Europcar UK

Don't use at all. Booked online had a specific time delivery, spent 5 hrs on calls trying to find out what was happening. Well past agreed time for the car. Requested a full refund due to failure to deliver within agreed time and no information of when could be expected. Spoke to so many people over the 5 hrs including customer services 4/5 times. On hold for over 1hr of the 5hrs. They couldn't even reach the local office for an update. They cant actually refund you as its against policy. You have to cancel (even when it's their error) at a cost of £45.00 and then make a claim back against them for a cancelation fee. No idea how long that will take. Would have scored minus if option was available.

Appalling service, my daughter mobility car broke down on 24th March 2025 in which she required a courtesy car. Mobility use Europcar for their courtesy cars. On Monday 24th March I received a phone call from europcar asking for a deposit and then told me a car would be delivered that evening between 4-5pm, at 6pm I phoned them to ask where it was to be told that it would be delivered the following day between 10-11am (therefore we had to travel via a taxi to and from my daughters day service which is 100mile round trip per day) anyway I went with my daughter in the taxi to drop her off to her day service then I was dropped home to await the car being delivered. 12pm came so I phoned them to ask if it was still being delivered and was told that the time had been pushed to 1pm and someone should have phoned me to let me know (I didn’t receive a call) I then waited till 2pm and still no car, I once again phoned them to ask where the car was because if it wasn’t going to arrive in time I would need to get another taxi so I could collect my daughter, I also asked to make a formal complaint because I had been told several different days and times and they hadn’t stuck to their agreement nor contacted me with any updates. I phoned back again half an hour later to ask if a complaint had been logged and I was told the previous person had spoken hadn’t put anything in the system. I asked again to file a complaint (which I’m not sure if they have or not) the car eventually arrived at 16:45 (24hrs later after the original planned time) there were no apologies or explanations given. It seems that there’s a miscommunication issue between (Europcar motability and Europcar Maidstone. I had already had a stressful day on Monday when the brand new (three months old) electric car came to a halt and the Electric Traction battery failed, leaving myself and my disabled daughter sitting at the side of the road for five hours awaiting RAC and tow truck (8 hour before car was recovered) so I really didn’t need their stress on top of it all

I found Europcar in to be extremely competitive with price and was given an excellent service. Kyle in particular at the Plymouth branch was really helpful with anything I required so would highly recommend and use again.

I had an absolutely terrible experience with Europcar, particularly with their insurance, claims, and customer service departments. They were consistently unhelpful, gave misleading information, and showed a complete lack of professionalism. I was repeatedly told that documents would be sent by a certain date, only for them to fail to follow through. They say one thing and then do another, making the entire process frustrating and unnecessarily drawn out. Their inability to provide accurate information and their poor communication made resolving the issue a nightmare. I would strongly advise avoiding Europcar for any car rental – the hassle just isn’t worth it.

I booked a van in advance. I needed a specific internal load length and checked the vehicle dimensions. On arrival at Watford Europcar presented me with a short wheel base van that was not what I had booked. It was useless for my needs. They cancelled the rental agreement yet I am still waiting for my refund. I found them very unhelpful.

Booked a van fairly easily online for a few hours to move some things into a house. Paid the full price as you’d expect. Completed an online check in and all going well. 24 hours later I receive an email to say I’ve failed a credit check?? I’ve already paid in full. Can’t get your money back until there process is complete to send the money back to you. It’s not like I’d need it to get another van from a normal company is it! Then another 24 hours later I receive another email saying I’m due to pick the vehicle up as planned. Which one is it? These may be slightly cheaper but just go to a normal company and pay slightly more. It will save you the hassle

Do not use Europcar in the uk, hired the car, took out additional cover which we were told at collection at Edinburgh airport, would cover any tyre damage. Have since been hounded by their collection for $300.00 to replace a tyre, I have provided the additional insurance cover document but have now been told, it doesn’t cover tyre, why else would I have taken out the additional cover. Previous when in the UK, I had a puncture when using Sixt and it was no problem and covered without any additional insurance. Now they have charged my credit card. I have never used Europcar before and will never again, my fault as I had heard of this happening to other travellers.

