Europcar Reviews 

Terrible experience with Europcar. They are trying to make me pay for damage I did not cause.

I have provided clear video evidence from before pickup and a photo taken at 2:31 PM when I returned the vehicle, showing the left front alloy. Europcar's damage photo was taken at 3:25 PM — almost an hour after I dropped the car off.

Despite my photos being clear, they keep claiming the evidence is "unclear" and are still asking me to pay the damage excess.

I wish I could give 0 stars. I also wish there were an easier way to formally complain about practices like this, because this experience feels like an attempt to make customers pay for damage they didn't cause.

Afrin at the Sydney International Airport Europcar Rentals was extremely helpful throughout the entire process and made everything seem effortless. From pick-up to drop-off, the experience was smooth and hassle-free, with no issues at all. I would definitely recommend Afrin and the team at Europcar.

What made the experience even better was the quality of the vehicle. The car was in pristine condition, drove beautifully, and was a pleasure to use throughout our trip. I also loved the maroon-red colour, which made it very easy to spot in busy mall parking lots when we needed to find it again.

Overall, it was a 10/10 experience. I would definitely use Europcar again wherever our travels take us. 😊

After landing from a 14-hour flight we were pushed into a bigger car we did not believe we needed, then charged to repair a scuff to an alloy, which happened as a result of driving a much bigger car than we were used to. We are now still waiting, weeks later, for a full invoice for the damage and hire so that the insurance we had for the hire will pay out. They've been useless and we have felt ripped off.

If I could give zero stars, I would. Upon arrival at the Europcar kiosk, we found no one was there. We rang the number which was ignored. we rang again and an angry woman answered "I'll be there in 5 minutes!". When she returned to the kiosk, we were told There was no car available for us. We had booked a car months in advance. When we asked why they didn't ring us before we arrived to tell us, we were told that we should have rung them, despite us getting a confirmation email and reminder the day before. The young lady at the counter was rude, aggressive, unhelpful and completely unwilling to do anything to sort our situation. She did not apologise and when we said we were going to complain about the situation, she replied: "I don't care. It's happened before". She yelled at us to leave the car rental building while we were in the process of booking another car with another agency and the lovely lad there had to leave her kiosk to tell the Europcar attendant to calm down and go back to her kiosk. It was appalling customer service. I would NOT RECOMMEND at all, ever.

Absolutely and totally screwed over! After traveling/flying for 2 days, in charge of two crazy kids and being beyond tired, I told the Europcar rep that I didn't want an upgrade to the car or any extra insurance product as I already had cover. But he decided to put it on anyways, and unfortunately, I didn't notice and just signed where he wanted me to - yes, I know, my fault. Europcar don't charge this straight away, when I would have noticed but left it until the car was returned and now tell me, that there's nothing they can do. Is this common amongst any other car providers? Obviously, I will never use them again and will repeat my experience to anyone I can!

Zero stars from us.
We specifically booked hire car at Brisbane International.
Both travel agent and I actually re confirmed it would be there.
On arrival nobody at desk. Rang a number and no reply.
Agent for another company told me there is rarely anybody servicing that desk and we'd have to go to domestic to pick up our car.
Had to get a shuttle bus to domestic (4kms) then walk for 15 minutes out to the desk. Completely unapologetic staff. Took over an hour to process us, despite booking and full payment having been done 4 weeks earlier. All this resulted in us being held up for almost 3 hours.

I would never ever book this company again and never recommend them to anyone.
Worst start to a holiday ever.

NOT WORTH 1 STAR EVEN.

We were a victim of a car crash and 100% not at fault. Their customer failed to stop at the Stop Sign and hooned at us. We contacted Europcar NZ and they were super UNHELPFUL. They never took accountability and responsibility as a company. They never called us to give an update, and never apologised for the inconvenience (even when we're the victims). AND TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, they make every excuses to drag the situation longer eg "we're waiting for the client to return the car..." (which has NOTHING to do with processing our damaged & written off vehicle), "can you go to different garages for a quote? (so that they can find the CHEAPEST quote but none of the garage wanted to touch our vehicle after knowing that we are dealing with Europcar), and "the client hasn't paid the excess fee yet..." (this is 3 weeks ago now and you would have saved your customer's credit card on the day of the pick up). We have taken this further legally, and Europcar is very complacent in saying that "this is not how our company is run...".

