debbspero

as we were returning our europcar at malpense airport in milan, every gas station we passed along the way was self serve and would not take our international credit card or cash. it was night and pouring rain and we did not want to take a chance of missing our flight. we had no choice but to return the car with only 1/2 tank of gas. they charged us $178 for this- about $85 more than it would have cost us to fill it ourselves. has anyone had any luck in fighting these excessive charges? we do not want to dispute the charge thru our credit card company because we are afraid that they will only start adding additional fees if we do so. should we just swallow it or is there anything we can do about this? thanks!

Andrew

I don't see that you have any grounds to fight this charge. You presumably agreed to pay the company's going rate for fuel if you don't return the tank full. And you were presumably aware that they would charge you a lot more per liter than if you bought the fuel yourself, right?

Yes, it's bad luck that you weren't able to fill up the tank on your own. Presumably your trip to Italy cost a lot more than $85. Chalk it up to experience: next time, get a chip and pin credit card to take with you to Europe and/or top off your tank more often so if you must return the tank not full it won't be 1/2 a tank down.

jamikins

I don't think there is any way as you agree these rates when you get the car. We had the same experience at malpensa and in genoa but eventually found a station that could take our cards thank goodness.

greg

I don't think there is any ground to fight the charge. The rental company told you that you would be hit with a breathtaking charge and they did. My last rental in the US warned me I would be hit with almost 3x the self-fill rate if I didn't return the car with a full tank, so just over 2x does not seem to be out of line. Is this the same trip that you parked your car in Mestre? I think this is another case of risk management. There was a chance that you could be bogged down trying to fill your car. You had to weigh the trade off between whatever benefit you thought you would have gotten by keeping the car until the end with risks including this one vs. returning the car earlier when you did not have critical time constraints.

bilboburgler

Grin and swallow, it was a good holiday-experience, don't let this spoil the memory.

sparkchaser

Excessive charges? Yes, but you agreed to them.

Rubicund

Let's just get this right. You were charged for a half tank that should have cost $93 at pump prices? So a full tank should cost $186? At current prices in Italy that would equate to around 85 litres. What were you driving as a tank that large would be in a large 4 x 4 (SUV) or large 4 door car?

A small car only holds about 50/60 litres.

Michael

Is the charge only for the fuel or does it include the miscellaneous charges as found in French rentals: a possible one-way fee, a pollution tax depending on the type of car, pick-up at a train station or airport, a road tax? These can add up to about $100+.

ira

Hi d,

If you look at the contract you signed, it clearly says that you will be charged a certain price per liter to fill the tank.

So, what fraction of the total cost of your vacation did $85 amount to?

cathies

As others have said, just pay the $, but more importantly don't stew about it and spoil the memory of what was hopefully a terrific holiday.

Jean

Ditto the comment from cathies. You presumably spent a few thousand dollars on your holiday, so just keep this charge in perspective. And that would be the one in your rearview mirror.

BigRuss

Quit whining. In the US if you return it less than full and you didn't prepay for the gas, you're charged about 2.5x the cost of gas for what you didn't refill (e.g., $3/gallon to prepay for the tank, $7.50 per gallon for not bringing back full). This is not an unexpected charge nor is it a business practice that should be foreign to you.

sumrcr

The fuel charge is pretty common in Europe, and I have never rented a car there withoug being reminded of it. A coupld of times, I have even used Greg's approach of returning a car early to avoid any last-minute costly problems. I agree with the previous comments, though; your expense may be needless but it is a small dent in the overall cost of the trip. FWIW, Europcar did not charge you for the fuel. The rental car company did. Europcar does not have any cars; it is a middleman between the rental company and the customer.

Alec

Europcar is a fully-fledged rental company with vast fleet of cars. Formerly part of VW empire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europcar

Michael

sumrcr,

You are confusing Europcar with AutoEurope.

DeborahAnn

I remember we had an difficult time finding a fuel station close to the Malpensa airport also but we did finally. Now I'm just relieved we were doing it in the daytime. We use our garmin GPS to help us find the closest gas station before a rental car drop because we are often picking up in one location and droping in another so we have no idea where we will find a station to top off our tank before return.

Hope the memory of the stress quickly fades for you but not the cautionary tale Deborah

lateinlifetraveler

If you signed a contract acknowledging that you would pay their price to fill up if the car was returned without a full tank then I believe you are responsible. Rental services always charge considerably more than you will pay at a station. It has been that way on every rental car contract that I have signed. Bad luck with your card: yes. Illegal:no.

debbspero

thank you all for your excellent and on the mark comments. yes, we did know that there would be a penalty but we had no idea it would be so high (22% VAT on gas??). believe it or not, this has never happened to us before in all our years of renting cars at home or abroad. (by the way, we had a VW passat diesel which holds 70 litres. they claim we were 44 litres down.) but responses like biloburgler's, ira's and cathie's are the ones i really needed to hear. you are all so right!! yes we did have a fabulous time and i guess that we are really spoiled that after so many trips abroad this is the first time that we kept getting hit with one unexpected expense after another. and as you all noted, really not major expenses, even when they are all added together. deborah you are quite right- the cautionary tale will live on!

cathies

So, when do we get to read your trip report?

sumrcr

Yes, I did confuse Europcar with AutoEurope. Sorry about giving out the wrong information. There is no excuse. I knew the difference and still got it backwards.