Europcar UK Reviews 

I had a very disappointing experience with this car rental company - Europcar in Dover. My reservation was accepted, and I paid in advance. However, on the day I was supposed to collect the car, the company suddenly cancelled my booking without any proper explanation.

This left me without a vehicle at the last minute and caused a lot of stress and inconvenience. The customer service was not helpful and did not offer a suitable solution. I would not recommend this company to anyone, especially if you need a reliable rental. I will not use their service again.
Unfortunately, this is another company that treats the customer like a slave. You’re expected to show up without discussion, meet all the conditions that benefit the company, and in the end pay.

Soon we’ll see the company’s “delightful” response below.

!!!! Don’t ever go for this car company !!!
They take money from your account without permission .I had to be calling them and email them for more than three months to get refund and I’m still waiting while they done that mistake or they do it to take money from people without consent .no Ben one star straight robbery

Poor experience at Europcar Bristol which is massively understaffed for the number of bookings they have today. Waited over 45 mins to be served. I’d recommend using a different provider at Bristol if you’re looking for efficient service.

No issues at all with the sole member of staff who was doing a good job under pressure

I am giving Europcar a 1 star review because 0 stars (or less) are not available. After a totally satisfactory and long journey by train, bus, metro, and plane, we arrived at Gatwick Airport expecting that the last leg of our journey would be trouble-free. That all changed when we arrived at the Europcar check-in desk. There was one person on the counter so we waited in line. Another customer (who had just picked up her vehicle) asked if she could step in front of us because there was a problem with the car she'd been given. It appeared that the vehicle had been classified as 'two cases', but in her words, there was insufficient space for two handbags (along with her 3 children). After our unsatisfactory experience this customer was still there trying to reason with the guy on the desk to provide her with a more representative solution than the one she'd been given. Our experience (apart from the usual offhand response to questions, countered by fake friendly customer service banter that actually counted for nothing in the end because the will to provide genuine customer care and support was simply not there) was this: We made our booking two months ago and reserved with a credit card. When we came to pickup the car and make the payment, the card we had used for the reservation had expired. We had the replacement card (same account, same everything, the only difference being the new card had a new number). We explained that the old card had been replaced and presented the new card. The agent wouldn't have it. He insisted we had to show the original card. We asked to change the payment to a new card in the same name and he flatly refused. He said the only way was for us to go online, cancel the booking and make a new one. He wouldn't show an ounce of empathy or flexibility and adopted a "computer says no" stance. Frustrated by the experience we stepped aside to allow the woman with the 'two cases' problem to continue her efforts to get a resolution. We went on line and in a matter of minutes found an alternative solution at Drivalia. This is a company I hadn't heard of before. After a short shuttle ride to the North Terminal and a two minute walk to the Sofitel Hotel, we found the Drivalia office and a super friendly and genuinely helpful agent. He processed our order that had just come through on the computer and also managed to offer a great deal on fully comp insurance and half a tank of free fuel. The guy was a star and saved our day, a genuine example of wonderful customer service and a worthy recipient of our 5 star review (which would have been more if more stars were available). Top marks to Drivalia, bottom of the class for Europcar - we definitely won't be using them again!

I wouldn't bother hiring a medium/SUV car from this company, unless you are happy with a Chinese made car, which I wasn't. They advertise all sorts of good makes, but I was told 80-90% of these cars are now Chinese- disgraceful!

I was charged twice for a one way drop off fee. Then charged an extra day for being 20 minutes late - I was stuck behind a traffic jam in London for 50 minutes and moved 1/2 mile in that time. Customer service replied quickly to be fair, but still charged me £77! As I picked the car up 15 minutes early I exceeded their 29 minute grace time! Ridiculous.
As other reviewers said, there seems to be lots of drop off surprise fees! Use someone else if you can.
Positive was the car was new and had no issues. Without the extra charges it would have been a 5*

had a car when my motobility car broke down took it back with more petrol in than when I got it, next thing got a bill for £115 for leaving car with less petrol scammers wouldn't trust this company with a barge pole

I wish I came here before booking. Flight was delayed, tried to change the reservation but couldn't do it online and got the runaround from both Expedia and Europcar and Europcar refused to give a refund when went to the counter. Had to pay for a whole new reservation. Scamy and extremely poor customer service/contact process. Don't use them.

I should have looked at Trust pilot before booking. We ended up in a long queue and it was close to 2 hours after our flight arrived when the operator announced to the woman in front of us that the car they had given her was not ready and they needed to start all over again. I'm sorry to say I lost it and made some sarcastic remarks. As a result the operator refused the booking and we were left without a car. It was my fault but he did us a favour. We went to the Enterprise desk and 10 minutes later got a cheaper brand new car from the very polite operator. Never using Europecar again.

I had a reservation with Europcar on 11th July at 10am. I was due to attend a wedding, but had allowed for just over an hour to consider for potential delays. When I arrived at 10:40am, there was a queue of 8 people in front of me waiting to collect their cars. An hour later, there were still 4 people in front of me waiting to collect.

After waiting for one hour and watching other providers serve customers rapidly, leaving them without any queues at all, I enquired with the staff how long it would be and when asked if I'd be served and in my car within the next hour, he told me this couldn't be guaranteed.

