Europcar Hire Scam!

We hired a car over a long weekend and they happily told us we were able to return it on the Monday morning even though the office was closed. They failed to mention however, that if their return car park was full, that there was another car park a few KM down the road|. So, when we returned the car on Monday, their return car park was full and so some other cars had been returned and parked on the side walk|. It seemed as if they forget to tell every one about their second car park|. When we got the invoice we saw that an extra £65 had been charged for the parking fine! There was no information anywhere on where else to park the car if it was full".

I called and argued with them, and they changed their story saying this extra fee was actually because they had found a scratch on the car! I said there was no way of telling if it was us, and it probably was someone walking by as the cars were easily accessible to passers byers". They refunded the fee for the apparent scratch, that there was no photos of! BUT said that we would have to pay the parking fine if there was one, I asked them if they already knew about a parking fine as it had been almost 3 weeks since we had hired the car, they told me sometimes the fine takes a while to reach them:. The next Monday they had taken out £65 + 27 admin charges!!! I just don't know where to go and what to do?! This is clearly unfair and it is obviously a scam as there is no where to park the cars, they don't give out information about their second car park, they change the story about what the excess charges are for and then charge more and more, with out permission!

As a frequent Europcar renter, on collecting a pre-paid reservation made from France and in Euros with a French postal address I was refused collection as my driving license was issued in the UK and not France. On interrogation it appears that they run a credit check on the address on the driving license and as I am not resident in the UK, this did not work. When provided with documentation that is legally accepted as proof of residence in France it was refused and I was forced to go book elsewhere (Avis) at short notice and increased expense. I will be claiming for refund, expenses and damages and I am interested to hear if anyone else has had similar problems with Europcar or elsewhere.

For part of our family vacation to France in August 2009, I prepaid for a car for four days through Europcar’s website. On arrival in Pau, France, I walked over a mile from the train station to the agency where I was informed my car had been given to someone else because I was late. When I expressed my shock at the deception and asked whether a car would be available the next day, the agent then proceeded to berate me for my tardiness and informed me that as an American I needed to accept that I was in France and must adjust my expectations and attitude.

When I asked whether he could help me find a car through a different agency, he stated there were no rental cars available anywhere in the south of France. Finally, the truth! He obviously was officered more money by someone else and took it. All of this is in direct violation of Europcar’s printed Online Terms and Conditions which state, 8.2 Credit Card Details Provided – Guaranteed Reservation Hold.

If you specified at time of booking your debit, credit or charge card details and Driver ID (or your Driver ID only in which card details are stored) the Europcar pick up station is required to provide the requested vehicle category until the station closure or up to 12:00 (noon) the day following the due pick up time for 24/7 stations. Their agreement also stated the agent should have offered some minimal level of assistance in dealing with the problem of now being stranded in a foreign city.

Instead he rudely left the counter turning his back to me and left me to walk back to the train station where my family was waiting. He wouldn’t even offer to call a cab for me or try to find a nearby hotel. When we finally got into a hotel that evening, I lodged my complaint on Europcar’s website. They responded with an automated email and a supposedly real email address.

I have sent several requests for a refund to this email address only to receive another automated response indicating receipt of my complaint, an assigned “file number”, and a statement that I would have an answer in a few days. Two months later there is still no reply nor an attempt to rectify their misdeed. This is not a reputable company. They have no concept of customer service and they refuse to honor the terms of their agreements. Plus they use misdirection to shield themselves from dialog with their customers.

My family traveled to Argentina on vacation. We reserved a car with Europcar. We were charged over $400 US more than we agreed to for the car. We have tried to contact Europcar repeatedly. They don’t answer their e-mails. I have held over two hours waiting to talk to them on the phone. Finally they said they would refund us. They have told us twice by e-mail and once by phone that they would refund us. More than three months later we are still being charged the excess $420.

When I picked up the hire car it had a broken key. On raising my concern I was told it was the only car they had and a new key had been ordered and the broken one worked. There was also glue residue on the fuel cap door. I filled up with petrol and the car broke down late in the afternoon miles away from anywhere. I had inadvertently put petrol in a diesel car.

I discovered later from a staff member that both the diesel key tag and diesel sticker were missing and I had not been notified accordingly. On arriving home an extra charge of $1.500 had been made to my credit card. Europcar claims it was my responsibility to find out they were missing – yes that is true! I am meant to have second sight.