I come to visit La Paz Mexico frequently. I usually rent a car to get around from any of the American Rental Companies located at the airport. This time I saw a bargain on Orbitz for Europcar. I made the booking.

Picked up the car at the airport, went over the car with the attendant and a check list of damages, as I pointed out the multitude of dings and scratches I assumed the guy was writing them all down too...

After 3 days I decided to return the car because the cigarette lighter quit working, I need it for my GPS. They exchanged the car but tried to collect money for "damages" to the car. They reffered to a rusty old ding on the fender...Deep rust in 3 days??? and a microscopic little scratch on the windshield UNDER the wiperblade!!! I did not even use the wipers! I argued and finally the manager said OK, no problem. I took a multitude of pictures of the new car and had them mark 84 dings and scratches (they want to play that game...). I kept a copy.

When I left and returned the car at the airport, I was informed that I had to pay for damages. The fender and a door!!! On the old car!

They also FORGED MY SIGNATURE to add extra insurance coverage that I had declined. I use American Express and they cover collision and all the extra stuff.

Results: $184 extra in insurance and $200 extra in "damages" to the original car. You have no choice but to pay or they send the authorities on you before you get to the plane, I have heard horror stories. But I am no dummy...

This is what you do in this case: Write this on your credit card receipt where they ask you to sign; THESE ARE FRAUDULENT CHARGES AND I AM SIGNING THIS AGAINST MY WILL. Write the amount if the fraud is a partial amount of the entire bill. Then sign.

When the charges appear on your bill, call the credit card company (American Express is great for these kind of things) and tell them what happened.

Above all, DO NOT RENT FROM EUROPCAR, they are crooks.

Unless you are planning on taking a lawyer with you when collecting the vehicle then do not even consider renting from Europcar.
Quoted rates are of no relevance as a rule of thumb would be to double the rate you have been given and then add VAT.
Being an auto insurance assessor would also come in handy if you hire through this company, you really do need to check everything on the vehicle and carefully tabulate, record and have verified any damage before you even think of signing the contract.
Under no circumstances should you authorise a security deposit on your credit card, Europcar will charge this and your account subsequently remains debited for a considerable amount of time as they will just ignore any telephone, email or other written complaints, charming people!
Scams of the month include not only the usual suspects such as insurance and fuel but also some with interesting twists like the punctured tyre routine or how about the, you will be invoiced later runaround...er..really I bet I will!
Europcar and Bernie Madoff, now this really would be a match made in heaven.

We booked a car (in April) for the weekend of 17-20 July to be picked up from the Taunton branch. We went to see the local branch last weekend as there were one or two questions we wanted to ask but we found the branch had closed.

We had not received any notification from Europcar to inform us of the closure which apparently happened in May. When we called customer service they said that our pick up was now to be from Exeter Airport (totally the wrong direction for where we were travelling). We complained that this would not be possible and Europcar said that we could pay a further £22 to have it delivered to us - we argued that as we had not been notified of the closure they should waive this charge. They did not agree to this so we have cancelled the booking - we will not use them again and are in the process of writing an official complaint and raising the matter with our trading standards.

I hope no one else has had an experience like this.

BAD ASSISTENCE!!
1. THEY REFUSE ANY KIND OF ASSISTANCE WHEN I HAD A FLAT TIRE.
2. THEY TREAT ME BAD WHEN I INSISTED TO THEY GIVE ME THE CAR I MADE THE RESERVATION (I PAID PLUS TO ASSURE THE KIND OF CAR)
3. THEY GIVE ME A DIRTY CAR
4. AND THEY TRIED TO TRAP ME WITH THE CDW. FIRST THEY SAY IS REMOVABLE FROM THE PRICE, AFTER THEY SAID IS NOT REMOVABLE.
THEY MUST BE JOKING!!!

Amazing to me in today's world is how a company like Europcar can get away with its aggressive arrogance, appalling service, blatant thieving and general gross dishonesty. If you've never rented from Europcar, don't. Because you will be treated like s**t whilst they're robbing you.

This company is full of @##@%@%. They did not provide the car rented. Instead gave me a downgrade (but charged the same for this time) that had a broken gearbox (5th geard did not work). Two days later they game me a better car that broke during the trip. Finally at delivery, they wante to charge me for dents which think God I had pictures of being on the car at delivery to me. Once I was able to proof they were existing, they held me hostage by saying that the spare tire was damaged. Note, I never used the spare tire. As if this was not enough, after i was forced to pay for the tire damage, the amount of the rent that i signed on my credit card charge is not what showed on my statment. NEVER RENT FORM THIS COMPANY. BE WARNED.

Ripoff! Don't rent from them. We rented a car in Cancun and they tried to pull every fraud in the book. They charged car rental insurance when we didn't want it, we get it through credit card, they wanted to charge for automatic transmission, even though we reserved automatic, (we actually talked them into giving it to us free, they acted like they were doing us a favor), only to later claim that we damaged the spare tire. They went straight for the trunk when we returned the car. We didn't think of checking damage on the spare tire, we saw it was there and that was good enough... They ended up charging 1500 pesos for the tire.

