I rented a car in June 09 in London.
It started out that my secretary go the wrong price information, which made me lose over 200 pound. I arrived at Heathrow airport Europcar station, I booked a GPS system and a Audi A4 car. I got a Citreon instead, the GPS system was set in Italian language which nobody understood, it took me 2 days before I have figured out how to set it into English language. Since they did not provide any instructions
with it.
The car was ok, but the tank was completely empty. That never ever happened to me before. Inside the car was a note, show it to the attendent by returning. When taking the car out, the staff was extremely inpolite when asking him about it and many small marks on the car. Which I have detected.His barking answer was to mark it down, but he would not confirm it .
I went back the staff, they told me he is the person to go to.
Once I left the station I made a driving mistake and was immediately on the highway, The gas needle was on empty all the while . I was not sure how much gas was left over so I had to go off the highway and search for a gas station . I took me 30 minutes to locate one and I was extremely happy not having been stopped before I reached the gas station.
Once I returned the car, I gave the note to the attendant and he said it was unusual but ok he will handle it. He handled it .
They charged me a full tank even I returned the car with half full tank too much. I also told them that I have paid for the congestion charge in London for that day, they still charge me including penalty for that day.
Even I send them my credit card statement showing clearly that it had been paid .
Their custom service is only busy too boast about their tremendious service to their customers. But complaints are not answered . E-mails are not answered, telephones are to answered.
I rented many cars before including cars from Europcar in Germany, I never experienced any of the described, problems .
I guess Europcar UK is a special team with the grande inspiration, and desire how to displease a customer .
Thank you Europcar >>>>I will never rent a Europcar for ever anymore.

I made a formal complaint regarding the service received at the Europcar "Edinburgh City" location. At the time of writing this, my reservation is still in progress, but I placed a call to Customer Services at 10:30am on the 14th September and spoke with Sam. She took some preliminary notes regarding my issues, but urged me to document everything to date and advised that I would be contacted to discuss my experience after the rental was closed off and invoiced on the 18th September.

9 Days later I called again to find that the email I was asked to send (despite a read receipt being sent) was lost and my initial phone complaint was not actioned. I was asked to send the email again, and then wait another 7 days before calling to see if it arrived. There was no method for them to let me know that an email had even been received, and they would not check the inbox if I called before 7 days!! This is still on going and the original email is below.

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I arrived at the Edinburgh City location to collect the car at 10:00am and it was extremely busy. The queue was out the door with collections and returns. Two people were at the counter and the Manager did not leave his office while I was in the branch. After an extended wait, I was served by Jiri with the paperwork timestamped 10:46am.

Jiri processed my paperwork and I opted for the extra £6.80 a day insurance. At the end of the process I was given the keys and noticed they were not for a VW, I asked what type of car it was and if it was a similar class/size to what I booked. He responded with "Its a Vauxhall Mevira, its a large car".

I inspected the vehicle and found it completely inadequate for my needs. I booked an intermediate car as I had 5 adults and luggage to transport. The Meriva was undersized, underpowered, and was NOT the same class as what I had booked. According to europcar.co.uk the car supplied is a CDMN while I had booked an IDMR. I completely understand that a booked car may be substituted for a similar vehicle as described on the website, but nowhere in the contract does it state an inferior vehicle could be supplied without warning.

I had to wait until Jiri came outside the office as the queue inside was still very large. I explained to him that the car was not suitable and that I would not accept it. He said to wait outside and he would get back to me.

After another 10 minute wait, he returned and said "My manager said just drive to Edinburgh Airport and they will swap it out for another car, we have nothing here". I expressed to him that he needed to call them and ensure that something would be available. I was not happy to drive there and just hope they would have something. Jiri assured me he would arrange it. I confirmed my mobile number, and even wrote it down again on the paperwork for him. I was assured that it would be organized and he would call me in 10 to 15 minutes to confirm everything. I started to make my way to the Airport and waited over 30 minutes for Jiri to call, but he never did.

I parked at Europcar "Edinburgh Airport" and returned the car to bay 102. I went to the Returns Office, explained the situation but the office had received no call from the "Edinburgh City" branch. They were confused as to why I brought the car to them at all, and after a lengthy explanation they accepted the Vauxhall Mevira, but as they were also extremely busy there was a substantial wait for it to be checked for mileage and damage before I was told to go to the collections office.

I arrived at the collections office and had to explain the full situation again. My story needed to be verified with staff from the Returns Office as no one called ahead or would accompany me to the office to explain the situation on my behalf.

