Europecar excess insurance "scam"

ydrol2

Hi, hired a car for 3 days, pre-payed by my partner.

At collection time, I was queueing at Europcar, inverness airport for over 30 minutes, the assistant suggested I take out excess insurance for just over £20

I was surprised to get a CC charge for £68.97

It was a daily charge However the assistant verbally did not make this clear.

Customer services helpfully sent me the form which I signed at the time, showing 3 * the daily charge broken down :

GoZen 3 16.66 [Their cover]
Roadsize 3 * 2.50


Granted I should have questioned each line item, and checked the numbers, but I was tired, just got off a plane and wanted to get moving.

Do I have any redress ? Could I try a charge back for £68.97)
My main complaint is that the assistant verbally didn't make it clear it was a daily charge.

Or should I just chalk it up as a lesson learned.

agrinnall

It may be worth complaining just in case they agree and offer a partial refund, although I wouldn't hold out too much hope. The lesson you should learn is that there is never a need to take out hire company's own excess insurance when a few minutes research beforehand will find you much cheaper alternatives - I generally use this one, but there are lots of other options.

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/daily-excess.aspx

scotsbob

I think you may find you will be told that it's not a matter of what the receptionist said, which probably can't be proved or disproved. It's a matter of what you signed for. If the form you signed makes it clear then it's unlikely you will have any comeback.

force_ten

it is standard practice for car hire extras to be quoted on a daily basis

if you complain they will just say that you signed that you accept the charges, sorry but you should have questioned it at the desk at time of collection

this is a standard gripe of people that rent in the USA where the desk agent says you can upgrade for $16.00 take toll pass for $3.00 and all the other extras that they have to offer, at no point will they tell you that it is a daily charge and after 14 days you end up with a very hefty bill

mrmot

Would you have considered it a scam if the car had been damaged during your rental, saving you from paying the excess?

force_ten

Risk Reduction Cover

Lower your excess to £250 so that you're covered if your hire vehicle is accidentally damaged or stolen. You could save up to £750. Cover starts from £14.00 for hires of less than 14 days (for hires of more than 14 days, it gets even cheaper!).

Ask for details at your Europcar branch, or alternatively you can add this product to your booking via the 'add extras' button when selecting your vehicle.

that is a quote from Europcar website and they say cover starts from £14.00 and again there is no mention of that being a daily charge as i said it seems to be standard practice with car rental

ripplyuk

I would never use Europecar again after my experience with them. We picked up a car which had leaves/ash in the footwell, with a cigarette butt on the front passenger seat. Stupidly (and because we were in a rush), we didn't complain and just assumed they weren't too fussy about the condition the cars are returned in.

Returned the car with no issues. A couple of months later, we get a credit card charge because they believed we had been smoking in the car! Even more annoying was that we had actually cleaned up the car prior to return to a much better state than we collected it.

Lesson learnt! The next time we hired a car (different company), we had the poor guys tortured, with us scrutinising every inch of it for ages, taking photos etc, both on collection and return. They clearly thought we were paranoid or slightly bonkers!

bigjl

When i hired from Europcar, via Jaguar Assist, the fact ot was a daily charge was fairly clear in the paperwork i signed.

BERG010

The exact same thing happened to me in Nice. She suggested extra insurance (on a 300 Euro hire car) "for windows and tyre scratches". I asked how much and she pointed at her hand held device with stylo pen...20 Euros. Fine. Signed up.

Got back and she has charged me 200 Euros insurance on said 300 Euro car (x10 days). Outrageous slight of hand - she knew what she was doing and is clearly on a commission of some kind. Got Lloyd's to refund payment as they agreed that it was "misselling". Europcar still chasing.

arcon5

mrmot wrote: »

Would you have considered it a scam if the car had been damaged during your rental, saving you from paying the excess?

Yes I bet op would have

EdGasket

It's all very well saying 'did you read the T&C's' but often these run to several pages of tiny print and in the real world with a queue of people waiting, who in practice actually reads from end to end and fully comprehends a car rental contract? They say sign here, here, and here and for 99% of the time that's just what most people do, myself included I have to admit, though I rarely hire now due to so many potential issues and pitfalls with renting.

It is largely, or certainly in the past, has been an act of trust between two parties and the customer does not expect to get ripped off. Unfortunately though this seems to be an all too frequent occurence lately.