Name: Europcar
Rating: 1.17

“I was a loyal Europcar customer of approx 15 years but that meant absolutely nothing on the 29th June when I tried to pick up my pre-booked and paid for car. Europcar was quite happy to take £3000 for a 6 week hire and shortly after booking the car I received an email from Europcar asking me to complete a soft credit check which I failed. Instead of cancelling my booking immediately and issuing me a refund the Europcar online Chat rep instructed me to present myself for the hire and "not to worry" as I had a clean license and history with Europcar. I presented myself to the Manchester Airport check-in desk (after travelling for 24 hours) and once again failed the soft check. I tried to explain to the manager the instructions I had been given online and it simply went in one ear and out the other. Europcar would have been quite happy to see me and my family stranded at Manchester Airport with no means of onward transport to our final destination. Luckily, Avis came to the rescue and I was able to book a vehicle; however, it did cost me an additional £1000. I contacted Europcar Customer Care (lol) only to receive the standard generic copy-and-paste reply.”

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Posted 8 months ago

“SWINDLED I rented a car on 5/4/2024 for eight days. The initial reservation was made with arguscarhire.com for which I paid $565.44 When I got to Edinburgh to pick up the car the agent there said that the car I had ordered was too small for my 4 bags and he said he had another car, a hybrid, that was a “little” more money but would save on gas. When he showed me the cost (873.32GBP which converted to 1110.18 US dollars), I thought it was out of my budget as it was twice the cost we had planned for, but I trusted the agent’s guidance that it would be best for our luggage and it would save on gas). I agreed to pay 873.32GBP for the hybrid vehicle. After returning home, I checked my credit card statement and saw that the cost of the original car ($575.44), was still being charged to me in addition to the cost of the second vehicle. Altogether this would be triple ($1675.86), the original quote).”

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Posted 8 months ago

“There was a 3 hour wait to get to the front and there was only one employee. The one employee was rude and tried to fee us about 30 euros for being late when she was slow and we had wait for 3 HOUR. When we finally went to get the car the rear right tire was deflated and there was no place to help us add more air to the tire so we had to drive a car with a flat tire which made annoying ding sounds because of the flat tire. The worst place to rent a car and their motto is “ moving YOUR way but it is the exact opposite”

