Europcar International
Reviews and Complaints

I rented car in Moscow on August 2016. After I returned car with full tank and no complaints from Eurpocar person and returned back home I was wondering to see they (Europcar) charged my credit card with an amount of approximately 100$. It was on 07 Sep 2016. I still have no idea what this charge is for. The most amazing thing that I didn't get any explanation from Europcar Customer's service even though I wrote a few times. First time in the end of Sep. It's now end of October and still no any meaningful answer from Europcar. Just automatic replies and a week ago a strange mail asking to re-send my original query again! It's amazing! No way to contact them normally. I'll never rent again a car with Europcar.

They are the most fraudulent company I have ever cooperated with.
I have rented a car in Belgium, and they made me sign a form that I have checked the car and that it was ok. When I asked them to let me check the car before I sign, they informed me that as their office should close in a few minutes, I could either not sign and the booking would be canceled, and I would have to pay some cancellation fees, or I could just sign. However, as it was 23:30, when I tried to find the car in the parking, I have realized that it was parked about 9km from the arrivals, which was at the exact opposite side of the airport... Of course, noone informed us that we had to go there to pick up the car, or how to go there.
After 2 hours (we missed the last bus for that parking area) we finally got the car, and due to really low lighting, and due to the fact that we were extremely frustrated, we just took it and got to France to finally have some rest...
Although it was one of the worst experiences already, about 20 days later, a letter come to my home from Europcar, claiming that I have damaged the car, with some pictures of a minor damage, but they were not timestamped, or no other evidence were there, other than my signature, that I have checked the car!
At first they were asking for 280 euro, and some more days later, that amount changed to 408 euro! I was constantly asking for timestamped pictures before and after I returned the car, but of course I had no reply on that issue. They were always replying that I just have to pay and that this will be solved at court if I didn`t.

Finally, I did pay that amount, but for sure, I will never book anything from Europcar!

We had a prepaid deal that included (surcharge) insurance. However, when we came to pick up the car on the 4th of October at 9:00 am, we encountered a negative attitude from the representatives, and particularly from the one who was responsible for our reservation: First of all he was unkind and impatient, and refused to give us additional information. Secondly and most importantly – he made tremendous efforts to convince me to purchase another deal, in which I add 98 euros and "everything is covered" and I don't even have to give a deposit. He was using a scaring technique telling me that the insurance I paid for doesn't worth anything and that "I will see" that in the end I'll have to pay thousands of euros for any damage caused to the car.

The whole saga, including my girlfriend and me consulting because we were actually scared, took about 30 minutes (in total it took us about 50 minutes to get the car). When I came back inside to ask a question, I overheard the conversation that the other representative was having with other customers, and realized he was "offering" them the same deal. When I came back out, I met other customers from Israel who told me that they had "fallen" for the same "trick" (their words) and that it's definitely the last time they use Europcar's services.

When I told the representative that I want to stay with my original deal I thought the saga would be over, but nevertheless he kept trying to scare me and convince me, making me sign something that looked like an open bill written only in greek and refusing to elaborate more than "this is your contract" and adding "after you bring back the car I estimate the damage and I write the amount you pay here, and you already sgined, so with your deal – any minor damage you'll pay thousands of euros".
This incident saddens me on two levels: The first is that I will not use Europcar's services in the future, and neither will my friends and family. The second is that my overall impression of the cretian people was that they are kind, helpful, trustworthy and patient – and my first impression was terrible (this was the first person I met in crete). In addition, it made my first day in Crete full of troublesome thoughts, instead of relaxing. For me, and many others, these rental car stands are the face that welcomes us to a new country, and for us it was an unpleasant and disappointing experience.

I rented a car in a small Europcar office in Trento, Italy. Everything went fine, but after six month I received a letter from Europcar that I have to pay 4 euro ticket penalty, do not know for what and that I have to pay it in max 14 days delay, that after they sent the letter by post. I did managed to call the police, find out that was for the highway, I did not know how I passed through, and finally I payed around 20 euros with the penalties. Still that is ok, but after a month I found out that the Europcar took from my bank account another 45 euros, despite I did payed in time, they did not even contacted me, nothing. This is not legal, I did not gave my credit card for that, I will never user the Europcar again.

