Europcar - thieving gits

[domd1979]

My experience of using Europcar last weekend to hire a car...

Booked a small car - got given a Fiat Punto, fair enough (other than its a Fiat). Picked it up on Fri night, and off I went. Over the weekend drove it about 150 mile. Before taking it back I went to the petrol station to fill the thing up. After getting the Krypton Factor puzzle petrol cap off, I filled it until the pump stopped which was 15.5 litres. Between filling the car, and getting it back to Europcar had driven it less than 3 miles.

When I returned it, first thing they did was to check the fuel gauge... "ooooh, this isn't full" says bloke looking at gauge a millimetre or two from the full line. Explained that I'd filled it, offered them sight of the receipt, and pointed out that what I'd put in was entirely consistent with the distance I'd driven. Not interested, I apparently hadn't filled it enough. Later in the week I get the bill in the post showing a charge of £10 for putting an alleged additional 6 litres into the car!! Couple of things... how the hell did they (allegedly) get another gallon and a half in, and secondly, there's no way it was that full when I drove it off. Back of the fag packet calculation suggests about 48mpg for the amount I put in, and 34mpg on the additional six litres they reckon I used. Can't see that a small car like a Punto would return such shite fuel consumption, which all points to returning it as full as I got it and them having charged me for fuel I ain't used.

Talking to Europcar on the phone = talking to a brick wall. Emailed their customer services with a short essay, so waiting for a reply to that.

In the meanwhile, the whole experience is just putting me more round to the idea of buying a £200 banger and using that instead, since I don't use a car that much. I'm still immensely irritated by the whole thing and certainly won't be going back to Europcar ever again...

 

[domd1979]

Yep - I shall certainly be a lot more wary of car hire places in future! Taking phots isn't a bad idea, might do that in future.... including taking one of the fuel gauge!!

It's annoying isn't it - and I don't think this kind of thing is limited to Europcar either. My boss always takes several hi-res photos of every car he rents before he leaves the car park after being stung for accident damage he didn't cause.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

In the meanwhile, the whole experience is just putting me more round to the idea of buying a £200 banger and using that instead, since I don't use a car that much. I'm still immensely irritated by the whole thing and certainly won't be going back to Europcar ever again...

I use a car a lot (at least 300 miles a week) and this is my approach to motoring. It's much cheaper than buying new, especially if you can do your own servicing.

 

[Melvil]

That's rather rubbish, Dom. I hope you get a result from that.

We've used Europcar twice now and they've been good both times (just out of interest could you tell us which branch/area you hired the car from?) but then again we're totally paranoid about hiring cars and always pay that bit more for total cover just in case (and it served us well as we got out of the hire depot, hit the motorway and then almost immediately a stone jumped up and totally cracked the windscreen(!)).

 

[marinyork]

Sorry to hear that Dom, just sounds like downright dishonesty and trying it on to me.

 

[domd1979]

Twas the Stafford branch I hired from.

(just out of interest could you tell us which branch/area you hired the car from?)

 

[Night Train]

Sometimes when filling a car the fuel can enter the tank faster then the air can escape from the breather. The filler pipe then backs up and the pump cuts out. A few seconds later the fuel settles and more can be added.
However, most good hire companies allow a little leaway.
I use Enterprise sometimes and they just record the tank as 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 full for just below where the needle points so that I have always found that I get a touch more then they say I have in the tank. I have once returned a car with a tank 1/4 more then when I picked it up, it was empty when they gave it to me and I got a 10% off vouchor for next time as they couldn't refund fuel. I don't often use hire cars so I probably wouldn't remember to use the vouchor next time. I usually stick to garage courtesy cars.

 

[Gromit]

My boyfriend and I went to pick up a van from 1car1 yesterday. We got there to discover that they wanted a utility bill with my name and address on and a credit card.

We couldn't hire it, first of all, my name isn't on any of the bills, secondly I refuse to get a credit card, don't wish to spend anyone else's money and get myself in debt again. Thirdly my boyfriend doesn't drive.

On the plus side we used my car, saved £58 plus the cost of fuel and managed to fit all my stuff including the hamster into the back of my punto.

 

[bonj2]

do it in writing.
If they send you a bill, don't pay it and tell them you'll see them in court.
If they've already took it off your credit card, then complain to the credit card company, and if that doens't work then communicate in writing, give them a 14 day ultimatum and if they don't meet it, sue them. It's only £30 and you can do it online but you'll get the £30 back and you've no risk as it'll get allocated small claims track.

 

[gavintc]

My boyfriend and I went to pick up a van from 1car1 yesterday. We got there to discover that they wanted a utility bill with my name and address on and a credit card.

We couldn't hire it, first of all, my name isn't on any of the bills, secondly I refuse to get a credit card, don't wish to spend anyone else's money and get myself in debt again. Thirdly my boyfriend doesn't drive.

On the plus side we used my car, saved £58 plus the cost of fuel and managed to fit all my stuff including the hamster into the back of my punto.

I have 2 credit cards and have not paid a penny for them in over 10 yrs. One of the cards has a direct debit from my bank account to settle the complete bill each month. I use my credit card sparingly, but there are times when a credit card is much more reliable than a debit card - eg travel.

 

[bonj2]

credit cards are good as they offer a type of insurance against paying for goods or service that then require refund but that isn't forthcoming from the company. People that booked flights with XL that then went bust, for example.

Don't want to spend anyone else's (i.e. banks) money? Shame the feeling isn't mutual.

 

[andy_wrx]

On the other hand, the Italian experience...

We picked-up a hire car from Europcar at Pisa airport.
I left the Mrs wrx at the terminal with the bags and walked across to the car pound, which was an exciting experience as the 400m of road was very twisty, had no pavement, and seemed to be full of Italian rally drivers and Brits trying to drive on the wrong side of the road.
The one over-hassled and busy guy at the car pound gave me the key and waved vaguely at a carpark full of Puntos.
I wandered round for 5 minutes until I found the registration and then started examing 'our' car for dents & scratches.
It had lots of dents and scratches, a missing hubcap and one badly 'kerbed', a crack in the windscreen and there was a big bundle of wires and fuses hanging out of the dashboard.
I went back and tried to explain in pidgin Italian/English, pointing to the diagram on the paperwork where you mark the dents on the silhouette of the car but he wasn't having any of it and was really busy and hassled with lots of other people trying to collect and drop off cars.
There was another English guy there trying to do the same, his car was in a similar state to ours, and we looked around and saw that all the other cars were in the same state too...
Remembering I'd left Mrs wrx at the terminal and been gone 20 minutes+, I thought 'Sod it ! I'm on holiday, don't want to waste it, we'll sort this out when we come back, I can't believe they'll be bothered about our car when they're all in such a state'
When we drove the car, I found the lights didn't work - the bundle of fuses hanging out of the dashboard looked suspicious, a quick look in the handbook confirmed it, the fuse has been taken out and was loose in the bottom of the fusebox, with another.
But when inserted, you couldn't turn the lights off - the switch had obviously broken into 'on' position, so you turned them on and off by inserting or removing the fuse...
It turned-out the other fuse was for the wipers, which were in the same 'broken on' state, although it didn't rain and we didn't need them.
It actually went OK though, although I realised the way to drive a 1.0 Punto is to drive it like an Italian, as though your name is Schumacher, to give to 5000 revs and then drop the clutch, otherwise it would stall on hill-starts.
When we took it back, I dropped it in the pound, gave the key back to the guy without saying anything.
We never heard anything from Europcar...