Had the car for a week but on the first day one of the tyres dropped pressure so topped it up but it happened again 2 days later so called and they booked it in for a new tyre. Handed the car back and then a few days later was told I was liable for the tyre as I hadn’t reported the slow puncture within 24 hours of getting the car initially. At no point when I was sorting the new tyre did they say I was liable for a slow puncture and they have been totally unreasonable. They refused to complete a fault check on the car to show when the tyre pressure fault was initially recorded on the car and seem to think that a slow puncture would be obvious within 24 hours. If you ever are in the unfortunate position of having to deal with this awful company then accept they will screw you over and send you a bill for £180 for one tyre. I did the right thing and got the tyre changed even though I could easily have just pumped it up and handed it back to them and then they would have had to sort it which is what they did to me. No common sense and a an absolute rip off. Also told that this is classed as insurance claim, I hope the useless complaints person is wrong about this as it is totally ridiculous. Avoid this company unless you accept they will rip you off at any opportunity.

I was told I only needed my driving licence but after walking for 1 hour to collect vehicle was told I needed passport also. I had phoned the day before and was told, even though my licence was old style it was all I needed. I had a busy pass with photo id but they wouldn't even consider this. Disgusted

If I could give less than 1 star I would. Europcar operate a 'scam' service. I was flying from Australia to London Heathrow and decided to hire a car from Europcar during the Doha lay over. I selected the car to be picked up at the airport, filled in all the necessary and selected to pay upfront. The process went through up to my bank where it came back with 'there was an error with your bank' (Scam 1) I found this odd as there were no issues. I tried a different credit card in case - same response. I tried calling Europcar, no answer. I decided to back myself up by selecting a 2nd rental from SIXT but to pay at the airport. Within seconds I received a SIXT confirmation of booking. We arrived at Heathrow on Sunday 23rd March at around 5pm and decided to first go to Europcar as we had in the interim received an email stating 'YOUR CAR IS WAITING FOR YOU' (SCAM 2), and we had made a payment and if it had gone through whilst we were in flight, we didn't want to pay twice. But we couldn't find Europcar. We asked SIXT desk and they said it is a shuttle SERVICE (Scam3). We went back to where the shuttle was supposed to be with 2 trolleys of suitcases. No signage. Went to ask again and told it is lane 3. Pushed the trolleys to lane 3 only to find it was not there. Asked again and directed me back to the first point. We waited 20m for a shuttle and a 20m drive to the EUROPCAR satellite office where there was another wait to be served of 15m. By this time it was now 8pm. I got to the front desk eventually, pulled up my email and the Europcar agent says 'you didn't finish your booking?'. I said I did and showed him the email stating 'your car is waiting'. He said that the booking was not confirmed, and the error message showed that. I asked why if the car wasn't available didn't they show this online and how was a customer to know that an error message for payment meant the vehicle wasn't available? He responded with that he could do the booking manually but there would be a price difference (Scam4). On the app it showed a 30GBP difference between online and at airport booking. We were tired and frustrated so said ok to the difference if it was small. We had booked an Electric JEEP for the week at a cost of 284GBP. The guy came back and said it was now 722GBP. I told him that was unacceptable. He said that due to the fire, all cars were booked out and no other rental company would have a car. It was now nearing 9pm, we had to be at a hotel 2hours drive from Heathrow and I think this is Europcar's plan (Scam 5). We refused to pay the price which was almost 3x that of the original booking and seeing we were not buying this scam, he said he could give a discount and we could get it for 520 GBP. The online at airport booking was 309GBP so he was trying his luck with the higher amounts. We refused and asked them to take us back to the airport. On arrival I went directly to the SIXT desk, was helped by a fantastic and knowledgeable lady and within 10m we had the car which we had selected, at the price we selected. Europcar you could learn a lot from SIXT. We are frequent travellers and will NEVER RENT FROM EUROPCAR again as they deliberately show cars online that they use to lure customers and then when the travellers are tired take advantage and try to scam by tripling the cost of the vehicle. You should be ashamed of yourself Europcar.