I bought a voucher from a broker with super CDW and super TP, so I'll
have zero CDW/TP excess.
When I arrived to Barcelona airport, I was told by Europcar representative (I think his name was Lucas) that I'll have to pay excess (about 1000 euro including VAT) on every scratch, meaning I don't have zero excess since "I bought from a broker and not directly from Europcar" (as he said).
He said that only if I buy the "full coverage" from Europcar, I'll have zero excess on all types of damages. he said that the "full coverage" of Europcar was adding "RSA-Assitence Plus" and "WWI: Glass & Types" for total of 204.55 euro for 15 days.
Please note that I didn't want those additions, but he forced me to add them in order to receive zero excess in case of any damage!

When I returned the car, I spoke with several Europcar representatives (and the local supervisor), and they explained to me very clearly that I was already fully covered with zero excess with the original voucher, thus there was no need to extend ("RSA-Assitence Plus" and "WWI: Glass & Types").
Again, I want to make it very clear that I didn't want those additions.

Europcar representative completely lied to me in order to force me to pay extra 204.55 euro for something I didn't want!

When I sent a complain mail to Europcar customer service, they didn't refund me of course, since I signed the contract.

Be warned!
Don't rent a car from Europcar!

https://www.tripadvisor.co.il/ShowUserReviews-g152515-d9454052-r416750946-Europcar-Cabo_San_Lucas_Los_Cabos_Baja_California.html#

, I have rented europcar car in paris bastilia on 1.7.16 and returned it in gare de nurd on 9.7.16. When I got the car the gasoline was filled with only quarter. I have discovered it when I was already on the way and took a picture with the gasoline mark and the speedometer (51723). I have returned the car exactly as I received it with quarter gasoline filled and took picture of the speedometer (54252). I told that to europcar representative at gare de nurd return station and she told me that I will not be charged. To my surprise when I got your invoice number [protected], I was charged for fuel for 114.28 euro. I have complained to ofran in israel few times for refund but did not get an answer.

Hired a car from Thessaloniki airport and the agent handling our booking would not allow our family to hire the car unless we paid 300 euro for damage insurance. (to remove excess cost in event of damage) I shows him my annual excess reimbursement insurance policy for such events but he said that we are in Greece and in Greece that insurance is not accepted. He was very aggressive in "selling" the insurance and in the end we paid as we had to get going to catch a ferry crossing. Not happy about this at all and expect a full refund. Happened on the 12th August 2016. Reservation No. [protected]

so we went online and hired a car from europcar, kings lynn, gave them all the documentation they required and more as we had our latest mortgage statement as extra proof. then they said that we needed to pass extra security and it was company policy. one of the questions that we got wrong was who is our mortgage with... we had the latest statement from our provided and they claimed we got it wrong? they then asked what bank account did we open over 12 years ago? that's fine if you only have one bank account but we have changed a couple of times and also my wife is divorced form her previous husband around that time so we really were unsure. they refused to hire us a car and also refused to refund the money and gave us a phone number to phone to try to get our money back... needless to say no one ever picks the phone up on this number they gave us

I decided to phone customer complaints department and he really did not want to log my call telling me it would be better to do it online but I insisted so halfway into the call, he pretended he couldn't hear me and put the phone down

Hi.
Why should I ever rent a car from Europecar again?
I rented a Golf registration nr 0661HRM Keddy voucher nr [protected], [protected]:00 from Barcelona.
I was surprised to get a car in such a bad condition to start with!
Automatic first gears was not in the best condition, and things just fall off, back shelf, door handle .
And it got worse in the morning 11/7 the rear gear gave up and we were stuck in a hotel garage in Andorra. We were going from Andorra to Tarbes, Pau and Biarritz in France.
That did not happen!
We got towed to a garage by 24 h road service. 5hours of total confusion, 1h on the phone ( 80cent/ minute) then got transport back to Spain, Lleida and a new car.
My complains are
Why did take it so long time to get a new car? I missed one days traveling and we had to change route, and how could you rent out a car like that?
I want compensation!

Ulf Gabrielsson

I rented the car in Italy from Milan on 5/17/2016 and returned it in Rome on 5/18/2016. I picked the car from an indoor garage at the Airport. And I bought the medium damage and collision insurance. I did not or could not see any damage other than described on the invoice and I had never hit anything at all, and I parked the car inside the private lot of my friend's place. First, it took me almost 3 hours to find the place where I could return the car. It only said the name of the train station and nothing else. I had to drive around bumper to bumper trying to find the parking lot for Europcar Rental. I could not ask anyone because nobody spoke English.

I finally found it after almost 3 hours in heavy traffics looking for it. They found a small scratch on front bumper which I did not/could not see it when I picked the car from an indoor garage (not a lot of light). I usually pick up the car from outside under sunlight when I rent a car in the US and we usually check the car together with a representative from the car rental company. For that small scratch, I was charged more than $250.00, although I bought the medium damage and collision insurance. It took me almost 3 hours to find the Europcar Rental parking lot so I was about 3 hours late, and for that I had to pay for 2 days of car rental. Total price I had to pay almost $600.00 for about 27 hours of car rental.

