“Rang 3 times trying to speak to staff at Coolangatta over an item I left in the drivers side door. Staff keeps saying unable to speak to any staff at Coolangatta. They have sent 3 emails to contact me which has I have not received a phone call. Obviously they do not have honest car detailers or they would have an answer for me”
“This is probably the worst company I've had to deal with in my life. Be very very careful renting from them. After returning the car in exactly the same way as I picked it up they tried charging me for damage that was previously on the vehicle when I picked it up. Thank goodness I took plenty of photos as evidence. When disputing the damage they told me I had to contact booking.com as I had booked through them!
Absolutely disgraceful service. Honestly please do not use this company. I am not the only person complaining of this issue. Look at alll the other reviews. Also notice the exact same response to all the complaints. Automated nonsense”
“Scammers, Cheaters, Con artists. When you read through the reviews here, it comes up many, many times.
Unfortunately, I now know why.
I have used Europcar around the world for decades, and if this branch is an indication of what the company has become, then I would advise everyone to stay away!
I prebooked a Ford Focus 10 days for 434.40 gbp - pretty normal.
I went to collect my reservation at Heathrow after 65 hours of travel, pre booked and price set at 434.40 gbp.
At the counter, the agent said "free upgrade to an automatic Mercedes".
She then took credit card Authorisation, and only when I spotted the amount on the eftpos terminal, did I spot that I had been charged 1398.40 gbp, so an unauthorised jump of 964 GBP.
Immediately raised the issue, the staff acknowledged the incorrect amount, but they refused to reverse the credit card authorisation. They then said they would draw up a new contract at the original quoted amount.
They flat refused to give me a copy of the original invoice.
They said they could not refund the credit card, it would take at least 14 days - So if I took the original (3 times quoted amount) they could reverse it, otherwise not possible.
This is becoming obvious at this point that it is some form of "commission scam".
So now I have 2 pending amounts against my visa, obviously affecting the total limit of the card.
Next, I went to pick up the vehicle, I am given a Vauxhall Crossland (I requested a Ford Focus), and the state the vehicle is in, is disgusting, and this shouldn't be given to any customers. If this is the state of your fleet, you should retire them.
The vehicle has been used by a heavy smoker, the car reeks of smoke, and there is cigarette burns on the driver’s seat.
The outside of the vehicle has damage on every panel and the wheels. It looks like it has been through some form of war.
I have a full video of the state of the vehicle before collection.
So I drive out of the lot with my poor looking Crossland, get on the freeway to head a couple of hours down to Southampton. Hot day, AC on, and AC doesn’t work!
Called customer help line, get nowhere. I then head up to Milton Keynes and go to the Europcar depot there. The counter manager was helpful, test drives the car & confirms AC does not function at all. This is Thursday. They do not have a replacement car, so they promise to call me the next day for a swap over.
No call. Go to the depot on Saturday & its closed.
Call customer helpline. they confirmed Milton Keynes is closed (yep, sitting outside it).
Their suggestion was to head to Luton Airport (I was now at Silverstone) a round trip of 4 hours (remember no aircon, and hottest September in 30 years).
I had to pay for the extra mileage & fuel of course.
I arrived at Luton, Staff were good, Friendly. They then gave me an Vauxhall CORSA. A little beat up, but better than the last OPEL. I headed off out of the compound to have the oil light & check engine lights both start flashing. Tried the Air conditioning & completely non functional. (Don't know if air conditioning failure is standard on these Vauxhall's).
Back to the depot (another 20 mile loop). The lot operator was super helpful, and we checked the oil, not even showing on the dipstick. Then we checked the front tyres, Both completely bald, the LH one showing canvas.
He was embarrassed (felt sorry for him) he took us inside to the manager, and took a while, but they found a SEAT CUPRA manual. It was tidy, and everything worked!
Rest of the trip went as it should have.
3 weeks to have my original amount (1398.40gbp) refunded.
Do not trust or use Europcar Heathrow.”
“We rented a car from them two months ago, and the insurance money has not been returned to this day, even though we have communicated with them a lot. This is very bad treatment and does not encourage renting from them again.”
“Booked the car months in advance at Paris airport. When we went to collect the car with young children at 10.30pm they stated they had given the car away (against their policy) and tried to charge us an exorbitant amount to upgrade. I tried to complain to their head office who apologised but said they tried to contact the Paris office to investigate and couldn't reach them so didn't investigate any further. Serious impact on our holiday. Went to Budget next door the next day and picked up a great car hire.”
“Do not rent from them!!! They are a complete scam. Here's our story: We rented a car from Europcar at Orly airport in Paris. We intended to return the car a week later to Orly. Unfortunately, we got a screw in the tire the weekend before our Monday flight was due to leave and spent several hours on the phone trying to get in touch with someone at Europcar. We called at least 5 local shops, but were unable to get the car fixed ourselves in time to make our flight. Finally we received a response from the Europcar 24/7 roadside assistance number - they said to take the car to the Grenoble Europcar location the morning before our flight. They said that location would have another car to give us in exchange.
As instructed, we went there Monday morning and they were extremely unhelpful. They said they did not have a similar car for us. We said that was fine, we would take any car. Then they said they did not have any automatic cars. We said that was fine, we can drive a manual car. Then they said they had no manual cars. We reminded them that we were told to come here to exchange the car and that we were told they would have a car for us. Then they said we could have a car at 2 PM. Since we were in Grenoble and our flight was from Orly at 7 PM, we would miss our flight.
So, we left the car with them and managed to get train tickets (for more than 200€) to Orly and thankfully made our flight on time.
