I booked and paid for a mid size suv, which was $30 per day, which I thought was great value. When I picked the car up at the airport, the agent said they were upgrading me to a full size SUV at NO cost to me. I signed the agreement without reading it as I just thought it was the standard agreement. When I received the invoice I was billed 2,383 gbp. I was livid. I wrote to europcar and told them and they replied that I signed the agreement so I am Liable for it. Basically they were saying tough luck. I will let everyone I know what they did and to stay well clear of Europcar. What a bunch of scammers and their customer service SUCKS read more

Beware of deceptive charges and high-pressure sales tactics. We booked through Rentalcars.com and chose Europcar because they showed the lowest price. When we arrived, the agent offered us a "free upgrade" to a larger vehicle with GPS (which was useful), but the paperwork showed a £30/day upgrade fee. Even after asking repeatedly, they couldn't give a straight explanation--just vague, confusing answers while still insisting it was "free." They also pressured us into cancelling the insurance we had already purchased through Rentalcars.com and pushed us into buying their insurance at triple the cost. They managed to cancel and refund our original insurance instantly with one click, but told us our £100 deposit would take up to 30 days to return after the car was brought back. We were told the deposit would be refunded no matter what condition the car was in. It's now past 30 days, and we still haven't received it. We're currently disputing the refund with Rentalcars.com. While part of the extra charges (like adding an additional driver) were expected, most of the overage came from the supposed "free" upgrade and the inflated insurance. Our final bill ended up over £1,000 more than what we booked. Overall, the experience felt manipulative, misleading, and highly unprofessional. I strongly recommend choosing a different rental company. read more

Europcar charged me over £20 because the carpeting in that photo would take them "longer than normal" to vacuum. I had the option of taking it to a car wash if I wanted to avoid the fee. This is after taking the full insurance coverage of £700. read more

I wish I'd read the reviews. All in all, things worked out, but they're really not interested in your needs but are purely hell bent on upselling you. Not really interested in the customers' needs. read more

Europcar keeps adding charges on my credit card. I have reached out 3 times now and have not received a response. My rental was returned 4 weeks ago and another charge appeared today. Shifty. read more

AVOID at all costs. Scammed us out of $400 when they lied to us and told us that an additional driver costs £20/day when the actual cost per their policies is only £16.66 per day up to a maximum of £166.60. Also double charged us on multiple taxes and fees, and told us to return with a full tank of gas, but the car was only 2/3rds when we received it. BAD BAD BAD. Go to Alamo/Enterprise instead! read more

Europcar - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

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Worst experience. Bait & Switch RIPOFF !!! Beware! Booked a SUV for 5 people and they tried to put me in a tiny car that could not hold 1 suitcase in the back nor me and my kids. Left me no choice but to "upgrade" for additional $1000. Or I'd be stranded with my children. Unbelievable scammers. read more

After arranging for a car rental in Canada before my departure and pre-paying for same, I arrived at Heathrow and was informed that GPS was only available if I upgraded to a more expensive vehicle. The upgrade came to twice the cost that I had already pre-paid for my rental contract. The uncooperative and unhelpful staff basically said take it or leave it!! What choice did I have - I had just arrived on an overnight flight, had a long drive to get to the hotel and a very busy schedule for the next day. So instead of paying $650 for ten days it cost me $1,900 in total. I notified the employees that I was signing under duress and would be contesting the charges. On returning to Canada I attempted to resolve this but Europcar and their Canadian representatives have ignored my position. This whole experience has been very disturbing and has all the earmarks of a scam. Signed contracts mean nothing to this company except when it comes to enforcing their ability to collect their money. read more

It's very disturbing that Europcar employees can flat out lie, commit fraud through coercing tactics and Europcar could care less. BEWARE: Europcar employees are trained to explain false information and force you into purchasing "optional" insurance. If you do not agree to "optional" insurance, you will forfeit any monies you have already paid through their website. Tried talking to corporate but they would never return the multiple messages I left. Huge Bait and Switch through fraudulent tactics. read more

These guys are a total rip off operation. They kept charging my credit card for extra unrelated charges long after we left the UK. We finally had our credit card cancelled to stop it. DO NOT USE them they are the WORST!!! Their presented price is a lie. You will regret renting from them. They desire NO STARS!!! read more

