lincasanova

Administration fees for the USA for dealing with fines is also now on the contracts.

StCirq

You thought Europcar should pay an employee to work overtime so you could pick up a car after hours and are complaining about a charge for that? You were lucky they even agreed to that. And every car rental company charges 25E to report your violations to the national police, not just Europcar.

MarkS35

You might save some money on hire, but that won't help if you lose it from a fraudulant damage claim against you. We got charged $900 for pre-existing damage despite having photos and it being listed on the rental agreement as pre-existing damage. Europcar felt no inclination to return our money once they withdrew it from our Visa, no matter how much evidence we threw at them. I would not use them if I were you.

Michael

<i>Europcar felt no inclination to return our money once they withdrew it from our Visa, no matter how much evidence we threw at them. I would not use them if I were you.</i>

And did you complain to Visa with documentation?

Mimar

MarkS, did you dispute the charge on your credit card?

janisj

welcome to Fodors MarkS35. Sure hope you come back to read these responses (and aren't a one-hit wonder) . . . if you have documentation as you say you do, then dispute the charge w/ visa. They will credit your account.

Or, when you say they 'withdrew money from your visa' were you using a visa debit/ATM card rather than a credit card? If so, then dispute it w/ your bank.

kerouac

Europcar has always refunded me for damage claims, or even every time they tried a fuel surcharge when I had returned the tank full. All it took was my documented evidence of the situation.

I have rented cars from Europcar twice this week alone (once in Metz and again today in Paris) and remain delighted with their service.

MGD6019

Let me add my experience. We rented a car in Manchester and drove to London. In London they offer a pick up from the hotel which we accepted as was more convenient than going to Heathrow or some other drop off destination. Two days after the end of the rental they picked the car up and they incurred a traffic violation returning it to their depot. If you read the fine print of the Agreement it does say that they have the right to charge the renter any charges, fees or loss they incur related to the rental of the vehicle before,during or after the rental period. While one might reasonably think this relates to charges, etc incurred by the renter (eg a speeding ticket that arrives after the end of the rental period) or that has the renters consent (ie for something prior to the rental period starting) in fact it means any costs anytime. Literally, under their interpretation, if you arrange pick up and the Europcar driver crashes the car or causes serious injury while returning the vehicle to the depot then you could be liable for any and all associated costs. Needless to say I will never rent from Europcar again and anyone who does should be aware of the potential liability that they face even if they are not directly responsible or even in possession of the vehicle. I note some earlier strings suggesting that your credit card company will support you in contesting these charges but I can tell you that it is not true in this instance. Beware, fellow travellers.

lincasanova

I would have thought the rental agreement ended when you gave them the car, they wrote down the mileage and also the time? Wow. Seems impossible to me.

DebitNM

We had a break in of our Europcar [through Kemwel]. They took FOREVER to reply to AMEX [not sure they ever did[]; in the end...AMEX reversed all of the charges. We did buy the Premium Car Rental Insurance from AMEX which cost $24.95. Best investment ever!

Christina

I"ve never done such a thing as had a rental car company pick up the car from me (as the above complaint), but I imagine legally, the car is not actually returned to the company until it is in their lot or something like that. And the courtesy driver is for the renter's convenience or something. I don't know how that works, it does seem unfair if that driver gets a ticket to blame the renter who isn't driving (although if the renter's friend was driving, it wouldn't matter). SO I imagine legally it's a matter as to when the rental contract actually stops.

