Europcar UK

Fantastic hire experience, seamless pick up and drop off. All round couldn’t ask for more. Booked online, £200 cheaper than the competition. Checked in online the day before with my documents, went in store to collect, van was ready, de-iced and warm for me to get into. You need to know that you need your driving licence and passport, and a vehicle check code before going to make it easy, along with a card for a holding deposit. Drop off was done in 5 mins. A chap called “Preston” checked me in and out, ironically at the Preston store. he was lovely and a real asset to the business, went out of his way to make everything seamless and spot on.

The worst, utterly disgraceful, experience I've ever had hiring a car. I booked a manual for two days, went to collect it from the Victoria London branch. I mentioned I only needed it for one day but had to book it for two as there was no mention online I could drop it off after hours on the day I needed it. The manager told me I could have booked it for one day. As compensation, as he added he couldn't change the booking in his system (???) so he offered to upgrade me to an automatic for free so long as I dropped it off by Saturday 1pm. I agreed, signed the form and returned the car full of petrol by 1pm Saturday. I then received notification from my bank that I'd been charged two days using an automatic, plus two days insurance. I called Europcar customer service to complain. They told me as I signed the contract there was nothing they could do. Plus they refused to put me through to the Victoria branch manager or put me through to their senior manager to raise the complaint. Incensed, I then went to the Victoria Europcar shop to explain to the manager the booking error. He wasn't there. I went again and again and again, three times he still wasn't there. These three times I explained to the Victoria staff in the manager's absence the mishap that had happened. Each time the staff I spoke to told me they'd get the manager to call me to sort out the mis-booking. The manager never called me. The fourth time I arrived at the Victoria branch, the manager was finally there, but kept me waiting 1/2hr before he turned up to talk to me. He looked surprised at my appearance and said he'd heard nothing about my complaint from any of his staff or customer services. The staff member behind me, who I'd met the day before and who'd promised to pass on my message, put his head in his hands. We knew perfectly well the manager was lying. He then told me I was lying and had made this whole thing up. He said he never offered me a free upgrade to an automatic from a manual car. He added, as I'd signed the contract my complaint meant nothing. But the contract I signed was misleading. The sum for £164 was black bold with lots of small type around it. This amount sounded about right for a 2 day manual hire including insurance I'd agreed to add on to the initial £115 fee. Not the £320 that was actually deducted from my bank account for a two day automatic hire. The manager walked off dismissing me. I called Europcar customer service again to complain. Three times the Europcar customer service put the phone down on me. I can't tell you how unjust, dishonest, disgraceful and unsettling this experience has been. I will never hire a Europcar EVER again.

The worst service I’ve ever had from any company! Rang to book a van, arranged for Saturday morning, they called to see if I can pick up Friday instead as they were not equipped for the Saturday, got dropped off on Friday eve to pickup and it wasn’t the van I wanted, they said they don’t even do the van I wanted so I decided to take it, paid and signed, went to get it out the yard and it wasn’t a ex hire from motorway maintenance, dirty in the back with tonnes of racking, went back in to get a refund and was made to walk back in -3 weather for 5 mile, shocking

Truly awful experience kept promising a vehicle would be available and delivered to my home 5 days later no car I gave up and cancelled horrendous customer service I Truly hope I never have to have anything to do with this company again

In mid December I hired an economy vehicle (Corsa sized) with Europcar. At the east London branch I was given a large SUV sized vehicle (I didn’t know the size of it at the desk - an MG HS). During the rental I unfortunately kerb damaged an alloy wheel due to the size of the vehicle. On return the branch was closing and staff advised me to use the drop box which I did. The next day I was charged £70 for early return of the vehicle, on complaining Europcar said they would refund the amount due to an error. Am still awaiting the refund. With regard to the alloy wheel damage, Europcar three weeks on have yet to provide an invoice for the damage in order for me to raise an external insurer claim. Attempting to contact Europcar at a UK office is impossible via telephone and emails are replied to in a generic fashion with no attempt made in resolving issues by their staff. Overall experience is dreadful. Am genuinely sad for Europcar in the UK as I have used them for 6 years previously and found their service fair, even when minor damage has happened.

Initially they were very quick in finding a hire car while my motability car was being repaired but the car offered was not quite suitable for my wife's need. I rung countless times to be told I need to speak to either motability team or the local station. I speak to the motability team and they say they escalate it to Europcar who I assume passed it on to the local station. I cannot get through to the local station, and they have not contacted me at all. This has been going on for 4 weeks now. Luckily my dealer gave us a courtesy car for the first 7 weeks but had to return because they were selling it so it could have been even worse. I've had no help from costumer support as yet either. We won't be hiring a car from them again that's for sure.

