Europcar France Reviews 

Customer service is below par! Agency forces charges that are not on the confirmation of the reservation; delay in picking up the car; offer the smallest car of the category and scare you with the comfort of the vehicle to push you towards an upsell; when you realize the extra charge that is based on the location and try to get clarity, no apologies or gesture offered. I will not rent Europcar again!

Update: the contract in the agency does not match the billing presented. Lines with no amounts (15% surcharge) then appear on the billing. They need to invest in their software and accept customer feedback.

This review is based on all aspects of the rental including their customer care. I will not be reaching out again. They provide documents that don't match and explain you that you are wrong and signed the document. Non sense.

Terrible experience at Toulouse airport. Charged double for upgrade as they didn’t have Clio I had reserved. Ended up with a ridiculously large car for solo travel! Left a review on Google and Europcar ‘reached out’ saying to please get in touch with their customer services. Absolutely useless - spent 15 mins on phone to Europcar France where they said they could do nothing! Wished I’d looked at reviews. Absolute racket

Left stranded in the middle of nowhere for days with a broken down car. Completely useless company. Absolutely horrible experience. Avoid avoid avoid.

At the car rental desk at Nice Airport you first had to register electronically for an appointment with the employee, then wait more than an hour. After this, the employee there had a lot of time, about the beauties of France, etc., then point out, that the rental car had not been paid for, which was not true. Despite the certificate presented in French, that all insurance policies had already been taken out, on the usual handover protocol we were given another contract with incomprehensible abbreviations only in French, of as we later learned insurance benefits "foisted". One day after returning the rental car, a facture/invoice was sent by email, after which further costs were settled in addition to the double insurance for 25 days, although we had only rented for 2 weeks, inter alia for an environmental levy.Our credit card was charged at the same time, 2 weeks later another debit was attempted Our complaint to BSP/ Europcar/ Keddy was delayed, only the request to our house bank to book back the debit led to an invoice correction, whereby by means of a new invoice, the necessary false double insurance for 14 days was again beasted. There was no explanation or apology. A rating on the Europcar website should no longer be possible.

Thieves.take pictures or they will rip you off

Rented a 9-seater at Nantes Airport in June. All was good until I received an e-mail with a €25 bill in August. The car was parked in a campsite at 6.59AM when they say offence occurred. No phone call, I still don’t know what’s it for. Had I seen their reviews I wouldn’t have used them.

hidden charges which were added at pick up, very rude and unhelpful staff at drop off - astronomical charge removed from my credit card for a tiny scuff on the bumper which I don't believe was anything to do with me.

Worst service ever.
I booked a car directly on their website and paid the reservation with a virtual credit card.
Few days later at the desk, they refused to proceed with the rental (fully paid and not refundable) because I could not match my virtual credit card with a physical one. Other personal cards were not accepted. T&Cs not clear about it. Absolute scam.
Never reply to phone nor emails.

Absolute fraudsters. They charged for insurance when I specifically declined. They failed to offer an option for peage tolls in France and they charge 55 euros every time as an administration fee. Unauthorised payment taken for insurance. Bank flags payments as potential fraud, costing significant costly time to sort out.

I booked a car on the official website, without a voucher, I paid online with my credit card. The day where I was supposed to get my car, Europcar decided to cancel my booking with any notice and without any alternative solution, they just said : find another thing by yourself. Since, I'm struggling to have a refund. No mention, no specific case on terms, and they barely answer to my phone call. They don't answer to emails, every week they ask to call again another day. Don't waste your time, there is an high risk of issues with them. I strongly not recommend this company.

good day
after rent a car at venezia airport / italy from europecar around end of 2022, almost 2 years later then received a few traffic fines from a lawyer. who urgent request for remittance for 5 times increased fines then we paid for avoid any trouble with any parties then we immediately contacted with " europecar " office italy and pushed to them for accept about their fault who told us that this is not their responsiblities and they cant controlling and following about post system, who controlling ? who must to notice to us ? why we paid extra huge fines ? who secure our rights ? we rented a car from " europecar " but they didnot secure ur rights against 3rd parties, but the authorities asked our adress from europecar for able to send fines to my adress, according to the rules that they gave them our post adress to them despite we didnot received any post nor email nor phone call from authorities nor from europecar, at the end ı am fully blaming the " europecar " that they didnot warn us !!

