Europcar International
Reviews and Complaints

I have rented a car in Italy with Europcar. The rental was made on Internet via Easyjet. I reserved the car for 7 days and was immediately debited for 678 Euros. I actually used the car for only 3 days. When I discovered that no refund was credited for the unused 4 days, I was told that no refund can be made for this type of rental.
Here is the problem: I was not offered the choice either pay in advance with a preferential rate or pay after the rental. I was not informed explicitly that the rental was not refundable in case of a shorter rental period.
When I called Europcar, they would not listen to my complain.

i would like to share with you my experience with Europcar Oslo airport branch, as i rented car on 15/03/2019

after I left Norway back to home I received email indicating that there was damage in the car which I rented for 6 hours. On check-in, the employee in the company gave me a car different from the one I rented online.I found accidentally big scratch on the right back door which was not mentioned on the diagram was given to me and I returned back and asked to add it.I returned the car, they received it in the office they did not tell about any damage, surprisingly, I received an email requesting for additional charges for car repair. unfortunately, I read many reviews online mentioned the same stories from Europcar customers.

to summarise my concerns:

they gave me a car different from the one i rented online then i found big scratch before leaving the office which was very strange that they did not mention on the contract, sure they were aware of it, but they did not mention it.

I returned the car, the employee received it and did not mention to me anything about any damage, however, after i returned to UAE they send an email requesting additional charges(big amount) for repair.

the same situation happened with a lot of Europcar customers as i read the reviews online
thank you
hisham atef
[protected]
[protected]@hotmail.com

Europcar CAR DAMAGE SCAM - Avoid headaches, rent with a reputable company!

Unfortunately I was not aware of Europcar's wrong doing when it comes down to making car damages up, which is public knowledge and they even faced investigations on such Scam. One of Europcar's manager have admitted that they got bonuses for it, as published by The Telegraph, he said ""The best teams find new damage on one in five returned vehicles. Agents earn £4 per vehicle for spotting damage and can make up to £1, 000 per month in peak season. That's on top of their salary. Yet some scratches I can barely see"."

We rented a car from Europcar in Hull, UK in early July 2019 and, after we returned the car, we got a GBP 500 bill for supposed damages that had nothing to do with us!

When the car was delivered to us I flagged to Europcar's agent that there were scratches on both sides of the rear bumper as well a mark on the front one. She said that it was fine and that she had already added a note on the delivery document saying "scratches on bumper" and that would cover everything.

Unfortunately we trusted her and did not take any pictures of the car.

I hired the pick service for returning the car and, due to the Europcar agents being 1, 5 hour late (!) I was unable to be there to deliver the car myself and someone else had to do it for me. The agents then note down "Damages" to the car, which later originated the bill.

I have been chasing them constantly to get a refund as I am not paying for something we had nothing to do with but all I get is automated messages and not real explanation. The fee has already been charged to my credit card and I am initiating legal proceedings against them. I am also seeking help from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association.

Such in incredible headache and has certainly spoiled any good feeling left by the nice family trip we wanted to have!

DO NOT USE EUROPCAR….avoid headaches, rent with a reputable company and always, always take as many pictures as you can before and after.

See full articles on:
- The Telegraph - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/car-hire-scams-europcar-employee-reveals-all/
- The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/may/24/europcar-hire-car-damage-no-evidence
- BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40630238?fbclid=IwAR21zxENWSbGtuYvg9HCSVGCzhqbanCHWdJ-SEJXhoTx-GTdgliESUAMLiQ

July 12th at 17:00. Name: Gerald Jans.
Reservation number GB592691430.
Confirmation number: [protected].

Request a refund.

Did not get the car we booked, our credit card gave an unauthorized signal while there was an amount of 2.500 euro on the account. We suggest to pay with other bank cards, but Maestro was not accepted by EuropCar. No cash was accepted. The employee refused to help us in any other way, the manager was there only to tell us what the conditions of EuropCar are. No solution or suggestions, nothing. We went to Sixt car rental who rented us a car without any problem with the Maestro bank card. Arrived at our hotel and used the credit card/master card without any problem, as you can see on the attached document. Also I send you the document of the amount that CarTrawler has booked of our account. After this bad experience with EuropCar it would be very appreciated to give us a refund of the amount ad 148, 25 euros.

Kind regards,

Gerald Jans
ge.[protected]@telfort.nl
mobile: [protected]

I hired a car through RentalCar.com at Europcar. This is more or less a standard procedure. But I always (almost monthly) rent cars at Europcar.