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Posted 8 months ago

“Europcar is an unscrupulous, rip-off company Europcar insists every renter of a vehicle must pay for a clutch that burns out. Then Europcar, historically, charges the renter for the cost of having the car towed and even has charged renters for loss of rental income during the days the vehicle undergoes repairs. How does Europcar justify these practices? The company says its vehicles pass inspection each time before they are rented and therefore if a clutch burns out while they are being rented, the driver must be at fault. In fact, Europcar is a grossly unscrupulous company whose business model partly relies on generating profits by billing customers for damages they did not cause. To be profitable, the company also relies heavily on coercing customers into buying its expensive auto insurance and throwing up roadblocks to prevent customers from accessing car rental auto insurance provided at no cost by the majority of credit cards. From my home in Houston, Texas, I reserved a vehicle from Europcar in April 2024 for a trip that would take place in June 2024. Europcar advertised online that it would rent me, at the Dublin, Ireland, airport, a Hyundai Tucson SUV for 79 Euros for nine days. I added on my wife as an extra driver. The total cost, with taxes, rose to 209 Euros. I declined Europcar’s insurance - a practice I followed during previous trips to Europe - because my credit card provides rental car insurance. I couldn’t understand why the rental car price was so low, but I thought if Europcar wants to rent a car for that price, so be it. When I went to pick up the SUV June 16, everything was proceeding smoothly until Ahmed, the agent, asked me if I wanted to buy Europcar’s insurance. I told him I believed I had indicated online when I reserved the vehicle that I would use my credit card’s car rental insurance. The agent asked me to produce a letter from my credit card company written in the last 21 days saying I had car rental insurance. I replied that Europcar had not indicated I needed such a letter when I reserved the car. He begged to differ and showed in the last paragraph of legal boilerplate of the reservation agreement that I was required to produce such a letter. Hertz and Sixt had not required such a letter on previous excursions to Europe. He said if I wanted to rent the vehicle, I needed to buy Europcar’s insurance costing 540 Euros for nine days - more than double the cost of renting the vehicle. I uttered a few cuss words. The agent stormed off from his post, saying with finality that Europcar would not rent me a vehicle. What the agent hadn’t suggested was that I try calling my credit card company to request that it email me the required letter. That solution occurred to me, and I told the agent’s manager, Sean Donegal, that I would be calling my credit card company. He had been through this drill before, knew that I could obtain the letter through this method and told me to show it to him once it was sent. I showed him the letter once it was emailed. It was then 90 minutes past the time my wife and I should have been heading off to southwest Ireland in a rental car, and we were told we would be getting our rental vehicle shortly. But right before we were to be given keys, a clerk said Europcar was switching us into another vehicle. A new clerk drew up another rental car agreement. The Hyundai Tucson we were given had 121,905 kilometers on it. It was strafed with bird droppings. (When we later raised the engine hood, we found an engine filled with cobwebs. We checked the oil level. The oil was low, but not below the minimum level marker. But it was dirty, murky black.) My wife and I took photos of the vehicle and nicks in it. We thought we better just go with the vehicle. Shortly after we pulled out of Europcar lot, I thought I ccaught a slight smell of burnt rubber. I thought the smell was caused by other vehicles. About 50 miles from Dublin, we pulled into Junction 14 near N9 in Mayfield. When we returned to the vehicle, we couldn’t put it into reverse. I pushed the vehicle out. The car would hardly go into first gear and wouldn’t go into second. A man passing by in the parking lot said the clutch was burned out - he could tell by the smell. At about 1600 hours, we tried calling all Europcar’s numbers on the rental car agreement papers. No one picked up. We finally got through to AA roadside assistance, which Europcar contracts with. The AA dispatcher said Europcar never picks up when customers call seeking roadside assistance. She dispatched an AA mechanic, who arrived an hour later. He confirmed that the clutch was burned out. He repeatedly tried calling various Europcar numbers, but no one picked up. I got through to a Europcar office in Cork. He told me I had to call the Europcar office at Dublin Airport. No one picked up when I called that office. I sent an email to Europcar’s customer service address. About 30 minutes later, Lauren, who refused to give her last name, told me AA would have the vehicle towed to a mechanic designated by Europcar. I would be responsible for paying the cost of repairing the clutch if the mechanic said it burned out due to driver error. She said my wife and I needed to return to Dublin Airport to get another vehicle and that Europcar would not be paying the