WARNING – Europcar Paris Charles de Gaulle

I want to warn everyone about my experience with Europcar at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
They charged me unexpected fees and extra costs without clearly informing me in advance. When signing the contract, these additional charges were not mentioned.

I booked my rental via Trip.com, but ended up being overcharged by Europcar in a way that I consider unfair and misleading. In my opinion, this is an unacceptable practice for such a large company.

Based on my experience, I strongly advise anyone renting from Europcar at Charles de Gaulle to carefully review all terms and charges before signing anything.
they charged me 545euro without any reason , they let me sign insurence and ++ without my agreement and without to mention that before my signature.
AM NOT SATISFIED AT ALL, I FEEL LIKE I BE SHEETED.

Rented a car for two weeks recently from Carcassonne airport and got talked into taking out a fully comprehensive cover. Silly me! When I returned the car a minor scratch was found on the the boot that I hadn't noticed before but I was assured that due to the full comprehensive cover, that wouldn't be an issue. And now I'm getting an invoice for €87 for a Damage Admin Fee.
In other words, even with a fully comprehensive cover they will find a way to make up another charge to squeeze you.
Definitely won't be heading their way ever again.

Update: I've been trying to reach them for days on the official link (in their response) but it seems it's not configured to be used (likely on purpose) as you only have 14 days to make a claim: Sorry, your request couldn’t be sent
There was a technical error on our side. Please, try again or contact us by phone.

Renter beware! The Europcar return service finds baseless reasons to upcharge for damages that don't exist. I returned a car yesterday and the unfriendly person checking my car in got mad at me for a bit of dirt on the driver's side floor and then found a 1/2 inch line on the car that was not a scrape and could easily get buffed off. He told me to sign his report and then I could dispute with customer service. The next day I got a bill for $300 damages! When I called customer service another unfriendly, unhelpful person told me that when I signed the return I gave up my rights to dispute. This is unsavory and dishonest of them.

Europcar in France is now sadly notoriously known to scam their customers, often taking advantage of the credulity of their foreigner clients who aren’t fluent in French.
My husband is American and I am French, he rented a car from them to meet me while I was visiting family this summer. Him and me both do travel constantly for work and rent cars all over the world for months at a time. We are extremely aware of the common practices of some car rental companies (trying to upsell you, charge you for damages that were already there, sell you additional insurances you already have…). When he picked up the car from the Europcar at the Nice Airport, the employee immediately tried to upsell him, he then proceeded to talk him into adding their insurance which my husband specifically refused since we only use our credit card insurance which covers us at the same rate than theirs. He rented the car for 13 days, for an amount of $760. The car was returned with no damage, on time, with a full tank of gas and absolutely no problem. We did realize that we had left a small bag with a designer pair of sunglasses and an AIR TAG in the car, we called Europcar and talked to an agent who said we would be getting an email about this issue asap. Still no email to this day.
Our excessively high 900€ deposit was returned a week later. Fast forward a week, we realize that Europcar had charged us another $750. We try contacting the company over the phone, in order to inquire about our missing bag and the additional charges, impossible to get through customer service. A few days later we see that they charge us again an additional $760. Unable to reach them via emails or phone, and still in France we decide to head directly to Nice and address the issue in person. This is where everything turned into an absolute nightmare. A lovely young man at the desk tried to be helpful but can’t seem to find an explanation to those charges decides to consult his superior miss Olya Z. who without coming up to us, from a distance order him to just print out our invoice so she can pass it to another service and send us away. As we are about to leave we overhear a family dealing with the exact same issue as ours. The other client advises us to get a copy of our initial contract as well as the invoice. I proceed to walk up to Olya and politely ask if she can print out our contract and invoice. She refuses, says that she has no access to any of those documents and can’t print them out for us, while becoming increasingly aggressive, and still remaining unable to provide us with an explanation on why her company had charged us multiple times. AT this point I become extremely concerned that they will keep charging our credit card and insist in getting access to those invoices (that were never given to us). Olya becomes extremely agressive, threatening, insulting and manages to make our 6 years old cry out for fear. Everyone around us is in disbelief and shocked at the display of attitude from the person supposedly in charge who should have been apologetic for their company mistake and helpful trying to offer a solution. Other clients are now coming up to us sharing their own surreal similar experiences with Europcar offering their support. Eventually Olya superior comes in and tries to offer a solution, she realizes that there had been a « bug » in their system while delivering our vehicule and that we should have never been charged like we did, and assures us we would be refunded. This whole time, Olya is still standing there raging and arguing, insulting while all her colleagues are asking her to leave. Out of nowhere two policemen shows up and let us know that Olya had called them. I’m in total disbelief. The manager assures them there is no issue and they shouldn’t have been called, they will later confess to us that this employee call them in a regular basis and they are unfortunately too familiar with her lack of professionalism. Surreal. Stay away. And yes, they are yet to refund us!