DO NOT rent from EUROPCAR RENTAL. A fraud or swindle company. Maybe they already know about that small scratch and most people do not see it. They can make a few hundred dollars more from that small scratch. Stay away from Europcar Rental. I could not even ask anything when I rented the car in Milan. She always said "No" or "I do not know" whenever I asked her anything, never even trying to find out.

They charged me 1.471, 25 nok for returning their car 2 hours later than expected, due to traffic congestion around oslo,. They also charge mandatory electronic payment tag/pass of 70 nok per day plus vat, regardless of where you drive. None of these "conditions" where made known/clear to me when I collected the car. I was told that I could be late a few hours, without incurring further charges. They are the only car rental company at oslo airport, which operate differently and they do not make their “conditions" clear to customers. Avoid them. I am going to send them a formal complaint.

I would like to complain about my recent rental transaction (from 16 of February 2016) at London Luton Airport.

I had booked a car to be picked up at 08:30 am from Luton Airport.

When I arrived at the car hire Europcar, I had a horrible experience with:
not honouring the reservations, no car available, no proper response available.

I have lost wages for couple of hours and picked up a car from a different car company which is in London.

I spent a lot of time going from airport to car hire, I wasn't informed (did't received any phone call or message!) stating the car wouldn't be available.

I missed other reservations and had to totally rearrange my itinerary for the day. Totally unsatisfactory customer service.

I have however had excellent service from Europcar, so I lay all blame on the management of Europcar Luton franchisee now.

I rented a car from London Airport for 10 days, upon receiving the vehicle in the early hours I didn't check it until the next day and noticed a small dent in the driver's door not noted on the hire details and tried to report it but my mobile wasn't connecting to 0345 numbers and didn't get back to land line till the next day (too late to report). It was within the allowable limit of 25mm so thought it wouldn't count anyway but still filled in a damage report when I returned it. A week later I received an invoice asking for £230 in addition to them keeping my £250 deposit (total £470) for a dent I didn't do and for something that was within their acceptable 'wear & tear' policy. I have emailed them several times to complain and they respond with standard replies but are not willing to even check the damage to see it is minimal or allow me to get it repaired as I know this try of door indent can be massaged out for under £100. I feel VERY angry and frustrated as what to do next. Please help!

We booked a car through Economy Car Hire for the last two weeks of September 2015. The car hire company who provided the vehicle was Europcar France. Everything was OK with the car and it served us well. Upon returning the car to the company at Nice Airport on the 30th September one of their representatives inspected the car and asked me to sign his PDA device. Before signing I asked if everything was OK and he replied yes. As the information on the screen was in French and confusing to say the least I took his work for it. A couple of weeks after returning home I received an Invoice for 135 Euros for damage to the vehicle. When I queried this I was told that it was an excess cleaning charge. I asked for further details and received the pictures attached. They show dirt on the removable floor mats and a dusty exterior. No worse than any car which has had a fortnights use even though our accommodation was up a rural track. If the guy had said the mats were dirty I could have shook most of it off. I asked for justification but got absolutely no where. they just kept referring to their terms and conditions. I then went to Economy and they received a similar response despite several emails. Interestingly if I'd booked the car directly through Europcar it would have been £100 more expensive than Economy which equates roughly to 130 Euros. Call me cynical but is this a way to recover lost income. Needless to say I will ensure that in future I don't use Europcar's services and I would recommend anyone else to do the same. If you do have to use their services then make sure you clean the mats and ensure you don't sign for anything you don't understand.

The offered me an upgrade at a bargain price for the whole hire period and then charged that rate per day on the contract. When you are tired after a long journey you don't expect to be lied to and have to read all the small print. Please be aware that when you pick your car up, do not agree any kind of upgrade. They just mislead (if not cheat) overseas travelers. I am very sure this is a common practice as they know you cant pop back and see them.

Europcar scams the customer by providing unclear information of how quickly late fees, penalties, and supposed tickets accrue. For example, I rented my car in Milan with a return at the Rome train station. Unlike the US, the rental return location is not labelled and is actually buried in a hotel parking deck. I returned the car 2 hours late, and was charged a full extra rental date, including all extra insurance that I had purchased, as well as, GPS rental. Four months later, I am now being notified of another 45 Euro charge by Europcar for a ticket which I will eventually have to pay. The car rental companies in Europe are a fraud. They continue to generate feeds from their customers. It would have been much cheaper to take the train. DO NOT RENT, YOU WILL REGRET IT and YOU WILL PAY FOR IT!

