Europcar UK

If I could give no stars I would absolutely rip off paid over £200 to hire a car paid up front. I did all my ID checking on line. Travelled 45 mins to get there to be told that they couldn’t hire me the car. No explanation or reason given all this in front of other customers so made to feel really embarrassed. Now I have to wait for my money as a refund which now means I can’t hire a car from somewhere else which means I now have to cancel my holiday as I can’t get there as no other hire car services are open. I would not recommend this company. If you do use don’t pay upfront. I was told by a customer outside that they were fully booked with reservations and so had to cancel 8 bookings so obviously overbooked and therefore making excuse to customers. Disgusting will never use again went to enterprise and ad no problem was in there 10 minutes and left with a car

Worst experience of my life. I didn't take out additional insurance, and I returned my car to bristol airport after a flawless drive and signed off on the tablet to confirm that all was fine. The staff at the car return looked over the car and didn't raise any issue. I then received a damage notification followed by a £100 bill for a 'light scuff' on one wheel, (which wasn't caused by me). I was shown no proof that this was not there before my rental and as much as I did check the car for dents/scrapes on the doors, bumpers etc (Bearing in mind it was dark at almost 11pm at night when I collected the car), I did not get down on my hands and knees with a torch to check the car tyres, if I had done I would have seen that this 'light scuff' was already there. At the time of returning the car I signed the tablet with no mention of any damage by staff even after they had walked around and inspected the car. I contacted customer services and was simply told that 'any damage needed to have been reported before hand'. Will never use this company again and strongly advise others to avoid as I feel I have been victimised and ripped off for failing to take out additional insurance.

ABSOLUTELY THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER THEY TOOK MY BOOKING AND GOT A RESERVATION NUMBER. THEN THEY CANCELLED IT JUST BEFORE PICKUP STATING THEY DIDNT HAVE THE VEHICLE TO HIRE BECAUSE THEY HAD HIRED IT OUT TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER I BET. THEY ALL NEED SMARTENING UP AND NEED TO GO ON A CUSTOMER SERVICE COURSE. NEVER AGAIN WILL I TRY THEM THEY DONT CARE

Further to my complaint - I got an email asking me to contact Europcar, they don't give you an email - it has to be done via their site. So I dutifully tried to upload my email but gave up after numerous attempts - each time having to enter all my personal details etc. I keep getting a site error message from Europcar. So email is out. They make it so hard to get a phone number and my day is now whitling away with more time wasted on this company. I do not believe they care or are invested in their complaints procedure. I did try to give them a chance to follow up. You couldn't make it up! They have emailed back again as a response to my second review and directed me to do the same thing! I think it’s an automated response, not a person. I'm still waiting to see what DiscoverCars says - they sent an email and I have emailed them - at least they gave me an email adress.

Awful experience at Cambridge store - wrong van, not refunded difference until I raised a complaint and still pending and not a great van offered in place of what I ordered. Update- Europcar have still not been in touch despite saying they would be. Awful customer experience.

I wanted to share my incredible experience with my recent car hire, thanks to Saif at Edinburgh Airport. From the moment we arrived, Saif went above and beyond to ensure that my sister and I had the perfect vehicle for our trip around Scotland. The car was in pristine condition, and Saif took the time to walk us through all the features, ensuring we were comfortable with everything before we drove off. His attention to detail, friendly attitude and exceptional customer service truly made a difference. We are truly grateful for his help and will return next time, as there is still so much of Scotland to explore that we’ll need a car hire. Highly recommended and 10/10 for the service!

Awful Customer Service trying to enquire about car hire over the phone. Rude and insulting. I won't be ringing them back and will book through a more friendly car hire Company who listened to the criteria and came up with options for me to consider.