Also, as other people have stated, Europcar will automatically answer to every comment shared online with a long offering support after you share additional comments on your situation. This also is a fraud, after completing the form you will always (I tried more times than I can count) be told they couldn’t complete your request because of a technical error.
We’re seeking legal counsel on our situation.

Awful service from Europcar Lyon airport. Lady only interested in flogging us tyre insurance & additional insurance despite being told I had my own policy to cover excesses. Not sure if coincidence but tyre pressure warning light came on 10 mins after we left causing us to stop, check pressures & reset.
Was absolutely pouring with rain when we picked up the car. Same Lady gave us the wrong registration number so spent 10 minutes aimlessly running around the car park getting soaked. With a huff & rather large puff she eventually went & found the right car - no apology!
When we picked the car up mileometer said 450km in the tank. At the airport put €33.61 fuel (1st August )in the car & said 580km range when we returned. Told by chap doing inspection everything was fine!
Today charged £22.59 for god only knows what - NO information from Europcar as same Lady written down a completely wrong email.
Totally UNIMPRESSED with Europcar LYON. Feel ripped off. Be very careful.
Whilst picking up our car 3 other people complained about damage to their vehicle that hadn't been recorded or not given type of car they had booked.

Looks nice, doesn't it.... :-(
Europcar reacted to my review, suggesting that they would solve it:
"Give us the chance to solve the issue ...."

Here's the reality behind their seemingly 'customer friendly' response:

"We spoke with Europcar to advocate for your refund. Unfortunately, since your booking was reserved as non-refundable, they are unable to make any exceptions to their policy and will not be issuing a refund.

We know this is disappointing. We always advocate for greater flexibility on behalf of our travelers, but Europcar has strict cancellation policies, and unfortunately there’s nothing else we can do at this time."

So it looks nice, but is a complete facade, that hides the fact that they are in there just for the money of their customers. So be aware: they'll use any situation where they can profit from a vulnarability to extort more money.
Customer care: zero.

So despite their 'customer friendly' reaction here, NOTHING GOT SOLVED! No money back. They extorted around Euro 500 from me, 75% on top of my initial rental price.

It was just windowdressing.

Booking a new car rental now.
I would be curious if there actually is an honest car rental company....
Because Europcar is off my list for the future.
==========

Vultures. If they have an interest in it, you'll be informed about everything under the sun. If there's something of real importance to the customer (they're giving away your reserved car because you're a few hours late due to a delayed train), they'll naturally stay silent. A kind of legitimate extortion, because somewhere in the fine print it says this is allowed. But this isn't clearly stated anywhere in the standard confirmation they send. No, because this way they can (because your reserved car is suddenly gone) push you into an upgrade that's 100% more expensive.

