Europcar Reviews 17

Do not rent from this location!!! Utilize bait and switch tactics. Low rental price, but don’t tell you about hidden fees that will more than double the cost when you arrive and are stuck with the rental. Alex in the Liberia office will scam you at every turn. He tried to charge me to wash the car after we returned it. I rent cars all over the world and have NEVER encountered a rental car employee that was so intent on defrauding his customers. He even checked the cleanliness of the engine?!? What a scammer. I didn’t sign to accept the transaction. Fortunately, I contested the charges with Chase Sapphire and they returned my costs. I also rented at National in Liberia and they were THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE of Europcar. No hidden fees or attempts to scam me when I returned the vehicle. I would highly recommend National if you need a car in Liberia.

Very poor service and totally untrained and cranky staff. Especially the guy named Isaac is extremely unprofessional, rude and not fit for work in an international company like this.

Booked the car with a package deal from Expedia, when I arrived at Europcar they tell me its $2500 for insurance and 1500 deposit. This is more than my entire trip (airfare, hotel etc). I asked to decline and they said I then have to pay a deposit of 30K (the entire price of car), I asked for other options and the lowest basic plan (that he says covers nothing) is $925 with a 1500 deposit. I ask if someone runs into me what happens, he says I'm responsible for everything and can try to go after the person but police won't do anything so good luck! I'm stranded 3 hours from my destination so I reluctantly just did it. I get in the car and there is a 1/4 tank of gas! So now I have to try and find a gas station.
During my trip the car gets a flat tire, Its a Sunday and no tire shops are open in my town. I call Europcar they say I would have to pay for all expenses (new tire etc). Wow! So they don't even provide support for a working vehicle. I ended up returning the car early and they said I should get a refund for the unused insurance days in 3-5 days. Been 3 weeks and still nothing. I've emailed and called and multiple times and no one gets back to me.

The most corrupt, dishonest and rude rental agency I have ever encountered around the world. I had pre paid a deposit via VIP Cars and arrived by shuttle from the airport. My payment and security deposit of nearly $3000US went through OK and was there to be clerly seen on my banking app. The manager (he told us he was the most senior person) claimed my card was declined. I called my bank in the UK - they confirmed the card was NOT declined and he had indeed taken the huge payment. My bank even spoke to him and also called his receiving bank. All confirmed what my banking app showed - he was lying and the money had been taken. We argued for nearly 2 hours and we were dehydrated (I have a disability) --- he claimed the water was turned off and he had no water!!!. In the end - knowing we would lose the pre payment we had made if we walked out - he told us if we paid an extra $300 to lower the security deposit - he would release the car. As soon as we did this - he said my card was magically working again and the -- magically produced some water! I then checked my bank app again to discover he had taken the original payment and the extra €300 --- along with a new security deposit AND the whopping $2900US he had claimed was declined. Thousands of pounds locked on my card -- ensuring we had no capital left to use on it, huge stress and scammed out of thousands of pounds. I have rented hundreds of cars around the world and have never encountered such dishonest and (with water deprivation in mind) cruel practice. Avoid this place at all costs

My husband and I had a really bad experience with a rent-a-car agency at San Jose airport. We prebooked a car through Economy Booking and when we went to get the car from Next Car/EC car rental agency we were told that we have to pay additional amount of money, three times the amount we had already have paid online. We ended up not getting the car we had prebooked and had to get a taxi from San Jose to Jaco. And that is where the two agents of EuropCar and Fox Rent in Jaco restored our faith in humanity. Esteban Perez explained to us in details all the options available. He was very patient and understanding of our frustration with the past experience we had at the airport. He found us a great deal- two times less expensive compared to the one suggested to us at the airport. Esteban's colleague, Eduardo, finished the booking and was very helpful with ideas for places to visit.
We cannot help these two gentlemen enough for their excellent service!

Trying to find out if I can use my UK credit card which now comes just printed on the back with all the details as banks in UK don't provide a embossed credit card, but I can't get any information from anyone. I emailed reservation and customer service but no one replied back

We arrived at the airport early in the morning, my wife, our 8 mo child and I.
We had a three hour drive ahead of us to our final destination so we were hoping for a quick and easy expedition picking up the car.
We had already payed for everything in advance and had drawn an insurance with full coverage. So we thought that we could simply fill the forms, sign the papers and get going as usual.
The member of staff at the pickup was very rude, disrespectful and talked down to me.
He asked me for a credit card and I told him I have a Master Card.
Instead of accepting the card, he said that if I'm not 100% sure it's a credit card and not a debit I should go and figure it out on my own first, and then come back when I'm ready and wait at the back of the line.

We were tired from travel and my phone roaming network was not up and running yet.
He then offered me the alternative to buy an insurance for 120 Euros.
I told him I was already ensured with a full coverage but he said it didn't matter and that was the only way I could pickup the car.
This way I was pressured to pay the 120 euros to get going.
Later on my bank confirmed that my Master Card was a valid credit card. So the the member of staff should have just accepted it.

