Frustrating, Misleading & False Billing – Europcar - Car & Van Hire Review

This app and Europcar failed on 3 counts. I will never use them again if I can help it. 1. The app doesn’t truly let you book the car you want, the picture is just a suggestion and that vehicle may not be there and you have no way to know, or what the company considers an „upgrade“ that they’ll offer you - 2. the location you select may or may not really be open when they say it will be — 3. and watch your credit card for false billing and charges for fuel! My experience started when I wanted to pickup in one town and return in another. The app said this was possible and confirmed by holding the full amount of money on my credit card, but I got a phone call the next day from one location saying they’d be closed. I checked online and it said they actually were open. Maybe they wanted to take a day off, but it screwed up my travel plans and it took several days for them to return the money on my card. Then I booked a Mercedes A Class, and when I got to the alternate location they said nothing was available and they gave me an „upgrade“ of a peugeot station wagon! which was a pitiful comparison and not what I spent the extra money for. In addition they wouldn’t give me a refund for a lower class because I’d booked through the app. Finally, I got a mysterious extra addon charge of 50 euro from Europcar Italy - another country that I was not even in - in addition to the full amount booking through this app. I called customer support which said they’d billed me for a full tank of gas, even though I’d come back with a full tank - and the check-in person marked that I had a full tank and it’s noted in my statement of return! To correct this, I had to email them my gas receipt, and then they’d give me back my money. Total nonsense! All in all, it made me realize I was dealing with a really incompetent company. They need to go back to basic business and business-ethics school and start from scratch. App included.
Review by spleekster on Europcar - Car & Van Hire.