This time I was surprised by the fact that I "rented" an electrical car, the so called E-Golf of Volkswagen.
I told the desk assistant that we needed to drive about 300 kilometers and asked him if we would manage this. He asked his manager and they said that if I would charge the car during the time I was at my customer, this would be no problem.
Arriving at the customer with only 45 kilometers left on the battery, we were releaved we made it. We immediatly asked our customer for a loading place and with the supplied plug, we charged the car. We spond over 2, 5 hours at this place and were confident that the car should be at least be charged for the return trip of 150 kilometers. When we entered the car, it said that it only was recharged for less than 100 km. We were not gonna make it back to the airport. We however started our journey back but we needed to stop the car with only 25 km left on the battery and still about 90 km to drive.
We did manage to find a kind person with a loading device, but it appeared that this would not charge fast enough for the remaining trip. And we had a plain to catch. We took the bus from this little town to Uppsala Sweden and from there took the taxi to the airport. All extra costs, only because the counter assistent did not listen. Otherwise I would have changed cars into a normal one.
Now we received the invoice and it mentioned 400 Euro extra for the towing of the car.
I wrote a mail to customer support, but they just said it was my responsibility to recharge the car (WHICH I DID!).
I am furious, they keep putting the blame to me and than after to Rental Car.com. Rental Car. com should have mentioned that it was an electrical car and clearly they did not. There is a code on the confirmation (DDAE) and now Europcar says that this is the prove I rented an e-car.
On the confirmation is mentioned that this code is for "personal of the renting company only". So how the hell should I know what this meant? Attached the confirmation I received. Which was sent in Dutch and Swedish, not English unfortunately.

The total traffic of e-mails got worse and worse and they are not going to refund the 400 euro´s "damage".

The last time I booked a car with Europcar!

On 4'th of June I have requested customer service to send me a copy of my invoice for the following rental:
reservation number: [protected], Name: Andreea Popescu, Reservation period: 18-19 June, RA/Contract: [protected] - cost as per invoice 532.79 Eur, paid & confirmed upon return of vehicle on 19 June ( statement of return showed NO extra damages or extra charges imposed)
They have instead:
1. on 20 June tried to take 708.3 eur ( equivalent to the pre-authorization amount) illegally - the bank has stopped the transaction
2. on 4 July succeeded in taking 2x 532.79 eur =1065.58 eur illegally from my account and have given me no justification or invoice.

I have since, called all customer service numbers in france without success, none were competent even to answer a question or put me in contact with the office in the airport that had stolen my money. I have sent dozens of emails to their customer support and when they finally decided to answer they told me they saw only 2 transactions instead of 3 and have corrected 1. Case closed for them. I am still missing 532.79 euros and i keep writing and calling, but no answer. I have sent pictures of my account, i have detailed the transactions and have made it clear and visible for them to see that they charged me 2 times more for no reason. They refuse to answer or resolve the issue.

So, i need help.

Andreea Popescu

Hello,

I have requested a copy of my invoice for reservation number: [protected], name: andreea popescu, reservation period: 18-19 june, ra/contract: [protected] to be sent by email and seeing the company information was not correct, I have requested another copy with corrected information
Instead my account was charged an extra 2 times the same amount (500+ euros) without my approval or without notifying me!
As per statement of return, the car had no extra damage. The amount as per invoice, was already charged once on 19 june upon return of vehicle. The bank had notified me that on 20 june, europcar tried to charge my account an extra 700+ euros, no justification, no invoice, but the bank fortunately rejected the attempt.
Sadly for me, on 04 july, unapproved and without any notification my account was charged 2 amounts summing up more than 1100 euros. If they were fines, I have to be notified, if there was any issue, I have to be notified, etc.. I was not, so in my opinion my money was stolen by europcar.

Please justify and correct these transactions immediately - refund my money! And send me the corrected invoice as soon as possible.

