Europcar France Reviews 

ZERO Customer Service, ZERO refund, ADDITIONAL charges!

A follow up to my previous review...

Despite contacting Europcar through their various suggested routes I have received ZERO response. To add insult to injury they have just invoiced me for not filling up a car that they took away from me due to a puncture and did not replace.

Perhaps rather than a standard 'contact us' response to these reviews Europcar might actually speak to me to resolve the various issues! ZERO Customer Service, ZERO refund, ADDITIONAL charges!

Avoid this branch. I would never use Europcar Toulouse Airport again.

I have hired cars from many different rental companies over the years and have never experienced anything like this.

Our rental caused significant disruption to our holiday because the middle rear seatbelt was jammed and would not extend. This meant we could not safely transport all five passengers, and someone had to take a taxi back to Toulouse Airport. It delayed our journey considerably.

When we returned the car, I explained the issue to the staff. They inspected the vehicle while we unloaded all of our luggage and were physically pulling on the seatbelt themselves to try and free it. I asked how I should make a complaint, and I was told to email customer services, which I did immediately after checking in for my flight.

I was then asked to sign the return paperwork. I specifically asked whether the issue with the seatbelt had been noted, and I was repeatedly told, “Yes, yes, yes.” At no point did anyone mention any damage to the vehicle or suggest there was an issue with the wheels. I was told nothing other than to send my complaint by email.

Three weeks later, I noticed an unexpected charge and contacted Europcar, only to be told I was being charged for alleged scuff marks on a wheel. This came as a complete shock because no damage had been mentioned when I returned the vehicle, despite staff inspecting it while I was there.

What concerns me most is that after this happened, I looked at recent reviews for the Toulouse Airport branch and found another customer describing an almost identical experience—being told everything was fine on return, only to be contacted afterwards and charged for alleged wheel damage.

Whether coincidence or not, seeing such a similar account has completely undermined my confidence in the damage assessment process at this branch.

My advice to anyone hiring from Toulouse Airport is to take detailed photos and videos of every part of the vehicle, especially all four wheels, both before you leave and before you hand the keys back.

Based on my experience, I would not recommend this branch.

It all seems fine until you get there and they force you into buying their insurance package even if you have insurance with your booking company. Another 40 something euros per day. Insurance deductible sure the €87 “admin fee“ was some bs. Other people we travelled with used enterprise car rental rentals and had a good experience

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with my recent rental experience. I had booked and fully paid for a vehicle in advance. Upon arriving at the counter, I was informed that our car—as well as the vehicle booked by the family traveling with us—had been given away.Despite providing my flight details in advance so the staff could track my arrival time, my booking was not held. Instead of offering a complimentary upgrade due to their own scheduling error, the company attempted to downgrade our vehicles. To make matters worse, they demanded an additional €700 to €2,000 to provide a vehicle equivalent to the category I had originally booked, even though my initial payment was only €500 including full insurance.Forcing customers to pay double or triple the original price due to the company's internal mistakes is an unacceptable business practice. This completely ruined our travel plans. I will never use this company again and strongly advise others to look elsewhere.

Arrived at bordeax airport late due to a delayed flight - all things online say if you put your flight details in as that they will stay around for you.

I put my flight details in but they didn't stay around - left us stranded with an 8 month old baby at midnight!

My other half went out and asked the guys at the station at 12.10 with the baby whether we could have the car and the guys in the station said no so they hadn't even left just refused the car.

I have messaged customer service as asked below and still been ignored

Booked a mid-size car through a broker, with full damage protection, and paid in full in advance. At the Orly counter I was told my car wasn't ready — “minimum 30 minutes” wait — and offered an electric vehicle “on the same conditions” to compensate. No price was ever mentioned. I was also told the charge level was “included, just return it as is.” None of it was true: the invoice added an €80/day “upgrade” and a prepaid charge — about €481 on top of my fully-prepaid booking, bringing the total to roughly €738, nearly triple the agreed price. The agent also pushed me to buy Europcar's own insurance despite my booking already including full protection, claiming I'd be liable for over €8,000 in damage — even though the contract itself states a €3,500 excess. The agent couldn't communicate in English and the documents were in French. Read every single line before signing and refuse any verbal “courtesy” offer. I felt deliberately misled and am formally disputing the charges.

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Reply to Europcar France:
Thank you. I have already submitted a formal written complaint to Europcar France regarding contract 2105755360 (Paris-Orly), now acknowledged under your reference Dossier #26705157, requesting a refund of the €481.10 in undisclosed charges. I'd ask that your team respond to that existing case rather than have me open a new one through a separate channel. I'm happy to provide any further detail there.

