge by EC Vehicle Rental for $98.03 as matched by the invoice from Alamo [attached] sent to my address. Please take the time to review all submitted documents carefully - I spent way to much of my time dealing with this issue.

It seems the confusion might be a result of THREE different companies being involved with this rental: EasyCar, EC Vehicle Rental, and Alamo.

Please resolve this issue & get back to me asap - thanks!

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Response (Heather Manson) 15/07/2009 08:43
Dear Mr H,

Thankyou for your emails. Just to clarify, EC Car Rentals is the trading name of Europcar/Alamo, as visible in the merchant description on your card information. This means that the charges have been made by Europcar, and are separate to the booking made with easyCar (as detailed throughout the booking process, supplementary charges are payable locally). Unfortunately it is not viable for easyCar to receive copies of all rental agreements undertaken between customers and rental agents and we have no financial interest in these documents.

I have passed on your email to Europcar/Alamo and requested that they investigate the fuel charges. You card statement proving purchase of the fuel is dated the 24th of June, and you returned the car on the 25th, so I must warn you that it is possible that the fuel charges are valid, however I await a response from Europcar/Alamo.

Thank you for your continued patience.
kind regards
Heather Manson
easyCar Customer Care

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Customer (G H) 15/07/2009 15:46
Heather Manson - you replied:

"You card statement proving purchase of the fuel is dated the 24th of June, and you returned the car on the 25th"

As already explained MULTIPLE TIMES - the fuel was being purchased on the 25th in Gatwick which is located in the UK / GMT time zone. The charge posted to my account in the US where at the time of purchase it was still ONE DAY EARLIER. This is explained by the different time zone the United States is located in - IT IS 5-8 HOURS EARLIER in the continental US at any given time, depending on location. It is painful that I have to repeat myself over and over. I would appreciate if you would take the time to read my communications. I have not heard one word of apology for the ugly ordeal you are putting me through. I rent cars from many companies world wide on a regular basis, and have NEVER had such an experience of incompetence and lack of respect for its customers! I will be sure to stay clear of your company in the future. G H

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Response (Heather Manson) 15/07/2009 16:37
Dear Mr H,

The documents have been passed to Alamo and I am awaiting their response, as the transaction details on your card statement sadly do not also display the time along with the date I felt it worth noting to you that they might also notice this and it could lengthen proceedings. I will relay your note about the time difference, but without documentary evidence it can be more difficult. Let me reassure you have I have fully read your whole complaint and all the supporting documentation thoroughly, I apologise if my previous note was not more clear in it's intent - meaning that without the time written on the date the rental company may question the petrol receipt.

Let me reiterate the apologies I offered in my initial contact and further apologise that this process is not more straightforward.
I will contact you again when I receive a response from Alamo, if in the meantime you wish to add anything further please do not hesitate to contact me.
kind regards
Heather Manson
easyCar Customer Care

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Customer (G H) 17/07/2009 17:54
You DID NOT address the fact that I also submitted a copy of the receipt I received when checking in the car at Gatwick airport stating a FULL TANK. What more proof do you need? FYI, I googled your business and see that there are TONS of consumer complaints about your company's questionable business practices! I work in web publishing, and I will do my best to share my terrible experience with EasyCar on the various complaint forums to help save other unsuspecting folks from having to go through a similar ordeal like me.

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DOCUMENTS ATTACHED [on EasyCar's web site]

• DownloadedFile.png
• check-in.jpg
• invoice.jpg
• booking details.png
• fuel charge posted to my CC.png
• booking details.pdf
• credit card statements.pdf
• invoice.pdf
• checkin.pdf

Like so many other people I have been shocked by Easycar's complete lack of customer service.

I rented a car back in May in order to help my sister move and provided Easycar with my age (24 years) at the time of the booking - when I arrived at the airport I was told by Budget (the company Easyjet had chosen as the local contractor) that they would not rent a vehicle of that size to anyone under the age of 25... something that does not apply to most other car rental companies.