This is the second time I've had the absolute nightmare in dealing with this two bit company. Motability sorted out a hire car on Friday the 19th March 2025, a hybrid MG which was such a good, safe car that it was actually braking for me driving down the street, then low and behold a immediate warning light popped up. So I rang the AA and had a lovely non patronising mechanic come out, plug his machine in and said yeah you can't drive that. Even the machine doesn't know the error code which 9/10 is electrical fault so potential fire risk. Then they had the cheek to charge me £25.74 for fuel they used to deliver the car. The second MG they provided my husband was told my the gentleman to tell me that the car is 200horse power. What he doesn't realise is I'm very much a car female! Absolutely atrocious customer service and atrocious unsafe vehicles. Needs name changed to rent a wreck.

I hired a car and put my son as the main driver on the online booking form. When I got to the desk in Geneva airport to collect the car, I was told the main driver had to be the same as the person making the booking, as stated in their terms and conditions page 123 (even though the online form allows this), and they had to cancel the booking. I could rebook with another car ( at over twice the price). No compromise was available. Thanks Europecar for all the stress, time wasting and expense. Oh, and funny you haven’t fixed your online form. Europecar’s reply to my review, suggested I contacted customer services which I duly did. After 5 days they responded saying they were unable to find my booking. How convenient for them.

I was charged double what I was told I would be charged for an upgraded vehicle I was persuaded to accept by the Inverness Airport branch after initially booking through the EasyJet app. Disgusting tactics. I tried to get a refund but they wouldn’t budge. Use a different company, as you leave a £250 deposit on your credit card and you are at their mercy to return it all. You cannot get to speak to a human. So frustrating and very expensive when you are robbed by a company that you trusted.

After renting with enterprise for 4 weeks and experiencing nothing but absolutely stellar customer service and satisfaction. I was unfortunately introduced to Europcar “the uk’s number one mobility solution” (completely mind boggling that they are number one in anything remotely positive actually. The email that they sent me contained the wrong link and map to their current address which then meant I took an Uber to the wrong destination (provided by them) which meant I was Unable to collect my rental. I tried to get through to customer services (generic one as it was after hours) where again they were so unhelpful and impolite , not even considering that I could be frustrated or stressed due to their own incompetencies. I then woke up on Saturday and made my first call to customer services by 8:53am in an attempt to be put through to the Dartford branch…. This was actually impossible to do as the branch did not once answer their phone throughout the course of that morning , despite the customer service team supposedly emailing them about my issue. I then arrived at the branch after calling multiple times with no response , only to be greeted with “we don’t have any cars” erm… I hadn’t even had the opportunity to explain , to which I responded that I had been calling all morning and been instructed to come straight to the branch to which she huffed and started typing away on her monitor. I was then told I could only rent a small corsa like car though I had booked for a compact (slightly bigger) and when I asked if that would be deducted from the price I paid she responded “no it remains the same price”…. Slightly bizarre seeing as it’s two different sizes. I accepted as I was already at my wits end. 5 minutes passed and I was told that they would not be able to rent to me due to not passing a credit check….. surely the check should happen at the time of booking or even if that’s too difficult how about at the online check in stage which I had done already. These conglomerates think they can do what they please to individual customers with no repercussions but believe me I am going to shout on every possible rooftop about this diabolical experience.