The receptionist should be helpful not acting like a used car salesman attempting to get me to add further insurance when I already had prepaid full CDW coverage. read more

Made a reservation online a month in advance (LONDON KENNINGTON) only to get there (from the USA) and find out that it was cancelled without notifying me of such cancellation. Since I needed the car, I was forced to reserve at a higher price on the spot ($300 dollars more to be exact) They refused to refund the difference between my original reservation and the new one. Same with customer support online. All requests were denied despite this being an error on their behalf. This company is a total scam. Never will be renting from them again. read more

Well this was a pleasant surprise. Renting (or hiring) a car in England isn't as easy as you'd think. Insurance is confusing and this company just packaged it all up nicely and at a pretty decent price. Now automatics cost a lot more, but worth it since you're already driving on the other side of the car and other side of the road ;) The average cost was about 18-20 for a manual and 45-60 for an automatic. But well worth it. The whole process from when you walk in to getting your car is really top notch at Heathrow. read more

Europcar - Inside - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

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Fraud - after I returned to America, Europcar charged me another $200 without notice. When I queried, it explained that I had purchased Damage COllision insurance. I had not. I had waived their insurance, because i have my own. After a couple emails I was ignored. read more

Terrible Service - Forced to buy their insurance This location is the worst, I made my booking on Expedia and purchased Expedia's CDW Insurance at the same time. When I got to the counter I was told Europcar does not accept Expedia Insurance, in fact the manager told me they don't accept anyone else's insurance at all, then was told I had to pay for their insurance, I tried to argue with them and even said I would accept the liability myself but was told I have to pay for their insurance or they would just cancel my booking. Terrible Terrible Practice, Misleading and probably against the law, I am now contacting their corporate office to demand a refund - AVOID this company read more

Book anywhere else. Gave me a car with damage and charged me for it. Their customer service started out very kind but after providing them information, they stopped replying. read more

This Europcar outlet is very unpleasant. When your flight is delayed and you arrive late in the evening you want a quick service. After electronically checking in we are third in row with 5 counters serving. Half an hour later we are still not served. Everybody in front of us is negotiating a car rental and taking a lot of time. When finished, the staff goes on a break. Unacceptably long waiting times. read more

Requested a compact manual from Europcar car rental online suitable for 3 people and checked bags. When we got to the Heathrow airport Europcar rental counter they talked me into a Mercedes Benz compact, making it sound like they didn't have the car I requested online. Typical "bait and switch". After no sleep and just getting off the plane I wasn't in any condition to argue. An MB sounds good and the navigation system is good and it was an automatic. Other than that it was rubbish. Interior is small, seats like boards, $500 more than the one we requested online, hadn't been cleaned, rear luggage cover was broken. It was smaller than the car we rented in Ireland, which is what I requested online. Returning was a joke with the guy pointing out a scuff mark. Considering I paid for full coverage it was a waste of time. Would never recommend Europcar. read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! If I could give zero stars, I would. Not only is the pickup unbelievably slow and complex, the company is bordering on dishonest. I picked up our car late at night in pouring rain, so no chance to assess for " damage". The next day, I did a look over for anything obvious, but found nothing. However, when I returned the car, the agent went straight to the windscreen, and even with all the road grime and dead bugs, immediately picked up a so called crack, which was nothing more than a superficial 2mm surface scuff, so low down it was at the level of the bonnet and completely irrelevant. It had NO chance of progressing to a real crack, and even if it had occurred during my rental, which I seriously doubt, it was nothing more than normal wear and tear. Despite my arguments, they had my credit card on file and charged me over £70.......... which is nothing more than daylight robbery. i repeat, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! read more

I was surprised at how easy the process was at this car rental agency, since I have had bad experiences at Heathrow before. They gave me a free upgrade to a car with satnav. It was a smart car like the one I drive at home, and fully automatic, not some piece of junk I was given last time I was in London which was a so-called semi-automatic. No upselling , and a very pleasant experience. read more

Buyer beware... they do the bait and switch. I ordered a Skoda Octavio - a nice family sized car for three of us. The guy warned me my luggage won't fit, so I asked (stupidly) what he suggested. All of a sudden I'm on an upgrade path. So we got an uncomfortable upgrade. What annoyed me was the pushiness of this. I'm just off a 10+ hour flight where I didn't sleep. Of course I'm not thinking straight. The upgrade was too big and my original prepay was useless (but, hey, I got a "discount" on the new car to make up for it). Also, beware the £250 deposit. I'm not expecting it back without an argument, Take my advice here - steer clear and go with someone more ethical. These guys are sleaze merchants, read more