I called Easycar's shockingly expensive (60p a minute!) "help" line and was told that I would simply have to accept a smaller car and I could apply for reimbursement of the cost of having booked a larger car later on. I explained to the gentleman on the phone that this would not work for me as I had chosen a larger vehicle because - and I know this seems shocking! - I needed a larger vehicle! I asked if Easycar could put me in touch with another Car Rental Company (of which there are many at Stansted Airport) in order to honour their agreement and was informed that no they could not and I would have to take the smaller car.

I walked over to the National Car Rental desk and inquired into their policies and was told that they could rent me a car the size of the one Budget was refusing me. Once again I braved the "help" line in order to inform Easycar that I would not be picking up the Budget car as they had breached the contract that they had made with me by failing to provide the product I had paid for. Much to Easycar's dismay I had the audacity to request that I have the money I had pre-paid (over 140 pounds) reimbursed – to which I was told I would have to apply to the company to get my money back.

This application apparently cannot be submitted by email - despite all Easycar.com's transactions being over the web - so not only did I have to print off my Easycar Booking Voucher (something that they already have a copy off in their computer system, since they were the ones to email it to me) with my attached cover letter, I then had to pay postage from Canada in order to get these documents to them.

So, so far Easycar has not only failed to provide me with a Car, their mistake has also cost me a more expensive car rental as a result of not pre-booking with National Car Rental, the cost of calling Easycar's "help" line in order to be told that they were actually unable to provide any assistance, and then finally I'm now paying for postage in order to get reimbursed the money that I lost as a result of their ignorance of their Contractors Terms and Conditions.

So I've wasted enough of my time and money on this Easycar debacle so far - but wait - there's more! I receive an email from them a few weeks later informing me that they "regret that [they] cannot refund [me] for [my] booking" because I failed to read the Terms and Conditions which state that "The Minimum rental age is 23 years depending on vehicle group".

But wait! Remember the part where I'm 24 years of age as specified in my cover letter and during the process of making the booking - and since the Terms and Conditions governing the Vehicle Group is dependent on the Contractor, a piece of information that Easycar does not provide until after you book - and have provided your age - it is really up to them to make an informed decision as to who to Contract out to... but clearly the the Customer Care agent is unable to actually read the Cover Letter that I have spent $7.50 to post to her... so now I have to explain Easycar's Terms and Conditions and the format of their bookings process to one of its employee - and the person in charge of Customer Care no less, which lets face it says a lot about the quality of its staff.

I get an email back within days letting me know that I will be refunded my money. Now remember how I booked the car back in May? Well its now August - so Easycar have held on to my money for 4 months - and have only agreed to return it after considerable effort on my part.

As far as I'm concerned all of these complaints are basic breach of contract issues, which put Easycar clearly at fault, and as such they should be working for their customer - 'cause let's face it, I'm never going to book with them again and after hearing my horror story nor will any of my friends and family.

It is my personal opinion that Easycar's staff are not really as unorganized, technologically inept and untrained as they would like you to believe, but rather that these are tactics in order to avoid returning the money that they have illegally held on to. These people are unscrupulous. Stay very far away.

And if you're unlucky enough to already be caught up in this web of corporate corruption just persevere - they are in the wrong and if you keep fighting it they will eventually email you those magical words: "We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you."

Easy Car Rental - Paris
www.easycar.com

Sixt Car Rental
www.e-sixt.com

Easy Car rental in Paris - subcontracted through Sixt in France becomes a two day nightmare and 5 month battle I have just been charged 300 euros for a puncture to a spare tyre which occurred 5 months ago in France after hiring a car though Easycar - Sixt. It is quite a long story, please bear with me.

I rented through Easycar, but at the gare de Lyon was directed to Sixt office who were renting me my car. Arriving at Sixt I was informed that the car I had ordered, an economic car, was not available and given a BMW 3 series. A very complicated car, which was quite difficult in the beginning to master and manoeuvre (being unfamiliar with both electronic keys and GPS systems).

