Beware Europcar's "Scratch Scam!"…read more Europcar Spain hit me with a bogus ~$200 "damage" charge for faint, water-spot-like marks on a rental I had less than 24 hours, despite my protest and proof. So heed this warning: don't rent from Europcar. Here's the story: I needed to rent a car for one day while in Spain. I picked it up in San Sebastián and dropped it off less than 24 hours later at the Bilbao airport. Europcar was $20 cheaper than Enterprise (right across the street), so I went with them. Big mistake. Pickup: The agent barely spoke English, but we figured it out. The car was in a dark parking garage. I did a quick walk-around and didn't see any obvious damage. Return: At Bilbao airport, the agent spent 10 minutes examining the car with her phone flashlight, practically looking for flaws under a microscope. She pointed out a couple of faint marks on the roof near the rear passenger side--honestly, they looked like water spots. She filled out paperwork blaming me for "damage" even though I had the car less than 24 hours, no incidents, and was catching a flight. Aftermath: A day later I got an invoice for ~ $200 plus a 20% "damage tax." I protested immediately and provided photos, but Europcar's response has been boilerplate: "if you didn't note it at pickup, you're responsible." This is absurd. The marks were barely visible, and it is unreasonable to expect customers to notice or document things like that--especially on the roof of a car in a dark garage. My belief is this is a scam Europcar uses to pad revenue: the same "damage" likely gets billed to multiple customers. I've been in a back-and-forth with Europcar corporate, and they will not budge. They clearly operate on a "squeeze as much as possible out of one-time customers" business model. Lesson learned: don't rent from Europcar. Pay the extra $20 for Enterprise or another reputable agency, and save yourself the headache.