Worst rental experience ever

Amazing service

The rental process was quite smooth

Although it was clean and in good condition, the vehicle I booked, a VW was not the vehicle I was given; a Hyundai. Given the vehicle with virtually an empty tank of fuel, the fuel warning light came on after driving only a couple of kilometres. Arrived at the pick up location but no one was there to drop off the vehicle for me. I had to go back to the hotel to have receptionist contact car hire company to organise another pick up location. I was told no one was there because they couldn’t contact me by phone, although I had been in contact them by e-mail and confirmed the pick up time and location the night before. This wasted nearly 2 hours of my time. I put 2 scratches on the side of the vehicle, which I admit was my fault, and was charged an additional €170. The quote was done over the phone and by text messaging. Not sure if that quote was right but a friend of mine told me it might be too excessive. The money was taken out of my account on the spot but after about 3 weeks, after a couple of e-mails, they did send me the invoice for the repairs.

Mark up pickup location! We called five times for the shuttle and it arrived after 90 minutes! Car was handed with fuel for 130 km only! Car was handed with oil check over due

Booking process was smooth, and good value for money. However the service at Europcar Athens was unacceptable

1. When I arrived at the premises of Europcar in Athens to get the car, they asked me to block an amount of deposit 10 times the amount indicated in my contract (3000 euros instead of 300 euros). I did not have 3000 euros available on my credit card. Then they asked 5 times the indicated deposit amount (1500 euros) but, at the same time, I had to pay 50 euros more for the rental than the 88 euros indicated in my contract (138 euros instead of 88 euros). This is clearly a breach of contract. I had no means to rent another car, I was with children and this was our last day of holiday so I had to accept it. 2. The car I got was in a rather poor state, full of scratches. 3. After returning the car without any problem, they did not unblock the deposit of 1500 euros from my credit card for 3 weeks. I called them twice, to no avail. A lady at the client service assured me both times that her colleagues most certainly had done all the necessary to unblock the deposit and that it was probably my bank's fault if it was still unblocked. Then I called my bank with which I have never had any such problem (and I rent cars often). Europcar had never unblocked the deposit. My bank did it for me since it was not claimed for 3 weeks.