While a vehicle of the correct class was being located, I explained that it had been over two hours since I arrived at the "Edinburgh City" branch to collect a vehicle I had pre-payed for. I asked if there was any gesture that could be offered in light of the poor service I had received, . The Customer Service Attendant said that there was not a single spare vehicle available to upgrade to, and that because the booking error was made by the "Edinburgh City" office and not the branch I was at now I would need to follow it up with that office. I was finally supplied a SKODA SK OC2.0D SE on a new agreement #xxxxxxxxx.

It is important to note that at no point between making the original booking online to being handed the keys, was I ever advised that the car class I booked was not going to be available. That in itself could be excusable, but coupled with Eurpocar "Edinburgh City's" attempt to deceive me into accepting a lower classed vehicle than what I paid for and then, when challenged on this deception the Branch Manager not even leaving his desk to speak with me is deplorable.

I was under the impression that Europcar was a National company, but this could not have been exhibited as further from the truth when Europcar staff would not make a single phone call to another branch to help resolve the issue, and the "Edinburgh Airport" branch's response was that it was not their problem because another branch had made the error. Clearly the responsibility held by Europcar as a company is somewhat hazy especially to it's employees. I booked the car on the Europcar NATIONAL website, used the NATIONAL call centre, and had money taken from Europcar (not a local branch) so why couldn't another branch 7 miles away that is part of this national company offer a gesture?

The purpose of hiring a car was to make the most out a short trip with family travelling from Australia. I had arranged a number of visits on the Saturday, including tickets on the Jacobite Steam Train for 5 Adults that we had to forfeit as a result of this inconvenience. I remained calm and polite in all dealings with Europcar staff as I just wanted to salvage as much of the day as possible with my family. Unfortunately all staff I dealt with seemed more interested in passing the blame or making things difficult for others than resolving the issue. If I had been contacted prior to the day of collection, I could have made arrangements to collect a car elsewhere on the day. If the Edinburgh City Branch Manager had managed to leave his desk at some point during the entire process and explain the error or made a phone call in some attempt to alleviate the situation, then I highly doubt I would have felt the need to escalate this further.

As it stands today I am still taking valuable time out of my holiday with family to write this letter. So in consideration of the valuable time I am spending to detail the shortcomings of Europcar.

I hire a car in Italy, Rome from Europcar. After 7 days we payed 214 euros for the car, everything seemed to be ok.
After 2 months, I received an invoice from Europcar for administrative fees for electronic notification of trafic violations !!! of 144 euro, for 3 traffic violations in Rome, 2 of them in the same day (see Foto).
It is outrageous to tax 30 euro / day for rent a car and ~ 50 euro / electronic notification !!!
AVOID EUROPCAR, at least in Italy !!!
I am a good driver, I escaped with the car without a scratch in the awfull traffic in Rome and Napoli and now I am scamed by europcar ! I will not return in Italy soon, and I will never hire a car from Europcar.

I simply cannot believe Europcar! In their terms & conditions they say they going to give me a car which shall be supplied with an alarm and immobiliser. They didnt even bother telling me this or give me an option to upgrade upon collection of the car! This was only found out when the car was broken into the Hyundai & my GPS stolen. Their contract was in complete contravention with what their offering of their terms and conditions was! I had since received an invoice for the damages and had since challenged them on this & referred them to their clauses! This was done on TWO occasions to which they didnt bother responding, and to top it off, subsequent to the two email complaints, they still had the audacity to debit my credit card for the damage! I was informed that debiting a customer's credit card would only be done once they had received the customer's consent! What they have done is absolute fraud as NO consent was EVER given!! In addition, I am going to lay a formal charge of fraud against them and have the payment reversed as this was done without my consent or my knowledge & I was only notified of this when I had received my credit card sment! I am absolutely disgusted!

I booked a car for pick-up Sofia airport, Bulgaria, and check-in three days later at Skopje in Macedonia. EUR 385 hefty, but OK it worked with my travel plans. When picking up the car I signed the rental agreement, this time for EUR 237, nice - but I was in agreement with EUR 385 so fine, I can live with that... Left the car in Skopje, no damage, all documents in order... Fly home, great trip... Open the credit card invoice a few weeks later: EUR 487. After five weeks of complaining I today filed a police report for fraud. The company claims pricing was wrong in systems, and that the final settlement is the correct one..

Great company - give promises to company of which number 2 is a solid promise: No surprises... Sorry, I can not recommend this rental company. The worst of a bunch of bad companies.

Documentation is availble...