Europcar sharp practice at Carcassonne Airport

grahamcopp

I would not normally post but hopefully this may help other UK travellers not be ripped off by unethical practice at Europcar, Carcassonne Airport.

We hired a car for 2 days from Europcar at Carcassonne Airport.

On returning it, the check-in reviewer said there was a scratch underneath the front valance which was not on the pre-stated damage.

This cannot even be seen from eye level or even parallel to the front valance so we could never have seen this when inspecting to verify before the hire.

Their staff appear to be running sharp practice to maximise ‘damage costs’ and potentially to improve their bonuses.

I would absolutely advise anyone taking one of their vehicles on hire to carefully inspect and video all around the immediate underside of the car to protect themselves.

However, I’d much more specifically suggest that people rent from an alternative provider who does not operate on an ethically dubious manner.

born_again

Did you get the form when you picked up the car stating any damage?

I'm afraid you will find stories such as this from just about every car hire co.. Especially at airports 🤷‍♀️

eskbanker

grahamcopp said:

However, I’d much more specifically suggest that people rent from an alternative provider who does not operate on an ethically dubious manner.

Good luck with that - I suspect that similar tales to yours could be found for the vast majority of such companies, if not all of them!  That doesn't make it right of course, but it always pays to be hyper-vigilant when it comes to inspecting vehicles before driving away....

TELLIT01

Unfortunately it seems to be a very common practice with many car rental companies at many airports.  Being so widespread does lead to an assumption that it must be happening with the agreement or instigation of the companies.  It's certainly far more widespread than a couple of rogue locations trying to get themselves bonus payments.

jbrassy

Did you purchase car hire excess insurance prior to picking up the car? If so, wouldn't that cover it?