Diabolically bad. How they persist as a viable business, I do not know. I booked through Expedia. They refused to honor the purchased rate nor the 3rd party insurance and basically held me hostage by refusing to release a car unless I paid a surcharge and "mandatory" insurance. All this after they repeatedly and aggressively tried to up-sell me with a more expensive vehicle. Then the vehicle I booked wasn't available. Switched me to a beat up estate clunker (took LOTS of pictures). Having just traveled 15+ hours with my family, I caved, paid their ransom and have taken up the issue with Expedia. Under no circumstances whatsoever, I will never EVER even consider using them again. read more

Booked through Auto Europe, was given one price. When I picked up my car it was twice as expensive as I had thought because they required me to use their insurance, despite the fact that my personal insurance covered me and my credit card provided insurance for rental cars. I will say that their staff was great at this location and I liked working with them. When I turned the car in I was given an invoice and paid the amount I originally thought I would be paying based on my quote from Auto Europe. I was pretty please with that! Now, 6 months later, my credit card was charged without notice by Europcar. After several emails and phone calls I was able to figure out that they are blaming Auto Europe and Auto Europe is blaming Europcar for the extra charges but neither alerted me that I was going to be paying more money. They have been very rude as I have been trying to figure out why they randomly charged me more money and only after digging for 16 days was I alerted via email about what is going on. For such a large company you would think they would have a better way to handle this. It has been really poorly handled and I will not be renting anything from them in the future, nor will I refer people to them. read more

This is the classic 'would give zero stars if I could' review. These guys will mercilessly try to upsell you and lie to your face about how much they are charging you. It doesn't matter if you have a pre-confirmed reservation and price. They are terrifying in how brazen they are with their fraud. Use another company!!! read more

Well the reviews before me pretty much say it all. The worst rental experience imaginable with sullen unwelcoming staff who only want to "upgrade" you and argue when you don't. Ridiculous additional "gotcha" fees. After a long flight, to be put through their ridiculous "system" and wait so long is unforgivable. Avoid this place. I have also been waiting 10 days after they said they would contact me soon about my complaint. Their complaint website doesn't work, well now. read more

Europcar - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

Will never use this company again. Had made our booking through PRICELINE.COM Had found a reasonable rate for the 8 days we would use it. They would not accept our xtra insurance offered by barclaycard. Unless we paid a $1500 deposit up front. Well if I had done that my card would be tied up till I got home. So we decided our only option was to pay extra for their insurance which we were told covered us for everything. Was so tempted to run this vehicle into a wall. With the extra insurance and other add ons they tried to put on we probably paid 4 times what we expected. read more

AVOID They operate a bait-and-switch scheme. When you arrive to pick up the car suddenly your booking class is unavailable. "How about this Skoda?" instead of the car I booked. Rip off. Upon return they penalised me for a scuff on the tire which I measured at 1cm. Has probably been there for years. read more

I am sorry to read about the countless bait and switch stories related to this appalling Europcar facility at Heathrow Airport and will add another to this sorry saga. My advice to all potential renters - PAY A LITTLE EXTRA AND GO WITH A MORE REPUTABLE FIRM - ONE THAT LISTS A TELPHONE NUMBER FOR COMPLAINTS. In July 2022 I arrived at their facility to find the car I ordered unavailable. Most car companies will provide an upgrade free of charge but not Europcar. They offered a smaller sub-compact vehicle that 3 people + luggage wouldn't fit in. I was forced finally to upgrade to a larger car and my rental went from $600 (US) to $1,300 (US). After about 4 days with this Peugeot rental the power steering became intermittent almost pulling me off the road on a number of occasions. I found a local Fareham (Hampshire) number for Europcar after much searching and they send out a representative from RAC who evaluated the car, confirmed it was dangerous to drive, and towed it leaving me without a car. He explained that they were RAC not Europcar and the Fareham facility had no like vehicle to give me. They finally delivered a replacement vehicle 6 days later which was safe to drive and got me back to Heathrow airport. At the Heathrow facility Europcar management refused to discuss an adjustment to the bill for my 16 day rental of which I had a car for only 10 days. Instead they provided an e-mail address for my to write to. Needless to say Europcar did not respond to my e-mail letters and, even after I got Citibank involved, refused to compensate me for the days I had no car. I still plan to file with the Better Business Bureau in the UK and am happy to recount this pitiful episode any chance I get. read more