IndianaDon

AE didn't take care of my problems. I rented a car in Italy in late September. The agent “found” damage to the car that had not been reported by us when picking up the car. There were three small scratches to the bumper. Could have been there when we picked it up but I wouldn’t think of bumper scratches as damage so wouldn’t have reported it anyway…not then. The agent told me we would be notified by email if we were to be charged for damage.
When we received our charge statement in November there was a charge for over 500 Euros on the statement. We found they charged an extra day for turning the car in late, (we did not), and most of it for “damage!” We did get the extra day removed.
Never got an email about damage. Many folks don’t check their charge statements and just pay them. Check them closely if you deal with Europcar. All the insurance I paid for and they sting me within the deductible.
Document your car with photos and video before you leave their lot, although I saw another post on Fodor’s where they did just that and still got tagged for 900 Euros, with no way out! Frankly I would exhaust all other options before using Europcar. I think they use very shoddy tactics to increase their bottom line. They know what they are doing.

kerouac

This is probably not completely helpful, but I have found that the small town agencies tend to be totally obsessive about damage to cars whereas the big city agencies tend to ignore all minor incidents. I have picked up cars in medium sized cities in France and the contracts had a list of pre-existing 'damage' (along the lines of "2cm scratch on left back bumper") and in most cases I could not even see the scratches or dents that were already on the contract to the extent that I have often even wondered if they were talking about the same car. This is probably not just a French obsession, because I found the same situation when I rented cars in Australia.

Anyway, the big city agencies seem to accept "normal wear and tear" on cars, because I confess that I have added a scratch or two from time to time and have never been penalized for it (either by Europcar, Hertz or Citer-Enterprise). In 35 years of rentals, naturally real "incidents" have gone through the normal procedure of debiting the full deductible and then refunding the difference later.

Anyway, in other words, if you are really worried about tiny scratches and things like that, make sure that you are returning the car to a big city agency where they don't really care about it. The small town agencies have nothing better to do than find fault with the car.

Cowboy1968

I find it easier to take only offers from AE or else which have zero deductible LDW.
If the rental agents think they need to go after a 2cm dent, I could care less as I don't pay a cent anyway.

Michael

the broker http://www.economycarrentals.com/ used to advertise a no deductible policy, but I do not see it on their current web site. I've used them with no problem in Sicily, Turkey and Poland, but I never had a damage issue to know if they really stand behind their policy. They tend to be more expensive than AE with one-way rentals, but cheaper if the car is returned to its original rental location.

RM67

I've used Europcar in the UK and found them excellent. Cheap, reliable, home drop off and pick up at no extra charge. No attempts to extort money over normal wear and tear.

JFairfield

I would be inclined to hitch hike: safer and more reliable.
We hired a vehicle From Europcar at Basel airport on 29 December. After a few miles on the auto route we found that the screen washers weren't working. Road conditions weren't good, it was snowing and this was settling on the outside lane of the motorway, which is unusual in Switzerland.
We stopped at the next services to buy screen wash, but when we tried to fill the washer reservoir we found it was already full - of frozen water. So we limped across Switzerland stopping every 20 miles to manually clean the screen. In between we spent ages on the phone to a string of useless Europcar personnel who were unable to direct us to another rental depot along our route to Chamonix.
The problem lasted all week because temperatures remained below freezing, but Europcar couldn't be asked to bring out a replacement vehicle. When we returned the vehicle, along with the almost full container of screen wash, they wouldn't refund the the €7.20 because we couldn't produce the receipt.
The money is incidental, what is unforgiveable is the astounding incompetence of the local depot and the indifference of the staff.

Borntotravel55

I realize this is an old post but I would like to add my opinion of Europecar rentals.I just returned from Provence 2 weeks ago. I arranged the rental before we left and upon arrival at the train station in Avignon we proceeded to pick up our rental car. I originally had paid $290 for the rental for a week and the contract mentioned this covered insurance and deductible etc. I imagined there might be a few extra Euros to pay as there always are with rentals, however we were charged an additional $389 for coverage of tires and windshield insurance that supposedly were not covered in the insurance that I had already paid for. We were in a rush and my daughter did not want to haggle so she paid the balance. I still am furious this was not outlined in the original contract. I will never use Europecar again!

kerouac

I continue to choose Europcar over any other rental company whenever possible.

pariswat

You should not have paid.
Europcar is a good company.
Seller did a good job on you to 'force' a sale.
They all try I just don't listen anymore and that is it.
Report it to the company.