Europcar UK

Europcar Agent at BFS airport: "Would you like an upgrade?" Me: "Is it free?" Europcar Agent: "Yes". One week later I get a bill for £149.49 on top of the £225.05 I paid for car rental. Europcar Customer Services response to my complaint: "he said, she said".

Note: Europcar is writing fake five-star reviews to offset all of the negative reviews it is receiving. My experience... Save yourself the time and stress: take the rental you plan to give to Europcar, set aside around £20, douse the rest in gasoline, and set it alight. Use the £20 for public transport instead. I was foolish enough to rent a vehicle from them. I now realise this is not a reputable company but rather a rolling scam—a front for financial abuse masked as fair policy. Whatever you pay in advance, regardless of the booking mediator you use, rest assured, it won’t be the final price. The car you want won’t be available, the cover you obtain through a booking mediator will be ignored, and you’ll be charged for additional coverage (even if you insist you’re already covered). Effectively, here’s what will happen: you’ll arrive to collect the car you booked. Europcar won’t have it. They’ll offer you a shed on wheels and claim it’s similar to what you reserved. It won’t be. They will then offer an upgrade at an exorbitant rate, trapping you because you need a car to make your holiday work. Then, they’ll place a temporary hold on your card, and for weeks after returning the car, they’ll bombard you with invoices for additional costs at inflated prices. Europcar is about as transparent as sandblasted glass covered in treacle.

We reserved a car at Edinburgh airport a couple of weeks ago. On arrival we were told by the rental agent that the car reservation had been made on a non-UK website and therefore we had no CDW cover. He quoted £29/day to have cover added. Subsequently, I checked the reservation and found it had been made on Expedia.co.uk, and standard CDW cover was included.

I have hired cars and vans from Europcar many times before and the last one was only 3-4 months ago . I again made a booking with them and received an email to upload my passport ,driving licence and take a selfie to complete check-in online . And shortly after that received another e mail as my checking completed and documents have been validated. When I went to office in Glasgow Lancefield Quay a gentleman call Sam asked my address details and asked my driving licence then said ohhh we did a soft credit search and we are not able to hire you a car . And then he advised me to speak customer service to explain situation and then I called them and the person I spoke on the phone diverted my call to a manager - I then find out he is the manager for their airport branch and he spoke to me on the phone and then he spoke to his colleague on the desk and speaker was on and I was able to hear . Once he started to be rude then his colleague put the speaker off !! Then I left the place with big disappointment as never had this before anywhere !!! So be careful before booking a car with them as they can confirm your booking online but once you arrive their office then they can say sorry we can't hire you a car !!! Doesn't matter you come from abroad and have important meetings, important events ,plans etc !!! All they care to cheat !!! I would never ever go with that company again !!! That's scam !!!

2nd update, exactly the same correspondence from Europcar batting off the problem with no resolution whatsoever. This has been the most diabolical customer service I have ever received by a long way. Word from the wise avoid Europcar or face getting blatantly ripped off. **Update: I patiently wait for your response, you suggested I email customer services which I have twice so far with no reply, add that to the 40 emails I have sent to your customer services already trying to. sort out the excessive fees and poor customer service** Absolutely appalling from start to finish. Terrible customer service with only a premium line to call costing me a large additional sum. Incorrect car provided with additional costs amounting to well over £400. I complained directly with diabolical correspondence from them in return and no resolution. I will never use them again and strongly advise the same. Only giving one star as negatives not possible.

