How to Avoid Descending into Rental Car Hell in Europe

It takes no more than a few clicks or a phone call to reserve a rental car in Europe, but when things go wrong, either from consumer ignorance or agency handling, it can take months to dig your way out of rental car hell.

International or national brands—Hertz, Europcar, Avis, Budget, Sixt, National, Alamo, and others—are indeed the way to go in France as in much of Europe. But don’t let a familiar logo lull you into believing that the reservation center and the local agency speak with the same voice. When disputes arrive, franchises and affiliates are quick to declare their local or national independence while the reserving entity or intermediary back home may prove helpless in dealing with overseas policy issues.

The five rental experiences described below demonstrate some of pitfalls of car rental in Europe and demonstrate how easy it is for disputes and surprises to arise. These cautionary tales from rental car hell are followed by eight recommendations that can help avoid or minimize potential problems.

Before exploring accounts provided by fellow travel writers, I begin with my own sordid tale of a 12-step decent into rental car hell and the lessons learned.

Though I typically rent directly from the major players in Europe after comparing rates online, this spring I tested the use an intermediary in renting a van for a tour with four others of Normandy and the Loire Valley. I had a well-respected Virtuoso-affiliated travel agency in the U.S. reserve a van for me via Auto Europe. Auto Europe serves as an intermediary for British and American travelers renting vehicles throughout Europe and claims to provide discount prices from their partners (Avis, Hertz, Europcar…). The travel agent works with Auto Europe, she said, because she finds them reliable, because she prefers to deal with a single company that presumably comes up with the best rate among its partners, and because Auto Europe pays her commissions promptly, all of which are valid reasons from the point of view of a travel agent. But are those good reasons for the consumer?

Auto Europe, via the travel agent, provided a rate of $1417, including unlimited mileage and thorough insurance, for rental from the Europcar agency at the location I’d instructed, Paris’s Gare d’Austerlitz train station. Europcar, a French company, is one of the majors in Europe and has a strategic alliance in the North America with Missouri-based Enterprise. So far so good. Except that Auto Europe’s second voucher (I’d asked for a modification of insurance coverage after the first) indicated the wrong agency. Noticing this as I was preparing to leave home caused a bit of panic while waiting for the correct voucher to arrive.

Lesson learned: Verify paperwork from intermediaries.

At the Europcar agency at the train station, the Europcar agent confirmed that the voucher rate was the actual rate, barring any modification of the agreement on my part. She then gave me the keys to the van, telling me where I could find the car. Presumably due to limited staffing, though possibly due to laziness, it’s common in Paris train stations, as well as stations and airports elsewhere in Europe, for the rental agent to not lead the client to examine the vehicle together. Instead, clients are expected to accept the agency’s assessment of the vehicle.

Lesson learned: Don’t leave the parking lot without first checking the vehicle yourself. Previous experiences had taught me to thoroughly check the vehicle myself and, when necessary, to return to the agency to insist that they add further remarks to the contract concerning the state of the vehicle.

What I found when I went out into the parking lot outside the train station was a sight for sore eyes: with mud-spattered siding, soda splotched flooring, and a side mirror cover that fell off as soon as I tried to adjust the view, the van looked as though it had recently been used by a soccer mom who’d driven her kids into a ditch. After thorough inspection I returned to the agency… and found it closed.

Lesson learned: Arrive at least 30 minutes before closing time so as to resolve any last-minute issues.

Annoying as the state of the van was, I had the further shocked as I pulled out of the parking lot of noticing a blinking red light by the fuel gauge indicating that the tank was desperately on empty and that I had better know where to find a gas station in Paris, immediately.

Lesson learned: Arrive at least 45 minutes before closing time so as to resolve any last-minute issues. Don’t forget to check the gas gauge. Agency’s sometimes request that you leave a full tank even though you’ve picked up the car on less than full. Insist that the proper level amount be indicated on the original paperwork. Corollary lesson: Be sure to find out what kind of gas the vehicle takes and learn the term for that type of gas in the local language since you may not recognize the name of the appropriate fuel at the pump. I’ll spare you the regular gas in a diesel tank horror story. In French, for example, diesel is translated as gazole or gasoil.

Before looking for a gas station I called Auto Europe from my cell phone. Auto Europe has a 24-hour toll-free customer service number manned by kind native English-speakers. I very much appreciated their reassurance that I need only keep my receipt for that first tank of gas and would be reimbursed should I then return the van with any amount of gas. As to the van’s filth, they said they would contact other agencies in Paris to see if I could exchange the van or get it cleaned. But by then all of the agencies were either closed or at impractical locations. I cleaned the van as best I could with a bottle of water and paper towels.

Lesson learned: Keep all receipts during rental car use. You never know. If I could have produced a receipt for a bottle of water and a roll or paper towels I might now be $3 richer!

Upon returning the van a week later (with a half tank) the Europcar agency showed no interest in verifying the state of the car. This wasn’t a problem for me since the car was fully insured. I nevertheless noted on the rental agreement the original problems with the van and the fact that I was leaving it in better, not worse, condition than I found it. I might have know by the nonchalance of the Europcar agent, who immediately went out to have a smoke with her colleague from Avis, that I would soon descend into a lower level of rental car hell.

Lesson learned: Don’t let the on-site agent simply accept the keys without thoroughly going over and officially noting possible points of contention.

Upon returning home, I called Auto Europe to review the situation, repeated my disappointment as to the state of the vehicle and reminded them that I expected to be reimbursed for the half-tank of gas, $76 worth, that I’d left in the van which I’d received on empty. As in my previous phone call, the American Auto Europe rep was very kind and reassuring and said they would contact Europcar, their supplier.