Andreea popescu

We made a booking with Europcar on June 2 online to rent a car from June 9 to June 14, pick up at Piazzale Roma, Venice. Our booking was being confirmed instantly, and I also gave my credit card details to guarantee my booking!
On both 5th and 7th, I received 2 emails which were "so kind" to remind me to pick up the car on 9th. BUT DISASTER happened on 8th, the day before pick up, I received an email simply said: (Copy and phase here)
"Good morning, this is Europcar, no cars available for tomorrow. We are in over booking.
Best regards
Venice Downtown Manager
Venezia Downtown
Office: [protected] | Fax: [protected]
P.le Roma 496/h
30135 Venezia - ITALY

Just like that?! No apology? No sorry?
Since we were staying at Venice already, we run to the office at once to check what was going on, when we showed up, a staff, a male who did not willing to tell us his name no matter how hard I asked! He simply said, "Yes, we are in overbook, no car for you, you're not the first one to have no car for tomorrow, you're the fifth or sixth people to come here today, so no car! I tell you the same, I tell them the same, no car!"
I had gave my credit card to make this booking! And I got the confirmation as well! If you don't have car available, you won't confirm customer, right? How do you define CONFIRM this word? It there is no car available, you should inform customer earlier, not keep sending a reminder to remind customer to pick up the car but then tell him no car at the end?! I asked him how could it be happened, how dare he said it's the website's matters, he even said this kind of overbook happened all the time, not just happened on that day! "ALL THE TIME"? Really? What kind of service is that indeed?
Since I had to reach Prama by 1400 on June 9, I asked him if there is any car available from the airport or any suggestion that may help us to solve this horrible situation, he simply say no!
We lost the whole day (My last day in Venice) to find a way to Parma for next day, but no direct train, nothing!
Try to put yourself in our situation, a traveler in an unknown and unfamiliar city, it is so anxious, so frustrated and helpless… Our planning was totally ruined by your company, Europcar!
With the help by Budget, we finally got a car but has to pick up at the airport.
For this accident, we lost our precious time, our last day to visit the (prepaid) museum and the clock tower at St Mark Square which cost us 58 Euros, not only that, the very next day we have to go to airport to pick up the car and cost another extra 40 Euros for the taxi! It is not the worst thing, the worst is we COULD NOT arrived Prama by 1400 and missed our best friend's wedding!
We have many experiences to rent a car for over 20 years, this is truly the first time we had such horrible experience and this is also the first time we choose Europcar! I swear there will not be next time in my life!
Europcar has no integrity, no trust at all! I even gave my credit card details! They cheated on customers for giving them the credit card details! Who knows what they will do with our cards!
We were supposed to rent the car from other companies, they replied instantly that there was no car available at Piazzale Roma, but Europcar said yes! That is why we booked it from Europcar. But certainly Europcar is not honest!
For this, we lost hundred euros; 2 day of precious time; haven't visited the Museums and clock tower; late for Prama and missed our friend's wedding! We took 18 hours to fly to Venice from Hong Kong, time is so so precious for all travelers!
This is totally unacceptable!
So I am here to advice people who read our horrible experience, please be careful for to choose a car rental company!

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing to you to raise an issue about: Car Rental

The issue that I have experienced was:
We had hired a rental car from Europcar on 13 June from Europcar Rental car at Schiphol Airport, Netherlands. On the 15 of June, we were driving on the Motor way in Germany and the accelerator pedal stopped responding. We noticed that the fuel we just filled in full was depleting and the suspected leak resulted in almost emptying the fuel tank within an hour of refilling. We somehow managed to drive the car to a nearby petrol filling gas station and reported the matter to Europcar on phone. This happened at around 15:00. After 4 and half hours of wait, at around 19:30 their representatives came with a towing vehicle and towed the car to a service station along with us. We had to wait further 2 hours at the service station for the cab to pick us up arranged by Europe car and dropped us at Frankfurt Airport at 22:30. At the Europ car office there, we got a substitute past 23:00.

We also noticed that in the service history manual of the vehicle given to us was overdue for a service as the last record shows it was serviced at 35000km and we were given the car approximately at 88000. As per regulations, car rental must abide to the rules which include fully serviced car. We had specifically requested for fully serviced brand new car to which they assured at the counter that all their cars are six month old.

To add more pain, we were given replacement car at Frankfurt with only 3/4th of the petrol. We were given the key at the Frankfurt airport Europcar counter and the person gave us instructions about finding the car at the parking area. We found the car but no one was there to instruct and guide us about the condition of the replacement car. We also noticed that the fuel tank was not full. We were tired and exhausted and needed to sleep after almost a full day of unfortunate events. We did a mistake of not taking a photograph of the fuel indicator.