Europecar is big SCUM

When I call tham first time to book van UK to Bulgaria
I asked tham how much it will cost me the rent for 8 days, thay told me for internatonal it will be 412 pounds
and after on the day when I go to collect the van thay toll me all the fee which I never expect it will be to high.
If I knew it all the price will be 1290 pound never I will rent.
Thay told me 0.20p per milage, but the main reason or problem is on the phone if thay told me for 7 days
you can driving 250 milages per day i will rent for 7 day not for 8 days because for 8 days is onley 90 milages pred day.
very important for me is on the call to tell me everything no on the day when I collect the van.
I spoke with the girl there in basingstoke UK she told me you book with France main office and do not cancel report and
thay will give to you money back, which nobody got back the money. she told me all call conversation is recorded,
thay send me the invocie how much thay charge me and very simple thay stollen money from me around 750 pound.
do not rent with this company thay are thieves. Next I will do report in the police
the main problem is around all world thay do same thing that's why 3.3 bilions every year thay have STOLLEN MONEY

EUROPE CAR SCUMERS

Europcar Nice – Fraudulent damage claim practices
⭐☆☆☆☆
Damage already documented at pick-up — charged anyway.
When collecting the vehicle on May 11, 2026, pre-existing damage was present and formally recorded on the inspection form signed at the Nice agency. On top of that, Europcar's own staff photographed the vehicle at pick-up — and the damage is clearly visible in those very photos.
Despite this, I received a damage claim after returning the car.
When I disputed the charge, Europcar argued that the damage had not been reported by email within 2 hours of collection — conveniently ignoring their own signed inspection form and their own photographs that prove the damage was pre-existing.
This is not an administrative error. This is a deliberate practice: billing customers for damage that was already present and documented, counting on people not pushing back. Their own evidence contradicts their claim, yet they maintain the charge anyway.
Legal proceedings have been initiated.
Advice: avoid Europcar, or photograph every inch of the vehicle yourself before driving off — and keep a copy of the inspection form. Do not trust that their documentation will protect you.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!! Still being chased for a bogus admin charge, totally ignore all my emails. How this bunch of crooks stay in business is beyond me.

I have rented cars from Europcar on many occasions and only had good experiences. However, my experience of renting from Europcar Brest Airport was anything but good.
Aside from the fact they take a three hour lunch break, they also charge ridiculous administration fees for damage which is fully covered by the insurance. In my case, they claimed I had scratched a hub-cap: which I absolutely deny, but which, in any case is scarcely 'damage', and then charged me an administration fee of nearly 100 Euros which they claim was the cost of sending me an email to say they were going to charge me 100 Euros.
I subsequently rented another car from Hertz, who were cheaper, had a better selection of cars and much better customer service.
My strong advice is: do not rent from Europcar Brest Airport.

Very disappointing experience at the Nice airport Europcar location.

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with my recent rental experience at the Europcar counter in Nice, France.
Prior to my trip, I reserved a small vehicle through the normal booking process. At no point during the reservation was I informed that purchasing additional rental insurance would be mandatory.
Upon arriving at the counter, I was repeatedly told by the rental agent that I would not be permitted to rent the vehicle unless I purchased Europcar's insurance coverage. I explained that my credit card provides rental car coverage and presented supporting documentation. I also provided evidence of my personal automobile insurance. Despite this, the agent continued to insist that the additional insurance was required.
The discussion became increasingly frustrating and involved multiple staff members. As a result, I seriously considered canceling the reservation and renting from another company. Only after it became apparent that I was familiar with standard rental procedures, including the use of a credit card pre-authorization, did the staff stop insisting on the insurance. The rental was then processed without the additional coverage, confirming that it was not actually required.
I find it unacceptable that customers appear to be pressured into purchasing products they do not need through statements that are, at best, misleading. This experience created unnecessary stress at the very beginning of our vacation and significantly diminished my confidence in Europcar.
I respectfully request that this incident be reviewed and that appropriate steps be taken to ensure customers receive accurate information regarding insurance requirements and rental eligibility.

I had a confirmed booking to start our trip to Normandy, but the desk agent, Stive, at the Paris Gare du Nord branch completely ruined our plans. I presented a perfectly valid Spanish EU driver's license. However, because it has the official EU Code 70 (indicating an exchanged license), he refused to accept it, showing a complete ignorance of standard European regulations.

I offered him the official proof of my original license, which confirms my 8 years of continuous driving experience (since 2017), but he refused to even look at it. When I politely asked him to call the station manager to resolve this issue, he flatly refused. Utterly arrogant and unprofessional behavior.