Don't trust Europcar! We agreed to a ten pound per day increase to upgrade to a BMW. They snuck 50 pounds per day in there! THEY ARE TOTALLY DISHONEST!!! DON'T USE EUROPCAR! read more

Very mixed bag with Europcar this trip to Italy. Reserved an Audi Q2 automatic at the Florence Novoli location, but when I arrived and completed the paperwork, they informed me that the only car they had available was a Jeep Compass that was quite bashed up (see photo below). When I protested, they told me I could go complain on social media. The fact they pushed a lousy car on me is on them, the fact that the car is so lousy is on Jeep: Drove like a small truck, occasionally felt like it was swerving due to a flat tire, I eventually fixed that by turning off the traction control. Default settings had it operating like a video game, with constant beeps and warning sounds, only by switching off five or six 'driver assist' systems each time I started the car did it end up tolerable. The good news is it didn't break down, and once I found the return lot at Florence airport (after going in circles for thirty minutes due to poor signage), the return process was very efficient, no attempt to blame me for damage that already existed.Maybe the Novoli location was a 'bad apple', but I'll check out other car rental options next time I drive in Europe. read more

Europcar - The rear tail light was the worst, there were fifteen or more other dents and scratches Europcar documented prior to my rental - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

Incredibly slow service. Never seen such a travesty in all my years of renting cars at different locations around the World. Staff are focused on the upsell and not getting you into a car and on the way. Been standing here for over an hour and still waiting! read more

Europcar - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

I'd ordered an automatic car weeks before and when i was there to pick it up there was no automatic car available. The lady kept on asking me if I really needed an automatic car... Well I'd ordered it for a reason!! It took some waiting and patience, but in the end they got me my automatic car. A nice Ford... New: only 200 miles driven.. When I was ready to drive out of the car park I was asked how many miles this car had driven.. I answered '200 miles'... But the man at the counter didn't believe me and actually came out of his little house to check the mileage.. Only to find out that I was right... Service was so so, but the car was good.. :) read more

Europcar - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

Taxes/fees nearly doubled rental quote before arrival. Aggressive upselling to 300.00 a day audis/jaguars, as well as the prepaid gas option. No invoice emailed to us. Apparently received a photo ticket for going 47 in a 40 in dorset. 50.00 fee from europcar to pass along my information, took all of 5 minutes i imagine. Charged my card without responding to a challenge email over the fee. Very poor customer service. read more

This company pulled a complete bait & switch on me and others. I needed to upgrade the size of my car from small (4 passenger) to medium (5 passenger) on July 23, 2022 for a week, putting me at mercy of the company. This Heathrow branch of Europcar oozes scam. They quote you an initial outrageous price (528 pounds per day) - but won't say it out loud - instead they ask you to look at their screen so other customers can't overhear the scammy talk. And then say "that's our advertised rate" and they they can do better - offered me 250 pounds per day - when I said NO! I'll squish into 4-seater, they immediately went to 150 pounds per day!? Then was the scam, paper work, paper work, signatures, round the back through the legs - each piece of paper had many many numbers - when I checked out a week later I was charged no less than 4 other fees, bringing my grand total renting a 5-seat crap car for a week to 2,000 pounds or just over 250 pounds per day. read more

Prepaid for the car through rentalcars.com. Was not told at car pick up that there was an extra 30% added on for fees. When I dropped the car off they showed how I had signed agreeing to the fees. It was in the fine print and was hidden from me!! Later on another fee was added. When I questioned it the representative lied and claimed it was taxes. I emailed customer service. Their respose was I should have read the fine print. Buyer beware!! read more

Europcar Gatwick has been the worst experience I've ever had with a rental car company. During a flat tyre none of their staff knew and even their emergency line was dumbfounded for how to help their customers. And they charge you for their incompetence, I would recommend going with any other rental company and avoid these scam artists. Worst customer experience, go with one of the other reputable companies. read more

