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On a recent trip to England,I had the mis- fortune to book a car through Auto Europe ,and was doubled billed,, after they claimed that there would be a discount.after many complaints I was refunded $23 of some $108 over charge ..I found that if you approch the car rental agency in person you can get amuch better deal, ..please dont use AUTO EUROPE

I am having a lot of problems following your post. Obviously you had a contract with a set amount on it right? So if they double billed you, then all you have to do is call your credit card company and have them take care of it. "they claimed that there would be a discount. . .". Fine, they put the discounted amount right on the contract, so that is the amount you pay. Why would anyone sign a contract with an amount on it, and then complain later that it should have been less, or that it was billed twice? Please explain this more carefully so that those of us who have always found Auto Europe to be totally accurate, can understand where you went wrong.

I agree with Patrick; this sounds like misunderstanding of what the quote or terms were. I have not ever had a billing problem with AutoEurope, and your experience runs contrary to that of hundreds of other good rental experiences reported here. Best wishes, Rex

Thanks, Rex, for clearing that up Best wishes, Ron

Don - is seems you wrote in haste and anger since it is'n clear. try again. Were you in fact "double billed"? If so it would be obvious to the credit card company and they will take care of it if your story is accurate. But if the charges were simply more than you thought they would be - what were the line items - petrol fill-up, extra hours, pick up/drop off cahrge, or what?? If it was a higher daily rate, what did your contract say?

I like Auto Europe, and I will use them again, so there. They were very efficient and customer-friendly and helpful when I used them and their rates were lower than others I checked. Double billing and a discount problem are two different things as everyone has pointed out. I suspect you weren't double billed at all because if that were true (the same charge going through twice), your credit card company absolutely should remedy that and remove the charges. Mine always do, it's happened a couple times to me, always an error, not intentional (although annoying, I know). As I recall, there was some kind of discount with Auto Europe relating to if you prepaid or not, I forget the details. I'm sure they have various types of discounts someone may qualify for or not.

Shucks, you people are too hard on poor old Don. He is right. I had problems too. Sure my contract had one price, but I read somewhere they did a discount, so I assumed that wouldn't really be the price I paid. And just cauze I left the tank empty, and kept it three days longer, why should they charge me extra for stuff like that there?

We rented with Europecar through AutoEurope and were charged VAT and a small amount of gas since we had filled up out of town, but came home to find that they had discovered their error and refunded the VAT and gas charges on their own. Never had a problem with AutoEurope and got some free upgrades.

I have used AutoEurope 4 times in the UK and Italy. I liked the service and their deals, but must say that (with the exception of Italy, which rental was enirely prepaid and included full insurance as required, and we bought our own gasoline) I found the bill with the actual car company, difficult to interpret...For example, on my most recent trip to UK last, week, AutoEurope booked us with Europcar. We picked up in London and returned to Heathrow: The AutoEurope voucher, net of discount, was for the basic rental, inclusive of the 17.5% VAT, but exclusive of road taxes and a location surcharge. However both of the latter were revealed in the contract and approximated (in dollars). The voucher displayed both dollars and British pounds, but I had to pay a small deposit in dollars. The Europcar rental paperwork seemed to ignore the pre-payed amount. It listed a very low, basic rental in pounds. Plus, we added full insurance and we added pre-paid fuel. VAT was charged on top of everything, including the, basic rental, insurance, prepaid fuel, and road taxes. The Europcar bill listed the VAT as one line item. This was the same experience we had on prior trips - namely got confusing about how our final bill compared with the AutoEurope voucher. However, when I calculated just the basic rental, inclusive of VAT and credit my prepaid amount (converted from pounds to dollars) in every case, the amount we paid was a few dollars less than the AutoEurope voucher and I was satisfied that I was not overcharged, in fact slightly undercharged.

Should one use prepaid on aurorentals in Europe? What size car do you usually get? I would appreciate any insight on this!

I posted this on another thread tonight, but since it's timely, it's relevant to any discussion of sources for Europe car rentals: excerpted from http://www.smarterliving.com/columns/ed/Check20020228.1.html ====================== =============== Ed Perkins on Travel by Ed Perkins Check Out New European Car Rental Options If you're planning to rent a car in Europe this spring or summer, be sure to take a look at two new online rental services. ==================================== He mentions two companies that have never been cited here before, as far as I know. And he does not mention AutoEurope or any of the other "standby" companies which I have referenced often. I think he generally knows his stuff.