Always Document Hire Car Damage to Avoid Scams - A Warning from Our Recent Experience

I never drive off without them going over the car...in the past when I rented a car in Canada, the guy when I returned it said there was damage on the corner of the bumper...it was recorded on sheet but on the wrong corner ..I tried to sai I had done it..so I said ok then..I scraped this corner, and had the other sode that's marked on the sheet repaired for you did I? Then I had an idea...I asked if they kept the sheets from previous rentals. Yes he said. I said well have a look and see which side the damage was in last time....he did, and went very quiet..he said you're right...it was there.
 
I had exactly the same with europcar in the UK, a few weeks after the car was returned I had £350 taken from my account for damages that were there before luckily I had taken photos but they made it so difficult to get my money back. In the end I emailed the CEO with all photos and the time stamps and also asked to see the previous rental to see if damages had been recorded. I got a full refund plus compensation within a few days
 
I always take video and that saved a whole lot of issues. I hadn’t noticed some scratches on one side of the car when I got it. I was able to look at the video, zoom in on it and could see they were there before we had it. On returning it I was able to show that on video and they said yes they knew. I think without the video they would have possibly tried to say it was us. I tell my kids to do a video because it takes a couple of minutes but can save you thousands.
 
I had the same in Ibiza a few years ago. It took for ever to fight and get them off my case. We then read in internet that this is very common practice of rental car companies in Ibiza. Oh I remember now - there was no one there when we returned car -we just had to put key in postbox (left really early or late). I loved Ibiza but because of that we never returned.
 
@mcdale this is what happened to us, how can they charge you for ‘damage’ when they can’t even be bothered to check it back in, I applied for “charge back” from my bank and got it
EUROPCAR 🤬🤬🤬‼️
Never again!!
 
I have used Europcar once and have had a WORLD of issues. I will never use them again. 7 years down the line and I'm still having problems. I hired a car in Portugal along with a "via verde" device to cover the electronic tolls. In the terms and conditions it states (and I was told verbally) that they will pay the due tolls from my deposit prior to returning it. If there was any extra payment due they would contact me within 1 month. I am consistently getting letters in the post (to my old address) with fines for not paying the toll fees. Europcar didn't pay ANY of the toll fees.
 
Too common an occurrence unfortunately. We used to have this all the time with work hire vehicles. Had several different suppliers but always the same. I think a lot of companies chance their arm and unfortunately some people will just pay for damages to avoid the aggro.
 
EUROPCAR -AVOID at all cost, they are definitely Scammers, they have been charged before for scamming (look it up on Google) they charged us for a chip on the windshield that we didn’t do!! (I used Charge Back and got the money back from my bank 😀)
How many people are getting charged for the SAME damage on the car, they won’t repair the dent, scratch, chip as long as they can scam a charge out of honest customers!!
I will NEVER use EUROPECAR again ‼️
 
Yep we were in Majorca in June and my husband hired a moped, he took a pic to send me and so thankful he did as when he returned it they were trying to say he scratched the bottom, luckily he was able to show the pic before he left with it. Chancers xx
 
We had this exact thing from hertz in portugal. Just dumped me with a load of Portuguese paperwork and sent me to find the car. Luckily my now husband is Portuguese and told them no. They bought the car to us and it was battered! We went round it there and then and listed, photo’d and videod all the damage, after they refused to swap it unless we paid for an upgrade.
As soon as I started driving it it felt off. Husband couldn’t drive at that point, and we were driving from Porto to Torres Novas, just outside Lisbon. Told them there was something wrong with it before we left the airport and they said there wasn’t… it broke down about an hour from Torres Novas 🤦🏻‍♀️ we had breakdown come out to us who temporarily fixed it so we could get to Torres Novas, but told us to get it swapped with a different hire car.
Got to Torres Novas and there was no other hire car available. Told me I would have to drive this one, it was fine. Luckily, my now father in law was there and called them and dealt with it, but we had to wait an extra 2 days with no car, and when it did turn up it also had an engine light on 🤦🏻‍♀️ so we ended up with hertz getting one from a different hire car company that they are part of (can’t remember the name) as we were driving to the algarve for 4 days.
The one from the second hire car company was brand new (I had to put a second credit card down as holding deposit/insurance 🤦🏻‍♀️) was lovely to drive, no damage etc… trying to return it to hertz at Porto airport on our way back was disaster though. They’d given us no new paperwork so it looked like we were returning the wrong car (even though the original was a non mover, sat in a garage having been towed in Torres Novas!) resulted in us leaving the car with them, whilst they were on the phone trying to find out where it had come from, whilst we ran for our flight 🤦🏻‍♀️
Received a letter detailing the damage I had caused to the engine on the first car with a final bill 🤦🏻‍♀️ plus cosmetic damage on the new one (which wasn’t there when we returned it!)
Luckily I had photo’s & videos of both cars, and breakdown paperwork which I sent to them and we never heard back 🤦🏻‍♀️
Absolute disaster all in all, and I was ready to come home after the original one broke down before we had even reaches Torres Novas.
They 100% took advantage of the fact I was young, female and didn’t speak the language. And I dread to think what would’ve happened had my now husband not been there, or had also been English, as they didn’t speak good English at all.
 
@ckmervin this is awful ! So sorry you had this experience Leanne. It’s so off putting and one of the many reasons I wish I spoke more languages so I could converse with people better. If you don’t upgrade they seem to palm you off with a nail just so they can get money out of you a different way - by claiming you’ve damaged the car 😳 x
 
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