driver for the cost of a taxi or Uber. I told her I had a reservation for a hotel in Kenmare in southwest Ireland. She said Europcar would not be responsible for that cost or paying for a room for us near Dublin Airport. We paid 147 Euros for a Free Taxi to bring us back to the airport. The Europcar agent there told us all the company’s vehicles pass an inspection before they are rented. She said passage of inspection means that the clutch was working fine when we got in the vehicle, and that we burned it out through driver error. As a result, Europcar would be billing my credit card for the cost of fixing the clutch. I pointed out that I smelled rubber burning when we left Europcar. She said a driver can burn out a clutch driving 100 feet. She said clutches are touchy and can be burned out before the vehicle moves. I said I have driven standard shifts most of my life and that clutches are not that touchy. If you release them too quickly, the car may stall, but can be immediately restarted. If you let a clutch out a little slowly, the engine does not seize up, and the clutch does not burn up. The agent strongly disagreed, saying she drives all the vehicles on the lot nearly everyday, and many have finicky clutches. She asked whether we had pressed down or up when trying to put the clutch in reverse. I said we had tried pressing down. Since she had said she drives the vehicles on the lot nearly daily and learns their ways because so many have super-finicky clutches, I asked her whether one should press down on the Tucson’s stick shift or pull up on it when shifting into reverse. She refused to answer. I asked her again, and she said she would have figured that out when she got into the vehicle. She didn’t say whether she would burn out the clutch if she guessed wrong in pressing down or pulling up once on a clutch upon getting in the vehicle. I told her that Europcar should have given us written instructions on shifting if there were so many tricky, verboten moves one could make in the gear-shifting process on certain cars. The agent asked whether it was theoretically possible that driver error caused the clutch to burn out. I said that driver error was a theoretical possibility, but that there was ample evidence that driver error was not the cause - such as the slight smell of burning rubber when we picked up the car. I asked her whether it was theoretically possible that we were issued a vehicle whose clutch needed to be replaced or that Europcar’s agents were angry at me because I had gotten ticked when an agent said I had to pay 540 Euros to rent the vehicle and they decided to send me out in a dog of a vehicle. She said these were not even theoretical possibilities because the inspection found the vehicle was in tip-top shape. I told the agent I would not trust a mechanic who was an employee of Europcar or an outside mechanic to whom Europcar feeds regular business to do anything but inform Europcar that driver error caused the clutch to burn out. We were issued another Tucson, this time an automatic transmission about 2100 hours. We got a room at a costly hotel near the airport. The hotel kitchen had shut down, but the bar was still open. A few premade sandwiches remained unsold in a refrigerated case near the front of the establishment. We bought those and ate them with a couple Smithwicks. I didn’t have a clutch replaced on a Nissan Sentra I owned until I had logged 145,000 miles. I drove it another 97,000 miles before I sold the car at a modest price. I consider Europcar’s handling of this matter fraudulent. A short online search turned up evidence that Europcar has run the burned-out clutch scam on others: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=57&t=403516 The Telegraph looked into the matter in a cursory way in 2012: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/Car-hire-advice-case-of-the-burnt-out-clutch/ The unscrupulous practice appears to be alive and kicking.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Awful experience! Wrong car given to us despite choosing the smallest one on the website for just the two of us with no luggage. Steer well clear of Europcar.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“We hired the car from edinburgh with all insurance in place.on our way to honister mines,lake district the car had flat Tyre.we were in middle of nowhere and there was no network.we tried contacting eurocar but due to no network we cudnt.so we spoke to sos service from the car and they arranged for help.we had to change the Tyre as it was irreparable.we had to pay 228 pounds in cash ,as the card machine didnt work again due to no network.now when we spoke to eurocar later about it they are saying that they will not reimburse the money spent as we didn't contact and got the work done by eurocar agents.we have been sending them the mails ,spoke to them on the phone but they refuse to understand that due to no network,we were unable to contact them and we cudnt go anywhere where we could hv got network leaving our young daughter in the middle of the road.. Can someone pls tell us whether or not we are liable to get paid our 228 pounds? So ppl pls be aware of such things....”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Not good they charged me for the gasoil when I was already give them full. Workers need to be check they're jobs”

