I wish to know if anyone else has experienced late Car Hire Charges, over the past year i have regularly hired cars from Europcar, Stavanger Norway.

This i was very happy to do as they provided at the time a very good service to me, but over the festive session i have recieved 3 additional invoices from Europcar relating to additional toll charges, which has come up to 3-4 months after the car hire period.

When hiring a car in Norway, due to the number of tolls on the road i get Europcar automatically to activate the toll sensor on the car so as you pass the tolls the lights turn green thus the charge is automatically sent to the hire company registered against the number plate on the car.

Now all my Europcar final Invoice bills have come normally 10-15days after the car hire period, thus i have been invoicing my customer, but i find it very strange that i should be recieving invoices from Europcar some months after the hire periods.

Europcar's management reply is that they say it takes some months for them to recieve all the toll charges, and that i have no option but to pay.

Anyone have any advice, as its a bit embarrising having to go back to my customer now months after invoicing them asking for these charges to be paid, the 3 invoices only adds up to approx 800 nok but its the principle of the way they treat you isnt very customer friendly.

Being a frequent easyJet customer, I was used to rent my car from Europcar, their preferred partner.

My destination is mostly Malaga, Spain.

Recently I was abused by Europcar, since they charged me for a damage that was already present on the car. It was minor damage on the front spoiler, several small indents any car would encounter during its life, due to some projection particle on the road.

I am not the only one being abused this way, my father, who also frequently fly to Malaga already encountered this kind of problem time to time.

The trick they use is almost always the same: they show you a more obvious damage, like a bump on a wing, or a big scratch on the painting, and they tell you it will be noticed on the rental contract so you won’t have to be worried.

Taking it as granted, you usually trust the employee and do not check the rest of the vehicle.

But when you return the car, an “inspector” scrutinizes the vehicle for any other thing they didn’t mention to you, and inevitably they find something, like problems on spoilers or bumpers they were actually already present but you didn’t notice.

They usually charge you Euro 200 to 350 for this, and while you can complain, they argue that once the contract is signed, you accepted everything.

I STRONGLY recommend you will choose another rental company. Not only they are not the cheapest one - you might thing they would be since they claim discount when you fly with easyJet - but they really abuse you when they can.

The above is based on my – and my father’s - experience with Europcar Malaga, but for sure I will never rent a car from this company anymore.

This is the letter I'm just sending to Mark Cotterill their MD!

Dear Mark

RE: COMPLAINT – ATTEMPTED FRAUD? DATA PROTECTION? ZERO RESPONSE! (CS????????)

I am writing to you to tell that your company treats its ex –customers in the most appalling and disrespectful way. I believe your company tried to defraud me with an incorrect invoice, breached data protection requirements and then failed to respond when I try and resolve the issue.

You will be pleased to know the initial issue is now resolve – sadly for me this has taken nearly 4 hours of my time – writing emails, waiting on-hold for your ‘customer service’, looking for receipts, etc.

Let me begin - my car was damaged in an accident. I was provided with a replacement car from your company – great service. Delivered on time, collected on time. Brilliant. Then I was given a letter at work addressed to a Mr ? Fox. As I’m the only Fox at work – I opened it. It contained an invoice for fuel – £37.93. My first reaction was why send it to my work address as you have my home address, and my name is Richard, but my wife’s name is A????. So the car was delivered to work, but you collected it from home. Your representative confirmed my driving license, and the insurance details are in my wife’s name. I’m not sure what went wrong, but something did with your processes – it can’t be hard to get it wrong – but this scenario must happen for you quite often – so I expect you to get it right. But I didn’t appreciate it. A breach of data protection for sure. Under the fourth principle of the Data Protection Act, information must be accurate and up to date. Clearly not in this case.