Your service is appalling. I paid a deposit 2 months before arriving for car hire in New Zealand. When I arrived I was told that I was on a watchlist in the uk and couldn’t hire the car, after a 26 hour flight. I was in disbelief as I’d never hired a car off of you. I asked the desk colleague to investigate who said there was nothing he could do as it was a uk issue. I then had to hire a different car which wasn’t fit for purpose from another company, I needed a truck one way from Nelson to Queenstown as was moving Items.I then had to stay up till it was 9am back in the uk (10pm nz time) to sort out myself, jet lagged as hell. You then admitted it was your mistake and I could now go and pick up the truck, I drove back 2 hours to the airport to swap the cars. I’d had to pay for a full weeks hire of the car I didn’t need and the other car company wouldn’t refund me, I’d need to obtain a refund from Europcar for the £700 I was now out of pocket. I then sent an email to the relevant department after speaking to one of your call centres and you replied saying I’m still blocklisted and you can’t issue a refund! I then have tried calling 4 times to your call centres (in India not the UK) who when I ask to speak to a manger to escalate have hung up on me 4 times. I’ve never experienced such poor customer service. All I wanted initially was my refund for the car I had to hire because of your ineptitude, however I will now be taking you to small claims court and claiming for the car, my time, and the stress you have caused me, along with the interest on the money you owe me. DO NOT hire from this company, they are absolutely useless, the departments don’t speak to each other and no one in any department has the authority to make a decision when something goes wrong, I suspect the staff don’t get paid well enough to care about their jobs or to provide any worthwhile level of service. I look forward to taking them to court to expose their level of incompetence.

Booked a medium size van nine days ago to pick up the Tamworth Branch. Received a confirmation at the time and another confirmation yesterday saying that I would be collecting a medium size van. Today (less than 20 hours before my planned pick-up) I get a call from Tamworth to say that someone has extended their hire so a medium van is not available.I'm offered a large van which is not suitable for the road that I will be driving down. Apparently there is no other medium van available. I phone customer services and ask to be put through to the complaints department but all they can do is log that I have complained. They can't sort it out. So they transfer me back to customer services who explain to me that when you book via the website and even though you receive 2 emails confirming your booking, it doesn't mean that the booking is actually confirmied. It is just noting what you would like. All they can suggest is that I try to book a van from another location. I suggest that if there is a van at another location, it could be delivered to Tamworth for tomorrow. Apparently that can't be done. They did offer to cancel my booking free of charge but that doesn't help me with my need for a medium size van in 20 hours time. In the end they suggest that I ring Tamworth and ask them to sort it out, which obviously Tamworth can't do because otherwise they wouldn't have rung me in the first place. UPDATE As readers can see I got a response from Europcar some time between 5-6.00pm so I followed their instructions and tried to email them with further information. The email failed due to a problem their end - probably closed for the night.

2nd time using the Gloucester branch and the service was great. Guy on the desk was new but very friendly and helpful. Allowed me to take pictures/videos on collection and drop off. Returned with a full tank and no issues. Hassle free rental, collection and drop off and was a lovely new car. As long as the Gloucester branch continue to perform like this I won’t go anywhere else.

After getting a vehicle from Europcar I returned it the day after because my vehicle was fixed, I did around 10 miles in the hire vehicle but went to a fuel station to top it up and was surprised when it took nearly £15 of petrol. When you hire a vehicle from Europcar you have to give them your card details so they can fill the vehicle up if the vehicle is returned empty, the fuel gauge on the hire vehicle was reading full before I topped it up so how come it took nearly £15 of petrol. Unfortunately I also pick up a parking fine ( it was my fault ) but this company paid the fine of £40 plus a £33.56 administrative charge without sending me the fine so I could appeal the fine because I have a blue badge and that was in my vehicle that had broken down. This company has since then hounded me for the sum of £73.56 which I have paid and are still sending me debt letters. I have done a load of phone calls to this company regarding this matter at lo and behold they can’t find me on there system I have finally resolved this issue but through Motability who lease my vehicle to me and the fine has been paid but no response from Europcar. Avoid this company like the plague

This company has been a big letdown. I picked up a car and was given a vehicle with no real alternatives. The vehicle stank of cigarettes. This is despite there being a big sign in the car and a written policy of no smoking in the cars. I had to accept the vehicle given the lack of alternatives and the need to be on my way quickly but mentioned it on return and it was treated as a non complaint. A totally couldn’t care a less attitude. I then complained to the company in writing and they didn’t even acknowledge the complaint. I wrote to them about an unexpected charge along with the smell complaint and they acted like I hadn’t even mentioned the smell aspect. They also wrote off my complaint about the unexpected charge. Despite repeated attempts to have the smell aspect acknowledged they refused and pointed me to an industry complaints organisation. Ridiculous and disgraceful as well as lazy not only in valeting the vehicle but in the sense of not dealing with a normal complaint and instead forcing the customer to deal with a different body. This displays traits that show this company has no desire towards customer service, is willing to pass on substandard vehicles and charge for the privilege. My advise, go elsewhere. Anywhere else.

