Ecrcs Reviews 

I escalated a complaint about the Heraklion office of Hertz Autohellas (the Greek Hertz vehicle rental business) to ECRCS.

ECRCS sided with Hertz. I feel that the decision from ECRCS is incorrect and that specific concerns about Hertz failing to meet the standards in the Leaseurope Code of Practice were decided incorrectly. The decision sends the message that car rental companies can lie verbally about what's included in a quote AND also lie about the circumstances if a complaint is raised. This is not good for consumers.

They did at least respond within the timeframe they quoted.

Unfortunately I must join the other reviewers.. ECRCS promises a lot, but cannot deliver anything. I filed a complaint in january 2026. ECRCS promised 30 days of handling time. In july I received the verdict, I was very happy, because the verdict was in my favor. Finally we could get some of the money Europcar in Nice cheated from us. I contached Europcar again, and told them about the verdict from ECRCS. They would not refund anything before they heard from ECRCS. So this complaint, that came out in my favor is useless, since ECRCS does not follow up on the verdict to the member companies, and therefore the member Europcar will not refund us the money.. I have asked ECRCS in writing to inform me to whom in Europcar, they have sende the verdict to, but as usualy they have not answered.. unfortunately a complete waste of time

Wow. Only a couple af days after i wrote this evaluation, we received a mail from Europcar. In this mail they confirmed that they would refund the money, as ECRCS has advices them to do. Today i have receives a mail from ECRCS, that confirms that Europcar has promised to refund the money. This is a 4 star, not 5 because of the very long time we have waited, and allmost lost hope. Now we just need to see the money on our bank account. Europcar are you there?????

I totally wasted my time submitting a complaint to ECRCS, collating the evidence to support it, then having to resubmit evidence again because they didn’t understand it and then waiting almost 2 months for a decision.

I had a complaint regarding a clear and evidenced “refuelling charge” applied to my credit card following a completed car rental when I returned the car with the required amount of fuel.

ECRCS claimed that they could find no evidence to support my complaint!

Apparently, it is just a sheer coincidence that a “refuelling charge” in Lesvos was made to my credit card when I was present on this Greek island but the day after I returned the rental car to the car rental company and when I was actually in the airport at the time of the transaction.

That really does stretch credibility to the extreme but seemingly ECRCS were unable to see that!

If it was not the car rental company who made the “refuelling charge”, who do ECRCS think that it was and why do they think that it was made?

ECRCS merely accepted the word of the car rental company that it wasn’t them and they believe that this constituted an “investigation”.

Plus, I received no explanation from ECRCS as to why there was a complete lack of response from my e-mail to the CEO/MD of the car rental company and to multiple e-mails to their so-called “customer services”?

My “frustration”, as ECRCS called it, doesn’t begin cover my view of the complete absence of a satisfactory response from the car rental company to my legitimate enquiry and complaint.

Do ECRCS think it is remotely acceptable for any car rental company to completely ignore repeated communications from customers?

Evidently they do.

What is the point of the so-called ECRCS “Code of Best Practice” if companies completely ignore it and ECRCS take no action in respect of evident non-compliance?

ECRCS said in their response to me …. “We want to reassure you that we’ve looked into every part of your case thoroughly. We appreciate you taking the time to raise the issue with us, and we hope this outcome provides clarity.”

Do they seriously expect me to believe these gaslighting claims? They have done absolutely nothing of the sort!

I am sick and tired (like many customers) of these rip-off car rental companies and their complete lack of any customer service, quite apart from the lack of meaningful and effective complaints handling either internally by them or by the so-called “independent” ECRCS.

So, my conclusions from my personal experience ….