Avoid at all costs. Hired a Compact car from Europcar at Heathrow. It broke down 2 hours after collection. The AA recovery could not start the car and it was eventually towed away. I was left without the offer of any replacement car. After spending the whole day on the phone, receiving contradictory advice from every person I spoke to, I eventually got offered a replacement car 48 hours later. The replacement car was a Mini size. In my final invoice, I was charged the full price of the Compact and no accounting for the missing 2 days. Heathrow branch say they cannot do anything and advise me to email customer services. No response from customer services at all.

Update 10 Jan 2025: pay no attention to Customer Services stock reply to this post. I have open case # for this complaint left unanswered since December. Avoid at all costs. Hired a Compact car from Europcar at Heathrow. It broke down 2 hours after collection. The AA recovery could not start the car and it was eventually towed away. I was left without the offer of any replacement car. After spending the whole day on the phone, receiving contradictory advice from every person I spoke to, I eventually got offered a replacement car 48 hours later. The replacement car was a Mini size. In my final invoice, I was charged the full price of the Compact and no accounting for the missing 2 days. Heathrow branch say they cannot do anything and advise me to email customer services. No response from customer services at all.

Glasgow airport, Europcar and Euan the grinning con artist. What did we rent? My mom and I rented a Fiat 500 via a trusted German website costing us exactly EUR 175. Insurance and everything is covered by the broker. We just wanted to pick up our rental. What happened? At the Europcar counter we were greeted by Euan (or Ewan). He seemed like one chirpy Scotsman. To our delight he upgraded us "free of charge". What an amazing guy! We couldn't believe our luck. He said, "you definitely need something bigger where you are headed and I have just the car". There was no mention of additional costs whatsoever. Who wouldn't like a free upgrade when they're headed into the Scottish outback? Some papers were elegantly shuffled around, we were told to sign here, here and here. After that we had to pop our card into the machine for the deposit and it was a done deal. Only it wasn't. The trickery and the damage. The upgrade was not free of charge and the additional cost of the rental was £171.86 or EUR 205. EXTRA! That's more than the initial rental booking. Both numbers look extremely similar by the way. When we inserted our card for the deposit, we in fact paid for the upgrade. That was NEVER mentioned to us. We also never paid for a deposit, which is utterly bizarre. The kicker is that we didn't receive an end of rental statement either. Also, the charge for the upgrade was not taken out until 2 weeks after the rental (06/11/24). So even if we had paid with Monzo, which shows charges instantly we would not have realised it then and there at the counter. Of course we signed the papers and that's enough for Europcar. Why would they care? Their golden boy Euan is ripping off people by the planeloads making the rental car company a F-ton of extra money. Unfortunately our broker nor our bank couldn't help, but that's not the end of it. A quick Google search reveals that this isn't Euan's first con nor that Europcar will ever see the promised land. BEWARE: Euan is a smirking bastard who is out to get you. Be it extra insurance you don't need or "free" upgrades. PLEASE read what you sign. FURTHER ACTION will be taken via BVRLA. If you read this and were scammed as well please take action. Do not let them get away with this. We will create a case and if necessary hire a lawyer collectively. Please get in touch. Robin Metzler

Regrettably Preston Europcar branch has defaulted to the expected level of Europcar Customer Service. Non existant. How can my booking be accepted, check-in offered online and no car be available on arrival at the branch? An email was sent after my reservation was confirmed advising there were no cars available but efforts were ongoing to get vehicles back as quickly as possible. I was advised not to go to the branch until I was contacted by a colleague. Unable to contact anyone at the Preston branch and in the absence of the promised phone call with 2 hour journey by public transport to the branch, I contacted the Europcar Call centre two times. I was advised my reservation had not been cancelled and to proceed to the branch as my reservation was good. On arrival at Preston lots of cars in the parking lot but no car for me. When in the branch and in the presence of a staff member I went on the Europcar App and was able to make and confirm another booking for the same afternoon with a 5pm pickup How can this be possible? Surely booking engines should have sales inhibited by the branch if there is no car availability to avoid messing supposedly valued customers around. Privilege status is worth nothing. Europcar do not value your repeat business and clearly have no respect for their customers. On the bus home. 4 hours wasted, £11.50 out of pocket and the lovely job of explaining to an 88 year old lady why we can't visit relatives tomorrow morning. Thanks Europcar.