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Posted 9 months ago

“we booked an SUV for our recent trip to Manchester UK...We got there we were told it was an electric vehicle , we didn't want electric as we planned on seeing a bit of the country and didn't want the worry of finding charging stations , also there was nothing in the booking form that told us it was an EV. The unhelpful CSA told us we could upgrade to a normal vehicle for an extra $1200 for our 13 days and we could not get a refund. As we were abroad and at the mercy of these fraudsters we had to pay the extra , and i am still fuming... there should be laws to protect visitors from these thieves!!!!!”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Thursday evening we went to pick up a small rental car, a Fiat, for three nights. When we entered the Europcar offices, we realized from the documents that the car was electric. The car had to go to the mountains, so we asked to exchange it for a gasoline car. Mind you, we haven't even seen this electric car. Instead of exchanging the cars, we were charged 200 euros on top of the 150 euros we had already paid for THREE nights. The staff said there was nothing else we could do. Europcar refused to reimburse us. It's downright theft, avoid avoid avoid”

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Posted 9 months ago

“SCAMMERS! They paid for a Parking Charge Notice issued 'by mistake' so they never gave me the chance to appeal. Even though I had proof of payment on Revolut. So they charged me £60 weeks later without notice for the PCN and another $40 for their admin fee. Revolut froze my card immediately before the money was deducted. So I got in touch with Europcar customer service. While the correspondence was still ongoing, they sent me a letter from their legal team threatening me with legal consequences if I don't pay within 14 days. Meanwhile they take a week to answer each email. They said this is normal practice and I should have the right to appeal. But both Initial Parking and POPLA confirmed that once a PCN is paid, the matter is closed. A quick Google search about this returned forum threads talking about this scam between Initial Parking and rental companies. Yet they are pretending they're not aware of this. So beware! Now they will reply to this review with a canned response (like they did on other sites) as if I haven't already been corresponding with their customer care for weeks. Forced to communicate with 3 different Europcar departments who clearly don't liaise between each other. It's like going round in circles and talking to a brick wall.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“How to ruin your trip? Rent a car from Europcar. It was only a 4 day rental and we had the CDW for peace of mind. But they sent an email invoice for $2000 over charge!! Customer “service” - in helpful, unfriendly, and said dismissively they’d look into it! This was in the UK, not some third world company. What???”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Avoid this company. I ordered and paid for a 5 door SUV, got a 4 door sedan, pointed out the discrepancy without result, took it because we needed to get away (long delay at Norwich counter). The car had defective alarms (contact workshop urgently! Tyre pressure alert!) and the GPS which I’d paid for as an extra (but which was in fact inbuilt) failed in the middle of nowhere. On complaint, I was told it was my fault because I hadn’t insisted on the correct car at handover, and the issues I’d raised about the alarms and the GPS were just ignored. The complaint system itself is a scam.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Crooked and Corruption! Repair Scam! If you dare use this company for a hired car make sure you have 100% cover with your credit card or insurance company for ANY damage or theft! I had a minor dent in the back hatch door of a nice cheap Renault Kwid for two weeks in April. I called them immediately and filled their form out before I came and even got a police report even though the dent was on private property. But I am a good honest customer and followed their rules! Their deposit was very high for a two week rental (R8800) but I have never had a problem until now. The car is only worth less than R200K new and they wanted to try to tell me this repair was going to be R19K and I still owed them another R10K! Outrageous and I demanded the quote from the body shop. They did not have that but instead an estimate from a company they pay in Johannesburg that from what I understand does not even look at the car but makes a guess. This estimate had all kinds of things like replacing glass and the badges and reflectors and bumper supports! Bloated corruption! Someone is getting paid under the table! I believed this is crooked so I took 50+ hi res photos of my own and a video and send to a few SA panel beaters and did NOT tell them the story. They ALL came back with quotes from R6000-10000 MAX! I was right! I told Europcar my findings and agreed to top up the deposit to make it R10000 out of pocket in good faith for their admin costs but that was ALL they would get from me. They have now tried to threaten legal actions for R9000. Such a joke! Again make sure you have FULL cover with your credit card or own insurance and excess and DO NOT TRUST Europcar with any way! They had a similar scandal in the UK in 2017 and the same is going on in SA. Time to get Carte Blanche to investigate this corrupt fraud!!”