• ECRCS often sides with car rental companies even when customers provide clear evidence of unfair and unauthorised post-rental charges

• ECRCS fail to undertake an independent and thorough investigation to verify evidence provided to them and instead merely rely on what they are told by car rental companies

• ECRCS’s so-called “arbitration service” is inherently biased and fails to pass the impartiality test since ECRCS are funded by car rental companies

• ECRCS take months to reach their so-called “resolution” despite a complaint being very straightforward and supported by clear evidence

• ECRCS are not fit for purpose and should be replaced by a genuinely independent investigative organisation that has the confidence of the customers of the car rental companies

I used the European Car Rental Conciliation Service (ECRCS) to dispute a €244.71 charge by Europcar at Paris CDG. The agent used a well-documented high-pressure tactic: verbally promising a "free courtesy safety waiver" while presenting a digital signature pad exclusively in French with no English translation available.

Despite providing ECRCS with my original booking voucher proving I had explicitly declined all optional insurance in advance, they rejected my claim. Their justification was that because I signed the digital pad, the charge stands. They completely ignored the fact that the digital contract was signed under active verbal misrepresentation and a deliberate language barrier.

ECRCS claims to enforce a Code of Best Practice, but in reality, they act as a rubber-stamp protection shield for rental companies using deceptive counter tactics. If an agent lies to your face, ECRCS will side with them simply because they have a signature on a screen you couldn't read. Absolutely toothless. Avoid relying on them and go straight to your bank for a chargeback instead.

At best spineless and useless...
I have a claim with Avis, I provide details, Avis respond by lying and they say can't help you mate, Avis don't agree!
We had a puncture in France and Avis took the hire car away and did not give us a hire car until 72 hours later. Avis told them they gave us a replacement the same day despite me giving them documentary evidence that this was untrue. Avis charged me £538 for the puncture repair, they claim they never charged this despite me giving ECRCS the full transaction details from my bank. It is perhaps isn't surprising given that this pointless and corrupt organisation are paid by Avis and other car rental organisation. Absolutely scandalous - as others have stated - don't dirty your hands with these people.

ECRCS is a tiger with no teeth. I had a very simple and clear complaint about Goldcar with very clear email evidence however the action taken by ECRCS was as a mail delivery service passing on Goldcar response rather than actually looking at the issue. So in my experience the service is not good.

My experience with the European Car Rental Conciliation Service was deeply disappointing.

The process felt purely procedural rather than investigative. The decision relied almost entirely on the rental company’s internal records, without meaningfully addressing contradictory evidence I provided, including proof of timely payments and the company’s own admission of a system error.

The most serious part of the complaint — aggressive and threatening communication from the rental company triggered by their internal mistake — was effectively dismissed on the basis that verbal exchanges cannot be verified. As a result, customer treatment appears to fall outside meaningful review.

The overall impression is that the service prioritises confirming whether the company followed its internal process rather than assessing fairness or accountability. The outcome did not feel balanced, independent, or consumer-oriented.

In practical terms, the service added no value and did not provide an equitable resolution.

Submitted a dispute for a car rental with AVIS/Budget, waited two months to basically be told, not a lot.

I queried how did I know the photos AVIS/Budget provided were of the car I returned, what proof is there? They were random photos that could have been off any car. The video I provided of the returned vehicle clearly showed the registration plate. Their photos could have been of any car (possibly not even my one).... yet this was not been responded to by ECRCS in their final decision.

Additionally, ECRCS agreed that in my video no damage was shown of the returned vehicle... yet AVIS/Budget found damage 10 minutes later, having moved the car... how do I know they did not cause it? No response was provided by ECRCS in their final decision.

AVIS/Budget initially sent a final invoice agreeing all was OK and the car was returned with no damage, then next day they suddenly find damage... again no response was provided by ECRCS in their final decision.

In effect, I don't see any point to using ECRCS or raising a dispute with them.... they don't answer the questions you pose. They simply provided "text book" responses from Avis and agreed with them.

Waste of time.

Companies like AVIS/Budget are allowed to do whatever they want and are accountable to no-one, they make up claims and provide no follow up or proof. A shambles of a scam.

Dont waste your time with ECRCS. You'll achieve nothing.