Now for the invoice – I had filled up the car before returning it. Of course I’d used it a little bit after filling it up – but not the 26 litres the invoice stated. I could only put 55 litres in the car from near empty. Also the mileage documented that I’d done on the invoice just didn’t make sense to the amount of fuel the invoice said I had used. I don’t like to be treated like a fool - I expected honesty from companies and people. It would be hard for me to prove anything as I wasn’t there when the car was collected – but I have a feeling this just seems to be standard practice. Fleece your customers? Isn’t that fraud?

Now, what made me very resentful was my own duty of care to your vehicle. The key ring said DIESEL – yes, BIG CAPITAL LETTERS. So when I went to fill up the car and saw that the inside of the petrol flap said 95 RON you’ll be pleased to know I was just a little bit hesitant when I had the diesel pump in my hand. I didn’t fill up the car – drove home – found the number to call from the delivery documentation and rang-up. On hold a little while – they went way – and confirmed it was petrol. I went back and filled it up with petrol. I’ll let you think about the consequences and expense of that. Then to get an invoice – I wasn’t impressed.

So I tried to call to have a chat with your customer service. Tried being the word. On hold for quite a while before resorting to emailing. My email outlined pretty much was I said above – and adding I wasn’t going to pay.

Zero response.

I then got another letter about a week later. Why hadn’t it been paid? I’d be charged £40 if I didn’t pay – rather obnoxious to be honest. Threatening. So wrong name, wrong address again!– I did email and tell you. I saw red this time. I went to ring up – on-hold again. I have better things to do than wait for your ‘customer services’. I sent another email to the email address the on-hold message said send it to.

Zero response.

The next day I rang up some other number and a lady put me through to the ‘team leaders’ line – waited a while but it was answered. Hurray. The man (Martin O’Boye) found my email and I explained the situation and that I wasn’t happy. He said the car had a 70 litre capacity (I think not – unless it has some hidden tank). He said it was returned three quarters full. Now, let me take you back to the 26 litres on the invoice. Even at 70 litres – that makes for 37% - much nearer half-full – than 25%. Martin said if I could find the receipt he’d cancel the invoice. How kind of him. Or would you have liked me to pay this ridiculous invoice? The invoice to the wrong name at the wrong address?

I found the receipt at last that evening – took a copy and emailed it back to Martin asking to confirm a few items, including that you would not send any more wrongly addressed items to work. It really is quite embarrassing, and my wife’s not a Mr, and she doesn’t work there either.

Zero response.

I tried to ring Martin up on the number on his email. On-hold for 15 minutes before I gave up – not the first time if you remember. An idea, I’ll ring again and press 1 for amending a booking. WOW – an instant response. Nice man, said he was in Spain and customer service was in Leicester. And no he couldn’t help or put me through. I’d have to ring again.

Getting even more annoyed, but I’m quite a busy person. Work, family etc. Maybe most people just give up at this point?

At last on day two a response saying the invoice would be credited. But what about confirming nothing would be sent to work again? Nothing. Zero.
I sent another email – saying I was going to take this issue further with the police over potential attempted fraud and data protection. I actually think this is also trading standards too. The point is – you treated me like an idiot – and you still are.

Zero response.

So on Monday I got another letter. From a debt collection agency. Threatening! Are you crazy?

That same day I got a phone call on my mobile from the same agency (congratulations you got that be correct, but they asked for a Mr A Fox) Why hadn’t I paid. I was very polite with them as I know that it’s not them but YOU! Your fault! You stupid procedures! Your stupid greedy company! You treat people like idiots – you threaten – you make up invoices that aren’t correct and you pretend to have customer service team to sort out problems – and you send all of that to wrong address.

Anyway, the good news is that today, at my work Mr A Fox received a Credit Note.

So in summary, I don’t know what shower of sh*t operation you run as Managing Director of Europcar – but if I was you I’d be very embarrassed by your company’s procedures and lack of performance. I do hope the police investigate, and the data protection people pokes their nose into your business – maybe they will inconvenience you as much as your company has unconvinced me? I’ve also contacted my insurance company in the hope they don’t put any more business your way – again I can only hope they follow my advice.