One of the worst, rubbish and disgusting company. I have booked a luton van and tried to pay online, on call and not possible. Later discovered not available anymore. Then, tried to hire a van and spending a hour on thr phone with a useless girl and suddenly she hanging off the phone. Tried to call later to found out if was booked but not. Then tried to book it over the phone with someone else and same problem could not pay, because of their rubbish system. Told to try again online, but same, theirs rubbish system didn't work, even talking with my bank which confirms my approval of transactions in few occasions, but Europcar system "stinks ". Second day call again to check the confirmation but again useless employee Tanya, who couldn't find my booking, and weird asking for my private number plate to check the booking. She pretending do not find it even provide, name, address, email...nothing to be found by useless Tanya. Annoyed, I hang off and called again after 30 minutes, and surprisingly a mate find it in 1 minute but SURPRISINGLY the price was different and higher . From £118 to £180, and my quote was not founded anymore and even allowed to upload. SHAME, DISGUSTING COMPANY WHO TRIED TO CHEAT

Everything was great, until the lady at Avignon Courtine identified some damage to the rear door of a panel van. Tiny damage - one of the items looked like dirt, to me. Europcar have confirmed that the van continued to be available for hire. The bill was more than €1,000! I found this massively over the top. They were slightly chaotic in responding to enquiries, but my beef is with the outrageous sum. I feel like the victim of an organised scam. I've been mugged, and it's_frustrating.

Europcar has got to be the WORSE company for booking ANY rental vehicle staffed by useless morons. I booked online for a vehicle, received email confirmation of booking, then received ANOTHER email confirmation the vehicle was ready for collection. The very next morning just before I was leaving to collect the car I get a phone call from a complete and utter moron who say they have no vehicles for a whole week and would I like to rebook for the following week. I said no, because I had made arrangements with my team to travel in the booked vehicle and now we were going to have to cancel our journey. "Sorry sir, no vehicles goodbye" was the response. 3 days later I'm STILL waiting for a refund - bunch of cretins!

I arrived at Norwich airport to pick up a hire van. Manager was aggressive when I arrived because I arrived at the desk early. Her manner was awful. then I was dealt with kindly by an employee only to be informed that the van was not ready. I have been waiting for 25 minutes( rental time paid for) but still no van. New girl at desk incapable of dealing with enquiry as to when van will be available. Very poor service. Meanwhile I am paying to sit and wait and will be missing appointments

BOOKED through Europcar Manchester, a Vauxhall CORSA CAR 5 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Arrived after a long flight to be told the vehicle booked wasn't available. The only alternative was a choice between 2 Mercedes at a cost of 925 GBP extra( for 5 weeks) to what had been contracted. Very pushy staff Unfortunately I was in a position where I was due in North Wales 2 hours after pick up so wasn't in a position to check elsewhere. The car was returned with no damage and a full tank 5 weeks later. On my return home I received a demand for 925 GBP after I had already paid in full. It has taken over 2 weeks of emails to have the error in my account rectified. Worst service I have ever received at a car hire agency and begs the question are these tactics regularly employed by Europcar.

Unfortunately, my experience with Europcar was really disappointing. Be careful when it’s busy at the airport - I got “upgraded” without realising. My €250 euro rental ended up being €500 because when asked “do you want a manual or automatic” and I said “I don’t care, whichever is better” - that actually meant an upgrade. She clearly talked about a €250 fee for using my debit card and a holding deposit, so I put the final total down to that. The cost isn’t actually written directly next to the word “upgrade” on the invoice where you sign. It just says “25,000km”. If I saw “Upgrade: €250”, then of course I would have questioned it. Unfortunately, Europcar customer service just say, you signed off on it, bad luck. They also mentioned I was late to the airport by 2 hours but the lineup was 1.5hrs. It’s also irrelevant? It doesn’t have anything to do with the charge. So that was a bit frustrating to have my questions dismissed and have a random aspect turned back on me. I get that the airport is really busy and staff are under the pump, but it should have been made clear, just as it was made clear about the debit card fee. For this reason and the car itself being fine, it’s 2 stars not 1. Be careful out there, guys!