We got a shock and realized how we are being cheated by Europcar when we dropped the car at schipol airport. They told to fill the fuel to full and did not listen our painfull sorry story and how we suffered the day of breakdown. They said if the fuel tank is not full at the time of returning the car, they would charge additional 20 Euros. We had to fill the fuel at petrol station nearby schipol airport which was by far the most expensive fuel refill we did in Europe. Though the replaced car was good. The fuel cost for that car itself exceeded out budget as we lost almost a full tank of fuel from the vehicle which got faulty in germany. Then we had to forcefully fill the full tank to full instead of 3/4 just because the Europcar Frankfurt airport branch cheated us. Also the replacement car's fuel tank was larger compared to the original car we had booked based on our tight budget.

It occurred on: 15/06/2019

This meant that
We panicked the first time as the pedal did not respond in the middle of a highway. All of us in the car had to wait 8 hours in total to carry on with the our journey. Since we were on holiday to Europe for a week, almost a full day was wasted waiting and panicking. As we got the substitute car after 23:00, we had to spend on hotel booking in Frankfurt.

We were on our way to camping with friends in Cologne. As a result of being handed over a vehicle without performing a due service (as per the service history record file in vehicle), 3 of us who are in the vehicle rental contract had a day wasted and panicked instead of camping at Cologne.

The incident caused a lot of inconvenience, panic, stress, exhaustion and nervousness that day as explained above. In contrast to camping at Cologne, we had to go through all these difficulties. Apparently we lost one full day of 7 days holiday, make an extra hotel reservation for our stay in Frankfurt, suffer from weariness and rest of the difficulties that we had to face being stranded on the road.
Thus we seek compensation for the ordeal of events we went through with the after effect of giving us a unfit car to drive and thus putting our life in danger. we need to know how the rental firm is going to respond to the matter.

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, so please reply back via this email account.

Yours faithfully,

Lukman Alavi

Mob: 00965 [protected]
Email: [protected]@gmail.con

Rental Contract reference number JP 5467

Hisham Saamsudheen, 803 Yousuf Square, Ainabda 2
Dubai
81443

My family and I went to Melbourne and we rented 3 vehicles from Europcar via EasyRentCar. We picked up our vehicles on Avalon airport around 8.30am (5th June 2019) and returned on 12/6/19.

Throughout the process we taking our vehicles, the front desk salesman (Simon) was super kind to help us. He knew we already purchased the Super Protection insurances from EasyRentCar. However, he told us a lot of negativity when doing the claim with EasyRentCar and highly persuaded us to purchase insurance directly from Europcar. He also taught us to send email to cancel the insurance from EasyRentCar and asking for refund. Unfortunately, EasyRentCar replied us that the insurances cannot be cancel because we already picked up the cars. After we received the replies from EasyRentCar and we immediately contacted back to Europcar at the same day and asked for cancellation and refund but their replies were similar to EasyRentCar.

We are super disappointing the services from Europcar:
1. The Salesman (Simon) said the insurances from EasyRentCar can be cancel and refund but unfortunately not.
2. We felt we were scammed by the salesman and we think he is trying to push his sales and taught us the method which totally not workable.
3. At the end we purchased both insurances for total 3 cars and we felt super unreasonable.
4. We are super sad and moody throughout the trip !

We hope the respective department can do something on this case. We are strongly felt we are being cheated by Europcar and we are asking the refund for Europcar as well.

I rented a car at Cape Town and return at Johannesburg airport. The Europcar confirmation [protected] (attached) confirms the terms and price of the rental. However, Europcar overcharged and upon contacting the company, Case #[protected], nothing happened other than delays and lies by various compay's representatives.
After 2 months of emails, Travelocity, sent me the following message:
QUOTE... Meanwhile, we contacted Europcar and we were advised that they charge your account amount of ZAR 1, 7642.79 for 76 rental days, additional charge of ZAR 2, 048.06 and ZAR 1, 068.96 for tourism levy fee, e-toll charges, refueling charge
and service fee.
In addition, they told us they will issue a refund to the credit card that was used on the rental amount of ZAR 1773.31 (approximately GBP 95.00). However, they will need the credit card holder on the line to provide the credit card details. Please contact the car rental company directly at 1-877-940-6900.
Please have your confirmation number [protected] available when you call them. UNQUOTE
Your Mr. Saif Jussab | Escalations Officer, wrote as follows:
QUOTE... I apologise for the delay.
I have received your further email, please be advised as the booking was done through third party source we are not able to verify your details on the booking, in regards to this matter the tour operator did contact us and a full explanation was sent to them directly on the 03/06/2019, please contact them for the response, if you have any further disputes please contact the tour operator and this will be dealt with them directly.
I apologise as I could not assist further. UNQUOTE
I expect your company to act promptly and resolve this matter ASAP and in parallel to take disciplinary actions against your incompetent personnel in UK, Philippines and South Africa which are unable to resolve the issue while brushing off, lying and distorting facts.
I am not alone complaining about overcharges and incompetence of Europcar.