AWFUL AWFUL!!! Do not use this company. They overcharged our account for items we never asked for. When I then contact the company to try and get a refund, they give me an attitude that they have to actually help me. I then thought I found someone who could help me, sent them all the backup paperwork they asked for and never heard from them. I then went and called to follow up and the customer service agent said they knew nothing about the claim...and then proceeded to hang up on me!!! NEVER RENT WITH EUROPCAR...THEY ARE A SCAM!!!

HORRIBLE experience.
Booked a student car rental through Kemwel for a manual at $57...figured there would be some additional fees though...
Arrive at the Kerry Airport and was practically refused a rental due to being 22. Eventually paid a young driver charge (equiv. 30USD)and extra insurance fee (about 16USD)limiting liabilities to 100 Euros in case of an an accident. Returned the car with a full gas tank and NO damage whatsoever...was charged $124 out of my bank account. So altogether it cost 181 USD for a one day student discount rental not counting about $35 we paid to fill up after a couple hours of driving...WTF?!

The company claims that they applied the 57 towards our rental, but all their charges only add up to 120...not 180.

What a ripoff. My bank tried to get the money back for me and is now telling me that there's nothing more they can do. This company does not care at all about its image or its customers.

We reserved a car for a trip to the Dominican Republic (in July of 2007) and were quoted a rate of $400 and change for a week. We had booked the car on a major c redit card and thus declined the primary insurance. (Most major credit cards will cover this if the entire transaction is done on their card.) We bought the secondary/liability insurance. The company refused to honor the rate we had been offered when we ereserved the car, in spite of holding all the paperwork in hand at the time of rental. I argued and argued (with some langauge barriers) to no avail. I will never use this rental company again!

We rented a car from HolidayAutos for a few days from Lyon Airport and they allocated Europcar as the local car hire firm. No problems or bumps with the car. We didn't even take precautionary photos when we returned it because a uniformed Europcar employee inspected the car in front of the five of us, accepted it as undamaged, told us there was nothing to sign and sent us off with a smile. Later Europcar sent us an invoice for "Damage Surcharge" (damage unspecified) and ripped an astonishing GBP975 from our credit card account. So they formally accepted a returned car as undamaged in front of five witnesses then later pretend otherwise. How do companies think they'll get away with this sort of scam? Anyone feel brave enough to hire from Europcar in future?

An update to my review - finally they backed down. First Europcar France reduced the hit from GBP1000 to 200 then Europcar UK gave a full refund and apologised. The trigger, apart from online reviews, was The Guardian newspaper's consumer champion forwarding the details to Europcar UK. Holiday Autos, who I originally booked with, were useless and never managed a substantive response after 5 weeks. But persistence pays off - all I've lost now is lots of time.

We reserved a car for a week in june 2008 and payed for it in advance, we had an invoice which stated 'fully paid' including insurance. When we arrived in Malaga we had to pay for a full tank (you're supposed to return it empty, ever try that?) and 47 euros for what they called 'excess', since we had already payed insurance. Well, excess is exactly right, in the end we payed nearly 200 euro for a small Kia for one week i. We called Europcar in the Netherlands to protest, they would not let us talk and said they didn't care if we never did business with them again. Nice attitude Europcar.. it was a unpleasant start to the holiday, so I guess we're all agreed we'll use another firm next time.

Used Europcar in Cancun Mexico and was subject to extortion by employee thugs when I returned the car. They claimed non-existant damage to the car windshield and held us hostage until we signed the credit card statement that included a charge for the so called damage. This company is like the mafia, avoid them at all costs, absolutely no ethics, horrible experience, I will never use them again under any circumstances!!!! I would rate zero stars if the website would allow it.

paid by cash ,told debit card charges would be exorbitant.returned car with full tank of petrol.after emails and phone calls received refund cheque less 57.60euros stating tank empty.i filled it near to shannon airport.it would be physically impossible to have used a litre in the short distance to the airport.despite further phone calls and emails,i have still not received the curtesy of a reply,thank you richard at shannon airport,claudie and laura in accounts,i will definitely recommend europcar to all my friends ,

This company is terrible. I was hit by a Europecar and have to pursue the driver (a nice young lady) for damages because of some fancy foot work on behalf of their internal vehicle insurance department. Do not use this company. They will charge you if you hit someone, or if someone hits you, and even after you get charged >$3000 you will be exposed to damages from anyone else you hit.

HORRIBLE. Don't trust these people. Rented a car in Germany, returned to Italy and was told everything was fine and we were paid up. Our account was debited. This was in July. Now we have received replacement invoices for more money (written entirely in German, which we do not speak) and now have received a collection letter from an attorney on their behalf. We will fight this, smells like fraud, it appears they may either be recharging to take advantage of a higher Euro rate, or they are just adding an additional charge(s) months later, unbelievable.

Arrived at airport and Van would drive by without stopping (TWICE). Had to take a cab to the rental building. Once there they didn't have the car I requested (Compact with Automatic Transmission). They were trying to charge me more than the amount indicated on my reservation.  EUROPCAR SUCKS

Too bad I read the negative reviews for Europcar AFTER finding out the hard way that they are run by con artists!

