AutoEurope Beware
 

This is a scam. When we arrived in Florence we were given paperwork that indicated the car had three dents. The x's on the contract showing the dents were marked on the body of the car, not in the open area around the drawing of the car, so they don't show up in the photocopy. We finally found the car in the pouring rain and it was very dented. We thought the contract reflected the damage. We were tired and wet, and decided to accept the car. We returned the car to the Florence Airport lot and left the paperwork in the AutoEuropa "box." After returning to the US, we got a bill for 242 Euros (in dollars almost $400) for damage to the car. This was accompanied by photos which purported to show the damage. We did not damage the car, but of course that is difficult to prove, especially since we are now in the US. Luckily, we saved the carbon copies of the contract showing the three X's marking damage, because I can assure you that the photocopies provided by the company do not show these marks. I will not bore you with the details of disputing this claim, but Buyer Beware. If you rent from AutoEuropa, make sure you have a contract that clearly reflects all damage.

You've already posted this once...just exactly HOW MANY times do you plan on posting it? It's nice to warn people, but I think a post pretty much covers it. If you want to bring it back up for attention, go to your original thread and post a reply "to the top", which will bring it back up onto the first screen people on the Europe Forum will see. No need to flog a dead horse by posting it other times. You'll also be a lot more credible by posting a trip report with other details of your trip as a separate post. It would be nice to read about what went well on your trip.

BC

In your heading you say AutoEurope. In the body of your complaint you say AutoEuropa. Two different companies. AutoEurope is an American consolidator that connects you with rental car companies like Avis, etc in Europe. AutoEurope doesn't give you the contract, the rental company does. I think you need to be careful not to condem a company that is not at fault.

Note that though the title of the thread refers to AutoEurope, the rental seems to have been through AutoEuropa. These are two entirely different entities: AutoEurope is a very well respected US brokerage that many of us have used in Europe with absolutely no problems. AutoEuropa is a European rental agency.

I am confused. Is it Autoeurope or AutoEuropa? They are different companies. I have always had good service from Autoeurope. And, why are these your only posts? I smell a rat.

LOL, Ann1! Great minds....

Well, I have to ask why BC, Betsy and Ann are all home on a Sat. nite during holiday season? Susan and I just had a movie date, which we have been doing for 55 years now.

Ooopps !
I did mean Friday nite---but you knew that.

It's worse than you think, Bob---I'm in my office!

BC

Gee, could the OP have possibly had identical, bad experiences at both AutoEuropa and AutoEurope??? Inquiring minds want to know!

BC

It will get more interesting when the OP fires off a blistering complaint to AutoEurope about a rental with Auto Europa. The pursuant 'They ignored me' could become lively.

Ever been asked to read a paragraph and then describe what was said in it?

The OP has, perhaps inadvertently, summed up the whole thing with the <b>first four words</b>...you might want to read those again.

LOL, Bob. Just back from a month in Australia followed by a visit to my sister and her family in Tennessee for Thanksgiving, I'm enjoying cocooning at home for a long time! Thanks for asking.
:-)

Not to change the subject, but I still shudder at my memory of my last car rental in Australia (was the name of the company Nova?). When I returned the car, they practically pulled out a magnifying glass to look for scratches and dents. Luckily, I managed to pass the test.

Since this poster registered here for the sole purpose of ranting about the car rental, and his other posts only refers to the company as Auto Europa (twice, as does this post), are we all in agreement that he really meant that, and that the Auto Europe in this title was simply a typo?

Absolutely.

LOL Bob: Now that you asked why I was home on a Friday night......Because we were supposed to be having a horrible storm and that petered out so we didn't make plans. I decided to bake Christmas cookies and my husband was sleeping.......But I guess you, Betsie and I have like minds and one post was getting a lot of action at 10:13, 15 and 16.

The moral of geobono's story is to never accept a car with damage that you don't have dated pictures of before you leave and mention of everything on your contract. I guess they learned it the hard way. Also make sure you have an insurance that will cover anything extra.

Sorry for my mistake. It was AutoEuropa. The matter is now in the hands of my charge card company. I will let you know what happens.

I am in the same boat with AutoEuropa and yes it is AutoEuropa. They have charged me with 3 tickets for driving in some limited traffic zone that i had no clue of even where it is. They are now charging me a total of 414 euros (~$570) in fines and service charges for a car that only cost me 150 euros. The fines are one issue, but they are charging a total of 180 euros just in service charges. Once you are back home it is very hard to fight these charges, so that got you. A definite scam.

First and foremost, AutoEurope is one of the BEST customer service companies I have ever dealt with. Auto Europa is a rental company that I used last year and would happily use again.

I rented through Auto Europa and everything went great. Now, I first check to make CERTAIN that I have $0 deduct CDW. Next, since I have gotten 1 speeding ticket in 40+ years of driving and have never been in an accident that was my fault, well, I don't know about tickets.

This doesn't mean that Auto Europa doesn't pull off things, all companies do. But you also have to do the &quot;buyer beware&quot; thing. Why didn't you get $0 CDW insurance? With CRX it is part of the deal, going through Auto Europa. You have a $0 deduct, you have no problems.

For the person that got the tickets, gee, if you didn't pay them, then the rental company had to pay them. Now they have to come after you for reimbursement. Did you think that because you were in a foreign country you could just skip out on paying the fines? It doesn't matter if the car was free, the fines come from a government. So they charged you service charges, yeah, why didn't you pay your fines. And you use the plural, so I assume it was more than 1.

Geez...

dave