europcar.co.uk

I was ripped off big time….be warned

I had a prepaid car rental voucher for a predetermined type vehicle through a third-party provider. I went to collect the vehicle from EuropCar Gatwick South Terminal to be told by the female EuroCar employee that the vehicle we ordered was not available. She said “We are giving you a free upgrade”. No mention of cost we would pay etc. because we were told they were GIVING us an upgrade. GIVING! It is my understanding that under law, if the company cannot provide the car ordered (and paid for) they must offer either a free upgrade or a lesser vehicle with a monetary refund, The upgrade was a very luxurious vehicle and I was immediately resistant and anxious and expressed deep concern to her, I was told by the female agent not to worry, the vehicle was at the end of its rental life, it had 50,000 miles on the odometer, which it did, and it was to be disposed of when I returned it. Reluctantly I accepted it. I felt it had been foisted upon me. When I was outside loading the car, the female agent came out and said the car had damaged wheels and I had to sign a form to acknowledge the damage. She presented form with a diagram of the car, both sides, with X marks on the wheels. I now realise she had folded the paper in half so that I couldn’t see what was on the other side. I really thought the shonky, trickster days of car hire had long gone. Boy was I wrong!!! In hindsight I should have said NO! NO! NO and I should have run away, screaming, and rung the third-party provider and complained, but I didn’t, fool that I am. However, after 26 hours of travel I was exhausted, and yes, I now know I was dimwitted not to spot a scam in the making.I hated the car from the start. This car wrecked my entire holiday and nearly wrecked me. I was highly anxious when I drove it and it made me quite ill from worry, It was too large and too wide for UK parking spaces. It literally got stuck in the entry to a shopping centre car park. It gave my daughter high level anxiety attacks. I had to try to park it away from other cars because I was terrified they would dent the car’s doors. This car was just too big,and too wide for UK narrow roads, even some A roads were scary and it did things I found hard to accept. It was so technical it was dangerous, simply because it was distracting.But just as importantly, mechanically it was difficult. When the car started off there were many times when it just didn’t want to change up gears. Leaving Cobham Services, the car wouldn’t change gears at all and I held my breath thinking I would need a tow truck, but eventually it did change up. I am used to driving a Subaru with CVT automatic, but this vehicle had a habit of just stopping and not moving off. It would stop and go into Neutral and once you realised why the car wasn’t moving and what had happened, you had to go through the set process to get it going again. This happened in dangerous places at times like waiting to enter a large roundabout on a 70mph road. A friend suggested I return the car and I jolly well wish I had.On the day I had to return the car to Gatwick, a yellow message about the tyres appeared on the consol. 8 calls to EuropCar proved useless and so I drove just down the road to the local dealership for the marque. Service personnel said it was ok to drive it back and gave me instructions as to what to do with the gadget in the trunk should tyre pressure deteriorate. And this is how I returned the car.During the term of the car hire I did check my credit card several times to see if EuropCar had levied the £1500 block for security and I was surprised they had not. I returned the car on 1 August and flew home. The day after I arrived home, I checked my credit card and found that at between the 29 July and 9 August (8 days after I had returned the car) EuropCar had charged me $3,630.06 in my money for the upgrade they told me they were GIVING me because they were unable to supply the car I had ordered and prepaid for. It was then that I remembered the woman who asked me to sign the document acknowledging the damage to the car, and it was then that I realised she had folded the document in half and therefore I could not see what was on the other side-the upgrade charges etc.What a Fool I amI have lodged a dispute but EuropCarUK is notorious for completely ignoring disputes. I am told that what this woman did could be a criminal offence called Fraudulent Misrepresentation. Some could ask whether she is highly skilled in the dark arts of duplicity and deception? Of course I will not be letting this matter go and others in the travel and insurance industries have been advised. Eventually when I can confidently tell the Citizens Advice Bureau,Trading Standards,Watchdog and Rip-off Britain that EuropCar has done absolutely nothing to resolve my dispute,then I will lodge a dispute with the BVRLA to whom EuropCar belong.

Date of experience: Jun 27, 2025