I use Europcar quite a lot around Europe, so given its cheaper nowadays to hire a car for the weekend to get the train back home to Bristol thought i would give it a try. Knowing Heathrow pretty well I opted for the 'Arrive and Drive' for an extra £20 so I could just "turn up as the desk, pick up the keys, exit the car park and get on the road" In fact, I had to queue at the desk, wait for 5 mins while the clerk went through my details to add an up to date phone number (the same one I had registered with 3 hours earlier) then 10 minutes handing around by the car while the clerk went off to 'validate the car park ticket' All in all took 35 mins from when I got to the Europcar desk to when I exited the car park. Plus, I booked a Golf (admittedly 'or similar') then when went to the car park and was given the mazda parked next to 3 europcar Golfs. I was their last rental of the day, so what was that about? Not really any fault of the clerk, but it's a really stupid system waiting around so much. If you are thinking of buying the Europcar Arrive and Drive optional extra at Heathrow Terminal 1, I wouldn't bother. read more

Europcar - Car Rental Near Me - Middlesex, XGL

The worst rental agency in the world. Europcar's Heathrow, London operation tried to change the price promised when I made my reservation and then lied to try to get me to upgrade. The agents repeated tried to get me to spend twice the price they listed in my reservation by getting me to buy additional insurance. I kept refusing and the agent kept trying to pressure me to buy more insurance. Then, for 5 minutes I told the agent I wanted the car I had reserved, a VW Golf, but she kept trying to get me to rent a Volvo for 100 pounds more. I kept refusing. Finally, the agent tried to tell me if I wanted navigation I should take the Volvo. Again I refused. Turns out the VW Golf I reserved had a navigation. I will never rent from this sleazy operation again. read more

FRAUDSTERS -- AVOID!!! The staff at Europcar will try to sell you their overpriced insurance. If you refuse, they will hit you with fake damages claims. In my case, they accused me of losing the spare tyre. Why would they do this? Because they know that no one checks the spare tyre when they pick up a car. They are hoping you will agree to pay their damages claim because you don't have 100% proof the spare tyre wasn't there when you picked up the car. In my case, they said nothing about the "missing" spare tyre for 7 WEEKS after I returned the car. Then I was suddenly hit with a credit care charge. Luckily, my credit card company refused the charge. Then they sent me a solicitor's letter demanding I pay up the "damage" plus penalty fees. It was only when I lodged a complaint with BVRLA (the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) they backed off and dropped the charges. I chose Europcar because seemed to be offering the cheapest prices. That was a mistake I won't make again. read more

THIEVES! BEWARE! London Heathrow - EuropeCar - Terrible Service - Complete Rip Off They More than Doubled the Price at the counter at Heathrow - Agent spoke in circles avoiding direct answers and refused to acknowledge our insurance and refused to give us a car unless we bought their insurance (at 5 times the price for less coverage) from her and constantly refused to give us a total including our original rate pre-paid. She kept evasively talking about one thing when we were asking about another to deliberately confuse us - a real professional con artist Rather than helping us - after a ten hour flight - with another 7 hour drive ahead of us - she chose to deliberately take advantage of our fatigue and need to get on the road to arrive at our destination before midnight.... She chose, instead to completely rip us off I would NEVER EVER USE THEM EVER AGAIN - COMPLETE CON ARTISTS - Deliberately deceiving and in our opinion Steeling hundreds of pounds and dollars with each fraudulent transaction BEWARE !!! We would rate EuropeCar a big fat ZERO if we could - but to write this warning review - we had to give them 1 star (the only good thing was the car itself) They also used an exorbitantly higher than the banks or visa exchange rate when charging our card in Cad rather than in British Pounds adding an additional $100 plus to the bill that already was more than double what we were quoted when we booked and prepaid for our car rental We had chosen a rental car over the train because there were 3 of us and it would have been more economical based on our quote - but in the end the train would have been way way way cheaper!!! Don't use this Company - They will completely Scam you !!!! We are three Adults all working for the Travel Industry with at least 60 years experience between us at the Airport and no strangers to the ins and outs of travelling... But, none of us have never seen such horrific swindling and evasive persuasion tactics to gauge people and deliberately confuse them with what we three all agree was out and out LYING by the EuropeCar Agent at Heathrow Airport. read more