Review of Europcar


Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Predatory Business Practices

We rented a car from Europcar in Ireland (Dublin) and presented their clerk with documentation of our U.S. based Visa card rental car protection plan. Despite the documentation, there was a compulsory $5K hold put on our card for the privilege of renting from them. The agent explained that the Visa card perk would not cover things such as tires and other minor damages, so we should take their 'protection plus' coverage to cover "anything" not covered by Visa and that by having such coverage it would take care of "everything" if there was any damage whatsoever to the vehicle. Protection Plus cost Ten Euro per day. (We didn't know at the time that the Visa benefit is indeed supposed to cover tires/ rims.)
We were surprised to find that the car did not pass inspection when we returned it. The agent inspecting the car said that she saw a problem with the rim on one of the wheels and immediately said she was billing us 190 Euro for it. We took photos of the car when we picked it up, but not distinct close-up images of every wheel rim. (We were unaware at that time of Europcar's predatory practices). So, we didn't deny that maybe some very minor damage to a rim could have happened while with us, but pointed out to the agent that we paid for "protection plus" coverage, so that even if we were responsible for the damage, there should NOT be any charge for it at all. That's when the woman said she didn't even know what the company's "Protection Plus" is! (Talk about stupid!). We couldn't get her to understand that we paid extra for daily insurance FROM THEM, that we were promised would cover 'anything' and 'everything' that the Visa perk would not. Despite our protests -- and having documentation of the additional insurance coverage, she wouldn't budge. When we asked for more assistance, we were told to visit the rental counter where we signed the rental agreement. The gentleman there said that wasn't the place to be discussing the problem and that we needed to take it up with the agent at the car return terminal. He was initially rather brusque and dismissive, until I mentioned that we weren't helped in part because the female agent didn't speak English that well. Then, he was more interested in helping us and gave us information on Europcar's Protection Plus and the purported damage would be covered by it and gave us the phone number for customer service we already had. We couldn't reach anyone at Europcar by phone whilst still in the airport, so, we planned to try again once back in the U.S. We were not able reach a human being via their phone number; the recorded message directed to contact by email to their customer service department. It has been over a week and there has been no response from Europcar. We also sent a duplicate email to their address for reservations, in the hope that someone would respond. Also, on the website, we could not even find a chat option for customer service. So, we have taken the matter up with the bank, to handle the fraudulent charge for purported damage by putting the charge into dispute and letting the bank do a 'charge back' to Europcar. The next step will be to contact the European Consumer Centre in Ireland to lodge a complaint regarding what we perceive as Europcar's predatory business practices.

July 9, 2025
Unprompted review
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