Booked a car through Europcar via Car Rental.
Awful experience - You really know a good company when things go wrong..
I am from the US and rented a Europcar and was travelling in Wales and had a which I reported a flat tire at 3.30pm to Europcar. I was stuck in Snowdonia Mountains National Park. I was there with my family which included my special needs daughter. They do not have a spare so there was nothing I could do to fix it and just get going again and sort it out once I got back to my hotel location. About two hours later, around 5pm they came back and said that they could not get anyone to come out to fix the tire and referred me their RAC Breakdown service which I would have to pay for since that is not covered by their terms of agreement. After numerous calls to their service (speaking to different representative each time) and two hours later, they finally came back and said the earliest they could send someone the next morning. At 6.30pm, it was getting dark and cold and fearing the worst for my daughter and family, I arranged my own way home with my family and left the car at the broken location with instructions for the Breakdown crew on how to get access to the vehicle and also letting them know that I was due to check out of my hotel at 9am and I needed a car to move my family and my belongings. Once I reach my hotel, I called the Breakdown Service folks and they said they would have the car picked up next morning but could not gaurantee that they would have the car at my hotel by 9am. So I asked if they could get another car. They said that is out of their realm. By this time it was past 8pm. They told me that was for me to fight it out with Europcar. So I was on the phone again to them and on the second attempt that I would have to call their nearest location - in Manchester airport to do the swap - note I had to do that - why they could not do this is beyond me. I called the number they gave me and - yes no one picks up - after being on hold for almost 30 mins. by this it is almost 10pm. I am due to check out with my family including my disabled daughter tomorrow morning at 9am with no place to stay and no car to get back to my temporary resident in the Midlands. I will call again at 8am tomorrow and pray for a miracle. At this time I am not very hopeful. You only know a good rental company when things go wrong. Not only do I not have a rental car, for which I am sure they are going to charge me for, but they are also going to charge me for breakdown service because they could not get anyone to my location to fix the tire. Why they do not keep a spare like most cars in the US is beyond me. I am sure they will tack on additional charges for the swap which I am confident will not arrive by 9am tomorrow based on their current performance.
Date of experience is 10/20/2022.
