Europcar International review: Dangerous car and bad customer service

I was traveling to Dublin in September and rented a car with Europcar via Expedia for 9/11/2023 and 9/12/2023. I was quoted $46 and change which included insurance. It was supposed to be an economy sized vehicle like a Volkwagen Polo, Ford Fiesta style. I understood it was a manual transmission and have no problem at all driving manuals.

Upon arrival at the Spencer Dock location in Dublin City Center, they didnt have my size of car i rented. The person working the counter also said the insurance i already purchased did not cover the car so i needed their insurance. The new total was $233. I was put into a position of not having a car for the plans that were scheduled or take the current car that was available. Oh and they charge the renter for a tracking device in the car.

The person asked me where i would be traveling to and i said to Belfast. I was then charge a fee to drive across the border into Northern Ireland.

The clutch was not shifting into 2nd gear properly and continued to want to want to go directly into 3rd. At some points during shifting, it would pop out of 2nd by itself. This was not good especially with all the traffic circles/roundabouts that i had to navigate through. I felt that it was very stressful and unsafe with trying to go with the flow of traffic in a traffic circle.

Later in the evening when it was time to drive back to the hotel it started to rain. No surprise as it is Ireland. the windshield wipers were not good at all. They would make scraping noises on the windows and not clear the water off as well.

When i reached about 15 minutes from my hotel, i had a couple of warning lights pop on the dash which included the tire pressure indicator.

Once at the hotel, completely stressed, I decided that i was not going to be driving the car for a second day with the issues that i was having with the car.

i tried to call the customer service line but was instructed via a voice message that i needed to email Europcar. I emailed them immediately stating all the issues i was having and that they needed to come pick up the car. Originally i told them that i did have the car for 1 day and to charge me for it but refund the second and they needed to get the car.

The next morning before heading out to get a different car through Hertz rental i decided to call the phone number that was provided and to just start pushing buttons to reach a person. The person that i did get only wanted to change out the tire because of the sensor light. would not accept that the clutch was not working properly. I was very clear in telling the to come get the car. The rep told me he would get back to me shortly.

4 hours later as i am on the road to the next destination, i get a call from the tow truck driver to retrieve the car. He could not retrieve the car being that i had the key and no response was given to me until the driver called. He could not retrieve it. I had to leave the key at the hotel reception desk the next day.

This was a very unsafe car with the clutch not working properly, warning lights on the dash and the wipers not clearing the rain off the windows.

I have tried to dispute the charge with my credit card company but Europcar claims that because i drove it for 620 kms that it was not a faulty car. Europcar also claims that i put a pin # into their credit card terminal so it is legit. I do not have a pin # attached to any of my cards. They have also tried to charge my cc 3 different amounts since the car was returned. Luckily enough, i locked my credit card down as i figured they were not done yet.