Finally, if you feel it is in your power to consider any form of compensation for my unfortunate dealings with your company then please don’t hesitate. Maybe I should be satisfied that the recount of my dismal tale to you might improve just one of your customer future experiences.


Yours sincerely,


Richard
PS – when I go to Spain for my holidays I normally use a Europcar rental. I know it’s only a few hundred Euro’s but your Group won’t be getting my business in 2010 – or ever again.

I want to report the horrifying experience I had with Europcar in Portugal during the month of September. On June 16th, I booked a reserve of a compact car with automatic gear for the period 15th September (Évora) – 24th September (Vila Real) under the name of my wife for the guaranteed price of 512.43 Euros. We also subscribed to an insurance policy providing total Loss and Demand Waiver coverage, eliminating any deductible we might incur during the rental for an extra cost of 14.88 euros per day.

On September 15th while picking up the car in Évora, fully aware that engines in Europe can be driven either by gas or diesel, I asked the employee named Nuno if the engine of the Fiat Linea we were renting was on gasoline. His answer was YES! Given that I am a portuguese native speaker, I am positive he understood the question. Unfortunately, when I stopped at a service station to fill the car, it was the owner of the service station himself who filled the tank. Of course, it was writen DIESEL on the tank tap and I wonder why he did not tell me about it.

On Friday September 18th, while I was leaving the city of Marvão, the engine of the car stalled, preventing us from keep going on our trip. We then phoned the 24h assistance service for help.

To make a long story short: Europcar is charging me aproximately 300 Euros for picking up the car, replacing it with another and “assistance” despite the fact we were misinformed and paid for an insurance policy providing full LDW coverage (not to mention we had to wait six hours for help to arrive). B) We were promised by the Porto Alegre Europcar station to receive exactly the same model I had rented in Évora, but instead got a car with a manual gear! C) when I complained by phone with the Evora station I was insulted and not helped at all; D) I called the customer support department in Lisbon where I talked to Sr. Virgilio. He was unhelpful, did not pay any atention to what I was telling him (in Portuguese) and showed clearly that he did not care, in fact he sounded bored!; E) When we delivered the car back in Vila Real not only they charged this absurd amount of 300 euros mentioned above but they also charged me more for the same car with manual gear than the price I had booked for an automatic gear car! The total rip off in my assesment amounted to 340 euros; F) I sent an e-mail to them complaining about what happened and received absolutely no response. Europcar is one of the most dishonest, incompetent and unhelpful companies I haver ever come across. I am trying to suspend this abusive charges reporting this situation to Visa. I will go to law court if necessary! Europcar never more!!! Avoid dealing with this dishonest company!

On arrival in Fontainebleau, France in June we proceeded to the Europcar office to collect our vehicle. This had been arranged via an internet booking direct with Europcar. The booking confirmation clearly stated that the car would be available at 3pm on the Saturday and also listed the opening hours of the office, which included 12h01-14h59.
Unable to collect the vehicle we began making phone calls to Europcar. Their suggestion was that we return to Paris to collect one at the airport there (no way!). They said they could not take responsibility for errors that the Europcar website made when confirming bookings!
We couldn't collect our vehicle until Monday morning.
We incurred costs of eur0364 by having to remain in Fontainbleau and not being able to proceed to our pre-paid cottage 2 hours drive away.
We first tried lodging a complaint via the website; ignored twice until we threatened legal action at which time we received the following email:-
"In a way to treat faster your complaint, we invite you to transmit it by our web site http://services.europcar.fr/europcar-fr/entreprises/form_serviceclientele.jsp
You have the possibility to send us your claim by fax to 0033 1 30 64 00 64 .This mail has been sent automatically. Thanks to not respond."
So we went to the suggested website, but it was not functioning. We then faxed the claim to the fax number. That was over a month ago and it has been ignored. I have sent another today.
Is their policy for handling complaints simply to ignore them until the customer finally gives up in frustration?