“£250 in administration fees — and not £1 of discretion
My original Europcar rental cost £259.75. After four parking notices were sent to Europcar, the company charged me four separate £50 administration fees: £200 in total.
I am not disputing that Europcar’s terms allow it to impose an administration fee for each notice. My criticism is about proportionality, fairness and the complete absence of customer care.
The four notices concerned two days on which I briefly entered the same car park to drop off and collect my wife for surf lessons. The parking operator treated the four short entries as four separate parking incidents, resulting in £240 in parking charges. Europcar then added another £200 simply for processing the four related notices.
There was also a separate charge of £137 relating to a very minor scratch on the front alloy wheel. Of that amount, £87 represented the alleged damage and another £50 was an administration fee.
I do not believe I caused the scratch. Unfortunately, I had not photographed that particular part of the wheel accurately enough when I collected the car, so I could not prove that it was already present. The mark was so minor that, even had I noticed it at collection, I would probably not have regarded it as damage worth specifically documenting.
I therefore recognise that Europcar was procedurally entitled to rely on the absence of clear photographic evidence. However, it is striking that even this £87 repair charge attracted another £50 administration fee.
In total, the rental generated £250 in administration fees alone: £200 for the four parking notices and £50 connected with the minor wheel damage. Together with the £240 parking charges and £87 damage charge, this modest £259.75 rental produced more than £500 in unexpected additional costs.
I wrote to Europcar carefully and respectfully. I explicitly accepted their contractual position and made clear that I was not demanding cancellation of the fees. I asked only whether they might refund even part of the £200 parking administration fees as a one-off gesture of goodwill, considering the cumulative and disproportionate outcome.
Their response simply repeated that each notice required separate processing and that the fees were permitted by the rental agreement. All four charges would be maintained. There was no meaningful acknowledgement of the wider circumstances and no willingness to reduce the total by even £1.
A company can be procedurally correct and still treat a customer unfairly. My experience is that Europcar’s customer service is focused entirely on enforcing every available charge, including substantial administration fees on top of other charges, with no meaningful consideration of proportionality or the overall customer experience.
Future customers should understand that a £259 rental can become dramatically more expensive and that, once additional fees have been applied, an appeal to fairness, context or common sense may receive no consideration whatsoever.
I will not use Europcar again.”
“My partner and I booked a car for our visit from Australia for a little over £250 for our 17 day trip.
Upon collecting the car I was offered the option of an upgrade for £30, I was sure to ask if this was £30 TOTAL which the desk girl confirmed, all seemed good!
Once I returned to Australia I then got an invoice (and my card instantly charged) for an additional £1270!!
Turns out it was not £30 total as sold, but £30 a day + a premium insurance which I had explicitly declined + a 20% service charge .
Now I’m not sure who in their right mind books something for £250 and then decides on 5x that in add ons but it certainly wasn’t me!!
Once I made the complaint the only response I got was essentially ’sorry we weren’t there but you signed something so tough luck’
Absolutely ridiculous, sickening and quite frankly irresponsible for that kind of money to be taken when I had clearly been budgeting!
I would urge anyone and everyone to avoid Europcar at all costs!
Disgraceful!”
“I had been dealing with ongoing challenges for quite some time and was beginning to lose hope. Fortunately, reaching out to this team completely changed my experience.
They responded quickly, kept me informed throughout the process, and demonstrated a genuine commitment to helping me find a solution. Their expertise and attention to detail made a significant difference, and the issue was resolved much faster than I expected.
✅ Excellent Customer Support
✅ Efficient Problem Resolution
✅ Professional and Reliable Team
I would confidently recommend them to anyone seeking trustworthy service and a team that truly cares about achieving positive outcomes.”
“I had been dealing with ongoing challenges for quite some time and was beginning to lose hope. Fortunately, reaching out to this team completely changed my experience.
They responded quickly, kept me informed throughout the process, and demonstrated a genuine commitment to helping me find a solution. Their expertise and attention to detail made a significant difference, and the issue was resolved much faster than I expected.
✅ Excellent Customer Support
✅ Efficient Problem Resolution
✅ Professional and Reliable Team
I would confidently recommend them to anyone seeking trustworthy service and a team that truly cares about achieving positive outcomes.”
““I usually like to take care of things myself, but I hit a point where I really needed some expert help. That’s when a friend told me about Robinson , and honestly, reaching out to them was one of the best choices I’ve made. From the very beginning, their team was responsive, understanding, and truly dedicated to finding the right solution. They made everything so much easier and handled the situation with great care and professionalism. I’m genuinely thankful for their support and the excellent results they delivered.”
“Probably the worst rental experience I've ever had. Poor management, a different car that malfunctioned, hidden charges until the rental, a car without emergency accessories, subsequent charges with claims, slow contact, and often no way to contact them to process the claim. Look for another company; there are many.”
“I was mis-sold cover when I collected the car. The Europcar agent told me I had to pay non-optional additional funds to upgrade my vehicle to a larger one since they didn’t have the car I’d pre-booked in their fleet. After chasing this up with several customer service agents, I was told that I’d in fact been charged for additional insurance cover, and they refused to refund me for the cover that I neither wanted, nor used.
On top of that, the car I rented broke down. When I arranged for a mechanic to come check the car, they didn’t show up. I waited for over 5 hours for a mechanic to turn up, sitting outside of my hotel until 1am - only to have nobody show. Then they tried to charge me a call out fee.
After spending months begging multiple customer service agents for assistance, and after repeatedly being palmed off, I’ve now given up on getting my money back.