I rented a car through holidayautos.com, paid upfront, and picked up the car in Malaga, Spain with no problem. The car was fine, clean. I drove to Madrid where I had arranged to drop it off at the airport before catching a flight. The drive took longer than planned so by the time my husband and I arrived to the airport we were pressed for time to catch our flight. Of course there was no attendant in the office, so I had to wait 5-10 minutes before turning in the key. The man asked me if there was any damage, which there wasn't, and I told him that we didn't have time to fill up the tank was all. So he took my credit card and made me sign a sheet. I noticed that there was a total of 155 Euros and I asked him why. In my nervous, rushed state I didn't realize that I was trusting him to be honest and didn't quite understand his Spanish, but I gathered that I would only be charged the amount for gas. He gave me the slip and said that was it.

When I returned to the U.S. I received a credit card statement with 260 Euros worth of charges! I called Europcar and they said they were charging me for damages! What damages??????? They said that when I signed the slip I was authorizing them to survey the vehicle and charge me for any damages that they could muster up! Now my credit card company can't do anything because I naively signed the form. What about the remaining 105 Euros, I asked. They claimed that they have a signature for that as well! They are going to try to claim it is for gas, but hopefully I can prove to VISA that the gas should be included in the 155 Euros.

Obviously the lesson I learned is to never trust anyone even if it means miss my flight? I had never had a rental company claim damages that weren't there, but Europcar took advantage of me and did. Now that I am out to ruin their reputation, I realize that they already have a bad one! I'm not the only one they have scammed. So, if you or someone you know is thinking of renting from Europcar, DON'T! It's not worth the cheaper rates because you will end up paying more!

Summary: Europcar is run by con artists who find a way to charge you for fake damages

Horrible company, horrible service. They charged my husband's card an extra 270 pounds and didn't believe us when we told them it happened. We had to send them our statement and fight for about 4 weeks until we got the money credited back...and without so much as an apology! My husband had gone overdrawn because of THEIR error and so had to pay interest and penalty fees with his credit card company. They also lied to us repeatedly about policies and procedures. Their CUSTOMER SERVICE was the most horrendous thing ever. All they seem to want to do is argue with me and call me a liar!! Don't ever rent anything from them - go somewhere you can deal with honest people!!

EuropCar is my favorite rental outfit. I rent from them in Belgium about twice a year. One time my flight was delayed - instead of arriving at 7:30 AM I arrived at midnight. I had called from Washington Dulles to tell that the flight was delayed -- we were supposed to arrive about 9:00 PM but we were three hours late on the already delayed flight. . In Brussels airport, all the car rental booths were closed -- EXCEPT EuropCar, the attendand(she should have close by 11:00 or 10:00PM) had waited for me! Only for me. This is exceptional service. Other passengers on my flight were wondering what to do ... This kind of service is unequalled and I am a loyal customers. Never disappointed so far.

I recently used Europcar in Cabo, and they were pretty shady.  We got there, and the van that we had reserved wasn't there.  We were told that it was in the shop, and would be back soon.  I was later told by a mechanic who had to shuttle half of our group to our destination that it was because the van had been double booked.  

They also forced us to buy some insurance that they said was mandated by Mexican law, although they couldn't produce any documentation about it.  Furthermore, the my friend's credit card company had explicitly told her to turn down any insurance offered by the rental agency.  We ended up having to spend an additional $13 per day because they wouldn't give the car to us unless we did.

As a final act of shadiness, the Europcar agents tried very hard to pitch us a timeshare presentation, telling us for 90 minutes, we could get a $600 coupon towards the use of the rental car.  Even though this sounds like a great deal, it just felt shady to have a rental car company hard selling us on a timeshare.

Anyway, the van was delivered to us just a few hours after we expected it, so that worked out OK.  At the time of this writing, my friend has been doublechared for the van.  If that doesn't get resolved, I'll be back to move this company's rating to a single star.

Europecar/Kemwel
This is very complicated but we rented a car through Kemwel here in the US which books Europcar in Europe. We needed car seats for our 2 and 4 year old so requested them in our online reservation. We paid our bill and received our invoice which stated that any special requests could not be guarenteed. Being the concerned parents that we were, we secured car seats from relatives in Brussels because we did not want our kids traveling without them. We got to Brussels, told the Europcar clerks that we did not need the carseats and proceeded on our merry way without them for the rest of the 3 week trip. When we got home and more than a month after we returned our car, there was a $1,200 charge on our car.

What was it for? After much inquiry it was for renting carseats, not returning them and a theft fee! The office in Brussels acknowledges that we did not use them, nor steal them, corporate Kemwel refuses to credit our account.

We are not rich, we cannot afforda $1200 charge for something we did not use! We are working through Visa now but it is so frustrating HELP...
Arno

Europcar is a huge scam. They provided us with a great price on a rental and charged us double the price. We have emailed and called them on an almost daily basis with NO response. DO NOT rent with this terrible company.