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding my recent experience with Europcar. Booking and Payment Details I booked my rental car at the same time as my easyJet flights. The total rental amount was £91.00, and an additional £50.00 was paid for waiver protection. (Supporting details attached.) Initial Interaction at Rental Counter Upon arrival to collect the car, the representative at the counter inquired whether I had rented with Europcar previously. I informed them that I had, but had a negative experience regarding fuel charges, despite refueling the car minutes before returning it. I was forced to raise a complaint and provide proof of my fuel purchase in order to receive a refund. The representative apologized and offered me a free upgrade for my current rental. Rental Agreement and Holding Deposit I was presented with the rental agreement, which clearly indicated the prepaid amount of £91.00, as well as an additional charge of £86.90, which was explained to me as a holding deposit. I questioned this charge, and it was reaffirmed as a holding deposit, which would be refunded to my card upon the return of the vehicle. This conversation was witnessed by my colleague, who was traveling with me at the time. Fuel Refill and Return of Vehicle Prior to returning the vehicle, I refueled the car with 6.91 liters of petrol, totalling £9.66, at the nearest garage to the airport (PA3 2TH), as per the attached receipt. Upon returning the vehicle, I handed the keys to a Europcar representative named Jack, who inspected the vehicle, including its mileage and fuel levels. He confirmed that everything was in order and that no issues were present. Unjust Charges On March 21, 2025, I received an invoice for additional charges, including a Premium Station Surcharge and a charge for 6 liters of fuel. Furthermore, my credit card has been charged an additional £98.85 on top of the original rental charge of £91.00. These charges are clearly erroneous, unjustified, and appear to be fraudulent. I hereby request that the excess charge of £98.85 be refunded immediately to my credit card. Additionally, I wish to file a formal complaint against both the employee who processed my rental and the representative to whom I returned the vehicle. Their actions were misleading and resulted in fraudulent charges being placed against me. I expect prompt resolution of this matter. Should this issue remain unresolved, I will be forced to take further action to protect my interests.

Absolutely useless company. Staff are incompentent and seem to be computer illiterate. Not only did they take FIVE FULL days to arrange a replacement car for me, they had just over 2 weeks to prepare, it took me an hour to speak to someone to arrange collection of the car and only then do I find out the car I have, registration given to them, was NOT in my name, Obviously I don't know whose name it's in but the clown I spoke to didn't have it in my name. Is this why I had to wait 5 days for a car? people can't hand their cars back in quick fashion. Add to this a dodgy phone call I received regarding the accident the car was in, no not one of those run of the mill scam calls, this one had my name etc, I am now absolutely convinced that Europcar passed my details on to a crappy personal injury place. Only 3 companies knew the car was in an incident and out of the 3 of them only one is the likely candidate. Wouldn't use them if I had a choice. Wish I could give them zero they don't deserve 1 star. 24/03/2025 this is my response to them replying to my review. I had already contacted your company and got a hollow worthless response from that, so no I won't be contacting you again. I've now had the car 2 days beyond me trying to return it and no idea if they'll actually coming today. I'd wager the depot that is supposed to collect it knows nothing about it as your customer service clowns are worthless and when I was on call it sounded like they were struggling to use their computers. again, I will never use Europcar by choice.

I hired a car from Inverness Airport on 18/3/25. I returned it a few hours later having done 42 miles and having filled the tank up to the very brim with £8 of fuel just before drop off. I couldn’t get any more fuel in the tank. They hold £250 from your account to cover any additional costs. Just got my money back but with £10 deducted for fuel! If true this car used £18 of fuel to cover 42 miles. This is a SCAM. I made the guy at the Europcar check the car over with me which was a bit of a walk. The guy was very unhappy, wanting me just to leave the car for him to check later, but came with me. He checked the car inside and out (checking mileage and fuel) and told me everything was OK and that I’d get my full deposit back ‘soon’. When you leave a hire car you are at the mercy of the integrity of these hire companies. Europcar clearly has little of that. I made a complaint and will include the result of that later. However it might be something like: “Hello John, We appreciate your feedback and we are sorry to learn you were dissatisfied with our service. Give us the chance to solve the issue by providing more details using (link removed) where our customer service team will be in touch. We hope to see you again. The Europcar Team” …or something like that…..

