Europcar International
reviews and complaints

I had a hire car from Europcar Italy for two years. My contract was to hire a VW Passat for the total two years. Halfway through the second year the Car Rental Office telephoned me and insisted that I take an Italian car. I was very unhappy about this as I consider Italian cars to be unreliable.

I had to take the Italian car and during my family holiday in Austria, the car broke down. I telephoned Europcar, Bergamo Airport and their representative told me not to drive the car. Europcar then sent a tow truck out to collect the car and left me and my family stranded in Austria.

One month later, Europcar charged me 400 euros for the car being returned to a foreign office?

In July my parents rented a car from Europcar. This company must be the worst in the world. when you rent a car in Rome they send you to a parking lot that isn't there's. Therefore, if you get robbed on the promise its no their responsibility. i have letters from them stating the exact thing.

My parents were robbed at there car. Every including the police believe it was employees at Europcar rome. when we contacted Europcar that my parents lost over $14, 000 in cash and jewlerry the President of europcar felt that his company is not responsbible. here is the best part, my parents got robbed at there car. in the europcar garage, never left the garage and in their mind not responsble.

basis of this story is simple, the service you will receive is awful. They not and don't care. because everyone is not from italy to try and fight them will cost to much. So in their minds let things contiue as they are. It will cost you a fortune to deal with them/

This has to be one of the biggest scams going on at the airport and Europcar is turning a blind eye to it.

I recently rented a car, via EasyJet, from the Malaga office of Europcar. The initial form quoted 'multiple scratches ' on both rear wings and also damage at the rear of the car. As this was a fairly generic description I didn't bother to do a detailed inspection. However the car was in a very poor condition and absolutely stank of tobacco and in addition to this the cover for the side mirror flew off as soon as we reached 80kph on a motorway. At this point I decided to photograph all the damage and write a letter of complaint to Europcar as on closer inspection EVERY panel had some degree of minor damage.

On returning the car to Malaga I pointed out the missing mirror cover and mentioned my disapproval at the condition of the car...result...the very unhelpful lady did a detail search of the vehicle and decided I was a liar and had not only damaged the wing mirror but also damaged the front bumper, She insisted my credit card would be charged 380 euros extra. I asked six times to speak to her manager and each time she refused saying they had far too many complaints for the manager to see everyone !

Searching the internet I have found numerous simular stories from other people regarding Europcar and I am beginning to wonder if this is actually deliberate company policy in which case it would amount to fraud. In one case the hirer returned the car after 15Kms as the clutch failed...he was charged $850 for a new clutch, the Malaga office insisting he had burnt out the clutch ! There are also numerous cases of people suddenly finding unauthorized charges on their credit card once the car has been returned.

At this stage I have registered a dispute with the credit card company and will just wait to see what happens. Frankly though, who needs all the hassle !

Oh! Here's the latest. I have just checked my credit card and Europcar have made not one but two debits amounting to £400 i.e. 480Euros.

We rented a Europcar with no problem in Wurzburg, Germany. I advised the very friendly clerk that we wished to drop off three days later at 6:30 a.m. in Garmisch-Partenkirchen railway station to catch a train. She said no problem, but the Europcar office will not be open; leave the keys in the drop box.

The day for dropoff came and we found the area around the train station to be under construction, but we eventurally got in and parked the car (this is not a big place) prominently at the train station. We then looked, with our luggage, for the Europcar office. It was not at the station With some help we discovered it was about a half block away. Our train arrived so my daughter ran to the office with the keys. A sign on the door said to drop off keys at the next door hotel (no drop box). So she did this, then ran back and we just caught the train.
Four days later we were in the Czech Republic, and we got an email looking for the car! The email says that my daughter claimed the car was a a hotel, but didn't say which one (does this make sense to you?) I emailed back and said no, car at the train station, could not be missed.
I heard nothing further until, of course, I got the bill, and they charged me for eight days instead of three. In other words, I am supposed to pay for the car during the period of time that they had the keys but did not even look for it, and until they got around to finding it, exactly where we had agreed I would leave it.
I have launched a dispute with my credit card company. I know that Europe is in financial difficulty but this is supremely ridiculous.

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!

It has been 5 months of backwards and forwards emails between Europcar's staff without response or resolutions.
One of Eurocar's rental clients smashed into my car; and Europcar is avoiding to pay for the damages. I have submitted photographs, google maps, police case numbers and explanations in exquisite details on 22 November 2010. I even went into their offices twice.
All the Europcar staff/emails refer to Gloria van Zyl as the person who will sort out the Third party claim. Byron Govender, Senior Customer Services Consultant for Europcar also sent on all the information to her and still no response. Countless phone calls lead to voicemails with no response.
I had to pay R7500 to fix the damage to my car out of my own pocket. I was without transport for a month over the December holidays and Christmas period.
I think it is irresponsible to allow foreigners who don't know our traffic laws to drive around on our roads.
It is atrocious and unacceptable to have such a bad response from their staff.

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.