Really disappointing experience – won’t use Europcar again We hired a car from Europcar after ours was taken off the road due to an accident. During the hire, the car developed a tyre issue and we had to wait a long time for it to be repaired, leaving us unable to use the vehicle for a period of time. We also spent far too long on the phone to customer service, who gave different information and weren’t particularly helpful throughout. At the end of the month-long hire, we were charged £201 for a valet – due to dust, gravel in the footwells (it was winter). The rest of the car was spotless, and even one of their own advisors agreed the charge seemed excessive. To top it off, it took 4 months for them to tell us the price they wanted to charge. I’ve used plenty of other car hire companies without issue – this was by far the most frustrating experience. I won’t be using Europcar ever again.

I collected my car from Luton Airport. Friendly staff and the whole process took less than ten minutes. I was allocated a car that was too low to the ground and was upgraded for a reasonable fee to a Mercedes 360 GLE which although rather large for my needs was a great car for my 8 day hire. The Carhire centre is a short journey by free bus from the terminal building. Returning the car also proved to be an easy and quick process. Well done Europcar...I will be back!

I collected my car from Exeter Airport. A very professional service from start to finish. Kasey helped me with every part of my booking. She is an amazing lady, extremely kind and courteous. A proper Devon welcome and an asset to the company. My car was clean and ready on time. Can't fault my experience at all 10/10.

@GLA Airport Office - one of my worst experiences in life! There is a strong pressure to charge for additional services + sneaky scare. Despite repeated refusals to purchase additional services, at the end of the rental we still paid additional fees that were supposed to be a refundable deposit!!! STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

The Agent was very skilled at distracting you while he added extras that he said were free but in fact added hundreds of pounds to the rental. He then keeps you focussed on one part of the contract while getting your signatures on the other parts. This cost me hundreds of pounds. I was cheated but the lesson is to make sure they explain every cost and every aspect of the contract even if there is a queue behind you. Don’t let them rush you. I turned around when leaving to see the Agent high fiving their Manager. So they are very brazen about ripping off customers. I formally complained about the actions of the Agent, accepting it was my fault not to check everything. But the attitude of Complaints matched the attitude of the Agent.

I was constantly advised against using Europcar by others who had bad experiences with them. I recently went to Gatwick Airport to hire a car for the weekend, and the price of £408 for just two days has completely turned me off from this company for life. This experience has become a topic of conversation among my colleagues, friends, and family. I'm sorry, Europcar, but your time in the market is up; this situation is outrageous! It seems like either the employees are making money on the side for their personal gain, or the company is poorly managed. Their advertisement claims that you can hire a car from £40 per day, but when I inquired, they were quoting me £200 per day instead! This feels like false advertising, and they are clearly breaking laws left and right. Advisory is if they mess up the best thing is to open a complaint and conduct an ADR process, wait for their final response, and then to Financial Ombudsman Services, which is a free service. Once you have a ruling in your favor, this is the key for charges to be added. One colleague was ready to sue this firm for £8,000 when initially Europcar only owed £2,500 for falsely extorting monies for their personal gain, which is fraud under the 2006 Act. They had to pay very quickly; otherwise, their stock of cars would go to auction with more costs to them! And then see them in court with your decision from the FOS and then send in bailiffs to collect your debt! Easy way but will take time. Theur customer services are incompetent to deal with complaints so court is the best action.

Thieves.... I was dropped a car off with the petrol at 3 and a half bars, when I returned the car I gave it back at 3 and a half bars with the range showing more than i was given the car at, i was told I was given the car at full tank therefore was charged an extra £35. I emailed them but they refused to reimburse me. I have spoken to another person who had the same issue. Poor business conduct. Heads up to anyone using them in the future make sure you get the delivery driver to write down on the sheet the current fuel or y They will steal from you.

I paid for a car rental online, when I got there I was told they need to do a soft credit check. Mind you I’ve rented cars for over 20 years and I’ve never come across a car rental company that does a soft credit check. They said it was declined and I don’t know why. The reason I’m so annoyed is that they don’t make this clear on their website, if it was, I wouldn’t have bothered, since to me, renting a car is no big deal. I’m paying in advance so a soft credit check makes no sense. Also, I had to pay £40 in taxi fare, and now I’ve got to wait for the refund to go back on my card. I do not recommend this car rental service. A total waste of time and money!