Company information:
Europcar
France
When I made and modified a car reservation in June, 2007, I was accidentally charged three times for one rental. For the next 8 months I tried to get this money back, but no-one at Europcar cared. At every little step, I had to wait, beg, wait again, beg again, wait again, and beg again. Only one person cared, Kosana Arsic in the Europcar Serbia office, but she could not solve the problem by herself. She forwarded my emails to other people. It was impossible to find out who was at the bottom of this, even what office. After seven months, Carole Hesry, a customer service rep at Europcar France, got the word. With Ms. Hesry again I had to beg at every step of the way. On 8 February, 2008, I finally got an email from Ms. Hesry that the bank transfer was made, but my bank said there was no transfer and no request for transfer. The details in Ms. Hesry's email to me were not clear, and my bank wanted details so that they could make sure their information to me was correct. I sent Ms. Hesry emails clearly saying that I need clarification of the details of the transfer, but she didn't answer my questions. She ignored these emails. All afternoon on Feb. 14 I tried to call her on the telephone, but she didn't answer her telephone; twice someone answered her telephone saying simply, "Allo?" and when I said "Carole Hesry?" she hung up.
The telephone robot gave a number to call if we have any comments about the quality of service. Sounds helpful. Of course the customer pays to call this number and it is very expensive. I called it and got Frederick. Although I was polite, Frederick wouldn't listen to my request for help and wouldn't connect me to a manager as I asked. This was no help. On 19 February I got a wire transfer. The amounts I was charged but never used (the amount I was overcharged)
totaled $980.92, as stated by Carol Hesry and also as
they appear on my bank statement. But the wire transfer
to me was only for 965.92. I pointed this out to Ms.
Hesry but she ignored my email again. In addition, my
bank charged me $12.00 for the wire transfer. Can you
believe Europcar charged me the $15 for the wire
transfer? So to this day, they have not returned all the
money. Plus I had to change my plans many times because
of not having 1000 dollars that I was expecting. And I
spent a ton of time and stress trying to motivate
Europcar employees. I have received no appologies, no
interest for the time they kept my money, and nothing to
attempt to make up for this problem. Nothing to show that
anybody cares, except for Kosana Arsic's words. I told my friends early in the ordeal that they should never use Europcar. I guess they have enough customers
that they don't care about a few serious mistakes. But no-one should have to go through this. No-one should run the risk. No-one should use Europcar.
Now I know Europcar France was at the bottom of this. When I booked this car rental online I used europcar.com rather than europcar.fr, and I paid with a U.S. bank card with a U.S. billing address. The only reason my booking went to Europcar France was that I was in France when I made the booking. I don’t know if booking physically outside of France is safe or not. The guys in the Belgrade rental location were nice, but they were not the ones who charged my card and they could do nothing about it.
I was patient and polite for 8 months. Europcar wouldn't respond to me and Europcar consistantly doesn't care. With its attitude, Europcar doesn't deserve to have any business.