I never write bad reviews but this company honestly deserve it. They are scammers and for an easy life get the bus! Upon return they tried to charge me £16 50 for fuel luckily I kept my receipts and took a pic of the dashboard with a full tank which had the date and time and they refunded me . The car STANK of smoke to the point where I drove it twice for the whole week as my kids were complaining of the smell and I had to keep windows open as a result I did call and complain about this. Then to make the 4 day experience even worse they then tried to tell me I damaged the wheel ! Again luckily using my iniative i took pictures before and after hire . These people must be seriously hard up for money as they will try to take anything they can. DO NOT USE THEIR SERVICE save yourself the stress

Recently booked a van for the weekend to move house, then received a call today saying they have no available vans and the woman should not of booked you in. Now I'm stuck without a van. Terrible service. Won't be using these no more. You lost a customer and now I have to wait 5 days for my deposit to go back into my bank.

13th March 15.35 received email confirmation of car hire from 17th-21st March pick up/drop off Kinston upon Thames. 14th March 13.05 received call from mobile 07815 464792 to inform me that the Kingston branch would not be operational w/c 17th March therefore pickup and drop off needed to change to another depot. It was agreed reluctantly on my part that new pickup/drop off station would be Gatwick South Terminal which is 30 miles from where i live. I was assured by the female caller that this modification would not alter the t&c's of the hire contract including the cost. 14th March 13.12 , the modification email came through which still stayed pickup and drop off Kingston upon Thames. 17th March 08.04, i rang europcar customer services to again ask for reassurance that this booking had indeed been modified correctly. I was assured that despite the modified booking stating Kingston upon Thames, the team at Gatwick would see this change on their system. 17th March 11.30 ,i embark on 2 and half hour journey on public transport at my own time and cost to travel to Gatwick. 17th March approx 14 00, approach service desk, i am.told there is no booking. Customer service agent calls over manager who also looked perplexed and repeated no such booking. I insist and relay the information provided by Kingston. After 5 mins of phone calls and deliberation Customer service agent, tells me that i have 3 different options of car, each costing £30+ per day additional to what i had already paid. I declined having been completely misinformed by Europcar and was told only alternative was a refund. I went outside and immediately called Europcar customer services who passed me back and forth and eventually to complaints. They refused to acknowledge their error and when i asked them to resolve the matter as they were at fault i was told that i would have to make a new reservation at a new cost £200+, but that i would have to wait at gatwick another 3 hours as their system did not allow immediate booking and vehicle retrieval. I have now travelled 30 miles from home on buses and trains to be told a) booking not valid b) i would have to pay another £120+ c) if i want new reservation i would have to wait 3 hours. UNACCEPTABLE While this has been now registered as a complaint and assures an investigation, i insist on satisfactory answers to the following: Why was Kingston upon Thames showing as open and operational on Gatwick system which initially impeded the gatwick staff from seeing the booking? Why, when a customer has already been subjected to a 30 mile trip instead of a 20 min bus ride to their chosen and confirmed place of pick up and drop off, at their own inconvenience, time and money, does Europcar not accept their own internal failures and endeavour to resolve the problem? I will also be submitting a claim for compensation to cover travel expenses to the airport and the additional cost of hiring a vehicle with another provider who were extremely helpful in overcoming the ridiculous bureaucracy around 2/3 hour wait times for a vehicle when they had one available and ready to go. Needless to say i will not be using Europcar ever again. I would appreciate a swift and satisfactory response addressing the abysmal customer service illustrated above Blanket response from Europcar which failed to address the specific failings of the booking. "Thank you for contacting Europcar Customer Services regarding the vehicle not provided for your reservation 1187068944. Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for the lack of provision of the confirmed vehicle. On occasion, unforeseen changes to our fleet utilisation, resulting from extensions or breakdown can result in the Rental station responsible for your hire being unable to fulfil the booking. I would like to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused, and would like to assure you we constantly review ways to improve our services and minimise any disruption to our customers. I trust this information assists with your query. Regards, David" Europcar UK Group | Customer Services