A criminal business model, because if they can send you automatic updates and announcements for all sorts of things, they can also do so if you run the risk of losing your car.
Clever emails work wonders to attract and retain customers, but sending you an update or warning suddenly becomes irrelevant if they can make money by not informing you. They have all the technology and resources to warn you that something's wrong, but they won't do that if it can earn them money. Then they can no longer blackmail you into an unwanted upgrade.

I suspect these kinds of practices are even illegal, but they're obviously betting that no one wants the hassle of starting legal proceedings. So they get away with it.

Europcar.fr has no interest in customer service if there's money to be made. Again: beware. It's a fraudulent business model.

Specific experience relates to Europcar Bordeaux.

!!!!!!!
Beware: the public reply Europcar gave below is just pr and for the show. Via a private message they just bluntly repeated their refusal to compensate anything at all.

They only replied here because it makes them look good. Same shitty company.

=====================

Aasgieren. Als zij er belang bij hebben wordt je over van alles en nog wat geïnformeerd. Als er iets is dat voor de klant wezenlijk belangrijk is (ze geven je gereserveerde auto weg omdat je een paar uur te laat bent door een vertraagde trein), dan laten ze natuurlijk niets van zich horen. Een soort van gelegitimeerde afpersing, want ergens in de kleine lettertjes verborgen staat dat dit mag. Maar dit staat nergens duidelijk vermeld in de normale bevestiging die ze sturen. Nee, want zo kunnen ze je (omdat je gereserveerde auto ineens weg is) naar een upgrade duwen die 100% duurder is.

Misdadig verdienmodel, want als ze je voor allerlei zaken wel automatische updates en aankondigingen kunnen sturen kan het natuurlijk ook als je het risico loopt om je auto kwijt te raken.
Slimme emails doen wonderen om klanten te vangen en vast te houden, maar je een update of waarschuwing sturen bestaat ineens niet meer als ze geld kunnen verdienen door je niet te informeren. Ze hebben alle techniek en middelen om je te waarschuwen dat er iets niet goed gaat, maar dat doen ze even niet als het hun geld kan opleveren. Dan kunnen ze je namelijk niet meer chanteren naar een ongewenste upgrade.

Ik vermoed dat dit soort praktijken zelfs illegaal zijn, maar ze gokken er natuurlijk op dat niemand zin heeft in de ellende van het starten van een juridische traject. Dus ze komen ermee weg.

Europcar.fr heeft niets met klantvriendelijkheid als er geld verdiend kan worden. Nogmaals: pas op. Malafide business model.

Specifieke ervaring heeft betrekking op Europcar Bordeaux.

!!!!!!!
Let op: het openbare antwoord dat Europcar hieronder heeft gegeven is puur voor de show. In een privébericht herhaalden dat ze weigeren ook maar enige schadevergoeding te betalen.

I was charged £345 for a scratch to a Peugeot wheel trim which I could buy for £120 for a set of 4
What a rip off

I rented a van for doing my apartment move, I am a young person who has just finished my studies. Europcar charged me €158.95 (despite saying I would not be charged until the car was taken out). The day before the rental arrives, I receive an email saying the model of van I rented is no longer available. I have still been charged despite this automated email telling me I would not be charged. They are unresponsive to email and I have been forced to carry out a chargeback with my bank. So yeah rent with Europcar if you enjoy having your card charged for services you did not receive!

Europcar in Toulouse overcharge and steal from customers. All I had to pay was the additional driver which was listed as €78. The rent of car was prepaid in full. They charged me €326 on my credit card. I tried contacting them but their customer service is unresponsive. Europcar... Never Again. Please beware of them.