I followed this up by confirming that as a result of failing to provide the expected service and the fact I was now already likely to be late for the wedding ceremony, would they be able to refund my booking so I could go with another provider. He confirmed this would be okay, and I was out of the car park in a car with Enterprise within 10 minutes of this conversation.

A week later, the refund had still not been processed. When I called, I was told that the booking was cancelled and no refund was issued. I raised this for investigation and was charged a no-show fee on top of the original booking shortly afterwards despite the fact I had showed up before my booking, waited for over an hour, and was still nowhere near receiving the service I had paid for.

Needless to say, I missed the welcome drinks and wedding ceremony for the wedding along with the four other guests I was driving to the event. On top of this, looking back at reviews for the past 10 years of this specific center, long delays and a failure to provide the vehicle on time are a running problem. Their competitors provide cars at a much faster rate without the dreadful customer service.

I followed this up with another call to customer services, who told me they couldn't do anything about either of these charges as they are part of the investigation. Europcar failed at multiple levels to provide even the remotest level of an acceptable service and I will be escalating these complaints at every given opportunity given the poor response to the issues.

I am disgusted at the woeful service provided by Europcar, along with their decision to charge my card multiple times without any clear communication or justification for these decisions. I strongly recommend using any other provider than Europcar if renting at this location.

I fully expect this review to be followed up with a generic and useless suggestion to contact customer support, which I have already done multiple times. If this company care even slightly about customer satisfaction, they would provide genuine responses to these issues.

was hesitant after reading the reviews but had already booked it - great service from bournemouth, collection lady at desk was really nice, drop off gent taking vehicle really nice, no fuss, deposit returned quick, no issues - only gripe was that ordered small van, day before collection got a call saying only have medium vans, and it would be £15 more per day - wouldnt budge on keeping price same as it was a fleet issue not a me issue, but needed the van, but the van itself was lovely so cant complain

Biggest Crooks going They tell you one figure then charge a much higher one watch out for the guy in Gatwick Airport Trust Me do not go with these people Customer Service is a waste of time as well not interested

I had a terrible experience with Europcar Marseille Airport and would strongly advise others to be extremely cautious.

I had already paid online for a Peugeot SUV. At the rental desk, the representative spent around 30 minutes persuading me to upgrade to an Audi A3, explaining that it was a special deal and would only cost around €50 per day. She also explained that the basic insurance was €22 per day. Based on everything she told me, I understood that the total cost of the rental would be around €650.

Trusting what I had been told, I signed the contract without realising the charges did not match what had been explained. When I returned the car, I was shocked to find that I had been charged €1,175. Even worse, additional money has since been taken from my account without any explanation or authorisation.

I have spent hours trying to contact customer service, only to be passed from one department to another with no one willing or able to resolve the issue.

What I believed would cost around €650 has ended up costing me approximately £1,500. I feel I was misled about the price at the rental desk, and the lack of customer support afterwards has made the experience even worse.

Extremely disappointed. Pre booked a vehicle and it still took almost half hour to get through all the upselling debate including a larger vehicle that was completely unnecessary. The sales pressure with a queue behind and apparent additional protection needed that added another 50% cost to the overall original hire cost in France, for a 10 day stay. I’m very unlikely to use this company in future. Avoid in my view.

Over 90mins late to deliver the car without any updates on when it would arrive or why it was delayed.
Told all drivers needed to be present and to show drivers license, nobody looked at our licenses.
No answer to any phone calls by our local branch in the lead up to the booking, even the national customer service line couldn’t get through.
Demanded car back from us though it was hired via insurance company. We immediately contacted our insurance company who had no idea why Eurocar wanted the car back as they still had the booking open, still they apologised for the confusion/any stress and confirmed we had the car for another 2 days as per our paperwork.
No apology from Eurocar whose version of events is that they contacted our insurance company and extended the lease… that did not happen as we still got a text a day later saying the car was being collected.
Overall very poor service, can’t believe they’re in business, must be no competition which allows such a shoddy service to continue.

I hired a van with a return time of 8am in the morning. When I picked it up the sales person showed me the box I could leave my key if I returned it after hours. At no point did he mention a cost for this service.

I was back early so thought I would return the vehicle using said box thinking they would appreciate having it back earlier.

I was then charged £50 for the use of the box. They refuse to give me a refund. I was encouraged to use the box then charged. Sharp practise!

I'm still waiting for my deposit to be returned three weeks after returning the car. Not acceptable

I wish I had read these reviews before using Europcar in Düsseldorf.

Experience seems to vary wildly by branch. I had a very good experience at the Bristol Airport UK branch. Staff waited for me due to a delayed flight, and then went above and beyond to be helpful because I was travelling alone with an infant. Drop off was efficient and without any incident, with similarly professional and friendly staff. Booked along with flight via Ryanair. Just be aware of opening hours: surprisingly for an airport branch officially closes at 11pm.

Definitely Left Harvey Nichols bag of brand new cosmetics in footwell on passenger side of hire car. Realised straight after we dropped of key in safety deposit box at Bristol Airport . They said they were not there. Very disappointed and dishonest staff stole my belongings. Will not use this company again!! 😡😡

Tried to call the local office about my booking waited for 10 minutes. No answer. Got through then immediatly cut off.