Hi,

I have been overcharged by Europcar and I am having issues getting them to refund the money.

Please find a breakdown of all cost below:

Rental (14 days) : R3531.72
Damage waiver : R1708.00 (Was not informed of and did not agree to this charge)
Theft waiver : R1260.00 (Was not informed of and did not agree to this charge)
Fuel : R317.25
Additional driver : R220.00
Contract fee : R45.00
Tourism Levy : R35.32
Airport Surcharge : R353.17

Total : R7470.46


When we arrived at the Europcar office Europcar did not have the car that we reserved. The agent offered us a cheaper car at our inconvenience as it was a smaller car and it had a manual transmission. The agent quoted a new price for us which was cheaper than the car we originally booked, she informed us of the additional charges and gave us the final price which we agreed to (Approx R3, 500 + Tourist Tax + Airport Tax + additional driver), it did not include the charges that I want Europcar to refund (Damage waiver and theft waiver).

A few days after the booking off the car I got a phone call from the Europcar agent saying that they needed me to sign another agreement as my credit card did not come out correctly on the original rental agreement. She was quite pushy and did not give me many details as to why I had to sign another rental agreement I tried to arrange that I sign the new rental agreement on my return with the car but she said this was not possible. I waited in the apartment for the agent to arrive (she arrived late) when she arrived I just signed the new rental agreement as I had already waited too long for this person and had made plans for the day.

I feel this just looks like a big scam to me and also I am not happy with the customer service Europcar have provided me with to date, this matter has gone on too long (89 days since collecting the car at the Europcar office).

I travel regularly for business and for pleasure I have used Europcar before in UK, Spain and France but nothing like this has happened to me before. The price which they have charged me is more than I would pay in any other European country it is scandalous.

Can you please help me with this matter? Once I noticed this inflated charge on my credit card I complained straight away. Since then I have been bounced from person to person in Europcar. I have not had any constructive response to date and I am becoming more and more frustrated usually it will take at least 1 week minimum for Europcar to respond to my mails.


Thank you,
Cathal