My complaint to the branch of the Europcar Herzliya Israel on April 30, 2019.
The first time I had encountered a very bad service and a loss of hour of my precious time.
I had ordered a car # [protected] to be ready at 8 AM April 30 2019.
I came to the branch at 8:10 and was a single client for this time. Despite this, I was accepted only at 8:30 and then it turned out that all the cars were not ready and had to be washed and filled with gasoline. It will take another 25-30 minutes!
The employee who washes the car went to the store for buying a coffee instead of washing the car that was ordered in advance. The rest of the office workers chatted among themselves and were in no hurry.
I, the only client at this time in the branch, was asked to wait 30 minutes!
My mood was ruined, and when I complained to the head of the branch he said in nonchalant mode that this could happen to everyone.
What could happen to everyone? Doing your job negligent and giving a bad service?
I had ordered the car in advance, I had calculated my time based on my plans and, as a result, should I wait?
Finally, I had my car ready by 8:55AM which had caused me to be late on a very important appointment, har ruined my good mood and had shortened my plans for almost an hour.
Based on these facts, I demand the full return of my money for rent and an additional $ 200 for moral damage and a change in my plans due to the delay in getting the car for almost an hour.
Awaiting your compensation.
With full respect,
Lena Goldman
+[protected]

*The copy of the rental docs and photos of the car will be provided by demand.

I booked a car to pick up at Europcar of the Geneva airport (French side) with EconomyBookings.com. I picked up the car at 9 am of June 10th (see photo attached).

According to the proof of reservation, I had to pay 36.71 euros on arrival, but they wanted to charge me 45 euros. I showed them my proof of reservation and the representative of Europcar told me that I should not have booked with EconomyBookings, as they retain some part of the rental price. I insisted that the proof of reservation stated a different price and I shower her the document and she told me to go to the end of the queue until she attend all the other customers first.

I told her that I came first to the others and I wanted my problem solved, so then she started to scream at the front office saying that she was alone there and that I had to complain with customers service. I ended up paying the wrong price and I was treated by this very indelicate person that has to idea how to deal with customers. Her name was Mina, according to what she said to me.

As a customer I do not see this as normal and I fell injured by this representative of Europcar.

This is an experience to not repeat.

Hired a car last month from Charles de Gaulle Airport and when I went to pick it up I was advised the model selected was not available and was offered an automatic instead of manual gearbox with a surcharge of 180 Euro which I agreed to. When I got to the car I realised that it was not. After raising issue, numerous emails/phone calls I was reimbursed the 180 Euro only to discover that at the same time as the reimbursement was been processed my account was debited 331 Euro for some damage to the car. No details about where or what the damage was supposed to be.
After complaining I was advised of some supposed scratches to rear of car. I have provided Europcar with dated photos showing these scratches as pre-existing damages and despite emails and phone calls I am still waiting reimbursement more than a month later. Customer service can be described as a series of empty catch phrases with no action. On reading other reviews it seems to be part of Europcar business model. Beware.

-REFERENCE: RENTAL CONTRACT: N0. [protected] / RESERVATION N: [protected].
- Date 7th May 2019.
- EMPLOYEE's NAME: DANIELA ANDRADE that works at the Airport of Lisbon.
I would like to complain about the attitude of your employee Daniela Andrade that was very uncooperative and aggressive on the telephone when I asked her if it was possible to collect the car at my hotel in Cascais/Lisbon on the 8th May in the morning because I had a problem in returning the car to the airport early morning on the 8th April. Her answer was no, that the Europcar procedure did not allow them to pick up cars from a hotel. Then I told her tha most of other companies provide that service to help their customers, and I told her that I was very disappointed, and that next time I would think twice before using your services. She replied that, that was it and told me to stop threatening her and so too bad for me! If she was an intelligent, helpful and customer orientated person, she could just say, I will call you back but I am going to telephone the Europcar Agency in Cascais ( just 7 minutes away from my hotel..) and I will ask them to collect the car, but as she was unwilling to help, she just told me goodbye. So I decided to go to your Cascais Agency and your Agency Manager, was very professional and told me that I could leave the car at the hotel and that they would collect it. This employee of yours is to be praised, he was very helpful and professional, but your employee Daniela Andrade, should not be in contact with your customers, at least I do not want to deal with her again and next time I will choose another company, where to rent a car!
Victor Dias Ferreira victor.[protected]@novaxpharma.com