So, moral of the story here is DO NOT RENT WITH THEM NO MATTER HOW "CHEAP" THEIR PRICES COULD BE. These people have got POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and INCOMPETENT 100%

[edited upon conclusion] Car and pickup good, my objection is to being billed for an extra day because there was no one in attendance at the drop-off and they billed me for an extra day because they logged my drop-off several hours later, presumably at the time they finally dealt with the drop box.
I have yet to hear back from them and will update you.
[Update #1] my emailed reply to their invoice message from europcargroup at europcar.com was bounced, address unknown. That's a bad sign. Will try others.
[Update #2] I tried the email link given in my contract email, CustomerService at europcar.co.nz, and that bounced with account inactive. Alarm bells! Make sure you TAKE PHOTOS AND DOCUMENT DROP-OFF if unattended!
[Update 3] I got an email response from the info mailbox, attaching a pdf of their own record of the car being logged in, curiously at quite a different time from that reported on the initial invoice, but still after the drop off deadline. So I responded with a screenshot from my GPS showing the actual time I was there hours earlier. That was 5 days ago, still waiting.
[Update 4] Resolved! After a week Europcar responded saying they will credit the extra day's charge. Excellent and good on them for doing the right thing. They said it might take a few days for the credit to arrive but in fact it was deposited ahead of their email.
UPSHOT: All good. It was a frustrating battle but in the end all good. I would be prepared to use them again now I know to document my end well. I do think they could and should easily prevent this, given the range of measures available - I mean, all the cameras around, number plate recognition in carparks, even just drop-off arrangements with other hire companies when unattended like I got with another rental firm on my trip. ln hindsight, recording your unattended drop-off should be done with any rental I guess.

Rude assistants at the airport office. Both on pick up and when dropping off at the end of our trip.
Told us our insurance was inadequate ,(refused to look at our policy).. so we ended up having to pay twice.
After paying our tolls ourselves, we had tolls plus ‘admin fee’ deduced from our account the month after we got home. So we paid twice for them too.. they refused to reimburse either fee.
Plus we picked up the car without the tank being full but they refused to reimburse us for that too.
They might be the cheapest to rent but after you’ve paid twice for everything they are not that cheap
Not happy with this company. And we will never rent with them again.

Service & attitude at Wellington Ferry Terminal EuropCar was Friendly, Cheerful, & Helpful -can’t rate highly enough!

I actually want to give ZERO stars. I was conned into purchasing additional insurance cover on my rental car. I purchased full cover when booking through Booking.com but the agent insisted that I was not sufficiently covered by the 3rd party insurance. It cost me an additional $650 for a rental of $950 that included 6 days rental + full insurance. I complained, got brushed off by an AI generated email. Bloody disgusting service. I will NEVER USE Europcar again!!

After many years using this company internationally, I hired a car from Auckland to Wellington for a family trip. I was hit with a $1530 bill for a full replacement windscreen due to 3 large chips. I never went off road, and had noticed and photographed one chip after leaving the depot.
They would not accept my photos saying that they were not taken within one hour of leaving the depot. This one hour rule is not disclosed anywhere, either verbally or in the hire documents.
If you choose not to take out windscreen insurance, make sure to video the windscreen minutely before leaving the yard.
Dishonest, untrustworthy.
Never again. One star is too many. Avoid this company!

Picked the car up at Auckland airport, drove to Whangarei for a funeral, stayed a few days not really using the vehicle much, then drove back. They inspected straightaway and took photos of stone chips all over the front window which in no way was done by us. There is no way you'd make that many stone chips going from Auckland to Whangarei and back on the motorway. Looked like it had been driven over gravel. My sister also hired a car and they tried doing her aswell for damage, good for them they took photos and lookee there, a nice wee chip in the paint they were trying to do them for. Also, a lady in reception while we were there was claiming they took $500 from her accoount and she wanted to know what the extra charge was for. Apparantly they couldn't find that charge in their system. Highly recommend not using Europcar, and highly recommend taking photos of anything small and minute. Extremely unsatisfied, more so now after reading other similar reviews.

