Europcar post rental charges

johnm40

I would like to hear from anyone who has had similar experience with Europcar car rental?

1. Rented car from Stansted Airport in Nov 2011. Picked up the car in dark and rain. Returned the car in dark and rain. No communications from Europcar post rental, but notice a £35.00 debit on my credit card.
Emailed customer service, asked for copy invoice which stated accident damage charge. Questioned what damage and told'Alloy wheel scuffed' As vehicle had covered 9K mls I suggested this was unreasonable, but show me proof of the damage and a repair invoice!

Next day received an apology and a full credit from customer service 'we should have sent you an invoice' admin error etc....OK

2. Rented a car from Stansted Airport in May 2012. Picked up at 2am. Car due back at 2am 4 days later. No communications again but a credit card debit £52.95...
Emailed customer service who sent copy invoice.'Charge for late return of vehicle with penalty' Asked when was the car returned, agent said at 8.30am......I asked can you prove that...Only the managers wording. OK I have a receipt for a full english at airside restaurant at 4.30am and my 6am flight arrived in Alicante at 8.30 Uk time....'Sorry sir I will credit your card as we speak'

Result, yes but nasty taste. Either I am unlucky or is there a hope by not informing of the credit card debit that they will get away with a hiden charge? Comments please

babydaisy

Same has happened to me - just posted this looking for advice:

Anything I can do?

We hired a car through them and all was fine until we returned it to Faro airport when they advised us we had to pay 95 euros for a tank of fuel!! We hadn't been told this would happen and were actually going to use the company again and again as we go to Portugal all the time until this happened.

There was no damage to the car but the woman said we might be charged for cleaning - not sure why as it was returned pretty clean, we were at hired apartment so couldn't vac so there was some sand in it but we did offer to clean it ourselves when she said that - 5 mins with a vac would have sorted it, it really was just a bit of dry sand on the mats. She refused to let us.

Just got my credit card bill and they have charged us 221 euros, so 126 euros for cleaning it - can they do this? Could only have taken them 5 mins and surely they clean the cars before the next person anyway.

I am a solicitor on maternity leave so have plenty of time to pursue any action I can take, is there anything I can do to shake things up and make sure even if I have to pay this I can warn others. I want to lose them as much in lost potential revenue as they have charged me!! Any thoughts would be appreciated.

thanks for reading.

marlot

I've never heard of a hire company charging for cleaning - that is outrageous!

I've said before, the system is hugely biased in favour of the hire company. They can claim for the same scratch time after time, as the average person won't notice on checkout. And even if they do, it just gets marked on the chart. I think that every car that gets checked out should come with the damage report from the last check-in - that way at least ordinary people stand a fighting chance

fivetide

1st poster - well done, clearly a bit of a scam going there.

babydaisy, unfortunately they have stung you but it seems the compalints are through not askign the right questions - if the car comes with a full tank they generally expect it to come back in the same condition, indeed that stands for all aspects of the rental - leave it as you found it, otherwise they'll sting you for it I'm afraid.

5t.