I was involved in a very minor collision whereby someone drove into the back of me. My car was booked in for repair at a local accident repair centre. The other Party's insurer arranged a hire car from Europcar for me to use whilst my car was in for repair. I was contacted by Europcar who gave me a time to meet its representative at the repair centre and told me I would need to sign for the car and provide Identification. On arrival at the agreed time, I was told by the receptionist that the representative from Europcar had already dropped the hire car off. I did not sign any agreement or show any identification. After 2 days my car was repaired and ready for collection. I contacted the other party's Insurance to ask what I should do about the hire car, they told me to leave the hire car at the repair centre and they would contact Europcar to off-hire the vehicle. A week later I received a phone call from Europcar asking me where I had left the vehicle. I explained as above and that was that. I have now received a letter saying there was damage to the car that I am liable for. I have responded via email saying that I dispute this on the basis that firstly I did not sign any terms and conditions and that secondly the vehicle was off-hired 7 days before it was actually collected from the repairs centre. Any other advice?

Hi, in 2013 I hired a car from Europcar in Rome. I paid in advance and, after an uneventful rental period, returned the car. After, and with no warning or correspondence, an 'administration fee' was charged to my credit card for a supposed traffic violation. I queried this immediately but was told by Europcar that the 'authorities' would be in contact with me regarding the offence. It has now been over 18 months since I hired the car and no one has tried to contact me about any such offence. I therefore contacted Europcar again saying that I presumed that no such violation ever existed and consequently I wanted a refund of the fee. They have replied saying that, as per the T&Cs, they have fulfilled their legal obligation by providing my details to the 'authorities'. How can they be allowed to do that? I have no proof that any traffic violation ever happened. Without proof how do I know that the charge is not bogus? If they are allowed to do this then it is a licence to print money from their customers (whether or not there was a traffic offence or not). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We had a hire car for three days last week, Monday 18th August until Thursday 21st August. They delivered to our house, and picked up on Thursday 21st. Today we get a letter claiming a "£500 damage surcharge" - and an admin fee. The car was absolutely not damaged when their driver picked it up. I am also annoyed that they did not tell us for over a week. What can we do?

Do not be sucked in by a price of Europcar 'too good to be true'. Europcar policy is to rent out cheap and later charge your credit card for phantom services. Please read on. In January 2014 the web provided the most convenient rent-a-car at Stansted and we booked via CarTrawler for 2 days a car with Europcar. CarTrawler offered for € 6.90 per day an insurance to cover the GBP 1,000 own risk Europcar applies. Collecting the car at Europcar Stansted we were offered the same extra insurance for GBP 30 per day. With a rent of less than 40 hours we could do without the extra cover. What a mistake! We drove the car carefully, no damage whatsoever. We checked for any minor damage and returned the car with a full tank at 23:45 PM at Stansted. Notwithstanding Europcar claim to be open till 01:00 AM, the Europcar desk was closed. We had to leave the car keys at the key return box. We didn’t realise that now we were a Europcar hostage. A day late our credit card was charged for an extra GBP 92. We should be happy we were not ripped off for a larger amount. Writing this note we found on the web numerous reviews mentioning true credit card [edited by site team] by Europcar. Endless calls with the service dept finally revealed that Europcar proclaims we had returned the car with a scratch. A true lie that brings Europcar money they miss by renting out cheap and not selling you an insurance that costs more than the rental price. Europcar is a rent-a-car company definitely to be avoided.

Hello all, I hired a car via Holiday Autos, and it was provided by Alamo, who in turn actually subbed it out to Europcar when I actually received my rental voucher...... and that is fine. When I got to France I went to pick up the car, and decided to take out the policy excess insurance, and paid for it there and then (or so I believed I guess)..... which was something like 150EUR A week after my holiday I got a bill from Europcar which detailed that VAT had been charged on this excess policy..... this seems illegal to me. If the rental insurance was taken out seperately whilst in-country, and a credit card was provided to pay for this, then this is a French transaction surely, and so no VAT should be charged on top? What do you guys think? Thanks, Ben

I booked and paid for a car to be delivered to my home address at 5pm tonight. It didn't arrive. I called Europcar at 5.45pm to ask what's going on. He said he's sorry but his colleague forgot to inform the branch of my address, so they couldn't deliver. He said the branch has now closed so there's nothing he can do. So I'm stuck for the weekend without a car and have to cancel all my plans. I pushed but they said there's nothing they can do. After around 2 hours on the phone and a huge amount of hassle... He re-arranged delivery for this Monday (2 days away), and said that there's nothing he can do to prevent me from being stuck without a car this weekend. He also said I have to call up on monday morning at 8.30am to remind them just incase the information gets lost He then went on to say these are my only other options:- a.) I leave my place of work now and pay for a taxi (from my own pocket) to go to Gatwick airport to pick up a car, which is god knows how far away - probably would cost £100 in a taxi, I've never been there from here. He said I might be able to claim back the taxi cost from europcar, but he can't make any promises! b.) I find my own way to pick up a car from a branch a few miles away that is a huge engine and will cost me more than double the amount in petrol for my planned trip next week. - And still they won't deliver it to me, I have to drop everything and make my own way there. Seriously? Do these companies not have to pay any sort of legal fines for doing things like this to customers?