Contract number: [protected]

I've hired a car from Europecar Cape Town, South Africa between 12.4.19 to 19.4.19 and unfortunately had an accident. A careless driver ran into the back of my car.

When I called the rental office, I was told to arrive to the nearest branch for a car replacement. When I asked the lady on the phone whether I should take details she said: 'Oh yes, you should do that to'. But did not give further instructions.
I did ask whether there is anything else they need and was told - No.

When I arrived to the Cape Town branch I was told that I should have gone to the nearest police station as they need a police case number. The branch manager said that otherwise I will be charged for liability.

Reluctantly, i did that. I dropeed my family off and went to the police station.
When I returned the car, the employee at the desk told me that Europcar should have gone to the police, not me and that he apologises.
Today I discovered that I was cherged for liability.

Europcar South Africa: This is the worst experience i had in terms of car rental.
You did not give me clear information. You did not process the information that I provided and your branch manager was extremly arogant and rude.
I will avoid hiring a car from you, even if it means i pay more.

I enclose a copy of the email exchange I have had with trinidad europcar:
Hello-oh, Stacey,

no reply, i'm afraid ever since.

very grateful for some info.

cheers, John

— Original Message —
From: reservations@europcar.co. tt
To: "John Keiran"
Cc: "Angelika Kieran", johndesmondkieran@gmail.com, "richard henry", "crystal matthews"
Sent: Monday, 25 March, 2019 21:06:23
Subject: RE: Fwd: ref;1097498481 rental agreement 10079

Good day Mr. Keiran,

My apologies for the late response. It is company policy not to take a downpayment so I am surprised to hear your wife was charged a downpayment. A charge for that amount may have been for damages. Can you confirm the date your wife would have rented the vehicle and from which location? I will look into the matter from on my end and respond by tomorrow.

Regards,

Stacey

Europcar Trinidad & Tobago | Customer Service Department
Office: 1-868-621-2159 | Fax: 1-868-621-2159 | Europcar.co. tt
Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre, Lady Young Road, Port of Spain, Trinidad, W.I.
reservations@europcar.co. tt

Courtyard by Marriott Hotel | Tel: 1-868-627-5376
Piarco Call Centre | Tel: 1-868-646-4746 | Fax: 1-868-646-2868
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— Original Message —
Subject: Fwd: ref;1097498481 rental agreement 10079
From: John Keiran < hugok@eircom.net >
Date: Fri, March 22, 2019 6:15 am
To: reservations@europcar.co. tt
Cc: Angelika Kieran < angelikakieran@gmail.com >,
johndesmondkieran@gmail.com

hello there again. I received no reply to my email as copied here below. unless I get a reply today, I will be obliged to take the matter further up the line. yours etc. John Kieran

— Forwarded Message —
From: "John Keiran" < hugok@eircom.net >
To: reservations@europcar.co. tt
Sent: Wednesday, 20 March, 2019 10:55:08
Subject: ref;1097498481 rental agreement 10079

hello there.

my wife rented a car from you on 1st feb. [charged on 3rd Feb] she made a down-payment of US$500 - refundable on return of car. as at today, 20th March, she has received no refund/credit for this or any other sum.

i'd be very grateful you would look into this for her.

I have an account with europcar and am a regular customer. so I would expect this problem to be resolved shortly; and would be very grateful if that were the case, yours John Kieran

I recently rented a car from Perth Airport Europcar, I was told there would be a $100 bond to ensure refueling the vehicle . I signed for this after dealing with another issue which took 45 minutes to explain and which I thought was corrected.
When I dropped off the vehicle I was told it was all good, when I asked if I needed to sign I was told they are paperless and he showed me the screen saying complete. When I returned home I received an email with a bill for $300 for a Premium Airport Service Fee. I called and complained to another useless individual, SUE who was no use .

DO NOT USE EUROPCAR, they will scam you one way or another

Hi,

I am writing to you in order to make a claim.