We rented a car from Lisbon airport, a Fiat Punto, from Europcar, recommended to us by EasyJet, as their "partner".

For 4 days rental. We agreed£193.57: we were charged on our credit card £237

They have ripped us off.

Looking at the sign back in form in more detail. they have charged us €40 for a missing warning triangle. It was never there in the first place. They mentioned nothing when we returned the car. A nice little scam is being operated here.

Don't use them. Their proces are higher than anyone else's.

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 me and my father’s experience with Europcar Malaga, but for sure I will never rent a car from this company anymore.

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.

Car returned to Inverness Airport at about 1100 on 27 July. The gauge indicated full on arrival( more full than when I took it out). I had filled up on the outskirts of Inverness en route to the airport. As a modern diesel, it certainly didnt't use 8 litres (1.75 gallons) in the distance from there to the airport. Which is what you have charged me for, £12.48!

I have rented a car for two days at a EuropCar London location at Marble Arch. The day of returning the car was Sunday. The servant at the company told me that because the branch will be closed on Sunday, I will have to leave the car at the ramp in front of the branch and if there will be no space, to park it at the car parking above.

When I came to return the car on Sunday, the ramp was packed with cars, so I had to park it in the car parking, which I did.

To my astonishment, when I received an invoice from EuropCar I found that they charged me £54 for the parking. This is ridiculous! Why did they charge me for something which is THEIR problem? There was no space in their branch. What did they want me to do with the car? To put it on my head? THEY could not make sure that there was a space, and it is THEIR problem! Why should I pay for their problem?

I called the branch and explained the situation, but found iron wall in front of me. No one wanted to make even a step to help. The guy there refused to give any telephone of their Customer Services and help in any way.

This may be of interesting read for you all. As an ex europar emplyee I can give you a 1st hand account of how this company operates . First one is damage, Europcar has sets target for spotting damage of aprox 10% of total rentals. They are very enforcing to their staff to obtain these targets, unfortunatly in the majority of cases damage is updated once the customer has left and then charged for damage. Another graet practice is the reservation side. Europcar priorotises certain accounts, i.e the ones that pay most money. Lex auto lease is a good example of this. They can book a car 2 hours in advance, if europcar already has reservations to general customers who booked weeks in advance they get knocked back down the list and have to wait longer or loose their car altogether. The staff then get told to make up excuses like "sorry the transporters broken down", or "the last customer has not dropped their car off", when in actual fact the car was at the station but they gave it to lex on their 2 hour notice

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 booked a car online, deliberately excluding personal accident insurance, and then when I collected my car late at night, I was told where to sign by the agent, and he obviously deceitfully included personal accident insurance at an additional R30 per day (which I would have included when I booked the car if I wanted it!) and so when I got my bill at the end of my car hire stay, it was over R300 more than I was quoted. I am very angry at the deceitful way Europcar take advantage of late check outs to get more money and they have broken my trust. I will never use them again.

After hiring 1 car (BMW) almost every month for three years and several others at various times as well Europcar has seen fit to send an account for 400.00 NOK to a Credit Company because they could not get the money from the card that I registered with them three months after I returned the car.

In the last year alone I paid Europcar Oslo over 75, 000.00 NOK!

I have repeatedly requested that I get air miles credited to my SAS account, to date I have not received one single credit.

How I regret to have paid a company so much money and to be treated in such a way.

They will never get the oppotunity to do it again to me.

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!

Beware of the bill- make sure you check Europcar/Alamo. I have been hiring for years and am fed up with the charges Europcar in Watford keep adding on at the end of a hire using the credit card details they have from you. I have had success in refunds, I hire so much I have separate insurance, and thankfully Barclaycard continues to come to the rescue at its own cost. Getting Europcar to respond in some cases must only work if you take legal action against them, which I would like to do. No point in giving you details- you have plenty of examples from other complaints. So all I can say is check your bill and make sure you pay with a company like Barclaycard who will investigate the fraud.

My specific problem was a passenger door lock scam that was neatly played by the boss/manager of the day. The girl who had checked my car out three weeks before just sat there and I believe is fully in on this scam. The manager came directly out, saw no dents or other marks on the body and then walked over to the passenger door lock and tried to lock it with the key. He did not try any other lock. It would not lock and he claimed that it was damaged when I had the car. It had not been checked by agent before we took the car and not marked on my rental car sheet as being defective. The door worked fine and the doors all locked with the key using the driver's side lock, which as the only driver I used every time. The car was at Oyster Bay Beach Resort the whole time, except for our few trips out when nothing had ever been left in the car and no one ever seems to have been near it. This was so well played that I am sure it was done on that vehicle many times before and will continue to be done in the future. The car was a white I 10, license # R 1041. I would be interested if anyone else had this happen to them at Europcar and especially with the same car.

I rented a car from Europcar on from the 29-30 of Sept. I paid it immediatly with my credit card and I was told that everything was alright, when I brought the car back.
Now I found out that on the 20 of Oct. EC Vehicle Rental charged from my credit card 11, 05 Pounds.