Europcar Customer Service Extended my rental but they actually did not! Please Read

gloryninja

I need help urgently.

I booked a rental with europcar via rentalcars from wednesday to friday.

On friday i called customer service to extend the vehicle to Monday and it was £66 so i went for it.

I called up again on monday to extend it for one more day and was told that since i booked the rental from a third party, they (europcar CS) cannot extend the booking as i have to call the branch which i tried several times but could not get through. I called up again on tuesday and was told that there was no extention for my booking on friday to monday and no record of it.

Basically , I was literally driving without insurance without even knowing even though i double confirmed with the guy at customer service who took my card details and extended my rental.
i have called up the brance today and they state that i have not given the car back and there is no record of me extending it and i have to pay £450 instead of the £66 i was told. There isnt any pending payment for the £66 either showing up on my statement which means the guy at customer service did not extend my rental at all!.

What can i do about this? I will request subject access request however i cannot afford to pay £450 and refuse to when there own staff extended the rental even though he actually did not.

Is there a way around this without having to pay £450 (even the branch staff was saying that is a ridiculous amount) I want to know my rights since i was told and confirmed by the member of staff at europcar customer service that my rental was extended.

If i got stopped by the police, i would of not been insured without even knowing!

This is very worrying. I do not have the £450 they will take when i give the car back and i refuse to give that amount when i was told it was £66.

I need advice please. I do apologies if i wrote in the wrong thread, im just in a desperate situation

Thank you

Fat_Walt

I wouldn't drive it, they may have already reported it stolen.

dannyrst

Firstly, it is your responsibility to ensure you are insured to drive any vehicle. If the police stopped you, it's not the company that would get in trouble, it's you. You should have waited until receiving confirmation of the booking extension (and as such the insurance extension) before driving the car.

I'm not sure about the £450, whether they could take it from your account without you having to "agree" or if they would have to go to court. If the later, you will have time to collect evidence against the claim.

It is ultimately up to you to confirm that you did request the extension, given it is unfeasible to ask someone to prove that something didn't happen. Hopefully they record their calls, or you're going to have a very tough time proving it.

Head_The_Ball

Regarding the £450, it is very likely that RentalCars will have reserved or held a charge of at least that amount on your credit card when you first arranged the rental.

Car rental companies do that as a matter of routine as a security measure to cover damage or loss of the vehicle etc.

It won't show on your statement until or unless it is actually taken by RentalCars. Check the available credit figure on your card and see if it is well below what you would expect.

Fat_Walt

Some never learn.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5368987

securityguy

"I booked a rental with europcar via rentalcars"

Why do people do this sort of stuff? I book rental cars from the company I plan to rent from, usually one of the two I've got preferred/whatever so my details are on file. I rock up and say "My name is Mr Security Guy, can I have my car please?", they give me the keys and I drive off. No hard sell of insurance (I have excess insurance and self-insure the rest) because I've declined it online in my profile and booking and they're not bonussed on annoying regulars. I return the car, give them the keys, and leave. I've never been hassled over damage (even though I don't take their insurance beyond the legal minimum), I've never been hassled over fuel and on the odd occasions I've returned it late there's just been a pro-rata charge.

Meanwhile, in MSE land, people book via skanky agents and comparison sites, at ludicrous low prices, get hassled for insurance, ripped off over fuel and damage, and then get into complex arguments over extensions. Why not just do it the easy way? Want a hire car? Give your details to a hire company, and rent cars from them. It's hardly rocket science, and unlike skanky agencies, they have no particular incentive to rip you off. I've done half a dozen rentals, up to two weeks at a time, in the last year or so, all of it declining additional cover, and so far been charged precisely zero for damage, fuel or anything else beyond the contracted price.

gloryninja

What you guys do not understand is, getting a rental at the age of 24 is difficult as you get charged a young drivers fee. RentalCars i never had issues with and I think many are misunderstanding what the problem is.

I wanted to extend my rental as i needed too.

I called up EUROPCAR customer service and the staff member gave me a quote and took my details and told me it has been done and i can drive the car for another 3 days.

I then find out, that staff member did not at all extend my rental and i was driving the vehicle without insurance without knowing.

Rentalcars has nothing to do with this atm. In fact, they provided me support after giving the car back. The europcar branch workers did not know anything. I was asking about Subject Acess request (which i was told to request by europcar customer service), they did not know what that was.

So from my promised quote of £66-£99 was a lie and when i gave the car back... they asked me for £500! £100 for late fees.

I would of booked it straight from europcar but it was more pricey compared to rental cars and also i had voucher with rental cars so why not use it?

So me being told that my extension from friday to monday was confirmed and then told on monday that there is no record of it ... im sure that is something of a concern. I just wanted advice on what i can do about this.

gloryninja

Fat_Walt wrote: »

Some never learn.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5368987

In a desperate situation... I had no choice but to rent from them.

After getting SAR for my previous incident, i was refunded 80% of the amount but now again, i am having issues with europcar.

I never asked for this. I needed a vehicle. I could of used a different company and paid £101 a day instead of £26 a day using europcar.