Europcar NZ consistently exceed my expectations. Vehicles are always premium quality and meet my needs, regardless of the band of car I've booked. On-line booking is quick and easy. Check-out staff are polite and accommodating where possible, when my needs have changed. Check-in is straightforward and doesn't impact my departure schedule. Pricing is competitive for the quality delivered.

If I could give less than one star, I would. Wellington Ferry Terminal Europcar is a scam. They refused to return my deposit and created fake charges. Even after I proved with clear evidence that they were wrong, they only refunded part of my money and still won’t explain the extra fees.
I’ve been dealing with them for nearly two weeks and getting nowhere. If you’re a tourist, don’t even think about renting from Europcar — they will keep your deposit and invent expenses to justify it.
I’ve now disputed the charges with my bank. Let’s see if we can resolve this issue with these scammers and their overcharging tactics.

Our experience with Europcar New Zealand completely spoiled the start of our holiday.

After a long flight from the UK, we were pressured into upgrading from the Chery we had already booked and paid for. Staff insisted our luggage would not fit, despite us later seeing that the Chery would have been perfectly adequate. Two days later, the Christchurch manager apologised for the pressure selling and agreed that our North Island vehicle would be changed back to a car equivalent to our original booking.

When we arrived in Wellington, this agreement had not been honoured. We were again offered a much larger vehicle and had to accept the smallest one available because there was no suitable alternative.

The biggest issue came after the rental. We were charged approximately £240, then around £540, and finally a further £802 without any proper invoice or explanation. After examining Europcar's calculations, it appears they charged us twice for the first 30 days of the rental, as well as duplicating one-way, additional driver and other fees. Despite repeated requests, they have still failed to provide a satisfactory explanation.

We have hired many cars around the world and have never experienced such poor customer service or confusing billing. We cannot recommend Europcar New Zealand and would advise others to carefully check every charge before leaving the rental desk.

Pointless booking system only to be told at pick up we never selected any cover which was a lie.
Then Force into only two options medium or high cover or couldn't takt the car.
Rental ended up costing over double what we preselected online due to being lied to and upsold something we never wanted.

I am extremely disappointed in my interaction with this rental company. I rented a vehicle for a month from Wellington airport and did everything in my power to ensure that it was well taken care of. One day after returning the vehicle I received an email stating there was damage to the vehicle. It was impossible to get a hold of anyone by phone so I went to the location. In the email it described the vehicle needed to be inspected and it would take a few days. Lo and behold it was nowhere to be found as it was immediately rented out once more. I was told that the inspection was all to be done by phone and that it would once again take a few days. Two days later I received one more email with a picture noting a scuff mark on a door. This company is requesting I pay $1000 to repair a scuff! Something that can be buffed out in five minutes. I was extremely surprised that upset that this was all done without ever physically inspecting the vehicle and renting it out immediately. Unfortunately I didn't read reviews prior to making my rental. Had I done so I would have seen that this company engages in this type of deception on a regular basis. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM!

Another satisfied customer..

Our rental was a new Ford Ranger with less that 5000kms on it. On the last day I noticed smoke coming from the engine bay, no warning lights were on the dash. I discovered that whole underside of the engine and all the way back to the tailgate was covered in oil. There had been a failure of a gasket or seal somewhere in the system.
I was not able to get in contact with anyone from Eurpocar, it was 5:15pm. I was able to get roadside assistance out and towed to Wellington where the truck was due to be returned.
Subsequently, Europcar has charged me for returning the truck low on fuel at the contract fuel price. I had to fight this as I was unable to drive the truck back to the rental office. After many calls and emails they agreed to only charge me for the fuel at market prices.
Now they are trying to charge me for the roadside assistance as they consider it an oil change which is a service. They even sent an email stating that mechanical failures are covered but driver induced errors and services were not. I am now fighting this too.
My recommendation is first to not hire from Europcar and secondly, if you have an issue like mine just keep driving the car until the engine seizes. Then it is a clear cut mechanical failure. You will do no favours to yourself by treating the vehicle well and being responsible. All that will happen is Europcar will simply nickel and dime you for costs.
My rental ended March 16th, I am still dealing with these erroneous fees and charges today, May 8th.