Beware of Europcar
 

I reserved a car in March through a German broker which confirmed my reservation with Europcar. It wasn't prepaid but was confirmed with a reservation number and amount of 203€. All was in order on the Europcar website. Our pick up location is Paris Orly. Today I rechecked the Europcar web site since we are about to leave, and the price they listed had risen to $450, which is much higher than 203€ that I had confirmed with them.

I called the German company to complain and they contacted Europcar about my problem. The 203€ price was still in the brokers system. Europcar refused to honor my original reserved price, and the German company had no recourse.

I highly recommend you recheck any Europecar reservations you may hold and see if your rates have also been "revised".

I now have a prepaid AutoEurope reservation via National, so I won't get a nasty surprise at Orly!

Thanks, and my advice with Autoeurope is to use the toll free number and not the web site.

Your contract was with the German broker company , not Europcar. Of course the German company had recourse, even if Europcar would not reimburse them, they should have honored your contract. You booked with them not Europcar.

Jody is spot on.
There is absolutely no point in bashing Europcar. The German broker (and the OP) are the parties to blame in this situation.
According to the facts stated here, the German broker was the party that entered into the contract with the OP. They need to perform their contractual duties, i.e. honour the contract or reimburse the OP for any additional costs incurred if the broker refuses to honour the contract.
Whether the broker may take recourse from Europcar is completely irrelevant.

I fail to see how the OP has any blame here. We use AutoEurope almost exclusively but I can imagine having the same arrangement with a German broker....if the broker fails to honor the contract, how am I to blame?

What is an OP? Sorry, but I don't understand the term.

I agree, I felt the German broker should have honored the rate, it's still in their system. I spoke to them twice today by phone, and they very politly told me they were unable to honor the rate, since Europcar wouldn't honor the original rate.

I can't enforce this contract.

I'm really surprised that the AutoEurope rates on the German site are much lower than the rates I get on the direct AutoEurope site. I'm just so happy I discovered this problem before we arrived at 10p.m. at Paris Orly.

When you phone AutoEurope are the rates lower than on their website?

A broker negotiates prices well in advance with the provider and those prices are in contract between the broker and the provider.
The reason you use a (reputable)broker is that he fights for you.

I have had many problems with Europcar - I think their "systems" are pretty sloppy. Luckily, I book through AutoEurope & they have always resolved things in my favor - with little effort or follow-up by me.

I think Images2's experience indicates why it's best to deal with a broker/rental agency based in your own country. I tried to deal with Avis in France once when I had a problem, and I got nowhere.

Stu Dudley

IO = Original Poster

Not what I entered! Op just means Original Poster.

I've rented over 30 cars through AutoEurope. I always call. Last week I consulted their web site, and then called. I got the same rate that was displayed on their web site. I asked them if they are any discounts & they gave me an 8% AAA reduction.

Stu Dudley

Well, since OP is me, thank you Judy for standing up for me! I didn't have any fault in Europcar's dishonesty. I would hope the German broker would think twice about including them on their list in the future.

The reason I've been using the German broker is that their rates are consistantly less than the American AutoEurope site. I can't book any company on their site that doesn't do a pre-pay policy any longer though, since I can no longer trust their reservation process.

The broker isn't Gemut, is it? We've booked through them for our upcoming trip (less than 6 weeks away) and our reservations are for Europcar

It would have been nice for the broker to honor the price for the reservation, but without it being prepaid, I think it left the door open for problems. Since most brokers do not have any penalty for canceling the reservation after paying, it makes sense to prepay it.

No, it's mietwagenmarkt.de. You can reserve from a number of companies from their web site. They list the offers for you to chose between. It's really excellent to have the selection presented to you. The man I spoke with today said they were a broker company, but I have no idea if that's the right term.

TexasAggie, I'd double check my rate if I were you. My rate was listed this morning, but after I called mietwagenmarkt and they contacted Europcar, I could no longer access my reservation on Europcar's web site. When I would put in my reservation number it stated that the reservation was made through another agent and I couldn't access it myself any longer. That's not good either.

I've made a partial prepayment (30%), so I hope that locked in my rate. I'll call Gemut tomorrow to double check though. Thanks for the heads up!

Sorry images you have this problem.
We have ben using Eurocar for 15 years with no problems. Once we broke down on the route de Napolean and they sent a tow truck , paid for our taxi to our hotel and the next day gave us another car in Nice. They paid for that cab too.

Be careful not to confuse Europcar with AutoEurope. AutoEurope is an American <i>broker</i> that contracts with Europcar, Hertz, and Avis <i>car rental agencies</i>.

Auto Europe also has contracts with National, which are who we're using now for this trip.

I'm so happy Europcar treated you well cigalechanta. I'd hate to have a breakdown, but it's good they covered all your expenses.

I'm feeling great, found the problem before it became a huge issue. One more week to go, how exciting!!

I glad you've put this past you and have arranged a rental thru AutoEurope. Hope you have a wonderful trip.

I always have found better prices with Novacarrentals, an Irish company, than with Autoeurope and often they have supplied cars thru Europcar. We've almost always been upgraded and have never had a problem so I was a bit distressed to find you had had this trouble.