Europcar Nightmare!!!

Laura_Dee

We hired a car from Europcar for the weekend and returned it as agreed before the time on the hire contract. However next morning a Europcar driver turns up on the doorstep to collect the car. i explained that we had delivered it back to the office wwe hired it from as agreed the previous afternoon. He explained that they couldnt find the car. We told him where we had parked it - on their premises and not on the public road outside and that we had handed the keys to a memeber of staff who said that there was no paperwork to check i.e. mileage, condition of vehicle etc. He looked puzzled, phoned the office who said that they still couldnt find the car.
Next day I checked my bank balance and they had deducted the whole deposit plus ans extra charge. I was mad - I cannot afford for that kind of money £287, to be deducted from my account and immediatley phoned them. They were insistent that the car was not returned on time and these were charges to cover it. Each person that I spoke to on the phone gave me a different set of figures. I emailed customer services - that was almost 2 weeks ago and I still havent got a reply. I carefully monitered my bank account and for the next three days Europcar credited an amount and then deducted a different amount. I phoned my bank HSBC who have been brilliant. I asked them how long Europcar could keep my bank/card details and keep crediting and withdrawing money without informing me. They agreed that it was an excessive amount of transactions and that i could report it as fraud - which I now have. However in order to stop Europcar taking any more money I have had to cancel my bank cards and be without them for a few days while new one was issued.
I now think that a member of Europcar staff took the car we hired home that night and we are getting accused of not returning it until the next day. I have asked them if they have cctv on the premises so that we can prove what time we returned the car but they wont tell me!!!! Crazy!!!
So obviously we wont be using them again and I'd advise you all to give them the swerve too.

Laura Dee

swiftnick

Crikey!

That's scarey thanks for the heads up, won't plan on using them in future.

Nick

pinkshoes

I hire a lot of cars, so in future I think I'll always make sure that I get something signed and dated when returning it! They usually do though...

brightonman123

soumnds like the depot rep may have taken for a joyride, and pranged it, so trying to blame/charge you..

always get a receipt!

misfire

I used to work in car rental - when i used to deal with my cc they were very busy. Best trick is to find one person - keep asking for them ... get there extension and or surname and keep on to them in a polite but persistent way and it will get sorted much quicker.

Most rental agreements are finished either when they sign the car back in or if you use a 'drop box' when they get the keys out of it and therefore end the rental agreement. If you can not prove who you gave the keys to, and that member of staff either has forgotten or is trying to cover up their error you have absolutely no proof you took the car back when you said you did.

When you sign the rental agreement there will be a maximum amount they can take - you sign that in the case of damage, extended rental etc... they can take this of your card hence why they have! I think you would find it hard to get this back unless you had physical proof of return.

This is not just a Europcar issue - at my company there used to be several of us rental representatives from various rental firms and we all had similar proceedures - until the agreement is shut by the staff signing it off or use of the key box you will be charged for any damage or like in this case if there is a query over the return time (we had cases of people using a key box to return the car key - the car then being found damaged in the morning and the client going mad saying they didnt damage it - it must have been done overnight in the car park... but as the agreement and therefore damage isnt checked until check in time then that client is responsible).

BUT i don't want to appear really negative -many car rental companies in a case such as this may right the money off and refund you as a commerical guesture (if you hire with them lots bring this up!) again there is a better chance of this if you can build up a relationship with someone in customer care rather than explaining the situ over and over to different people.


If they have been refunding and recharging you there should be notes either at customer services, on your file, or depending on there system on the electronic rental agreement if they have one of those on there computer systems. Customer services should be able to tell you easily why you have been refunded and recharged. (when i worked in rental you had to put details on the file of exactly why you were taking and recharging (if that was the case) on the file so incase of legal issues etc... it is plain what has happened).

Its several years since i stopped working in rental so i cant think of anything else that may help.

Sharon87

Wasn't Europcar on Tonight a few months back? I remember it as my friend was working on that particular programme. It's a very common problem company. Always trying to find ways to charge for damage that was already there/lost cars.etc

brightonman123

isnt (shouldnt?) there cctv coverage, to see what cars go in and out? also with a time check..

surfcat

misfire wrote: »

Most rental agreements are finished either when they sign the car back in or if you use a 'drop box' when they get the keys out of it and therefore end the rental agreement. If you can not prove who you gave the keys to, and that member of staff either has forgotten or is trying to cover up their error you have absolutely no proof you took the car back when you said you did.

But if they just handed over the CCTV coverage as the OP requested then there would be proof wouldn't there?

rogue_element

Just to clarify are they saying they never received the car or that it was just returned late? There were some scams going on a while back, where someone approached you in front of the rental car office and offered to take the keys, give you a receipt etc but they just steal the car from you, they're nothing to do with the rental company. I think it was on Watchdog.

Laura_Dee

Thank-you to all those who replied to this. My bank have now taken the matter over and are delaing with it as fraudulent use of my debit card after Europcar took money which we didnt owe them for the 3rd time. I really dont have the time or energy - and certainly not the patience - to contact Europcar again to try and resolve this. They didnt ever respond to my last email to customer services anyway.

So thanks for all the advice.

Laura

foster123

to me it sounds like some one at eurocars is covering there own back and your the scapegoat