Europcar 1 star review on 13th June 2024

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Posted 9 months ago

“There are many questions about this company that they do not want to answer or take any responsibility. Zero customer focus. Let me start by saying that on the next day of the trip our car broke down. At 16:00 we called the “free” support service (an employee of the Toulouse airport office assured us that the service was free). It took the operator 30 minutes to determine our location and call us a tow truck, during which we then received a bill from the mobile operator for 250 euros. We waited another two hours for the tow truck. We were promised a replacement car the next day as soon as the office in Sarlat, France opens up (08:30). But they conveniently forgot about us and we were forced to call and describe the situation again. Even though the office was located 7 kilometers from us, the taxi arrived to pick us up after an hour of waiting and further calls to Europcar. By 12:00 we finally received the car. But the worst thing happened after the end of the rental. Firstly, an office employee at Toulouse airport refused to give us a car acceptance certificate. We insisted, but she said that now there are no employees who could draw up an act. Although we returned the car during working hours at 20:00. The next day, when we left the country, we received a report in the mail indicating that we had damaged the car. We made a video of the car in time of delivery, and it was there already. From another country, the company can only be contacted by email. You have to write to different emails because it would take employees up to week to respond, or even months. We were waiting for deposit return for like a month. Also, for a whole month we tried to prove that we did not scratch the car. Almost six months have already passed since we rented a car, and we still cannot get any compensation from the company for at least a day of downtime without a car.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“You will think that when you go to a different country that is supposed to be advanced they will be able to tell you what the rules, regulations and laws are for that country. Well we rented a car in Europcar in Spain and the only thing they requested was a driving license and a passport, they said that with the proof of the the entry in the passport we are allowed to drive for 3 months, we paid for the full insurance and we went in our way. While driving in the highway, there was a big accident and even though we were able to avoid hitting anyone we got hit in the back. So we had to wait for the policía municipal and when they asked for our documentation they told us that we were not allowed to drive in Spain without an international license, we had no idea what they were talking about, we have never had to have that to drive in europe, but well we called Europcar and for two hours we spoke with 11 different people and no one took responsibility, they just kept hanging up or transferring us to different people. At the end the police took the car, left us in the highway were we had to call an Uber and when we got back to the rental car office they just shrugged and said, we are not responsible for the traffic ticket they gave you for driving without an international license, we don’t request it and is your job to educate yourself before traveling. Worst place ever to rent a car.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“DO NOT USE EUROPCAR. Hire car has a small chipped windscreen, was charged $1600 from my credit card without approval for a windscreen that cost $800 (quoted from Obrien Glass). Absolutely scummy and unprofessional.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“I purchased full coverage for rental car through QEEQ. It included collision, comprehensive and theft. QEEQ is a third party that finds you the best deal; contract was with them. They signed me up with Europcar. They confirmed the price and the full insurance coverage. I had it in writing. When I got to the airport Europcar claimed my reservation did NOT include collision and comprehensive coverage. I showed them my paperwork that stated otherwise. They would not accept it. We called QEEQ who confirmed we had full coverage. He spoke with the Europcar representative who wouldn't accept this either. The only thing we could do was drive the car without any collision protection or buy collision and comprehensive and collision AGAIN, this time directly through Europcar and grieve the situation when we got home. We did this. Now both companies are blaming the other and no one wants to refund our money. The credit card won't help me either saying it's the other company's fault. I'm out $600 + dollars and have no none who will help me. NEVER ACCEPT A RENTAL CAR FROM A FOREIGN COMPANY!!”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Rent a car from otopeni at 11 pm night time when we gave the car back they find out a scratch underneath the car 😅 even the stuff didn't check there and the car it was dirty with mud , you can't see the scratch over there in the middle of the night . They tried to keep the deposit 300 euros”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Muller Rd Bristol.Non existent customer care,staff turn up late 08:15,so there ia a que of people waiting,I was there for an hour just to off hire.Manageress has her baby in the office,make a point of bringing the sproglet with her to deal with untrained staff who can't operate the IT system.Then I get pulled up for damage that was already there.All in all the don't give a damn,as per other comments this company is not for for purpose and a scam”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Europcar - Naples train station. Dreadful rude service. Woman was frazzled and refused to honour our booking because we did not have an international licence despite another customer who was returning their rental and revealed that they did not have an International licence but had successfully hired a vehicle with the same company. Very disappointing, we will never use this company again and would not recommend their services to anyone.”

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Posted 10 months ago

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
On-time Delivery	Greater than 54%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 62%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

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