We got tricked and scammed by Euan at Europcar Glasgow Airport without any refund in sight after two objections were filed! I always book a rental car via a German trustworthy platform to find the best deal with the best reviews to avoid scams. We had a small car reserved but Euan at Glasgow Airport gave us a larger car without even mentioning extra costs! The writing on the rental agreement was so bad and resembled the amount in Euros I prepaid but was in fact the extra amount for the upgrade in GBP! Instead of 172.15 Euros, we paid £172 extra for the unsolicited upgrade. He shuffled the papers in front of us, no detailed explanation and we signed. I usually read every single line on these contracts but he had a talent to charm and con us into it. When I entered the card into the card pay machine, I assumed it is for the deposit. We were not given any receipt for any transaction at any time, again, thinking it is for the deposit. In the Europcar yard I realised that there were no small cars parked anywhere and again assumed that we got a larger one because they didn't have a small car available. Only when I checked my bank account when we were back from Scotland, I realised that we got charged for the upgrade on top of the initial payment! A deposit was never taken out of the account. The fact that the money was only taken out of my account 2 weeks after the rental also shows that nothing was done by the book. If I had seen the amount on a receipt or in my transactions straight away, we could have turned on our heels. But if you get deceived in such a way, you don't expect bad intention. We also never received an end of rental statement via email as it usually is the case. I filed two complaints with Check24, the German booking website, however, they closed the case twice after trying to solve the issue with Europcar. This is not where it ends, Europcar. I'm taking this to the BVLRA for further investigation. It can't be the case that so many people get scammed by Europcar and get away with it. And if you, Europcar, send an automated reply to this rating and how sorry you are about the experience, then do something about the scammers you employ at your rental desks. This has to end!

EUROPCAR UK ladri ed imbroglioni!! fate molta attenzione. Vi racconto: Il giorno 18 dicembre mi sono recato a Londra per lavoro e per trascorrere il Natale con mia figlia che li vive stabilmente. Fisso da tempo l’auto una GM Grossland o similari, che pago in anticipo per 7 giorni ben 718 euro. Tenete presente che io viaggio da 50 anni e faccio sempre il prepagato per non avere problemi, spesso anche il check-in in modo che all’arrivo prendo le chiavi e vado via, inoltre in qualità di Privilege Executive ho anche agevolazioni e spesso il passaggio gratuito alla classe superiore. Arrivo al desk Europcar Londra Gatwick presento il contratto e l’addetto pispola al pc senza dirmi nulla, poi mi mostra due chiavi e mi chiede quale preferisco, ne prendo una senza altra comunicazione, mi fa firmare il contratto, che non leggo neanche (fiducia mal riposta) e velocemente vado via. Il giorno seguente controllo il contratto e vedo che mi aveva addebitato 1850 euro in più al versato (264 euro in più al giorno oltre a quanto già pagato) per cambio di classe da me non richiesto e neanche comunicato. Chiamo subito la contabilità della Europcar UK che afferma trattasi di un deposito cauzionale che non verrà contabilizzato; non mi fido e controllo il contratto online che in effetti riporta correttamente quanto dalla contabilità affermato, cioè la nuova auto Volvo al solito prezzo versato. Nel frattempo l’auto non funzionava per vari problemi alla centralina elettronica, per cui con la paura di rimanere fermo l’ho poco usata solo in città (non si chiudeva o non si apriva, gli specchietti rimanevano chiusi, il bagaglio non si chiudeva e cominciava a suonare, una notte l’ho lasciata aperta perché il telecomando non funzionava). Il giorno di Natale dovevo recarmi a Londra per un incontro di lavoro e poi a pranzo con mia figlia. Ma l’auto era completamente morta, non funzionava nulla, muta spenta totale. Vado alla stazione col taxi ma i treni non funzionavano a causa del Natale. Rimango bloccato, chiamo l’assistenza che viene il 26 mattina e ci lavora fino alle 13, problemi con le batterie e la centralina elettronica. Rientro in Italia e mi vengono addebitate 1860 euro per cambio di classe, per di più alle mie rimostranze mi mandano un estratto che dice che l’auto alla consegna era perfetta, non capisco cosa significa dal momento che il malfunzionamento si è verificato dopo la consegna. Conclusione mi hanno addebitato per una settimana 2610 euro 372 euro (neanche fosse una Ferrari) al giorno per un normale Volvo non richiesta e neanche funzionante. Oltre alla perdita del contratto e il pranzo di Natale, nulla di nulla, se ne sono lavate le mani, e pensare che sono un cliente Privilege. Che dire? MAI PIU’ fate attenzione, sono degli imbroglioni, state lontani da questa società.