The purpose of the trip and hiring the car was to collect some luggage for a friend who paid for the car, and transport them to Paris. There were not more than four bags, but as they contained books, they were very heavy. My friend who was travelling me and who had paid for the car was 4 months pregnant.

We arrived in Bordeaux without problems, stayed the night and departed at 2pm on Sunday to arrive in good time in Paris to depose the bags and return the car by 10pm to the Gare de Lyon agency. About 45 km south of Poitiers a message appeared on the GPS that said we had a 'depression d'air dans le pneu', a tyre leak, and that we should slow down to 80km per hour.

This I did and at the next available stop pulled over to check the tyre and call the Sixt assistance number in France and spoke to a customer assistant agent. I was surprised to notice this was not a free phone number.

The agent told us we should carry on driving to the next service station and then check the air. We continued about 40 kms to the next station where I stopped and as directed, refilled the tyre with air. After refilling it twice, and checking all four tyres of the car, I realised the rear right tyre did indeed have a puncture. I was not too concerned at this point, as we were safe, and I have changed a tyre before. In fact, I was pleased that the GPS system had been available to warn us.

I opened the boot to get the spare tyre out, and that was when I realised there was no spare tyre. Which I thought very strange. I called the Sixt assistance again; it was about 6pm at this time, he told me to look for the tyre in the boot and change it. Of course, I could not, as there was no tyre! So he advised me to call the gendarme and ask them to send motorway assistance. Half an hour after calling the local police, a mechanic arrived with breakdown truck. He looked at the problem and told us that this kind of car had special tyres that he could not replace and did not have in stock (run flat system). He (not the Sixt assistance), informed us that with this car we could carry on driving normally at 80km per hour. But that the 432 km to =A8Paris was too long, and offered to tow us to the garage in the nearest town, where we could contact BMW.

I called the SIXT agent again and informed him of our position; he did not propose any alternative.

Once we arrived at the garage in St. Maixent L'Ecole, a small town about 560 km south of Poitiers, the garagiste contacted both BMW and Sixt assistance, and for the next two hours, these three parties attended to the problem of the car, while my friend and I waited. Eventually we were told that the tyre could not be fixed that night; that it was under warranty, that we were no longer allowed to drive it or touch it. Moreover, it had to be towed to BMW in the morning for a replacement tyre. The garagiste noted at this point (around 8pm), that while SIXT had been quite preoccupied with the car, they had done nothing to occupy themselves with us. It was by this time very late and very cold and my friend was beginning to panic about how we would get home.

I called Sixt, again, and after several minutes of being kept on hold, being told we would be called back=85 recalling and recalling etc etc. I was finally told at 8.30 pm that we had ONLY two options. Either a) Sixt could try to locate another car for us, which he said, would be virtually impossible on a Sunday night. Or we could take the 10.50pm train from Poitiers to Paris. They did not propose a solution for either getting to Poitiers or transporting our luggage. In fact the best idea they came up with, was that we leave the luggage at the garage and return during the week to collect it, supposedly with another hire car?

At this point, we were in a small town about 65km from Poitier. The local train station was closed. We had some very heavy bags and my friend was pregnant. If we had taken a taxi to Poitiers, it would have cost at least 80euro. (This was confirmed the next day by our taxi driver). A train ticket from Poitiers to Paris is between 50-60 Euros per person. Assuming we would arrive in time to purchase a ticket and catch a train. If for any reason we missed the train we would then have to find accommodation in Poitiers.

In any case taking a train was not a good solution. My friend was pregnant and could not carry luggage. It was already very late and very cold. And we had no way of knowing if we would arrive in Poitiers on time to get a ticket. I also asked him why he had not begun looking for a replacement car at 6pm when the problem first occurred. But was given a very haughty response that even if they had started looking at 4pm there was no cars. I was then told to wait. 'We are sending a fax to the head office in Germany to find a car'. Another twenty minutes past and I had no further news. I called yellow pages and asked for the number of the nearest hotel to where we were to assure myself that I would at least be able to take my friend somewhere that night.