I’ve had a great relationship with Nottingham, Europcar for over two years, renting most months from a week to three weeks depending on my needs. A new Manager started a month or so back, and whole atmosphere has changed, refusing to extend when I’d never had issues before, grudgingly giving me a higher category car when they were short vehicles ( like he was doing me a favour) and today, TWO days after returning a car to Heathrow - and less than a month after finishing a three week rental with his branch, got rejected by ID /credit checks. Did NOTHING to solve the issue despite there being no issue 6 days ago. Could have resolved it if wanted to as staff do on a daily basis ( calling head office could have been one step) Now have to wait 3-14 days for refund. Went to SIXT at the station and 15 mins later was driving a rental from there. It’s called Customer Service. Cancelled my booking in two weeks and will NEVER book a car thru them again whilst this manager is in place. Too much ego and drama.

Despite paying all upfront and confirming the reservation… when I get to the desk they stated a ‘standard eligibility check’ was required. This is despite turning up with driving license, passport, proof of address, DVLA check code showing no points or convictions, and a credit card with required deposit limit. Putting my details into their system, the result was “unverified”. Multiple employees stated “we do not know what that means” but that there was “nothing they can do about it”. Without so much as an apology, I was told they couldn’t give me a car, it wasn’t their problem and they couldn’t resolve it. To top it off - no refund! Since I booked via a third party, the refund has to be claimed through them (and that has a minimum 20 working day resolution but that’s another issue…). So there I was, with no car, no refund and no compensation. Trip had to (obviously) be changed at my expense & travel back to my house had to be purchased (since the plan was to drive back in the hire car!). No explanation yet received, though emails sent to an address provided to a team “that can maybe see the issue”. All in all, an expensive and depressing waste of time. My recommendation is to find a different hire company!

Be very careful of this company! They delivered a car to me were hours late, but the driver was sitting around the corner waiting for his lift home before delivering the car, was only worried about himself rather than someone with a baby. They marked the documents no damage and I inspected the vehicle and there was damage. They are now trying to charge me for a cracked windscreen, but this was cracked on delivery and I have pictures with the time and date. They obviously employ unprofessional drivers, as he would have seen the windscreen had damage unless he was driving with his eyes shut! I have put a call out a call for a Manager to ring me- let’s see what happens. If you have vehicle KP24FOF - beware there is damage to this vehicle that the company are trying to hide !!

First class service at Malta International Airport. Tariq was professional, friendly and efficient. The car was better than we’d expected - self charging hybrid which was very economical. Return process was quick and easy. Once again staff were excellent.

The rental car must have Had dogs in it previously and they left their fleas. The rental car obviously hadn’t been cleaned sufficiently resulting in me having 25 flea bites. I’ve asked for compensation ( reimbursement of the hirer charge) and have been turned down, Due to the fact that Europcar Left me a voicemail to collect a new car at 3 pm the day before I took the original car back at 10 am. I did try to get through to customer services but was kept waiting for over an hour on three occasions. Customer services Or a waste of time.

absolute bad customer service do not use, do not give card details as they will say they wont take any money but they will, then trying to get this refunded is a nightmare, passed from pillar to post got no where, van damaged when dropped of, told valeted but defiantly not

I do not even want to put one star. They have taken money from a card without authorisation for no reason over and above what the hire was. Customer Services is horrendous you can not get to speak to anyone who authorisation. DO NOT USE COMPANY I contacted customer services via telephone they were useless & wouldn’t help. I emailed them last week & this week still waiting for a response & conclusion. So no point in contacting Customer Services as no customer service.

Exemplary customer service from the lady with the blue hair at Europcar Inverness Airport. Such a pleasure to deal with, friendly, efficient, happy and chatty. She even remembered us from a previous rental ! She’s a credit to Europcar. Also a young Asian guy when we returned our car, once again, pleasant, friendly and efficient. But 5 stars and more to the lovely lady with the blue hair ! What a great start to our time in Scotland.

They do not accept the reservation, give lower class vehicles, add additional fees lying that it is a deposit. You are forced to accept a change to the worse vehicle rental conditions at pick-up! They act like politicians - the customer, the written and spoken words have no value for them, they will take as much as they want from your card. Customer service is some kind of fiction - just some robots answering the same standard answers to every question. AVOID THEM and respect yourself and your money!