To make matters worse, the Europcar online complaint form crashes every time you try to upload photo evidence. We were left stranded at the train station. Avoid this specific branch at all costs!

We have had two separate incidents with Europcar at Carcassonne Airport where we were accused of causing damage to a hire car that was already present when we collected it.

On the first occasion, the damage was a very fine scratch that we did not notice during collection and which was not recorded on the vehicle condition report. As a result, we had no way to prove it was pre-existing.

On our second rental, having learned from that experience, we took comprehensive photographs of the entire vehicle at pick-up. When a further small scratch was later identified, our photos clearly showed that the damage was already present when we collected the car, and no charge was applied.

In our experience, several areas of damage were not recorded on the paperwork despite being visible on the vehicle, and the car was not particularly clean when we collected it, making it even harder to identify every mark and scratch. We also observed other customers disputing damage charges when we returned our vehicle.

Based on our experiences, I would strongly advise anyone hiring from this location to photograph and video the entire car before leaving the airport and to check the condition report very carefully or better still, not use these cowboys at all. We do have insurance, but customers should not be held responsible for damage that was already on the vehicle when they collected it.

Incredibly bad service. Seems like they would prefer having no customer at all. Much easier !!

The staff are nice.....
The problem is they are in the car rental business and the car we got is rubbish: 56000 km, virtually every panel has damage (even the customer service agent was surprised), breaks squeak and suspension is poor... no other vehicles available at Cannes. Mazda 3 is a fine car but not this one.

Europcar - if you read this happy to talk to you
Other renters - go elsewhere if you want a decent and possibly safe car

I rented a car at Europcar in Nice airport. The guy at the counter was extremely friendly (too friendly, it seemed in hindsight). I forgot my licence but het could arrange to use the one from my wife. He didn't tell me that he cancelled my booking and made a new - more expensive - booking, which I remarked only some weeks later at my Visa overview.
At the same time he made me sign the contract (4 signatures), without telling me that he had included an additional insurance. So for 5 days rent (Fiat 500), they charged me 1.082,38 € instead of the 673,44 € in the original booking! (+60%!)
Off course we made a complaint, but it was laughed off.
Europcar: Never again! And I will tell all my friends...

Update: You will see there is a reply from Europcar, giving me the same link I have used to communicate with them. ’the charges stand and we had no responsibility to help our customers’. My review stands.

Before anything else: the agent found time to ask which way we, as Americans, voted. Make of that what you will.
Rented from Paris Gare de Lyon. Three separate problems:
1. Train arrived late — we were charged extra for "not being on time."
2. We had reserved a specific car class in advance. At checkout we were hit with a €90 "special equipment charge" — not mentioned once, buried in the contract. Every other rental company rolls this into the quoted rate.
3. We drove the A13/A14 Paris–Normandy highway, which converted to barrier-free free-flow tolling in 2024. We owe the tolls — fair enough. But the rental agent said nothing about the new system or the 72-hour online payment window. When we complained, Europcar told us they have "no responsibility" to inform customers. They then charged us multiple €55 fees simply for passing our details to the toll authority.
We've rented in countries with free-flow tolling before. Every other company warned us. Europcar couldn't be bothered.
There are better options. Use them.

Shocking service in nice airport. Screaming kids and queued for hours to get our car.

Update: customer service provided a pre-written, standard reply without examining the circumstances of my request.

Extremely disappointing experience with Europcar CDG.

Returned the car 25 minutes late after unsuccessfully trying 3 gas stations around CDG that were all out of fuel. Result:

€113 charged for 25L fuel at €3.78/L
extra €30 fuel penalty, despite personnel guaranteeing we would not be charged
extra rental day charged, despite explaining the situation and that we got the car late at pick-up because staff made us change terminals (so in reality we got the car 30 minutes later than official pick-up time, so we were technically not delayed at return).
insurance mysteriously increased from 4 to 6 days on final invoice, when we only drove for four days
€87 “administrative damage fees” despite Premium Protection with €0 excess, and having declared the damage on arrival.

To make things worse, Europcar staff at pickup misrepresented the insurance price as final when the contract shows it was actually without taxes.

The final bill became completely disproportionate compared to the original reservation via Wisecars. I have already escalated the matter and will pursue mediation and DGCCRF/SignalConso if necessary.

Be extremely careful reviewing every line of your final invoice with Europcar CDG.

The waiting time to pick up the car in Paris CDG was two hours, and when it was our turn, the car was not ready. We made the paperwork while waiting but was then told that we could not rent the car because we had made the payment with a card in another name then the main driver. This could only be solved if we paid more than double the original price and waited additional two hours.