The car was return and everything was fine on returning the car.

To my surprise I am being charged £42.44 to my credit card although I already prepaid my car rental on my french current account visa debit card.

I believe this is a mistake and don't understand how it could happen.
The sums are correct but not the payment taken out of my credit card for £42.44. Which means I am paying on top of the initial payment when I made the booking.
What I know is that I was asked to sign something which was never explained clearly to me.
And I would have never agreed to pay extra for something I had already paid for. This is daylight robbery.

Please proceed to the refund asap.
Thanks.

Gildas Thibault

Reserved and prepaid rental as part of package with flight and hotel to Milan, Italy for 10 days. I paid for FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE, including collision and package protection through Expedia. This was all paid for MONTHS before we arrived in Milan. We rented an economy car for a lot of driving we planned for the trip. They gave us a Fiat Panda 4X4. I took pictures of the vehicle, before I ever even sat in it, all the way around. (I SUGGEST EVERYONE DOES THIS before leaving with your rental).
We left for our hotel without any inspection by Europcar of the vehicle. We never signed anything, other than the rental agreement at the airport, and them taking credit card info. The car was surprisingly more powerful than I had anticipated, and I was very pleased with it. It was new and only had about 19k miles on it, so it could be the reason.
On the 4th day in Milan, we parked the car in front of a very nice Hotel close to the central Cathedral and Galleria around 12:15pm, the middle of the day. Paid for parking with the kiosk for 2 hours. We returned to the car less than 1 hour later to discover that my large camera bag was missing out of the trunk of the car, and my wife's wallet was stolen out of her purse that was hidden under the front seat. Without going into too much detail, the loss of camera gear was around $3500. My wife's wallet had some cash and credit cards in it, which we cancelled immediately. We made a police report in the Milan Police station, telling them that the Hotel told us they have cameras that may identify the thieves. We still have heard nothing from the Milan Police department since. We had to leave the next morning to our next leg of our trip, so we could not remain in Milan.
At the end of our trip, we returned to the Milan airport to return the vehicle and to catch our plane back. The agent came out to ask if car was ok, and I answered, "yes, but we did get robbed and have a police report. I'd like to make a claim for the losses". The agent's eyes lit up, and completely ignored what I said, immediately taking the key from me and going right to the door lock of the car, while saying, .."I'm so glad you told me that". He tried to put the key into the lock and it would not go in. He said nothing to me and asked me to sign the electronic block on a hand held machine he had in his hand. I assumed it was just the return receipt signature they would require.
The man said absolutely nothing else to me and went into the office. I followed him in, assuming to get my receipt for the return. The woman at the counter asked me for the police report. I gave it to her and they made a copy of it. Then to my SHOCK, she said, "We will be charging your credit card for the damages to the vehicle lock at 400 EUROS". I said, "WHAT? I paid for full coverage insurance for damages, if any"...She replied, "No, you only paid for basic insurance", and showed me some policy that I never saw before, that had no signature of mine on it that stated I had "basic insurance". We then got into a heated argument, with other male agents just walking around as if this was business as usual. I told her I need to file a claim for the losses from the robbery, and she said, "You need to contact customer support".
During this time, my wife got on the internet and began researching repair costs for the door lock, that looked normal to us to begin with. She discovered that it only costs about 30 EUROS to repair. I showed the woman at the counter the actual repair costs, and that theirs were outrageous! I then said, "How do I know this lock wasn't broken when I picked up the car"? She argumentatively replied, "Do you have proof of that, ..do you have pictures"? I said, "I did take pictures when I picked up the car, but they are on my hard drive buried in my luggage".
Then suddenly a man came from behind me into the office and told her to say nothing more. She immediately shut down conversation and said nothing at all afterwords.
After arriving back in the US, I received an invoice demanding even more money from them with absolutely no explanation what so ever. Tried calling and e-mailing customer support for claim forms and NO RESPONSE!
CONCLUSIONS:
1. How did the agent know about the door lock when I never even mentioned anything about the car being locked or unlocked? He never even asked me if the car was even locked before he immediately ran to the door lock. There was NOTHING WRONG WITH THE LOCK!
2. We were never told the car had NO ALARM SYSTEM, or even offered a car that HAD ONE, considering the high crime in Milan that we discovered on our own later.
3. What happened to my "FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE" that I paid for and have receipts for?
4. This company needs to be investigated for FRAUD, and a class action lawsuit is in order.