Sent a detailed complaint to ECRCS, and they sided with the rental company. I’m not writing a bad review because of that, but because it seems all I got back after waiting 40 working days , was a generic response that seemed to completely ignore all of the points made in my complaint. I asked for the evidence/proof from the rental company and was sent a credit card receipt, an invoice, and an email from enterprise stating it was our fault. Not sure how that’s a proper, objective investigation. Finally, the tone in the emails is disrespectful and dismissive. As another reviewer mentioned, it feels like the responses are AI generated.

I would write 0 stars but there isnt an option. It is a complete waste of time asking the ECRCS for support, I dont even think there is a human working there - they certainly dont bother to read your claim and side with the car hire company

As with other reviewers, this is a case of a company marking their own homework. Completely sided with Europcar and no ignored customer complaints. Hugely disappointing but not unexpected. Do not rely on them for any positive resolution of a problem you may have with a rental company.

rental company (Avis/Budget Spain) gave me an X5 instead of Series 7 I booked, their reasoning is that "to them" they classify as the same car, while there are over 60,000 euros cost difference between the two when bought brand new.

complaint about the issue to ECRCS and they went "yap, its the same type of car" what a waste of time do not bother with those people, anyone that thinks that those two cars classifies in the same category should not work in the car industry.

One is a top of the line LUXURY sedan and the other is a PREMIUM SUV.

ECRCS cannot be impartial as the y are financed by the car rental companies

I made a complaint about Hertz (worst Customer service ever). Did not get any reaction even not when I contacted them about it. Looks like a butcher judging his own flesh.

I asked ECRCS to intervene and they successfully did.
Very happy with the results

We contacted ECRCS after Europcar at Venice airport took £228 from us for damage not caused by us.

When we collected the car on our arrival at Venice Airport, we took a lot of pictures of damage already existing.

When we returned the car, the returns office wasn't open for starters (it wasn't lunch time, they were supposed to be open) and the collection desk was too busy to deal with us. So again we carefully went around the vehicle, no extra damage caused.

Then over a few month period, Europcar told us twice that the damage was caused by us and told us it would be £228. We disputed this and sent them all of our time dated photographic evidence. They never replied but for an acknowledgment email.

Then £228 went out of our account after an email saying they were taking it, Europcar are very non communicative.

We then looked online to see what we could do, as we thought we'd been dealing with this correctly.

We found ECRCS, sent them all of the information and evidence and a few days later they had resolved our issue and Europcar accepted fault on there behalf (I just think they ignore email and expect people not to bother chasing the money!) and we got the money back the following week.

So do try contest it if you're being robbed. Nobody should have to pay more for their car hire if they do nothing wrong and car hire companies like Europcar are terrible for this.

If I caused damage I'd always be happy to pay for it fixing, but I imagine someone hasn't done their job correctly at Europcar and they've tried to pull a fast one or they take the money off folk for car repairs and never actually repair the cars.

Thank you ECRCS for an efficient, helpful service.

I had a disappointing experience with ECRCS. Despite providing clear evidence of deceptive practices by a rental company, they sided with the company, ignoring my valid concerns. Their lack of support for consumers is alarming. I can't recommend their service if you're looking for fairness and protection against unethical practices.

I raised a complaint about a hire company who had charged me £100s in 'damages' for their defective hire car. (A wheel arch trim had loosened by approx 5mm at one side). For vehicle owners - the car manufacturer admits fault and offers repairs free of charge under warranty. You'd think that'd be enough to conclude that it would be wrong to charge a customer for car defects. Unfortunately not.

ECRCS sided with the car hire company because the defect supposedly presented itself during my hire, completely ignoring that the 'damage' in question was for a warranty issue. "In light of the evidence before us we are of the view that the charges have been correctly raised by Sixt and we are unable to uphold your complaint against them."

Waste of time, and shameful precedent to set that car hire companies can do this and get away with it. ECRCS should be standing up for what's right and protecting customers interests, Instead they have supported practices that serve to rip off and unfairly treat consumers.