jimcarraher

WARNING ! Do not rent a car from Europcar

Having worked in international business for 25 year and living in Germany for 4 years I have literally rented scores of cars in Europe mostly from Hertz and Budget. This time thought I would give Europcar in France a try and that turned out to be a huge mistake.

I was asked to inspect the car for damages on pickup as usual, which I needed to do in the rain.

In returning the car the Europcar representative said there was a scratch on the underneath side of the door handle which I had to squat down and look up from below to even see it. It was less than 1/2 inch in length, an 32th of an inch in width and very superficial in depth. I’m not even sure it was there when I picked up the car due to its obscure location and its small size.

Within two days I received a credit card notice that Europcar had already charged my card €145 for the repair and €60 in ‘administration fees’ for a total of €205. I requested that they send me a copy of the insurance adjuster’s damage estimate, and a copy of the final auto repair bill as proof that the repairs had been made and showing what the actual cost was. I needed these documents for my credit card insurance coverage so I could get reimbursed.

That led to a string of 5 emails from Europcar and 7 from me. Each of Europcar’s responses have either stated they would respond to me within in 7 working days or less and / or that they were sorry for this to be taking so long.

Initially they could not find my records and then over a month later finally sending me a copy of an estimate of damage document for a totally different car than the one I rented. I noticed that the claims adjuster they used on this report was an Europcar employee rather than an unbiased third party. Informing them of their error in sending me the wrong report, I received another apology email saying they were sorry and would get back to me quickly. Two weeks later having received no response from them I sent another request. That was 3 weeks ago and still nothing.

It’s been 70 days since my initial request and I still have not received either of these documents.

StuDudley

I'm kinda doing the same thing - but my CC company (MC) is doing all the work. I sent MC all the info they wanted from me, and they are now trying to contact Europcar to get the remaining info. This started August 7. The list of items needed from Europcar was initially 8, and is now down to 4. I'm sure Europcar is dragging their feet.

FWIW - Europcar must have lost the "final payment" invoice they should have sent me for the usual drop-off charges, usually around 75E - because I never received anything or was charged anything on my CC.. Several years ago someone hit my car while it was in the parking lot. It was pretty serious stuff. We returned the car & went over the damages with the Europcar agent. This was about 2014 and we have yet to receive either an invoice for the damages, or the usual "final" invoice for small fees.

Stu Dudley

jimcarraher

Thanks for sharing your story with me. The only response I've received since July 16th was a copy of an 'appraisal form created by an Europcar employee, that was for a completely different car from the one I rented. I notified them for this error a month ago and other than a stock 'Sorry About That' email I heard nothing since.
Best regards,
Jim Carraher

MaineGG

Experienced similar problems after a Europcar rental earlier this year in April. A couple of almost imperceptible scratches were discovered when we returned the car to Aix TGV. Shortly after returning home, we received the invoice for the damage (€54.50) plus damage admin fee (€60.00). I immediately filed a claim with the Amex Premium Insurance we have and submitted all the information and documents they requested. As of July 1, Europcar had not responded to Amex Insurance with the required information. Then, out of the blue, on July 12, an email came from Europcar issuing me a credit for the total amount charged! No explanation. Strange.

This rental was done through Kemwel. We have done many rentals in France through Kemwel/AutoEurope and we had already had to ask them to assist in getting a refund for a "billing error" when we were charged for an extra day. As far as I know, though, they were not involved in any way with the damage/insurance issue. Amex Insurance handled this claim very professionally and kept me updated about the lack of response from Europcar. And Kemwel/AutoEurope will continue to be my go-to for European car rentals.

Here's hoping you have a successful resolution soon.

Dukey1

This biggest "warning" I get from this: have your credit card issuer handle all of it directly, period.