I then called Sixt again, and the agent, Mehjid, informed me there were no cars anywhere. He proposed no other solution. I asked him if he could find a car for the morning, and he said they could look for a car in the morning. I then insisted that they look for the car immediately as we would need to pick it up at 8am so that we could unload the BMW, which had to be taken to the BMW garage the next morning. Eventually he agreed to find a car for the morning. I then asked if Sixt would cover the cost of the hotel and the taxi to the hotel, and he said YES and 'don't worry about anything, the customer services will deal with everything in the morning'. To be fair, he was quite concerned, as I was, about my pregnant friend, and by this time, I was also shivering with cold. He also told us not to worry as all the calls were recorded so we would have a complete record of the conversation. I did not at this time feel that we needed to call the customer service number, as our problem seemed to have been dealt with.

So quite relieved I called the hotel and asked them for some taxi numbers. It took us half an hour to find a taxi in the small town and the garagiste kindly let us wait at the garage and showed us how to let ourselves out and lock the door. We left the BMW at the garage, and took a tax to the hotel. There I was called 'for the first time', by a person from Sixt, who told us that we would be collected in the morning by taxi and taken to the next town where we could collect a new hire car.

The rest of the service was quite good; we collected the car from National Citer and returned to the garage in St. Maixent L'Ecole to unload the car.

At this point, I called the Customer service number to verify everything was indeed being taken care of as promised. That is when I had my next big shock. In fact, a woman at customer service said they did not know anything about what had happened to our vehicle and us. I then explained to her at great length, (again not on a toll free number). And was told very abruptly that Sixt would not pay for the hotel and that we would be expected to deal with the repairs of the BMW. In fact she know nothing of our situation, and did not really care. When I asked her if the calls were recorded she said no, they were never recorded. She said we would have to pay for everything, and then offered to hang up on me. I arrived at the garage where I retold this to the garage owner, who was then quite concerned that he would also not be refunded for his services. He called Sixt assistance and asked them to send a fax to confirm they would take on charge the delivery and emergency assistance. And was told they didn't have a fax machine!

The garagiste confirmed with BMW that the cost of replacing the 'special tyre' was around 270 Euro. By this point I was afraid to leave the BMW, especially as the last person I had spoken to had told me had told me I was responsible for the replacement tyre and the garage bills.

I called customer service again and asked to speak to the person in charge. It was a French lady who replied, her name is Mme Anne Laure Delobel. She told me that the person in charge was busy. When I insisted that I did not want to repeat my story again to another person, but preferred to speak to one person, preferably the responsible who could give me a single, authoritative answer to my questions. I was told he was busy, probably having a coffee. I asked if I could speak to someone who was familiar with my history and was told that was not possible. I then had to tell my story again. And was again told that Sixt would take no responsibility for anything, that I would have to take care of the car and pay the hotel bills and whatever the cost of the tyre was.

At this point we were extremely worried and really did not know what to do. It was a nightmare. I called customer service again, and spoke to Mme Delobel, who this time put me through to the responsible. By this time we had been waiting at the garage for two hours not knowing what to do. The responsible Mr Floreali, was very nice. He said we did not have to stay with the car, and could leave in the second car hire for Paris but that we would be charged for only one tyre. Finally we were able to leave.

We arrived in Paris later that afternoon and I returned the 2nd car to National Citer. At this point I would like to point out two things. Firstly, National Citer confirmed with me that their clients were also made responsible for tyres in the event of a puncture. But that they did NOT have any cars with run flat system tyres. They also had one toll free number.

I agree with the policy that a customer must replace a tyre. But how are we supposed to in such a circumstance? And how can a car company justify having a rule such as this, when it is completely beyond the clients control whether he is able to replace a tyre?

My complaints are the following:

1. The SIXT assistant was not familiar with the cars that SIXT hires, or this particular anomaly of 'special' tyres for BMW's, and so was not able to give knowledgeable assistance.

