On 24 June 2024, we arranged to collect a medium size van at 10am from your Dartford branch (which is a 1-hour journey from our location).Upon arrival to the branch at 9:30am, we were advised that the vehicle we had booked, and type specified was not available, and that we would need to wait until at least 11am for a vehicle of that size to be available. The branch could not confirm an actual time of the day the vehicle would be available - only that it would be a minimum 1.5 hour wait. We advised that our schedule whilst using the vehicle does not allow such a delay, and that we should have been informed of this issue prior to arriving to collect the vehicle and travelling an hour to collect. The branch had been open since 8am that day.The branch offered a smaller or larger vehicle as a replacement, but we advised them that we were specific in the size (height and width) of the vehicle that we had prebooked and prepaid a week in advance so this wouldn't be an option.After nearly an hour's wait in the branch due staff seemingly having the same issue with various customers at the same time, they insisted that we took a larger vehicle to get us back to our location and that they would send a replacement (correct size) vehicle to us at our location by end of the day. We agreed to take the larger vehicle based on this agreement as we needed transport (an hour away) back to our location at the very least - but the vehicle could not be used for its specific reason for rental which was meant to be starting directly from the branch at 10am that day.After wasting a day's vehicle rental/fuel, being delayed a day on our project due to not having the correct vehicle, and having to wait at our office all day for the vehicle to (allegedly) be replaced, we contacted the branch via telephone at 4:30pm to chase up when the vehicle would be changed over to the correct one (we had been waiting from 9:30am with no update). The member of staff stated that she did not know when this could be done, but it would be done by end of the day and somebody would contact me prior to the branch closing at 6pm and when on route to us.At 5:50pm, there was still no contact from the branch, so we contacted them again, only to be on hold until 6pm and for the phone lines to then be cut off when the branch closed.We then contacted customer service straight away, who were of no use to the situation and did not offer any reasonable solution to the branch and company not meeting their obligation. Customer service stated that they would send an email to the branch requesting that they call us urgently when re-open at 8am the next morning, and for a customer service supervisor to contact me shortly after our call.No call from the branch was received the following morning, and nor was a call from a customer service supervisor that evening.At this point we have now wasted a full day of our time, cost and vehicle rental being a 24-hour company.Between 8am and 9am the following day (25 June 2024), we contacted the Dartford branch via telephone 4 times, only to be put on hold and cut off each time someone answered the call.We then contacted customer services again, with the first operator stating that they could be of no assistance other than sending another email to the branch (which we can do ourselves) and suggested that we just travelled an hour to the branch directly to speak to them (which is an absurd request from a customer service agent!).We were then transferred to a second operator who also advised sending an email would be their only assistance, but then attempted to contact the branch directly, and confirmed that they were also not successful in doing so various times. The second operator then confirmed that he had contacted a party from the branch indirectly and was promised that someone from the Dartford branch would contact me “within minutes”. As expected with the current level of customer service from Europcar at this point, this did not happen, and no contact has been made.We have now wasted two days of time, cost, and vehicle rental, with our project now being two days behind due to the branch or Europcar not fulfilling their obligation or supplying any sort of customer service.At present, we have a vehicle sitting outside our office that cannot be used for the purpose we paid for, with zero customer service from the branch or call center.
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