We took the Europcar shuttle bus from San Jose airport at 4 pm on 11 February 2024 and taken to the Europcar office. When we arrived there was a family who had been waiting five hours for a car. We were told that no cars were available and we would have to wait until the car we had reserved was returned although they had no idea what time or day it was due back and there was no way of contacting the driver. This was hard to believe as all car hire companies take customer’s telephone numbers and email addresses.
We were joined by at least eight other customers who were all given the same information. We were divided into two rooms to avoid communicating with each other!
After three hours we were offered a small vehicle which was totally unsuitable for our needs and were told if we didn’t accept it for the same price as the SUV they would not help us any further. They advised us to call the Europcar help desk in the morning and to scan the QR code in the office for the telephone number. I called the number immediately and it rang in the same office that I was in and was answered with "breakdown assistance". The call was disconnected when they realised it was me on the line.

After six hours we were finally given the car we had originally reserved. Due to the six hour delay we were unable to ask our credit card company to approve the 7000 USD deposit as they had closed and we were led to believe the payment had been blocked which we assumed was for security reasons. We later discovered that our credit card company had not received any such payment transaction. We were informed by Europcar that we could avoid paying the 7000 USD if we took out their own insurance which was an additional £500. We were forced to do this as we couldn’t take the car without it.

We needed to collect the vehicle at 4 pm as stated on the voucher as we had to be at our accommodation by 7 pm. With all the delay incurred we couldn’t drive the 90 minutes to our destination so we had to book into a local hotel.

This is the worst experience we have ever had with a hire car company and ruined the start of our long awaited holiday.

I really think it was bad style that we had to wait for 30 minutes for the shuttle bus before we got out there and when we finally got out to Europcar, we were greeted by another long queue! we stood here for over 1 hour. When it was finally our turn, we were told that the car we had rented was sold out and would be at the office tomorrow. So we had to drive in a small junk car until we got our SUV that we had booked. We therefore had to spend time the next day driving out there and getting our real car instead of just enjoying our trip. We were told that it would be ready from when they opened, but we were there 1 hour to 1.5 hours after they had opened. But it wasn't quite ready when we arrived... "5 minutes" we were told, and after 15 minutes we got our real car

We rented a car at San José in February 2024. As we we realised that the air condition did not function we tried to phone the station, but the number was not available. Wenn we brought the car back nobody was interested. Imagine we had a severe problem. And no contact. Not recommendable.

DO NOT USE! They will rip you off the minute you walk through the door! Doesn’t matter what your reservation says you will pay 3 times that price

Simply awful. I had to change the car twice. The first time the AC didn't switch off, so the battery got drained. They sent a second car (which was fast, well done), but that one was life dangerous as the breaks were completely rusty and metal on metal. The third car was alright although some metal parts were hanging out under the chassis (lady was laughing... "that's alright like this"). And now the best, their system cannot handle international bookings. It considered that I returned the car 8 hours later... most likely due to the time difference (Europe). The guy at the reception told me not to worry about it as I arrived exactly at the contractually agreed time in the afternoon.... but then a week later, I see the USD 57 deducted from my VISA! I contacted them, they would look into it. They never returned my messages ever since. May they get happy with the money, but I doubt that that will safe them.

Poor service, unkind people.
I reseved a Suzuki vitara and got a SsangYong, the worst car i ever had.
Never again!!!

I had made the reservation at Europcar upfront with the confirmed amount to pay at pick up. Though Fox Cars had a better offer, I thought I'd rather pay more for a reknown company after reading the bad Fox Cars reviews, only to find out that it is the same company after arrival in Costa Rica.
The pick up is not at the airport and when you get there, they bluntly lie to you and tell you that a deposit of $ 30000 is required to rent a car, though I had already insurance. I have rented more than 30 cars in locations all over the world and never heard such an absurd thing. He was trying to convince me to pay the triple of the initial price to avoid this deposit and even lied about mandatory insurances in Costa Rica!!
The only mandatory insurance is the PIL which costs $15-$25/ day and not $80 as he was telling me.
As I refused and wanted to leave, he gave me a discount of 40% which still was the double price. I left and easily took a bus to Manuel Antonio for 5$ and when I arrived and asked at a local carvrenting company, I found that my original confirmed price was the standard for the kind of car that I had booked at Europcar including all required insurances. So I will never ever go back to Europcar/ Foxcar.
After reading the tons of bad reviews on different platforms, I don't understand how this can be legal. The employees are professional scammers...

We had paid the full amount for the car before landing in Costa Rica but once we arrived to pick it up we were informed that we HAD to purchase insurance even though it was already listed as covered (they claimed it was not enough so it was invalid) I thought it would only be $10 a day at the most but it ended up being $21 a day!!! and that was the basic level, but I HAD to buy it because I could also not be reimbursed by the company since I had already paid for the car. Insane and no one was taking charge of the issue. Terrible experience, the worst thing in Costa Rica, we were totally misled and lied to. Also the offices are not located in the airport so when you arrive you have to find a van to take you there...will not use them again.