Now we are getting charged 600€ more than expected, for leaving the car in Grenoble. This charge was not mentioned by anyone when we returned the car.
We wanted to drive to Orly. We certainly did not want to pay more than 200€ to carry our luggage on 5 different trains to get there. Now they are charging us almost double than the expected cost for their screw up! We have tried their customer service number, and we were told we had to call the French number, which is not toll free. The last time we called that number, when we had the issue with the car, we were on hold for hours and never talked to anyone. We were told to email their customer service email, and we did so, and no one ever responded.
When we needed help with the tire, no one at Europcar would answer the phone. After hours of calling, we finally got a hold of someone who told us we would get a replacement car, but then the location they directed us to would not help us. And now that we have a billing issue, they won't respond to any inquiry! Do not rent from them!”
“I rented a 5 door BMW X5 in Hamburg airport , they did not delivery it claim about not be able to check driverlicence not accept all documentation from police . They didn't return my money back ca 1000€ for one week.
Very bad customer service no call answer I called them chat no response.
If I could give them mindre score. I will do”
“I rented a car from Europcar in Heathrow ariport back in Jun and I recognised a crack on the windscreen, I tried to take the photo of if but due to its location and sunshine reflection had to spend abit time to take a proper photo of it.
When I returned the car I mentioned it also to the personnel and they mentioned they were aware of that crack on the screen so didnt put anything on their return report as well.
After three months on Sep, claim department sent me an invoice of £650 to pay for it even though I have sent them the photos and trying to take money from me for someone else fault.
For anyone who wants to rent a car from this company, my advice is just to be extremely careful as their cars has loads of small small issues both internals and externals which you won't be able to find them in their reports and if you miss anything they will get back to you to push you to pay.”
“Europcar used my bank details to steal money from my bank account the Europcar staff also stole our valuables. WARNING DANGER DO NOT USE EUROPCAR DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BANK DETAILS, THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”
“Terrible service - they forgot to process my car rental the night before my collection to go on holiday . I booked over the phone the night before to use their online quote price .
Next day on collection , they admitted they lost my booking as person did not push it through into their system . Instead they offer me the walk in price only which was much more expensive . They did it help try match the agreed price and knew I was desperate as needed the car to go on holiday same day to France. They even told me pay, then claim back ! So I did and now they took my money , not talking to me and refusing to refund me back .
Horrible company and people that really do cause me unrest and stress . I was under protest while paying too .
Do not use them please”
“i am never using Europcar again! Fraudalent behavior from the side of their employee in Brindisi airport who (it seems now) have sold me additonal full insurance which i already purchased via Booking.com which i used as a car rental broker for our Italian trip in august. Never ever using it.”
“This was my worst experience ever in renting a car. I will never use Europcar again.
After we got home, we had very large charges on our credit card for the rental, at one point more than twice what we should have paid. I protested and some charges were dropped and others added. This went back and forth for many days with the result that I did pay more than I should have.”
“Rented a car in Santiago de Compostela. Charged €103.39 for a minor scratch to a wheel hub, plus a €61.41 “admin” fee. (£148.47). I’ve rented a lot of cars over the years, but this is the first time I’ve felt ripped off.”
“Car hired from Woodford on a Saturday to holiday in Wales. Just before Rugby driving in the fast lane on the M1, the oil warning light came on and all power was lost immediately. Just avoided a dangerous collision. Neither Woodford nor Head Office in Leicester answered our calls. We were deserted by motorway. Luckily friendly RAC van towed car to Birmingham airport but couldn’t take two children and my partner. £75 taxi bill later we just caught Europcar branch at BX before closing. Very worrying experience. After 4 weeks of pressing Europcar customer services they offered ‘compensation’ in the form of refunding the taxi bill.
This is a firm of cowboys run by jokers. Do not put yourself or family at risk by using them.”
“25 Aug 2023
Really confusing process. tried to get everything paid upfront for a 10 day hire from London Heathrow to Edinburgh. at the end still received a £326 charge tot eh credit card... when I called to ask what the charges were for, the operator could only find £90 of extras so we have been put in a queue for 7-10 days for an answer.”
“Absolute joke. Was told on the phone when I called that I could cancel with no charge. They stole £45 from me. This company is a joke. I am claiming this back and filing an official complaint. Avoid like the Plague!!! You have been warned!!”
“Purfleet Europcar. Worst experience ever! Problems with every aspect of the rental. Impossible to contact the branch. Was left with a broken down vehicle on our drive for 12 days. Now they are charging for petrol when we returned the car with more fuel than when it was delivered. And charging for the days it was broken down on our drive, when we had no use of the car. An absolute scandal!”
“Booked and paid for 2 days HIRE online to pick up a car atBelfast Intl Airport, travelling home for my mother's funeral. When I arrived they said they had no car available, despite me having booking confirmation email etc, and the fee taken from my bank account.
I was not very happy, had to go to Hertz who sorted out a car for me in 10 mins, even though I hadn't booked with them and had never used them before.
I will certainly be using Hertz from now on!
Europcar, whom I have used previously, have lost my custom!”
“Appalling customer service!
I have sent 6 emails since the 16th of May 2023 (now 24 July 2023) to customer.relations@europcar.com.au and have not even had the courtesy of a response. I have received the automated reply after each email stating that someone will get back to me within 7 working days.
I even called their reservations team to try and get another email contact but 'apparently' the only one they use is the customer relations email (that i've been using).
Worst business i have ever dealt with who obviously don't care about their customers. At least have the decency to respond. Over 2 months and counting.”