Summary: £54.86 overcharged for no reason Explanation: On 2 January 2025, I had booked to pick up an electric vehicle (EV) at 1:00 pm. However, upon arrival, the staff member seemed confused about my booking and initially provided me with a petrol car instead of the EV I had reserved. After realising the mistake, she had to swap the cars, causing a delay. As a result, I did not receive the car until 1:36 pm. When I returned the car, I made sure it had a battery charge level of 55%. Yet, the invoice inaccurately claims that the charge level was only 42%. The problems didn’t end there. On 7 January 2025, I noticed that £54.86 had been deducted from my deposit without any explanation or invoice. I contacted Europcar to inquire about this, but I have received no response. This experience has left me deeply frustrated. Not only does Europcar fail to deliver accurate service, but they also show no regard for transparency or customer communication. If you rent from them, be prepared for false charges and the possibility of having to pursue legal action to recover your money. I will now be commencing legal proceedings to address this issue. I strongly advise others to avoid Europcar entirely. This was one of the worst rental experiences I’ve ever had.

Have rented with Europcar a few times and usually went smoothly until they rented me a car with a history of battery issues. I rented it for a specific occasion and it would not start and AA were hours away as it was safely parked on my driveway. I had to spend over £100 in taxis to get to my event. The next day the AA came out and said it was the 6th time they'd been out for the same car in 10 weeks and to take it straight back to Europcar. Despite numerous phone calls and emails, and proof of the problems from the AA, they have refused to offer any refund for the vehicle rental. **I have submitted my appeal to the BVRLA for assistance**

Not worthy of one star. Absolute diabolical, fraudulent service. I paid for a hire car on 9th Oct for hire on 30th December, from Warrington branch. I received a "your car is ready from Warrington branch" email at 8am on 30th Dec. I arrived at the branch - to find it had closed down months ago! I phoned customer service ( waited a long while and was charged a lot for a 0371 number). All the operator kept saying was "sorry", said there was no manager to talk to and id have to travel to Liverpool to collect a car, and take it back to Liverpool. We were due to leave on our holiday at 9.30am, my family were at home waiting. We had family we'd not seen for 20 years meeting us half way to our destination for lunch, which we didn't make and they've now returned to Canada. I was left in tears trying to get someone to help me. I had to get another car from a local car hire, which because of the late notice was twice as much. I still to this date have had no explanation or a phone call which I was promised. Europcar simply do not care. I've e-mailed, I tried to call, but not a single word back. I have no idea how Europcar are allowed to trade when they illegally sold me a service that did not exist and now I am £250 out of pocket, because of their error.

We hired a car from Europcar for our stay in Jersey, and really could not be happier with the service (Many thanks Paul). There was a small queue, so i was able to chat about our stay and who i was travelling with, it turns out the vehicle I booked, would do the job, but we’d be very cramped, so he upgraded up. That little bit of “going the extra mile” means I will always look to book hire cars through European in future.

Awful service from local Europcar. Booked a vehicle twice three days apart. Both times cancelled. Tried to call local Exeter Europcar on two occasions … did not answer phone ether time despite staying on ‘hold’ after being re-directed, stayed on phone a total of 30 mins. Later find out EE charge 50p/min when calling a 0371 number. Extremely poor service + costly.

I noticed, more than a month after my rental that this company (Manchester Airport Branch) had charged for damages without any notification. After challenging this I received excuses like your email address was incorrect, strange given that they had emailed me the booking confirmation for the same when I booked it. They also sent photos of the supposed damage, of the wheel, which could have been from any car, it did not even give enough of an image to show it was even the same colour car, apparently you cannot show the damage without an extreme close up? Also increasing my frustration on this was that I had booked what was supposed to be one of their premium cars and to be frank it was a wreck which when I complained at pick up was told "its driveable so its rentable" and "if you want to replace the best we can provide you with is this car" a car which was not a "premium car" and not in any way the same size to accommodate our Luggage. I would strongly recommend not to use this company, I certainly won't be doing again. Update following response from Europcar Thankyou for your prompt response however please note that I did not write this review immediately after the issue, I communicated via email with your Customer Services on various occasions and it was only after receiving unacceptable responses that I posted this review.

Total deception about costs. All made very unclear. I felt the salesperson deliberately made it difficult to understand. For sure he lied. Total rip off.

Scammers at the desk Manchester Airport BEWARE the scams at the desk and careful what you sign. I have my own excess insurance so I refused any additional cover but the clerk secretly added this to my documentation which I signed. Company refusing to refund and charged it after the rental was completed. The charge was more than that for the car rental and nearly £200! Use another company who is honest or takes scamming complaints seriously. Edit* Company have refused to refund or investigate. Have complained to the BVLRA