Firstly, it took Europcar more than a month to give me a response on my authorisation charge inquiry, despite me calling and emailing on 3 separate occasions. I had to chase Europcar for an answer. Secondly, Europcar's process of placing an authorisation charge on customers' credit card is ridiculous. When I picked up the car at Perth Airport on 18 Aug 15, a charge of AUD1, 410.74 was made to my credit card. This was the deposit plus GPS and additional driver charges. But, the very next day on 19 Aug 15, the same amount was debited back into my credit card account! When I returned the car on 31 Aug 15, a charge of AUD1, 409.74 (-$1 deposit) was made on my credit card. Becoz of the transactions on 18 and 19 Aug 15, i lost SGD98.69 due to the exchange rate. Why is there a need to debit back the amount into my account? Why can't Europcar hold the amount until I return the car then debit back the deposit? Renee from Customer Relations Australia was defensive and stubborn by saying this is company policy and that I agreed to the terms & conditions when i signed the rental agreement. This was not what was written in the T&C: [General Rental Terms, Section 6.2 Terms of Payment]: "When payment is made by means of a credit card, an authorisation will be requested prior to the start of the rental... This amount is not debited. It is held on cardholder's bank account until the final rental charge amount is debited." [Prepayment Terms and Conditions]: "An authorisation will be obtained at time of rental and only on return of the vehicle will the corresponding charges be posted to the credit card." Lastly, another charge of AUD512.38 was made on my credit card on 1 Oct 15. I did not receive any invoices, statement, or document to explain what this charge was for. When I called to get an answer, it turned out that they had keyed in my email address wrongly thus the invoice didn't reach me. And the charge was for a small glass chip on the windscreen! When i finally received the invoice and damage report, they had spelt my name and email address incorrectly again! I have requested and have yet to receive the updated invoice and damage report as of now. This administrative lapses is outrageous and unacceptable. It is affecting my insurance claim. I've never been more disappointed and upset with a car rental company like this one.

Utter crooks. I booked a 'deal' with EuRopcar for a trip to the UK for $170. When I arrived the pickup service was terrible, but beyond that, they hit me with a ton of hidden charges, ending up in the rental costing nearly $600. A week after returning the car, fueled and undamaged, they hit me with a bill for $440 - no explanation, no reasoning - They haven;t responded to any requests for information or help. When you google them online - you see this is common scam with them. AVOID - there are plenty of other Car rental companies, use anyone other than these crooks.

I rented a car at Porto airport for 5 days beginning at August 25th. we had a prepaid voucher, which included extra insurance that covers deductible damages to the car.

there was a delay of the departure of the plane and the airplane landing as well. It created a queue counter and the customers were obliged to sign quickly.

at the end of our tour, we found out that we were charged twice for deductible damages and for a certain item machinery that we didn't ask for, nor got it.

we were charged for extra amount of 140 €

bilha sova

On the 21st of June our travel agent had booked a small car for a colleague and myself, we didn´t need a large car to take us from Heathrow to Hemel Hempstead (about 45mins drive).

After lenghty paperwork the agent says "Tonight we GIVE you a Mercedes". I immediately asked whether this upgrade was within the limits of the voucher for our booking, and the agent confirmed that it was indeed.
Then there was the usual routine of "sign here, here, here, and initial here, here and here". Since there was a line behind our backs, I signed and initialled as asked to, rather quickly.

Important notice - They were charging for additional driver, which we accepted. They oversold insurance, which we accepted. So there were a couple places to sign/initial.

When receiving my creditcard invoice it turns out there was a hefty charge (ca 1.000GBP) for the upgrade we had never asked for.

I have raised a complaint and asked that the charge be reversed, only to get the response that since I have signed for the upgrade I have to pay for it.
No comment about the fact that the agent clearly said "GIVE".
No comment about the fact that I asked whether it was covered by the voucher.
No comment about the fact that the agent CONFIRMED that it was covered by our voucher
No comment about the fact that the agent then LIED openly to me.
Just a blunt answer saying the charge is a charge.
Very rude.
I´m still withholding the payment on my card, and have asked my card company to not pay out either.
I would still appreciate if Europcar would come back, admit the error and credit the charge. It would show that they care about customer service.

In the meantime there are other rental car companies that can serve me.
As it stands, if Europcar is the only alternative, I would rather take the bus.