Beyond disappointed with the outcome, and a rubbish experience from start to finish.”
“Please do not give this company any of your custom,absolute shambles.customer service is non existent.was told that they would be collecting the hire car between 10am and 2pm and as of 4pm still nobody has turned up to collect it,l had to cancel an appointment to make sure l was at home for when they where supposed to come and collect the car.no contact from the preston branch to say why they cant be bothered to come and collect the car at the time they said they would and l have tried to call the branch direct and constantly no answer.
Avoid at all costs..if l could give this shambles of a company zero stars l definately would do.
Get your act together europcar!!!”
“I had such a bad experience with this compony. after dropping the car, they gave receipt regarding they received the car in same quality.but after 2 weeks they claim for 500 GBP for two dots on the door. they even can't prove that it happened during time that we rented it.
I not only don't recommend them but also warn about their amount of charges.”
“Worst service the person behind the table is one of the most racist .is from India or Pakistan. maybe suffering himself in the childhood...but I don't see in my life something like here. really rude,uneducated,bad person!!!!Run faster from this trap!!!!"”
“TERRIBLE TERRIBLE SERVICE!!!I’ve rented a Mercedes GLE on 11Nov2022 at Victoria station. But it was a terrible experience, traumatizing. I was asked to pay £800 for insurance that I do not know existed until the last minute. It was not mentioned by the staff until I asked. It was scary as I do not speak much english and the staff half-forced me to pay this unknown insurance.
At first the staff was nice because I arrived early at 10:30 for my 12pm booking, and done all the paperwork. After the paperwork, the staff started telling me about this non-compulsory insurance that cost £800. I do not want to buy it because I have already bought a full coverage insurance on their agency website, and I have told the staff about this existing insurance. The staff then started telling me that they can offer me a better price on this 'insurance', going from £800, to £750, to £450. This is when I realised that the offer do not seem right. So i refused right away.
After I rejected to pay the money, the staff told us to return the key, with an attitude that is very much worse than when I first arrived. They then told me that my car isn't available at that moment because I was early and I'll have to come back at 12. Ridiculously, I already have the key on my hand and they told me the GLE is ready out there. This was confusing because they were saying that everything is ready until I refused to buy the insurance plan they offered - but I did book for 12 pm, so I went away and got back at 12 pm. When I got back, the staff told me that the GLE model that I ordered is no longer available and they are offering me a downgraded GLC (I don't know if this is true because I saw 2 GLEs at their parking space). This do not make any sense to me as they said all is ready an hour and a half ago.
I got the car I booked at 1:30 pm at last because they claimed that they 'lost the key', this is 1.5 hours later than the booked time slot. At last the manager led me to an alleyway behind the Hilton hotel car park (which is not even a carpark). I did not even have time to confirm if there are any things I want to point out before i have the car because they are terribly late and that I have plans afterwards. As I check the car, the car is covered with mud and bird poop. There is also a missing part on the ventilation bit of the car.
Overall a terrible experience, at some point I was scared that I wasn't able to get the car because I have urgent plans later. They said I'm free to cancel but that would cost me 3 days of car rent, which is obviously their mishap. I have told the police officers at the station during that time and they suggested me to post this as a crime matter on the metropolitan police website.
There are also photos of the car (taken when I checked). As you can see, the oil tank wasn't filled up. The GLE was supposed to come with carpets and they do not have that as well. The condition of the car is dirty and some parts are missing. I also want to make this review a proof of how I have not intentionally made the car dirty / destroyed certain parts of the car. I do not want to bare any responsibility that do not belong to me.
And until today, I haven’t received my renting contract from them which they promised will sent to my email right after I got my car, I even confirmed the email address again after one of the staff drove me to Park lane to get my car and he promised the same thing.
I have never experienced such disappointing and scary renting car experience in anywhere if the world . This is no doubt a COMMERCIAL FRAUD!!!!”
“Terrible customer service. Arrived after a 24-hour flight with a pre-paid booking for a 7 day rental. Had my passport, licence and credit card as advised in the email they sent me two days before flying. They refused to give me a car on the grounds that I didn't have a return ticket. This despite the fact that they'd given me a car in identical circumstance three years earlier, no return ticket required. I think they just invented an excuse not to give me a car at the very attractive rate I had, and instead give it someone else at an inflated price. I ended going to the nearby Enterprise and Hertz offices, both of whom were happy to give me a car, although the rate wasn't as good. Avoid Europcar like the plague.”
“Europcar took TWO YEARS to notify me of a missed payment when returning a vehicle to one of their rental depots in Amsterdam.It was rented and dropped off in good faith that my card details were on file and Europcar would deduct the amount.
It's not the customers responsibility to ensure payment is taken correctly, the onus is on the organisation to ensure payments are processed correctly. Utterly ridiculous that it took this long.
When they finally decided to get in contact, it was over email, with spelling and grammar errors, which was assumed to be a phishing email.
Will not deal with Europcar again the future nor recommend their service to others.”
“Car not available for days booked as the area branch was closed. Manager unhelpful flights booked were based on needing the car. She suggedted bringing car back a day latet although I had flights booked. Should not have been able to book if no availability.”
“I have rented a Van to travel to EU with my wife and my father in law.
Europcar advertised the van with air - con.
The van has been delivered 2 hours late, without air-con (34 degrees in EU in July) damaged and with dashboard warning. I have paid medium coverage and extra miles and hotels (I was forced to stop overnight as the weather was too hot) for £1000 After 6 weeks of complaints they have offered a ridiculous offer and without discuss it they accredited it in the original payment.
They sent me an email saying that for them the case is close.”