2. I used up my entire phone forfeit over the two days calling Sixt. Everytime somebody took my number, but never was I called back when I asked to be and was always kept several minutes on hold when I called.

3. Both myself and my friend lost a days work. We also experienced unnecessary trauma, worry, stress and frustration.

4. We incurred very high costs, which would not have been incurred had we had a normal car with a spare tyre.

These costs include: the Hotel bill 197 Euro Taxi to Hotel 7.00 Euro BMW tyre (280 Euro approx) which is 200 Euro more than a normal tyre.

In addition, I would argue, that is entirely possible, due to the nature of this tyre, that it was in fact punctured when I received the vehicle; since it is clear that the tyre can run very great distances without a puncture even being noticed. How can you prove that this puncture was not already present when I received the car?

BMW also said that they treated this as a technical error and that the car was under warranty, so it shouldn't have cost SIXT anything to replace the tyre.

It is outrageous that these kinds of cars, without spare wheels should be given to people without their being informed of the consequences that a tyre puncture may have. The much higher cost. And the possibility that they will be unable to repair the tyre or find a replacement car, and be stranded in the middle of nowhere, unable to help themselves.

It is also outrageous the way we were spoken to and treated by the Sixt customer service in France. Who obviously are hired not to help their customers, but merely hired, possible trained, to cover any liability on the part of SIXT. Mme Delobel told me that we had been the victim of misfortune. But I believe we had been the victim of Sixt.

I sent a copy of this letter to Easycar Customer services by e-mail, and they sent me a satisfactory reply:

'Thank you for your patience in this matter, this incident has now been fully investigated by SIXT Head Office and they have offered their sincere apologies. With regards to there being no spare tyre with the vehicle, they can confirm that this BMW model runs a 'Run flat' system, this means that you can run an extra 100km to 200km before changing the tyre. We appreciate that this was not the vehicle of your choice and can completely sympathize with the difficulties you experienced. Your other comments have been escalated to the Manager of the Branch; they are also now training their staff in vehicles new features such as the 'Run flat' system. Ourselves and SIXT pride ourselves and providing a high standard of Customer Service and regret that our normal high standards were not met. For this SIXT would like to refund you for the taxi and hotel fees you incurred. Can you please provide me with your credit card details so as I can pass them on to SIXT for them to debit you back, also if you provide me with your full postal address as they would like to send you a voucher for your next rental.'

Well that was very nice but unfortunately it was not the end of the story, as although easycar were very nice and sorry on behalf of themselves and Sixt (who nevertheless two months later did refund my friend the hotel bill), unfortunately SIXT in France had other ideas. They waited 5 months and then decided to charge my card for 300 euros anyway. By which time the complaint was too old (as I have just been informed) to take to the European complaints commission. They also say that since there was no breach of contract (I should have replaced the tyre and have paid for it) then there is no complaint.

I have recently seen that SIXT are carrying out full page adverts boasting their new fleet of BMW tyres. But are they going to change their contracts to not include the old rule that customers are liable to replace a tyre when they cannot physically do so. Or inform them that they will have to pay 300 euros to replace that tyre.

I really do not know what to do now. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Gabriella Torino

16 Cadogan Close
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 8TR

I brought a car from Easy Car Credit - East Mayne Basildon Essex back in feb 06. It was a vauxhall vectra and have had major problems from the start it was not running very well so i took it to a garage i knew and got it checked over. To my horror there was a really long list of things wrong with it, so i took the car back with the list and they said they would sort it out so i left without a car feeling happy that it would be sorted out. I then picked the car up and they said all the work had been done so i took it back to my friends garage and the only thing they had fixed was my window they lied to me the work had not been done. I had a warranty witht the vehicle so i expected the vehicle to be sorted out but it was not it has cost me over a 1000 pound and has been in and out of garages breaking done i tried to get hold of easy car credit saying i want my money back but the gentlemen is never there and im given excuses im still no where now and i have now been told my car needs a new engine im really feed up and without a car.