Lesson learned: Beware of intermediaries that don’t provide immediate solutions.

Two week later I noticed a hefty charge to my credit card even though I’d previous paid Auto Europe the total amount. (I’d naturally been required to give my credit card information at the Europcar agency.) When finally I received the accompanying bill, I discovered that I’d been charged $0.67 cents per “Extra Miles/KM” for 2131 “Km/Mls” in addition to various other charges, including the obligatory 19.6% tax on the sub-total and a thieving 2.75% currency conversion fee, for a total of $1781.12 even though I’d already paid for the rental.

The explanation was clear enough to me: having received an non-serviced van I was receiving the bill for both my use and for the previous use by the previous soccer mom whose kids are on a traveling team with an away match that required driving 2131 Km/Mls through rough terrain.

Lesson learned: Whether or not you’ve paid in advance, the rental agency will have your credit card information on file and won’t hesitate to add undue charges, whether due to their internal communications break-down, due to miscommunication between you and the agency, or due to dishonesty. Be sure to verify your follow-up credit card statements over the next two month for any charges related to your car rental. Even before receiving a paper statement you might check your credit card status online a week or two after returning the rental car so as to react as quickly as possible to any unexpected charge. Dispute overcharges both to the concerned rental company (or intermediary) while also indicating the on-going dispute with your credit card company. File the dispute with your credit card company within the appropriate time frame, often 60 days.

I called Auto Europe to file my complaint and request the charge be removed. Even though Europcar had done the overcharging, I believe it to be Auto Europe’s duty as U.S. intermediary to resolve the issue with the European agency. Unfortunately, Auto Europe—whose corporate philosophy is the clunky notion “If you think that there is something more important than a client… then you need to think again”—apparently gave up thinking about this client as soon as they received payment. In some eight to ten calls over the past four months, their customer service representatives have generally been kind and reassuring (their U.S. operation is based in Maine) and ineffective.

First, Auto Europe claimed to have no record of my previous phone calls. Their customer service then sent me an e-mail saying “Europcar is having trouble finding your rental information with the information we provided. To help in the investigation, would you please send any Europcar documents you still have…” Which is curious considering that Auto Europe had made the reservation and had provided me with the voucher indicating full payment and unlimited Km/Mls. When I called to note my surprise that they didn’t have any record the one unkind, unreassuring Auto Europe rep I encountered adamantly told me something to the effect of: “It isn’t lost, it’s just misplaced, you’re trying to twist my words. I’m just saying that you need to send all the information if you want us to help you.” So much for speaking the same language.

Lesson learned: Keep all records of the rental experience and follow-up on your complaints.

I continued to call Auto Europe ever two to three weeks. During my phone call ten weeks post-rental I was told “just this morning we received a response from Europcar, you’ll be credited in three to five days.”

Keeping an eye on my credit card status online I saw that Auto Europe then reimbursed the $76 gas expense, but no other reimbursement arrived.

My travel agent, meanwhile, repeatedly went to bat for me to resolve the issue, yet Auto Europe continued to drop the ball. Four weeks after the “three to five days” pledge, she once again contacted Auto Europe on my behalf. Auto Europe’s response: the client accepted to waive reimbursement of the currency exchange fee and was reimbursed a month earlier. That made for a strange combination of falsehoods that put my travel agent in the delicate position of wondering which one of us—the client or the broker—was pulling her chain.

Though the Europcar agency at Paris’s Gare d’Austerlitz station is surely guilty of being lax in their servicing of vehicles and in their treatment of files, I suspect that I would have made quicker headway had I been dealing directly with negligent Europcar rather than with we’re-doing-our-best Auto Europe.

Lesson learned: Go direct. Unless you’re able to obtain a verifiable, sizable discount by using an intermediary and sufficient guarantees, avoid intermediaries when dealing with a major rental companies. You’ll have a better chance dealing with the company directly should post-rental disputes arise, and the company’s international presence means that there won’t be a language problem. But don’t assume that they’re keeping records of the facts you need to bolster your argument. A customer service rep that says, “I’ll note that on your file,” may actually be distracted if suddenly invited out for a drink a colleague or manager. Good travel agents, however, remain good resources; when booking through a travel agent you might ask if he/she is reserving directly through a broker/intermediary. If through a broker be sure to inquire as to the broker’s responsibility should you have a problem at any point in the rental or billing process.

During my next phone call to Auto Europe I learned that Europcar had actually been prepared to credit me something (I still don’t know what) but first required Auto Europe’s go-ahead… which Auto Europe had neglected to give.

It’s clear that in this case Auto Europe not only failed to assist the client but so much as prohibit the direct flow of communication between the rental company and the traveler. Again I received sweet promises. When I asked for some guarantee that action would follow, the customer service rep, always reassuring, strangely enough informed me that he was personal friends with one of the managers, leaving me to understand that they were either drinking buddies or lovers or partners in crime.

Lesson learned: Make noise; get the customer service rep out of his or her comfort zone. Whether in the agency or on the phone dealing with a dispute, making strong assertions, with or without a raised voice, is the number one remedy when faced with international car rental agencies and intermediaries since it forces them to look away from the generic script of the teleprompter and into the details of our specific case.

Separately, I sent a journalistic request to Auto Europe’s general management inquiring as to their policy of responsibility towards their clients. Nancy Sullivan, Auto Europe’s VP Marketing, responded by emphasizing the role of the company’s customer service department. She added, “In some occurrences, when we cannot get a supplier to refund for a non-authorized charge, we refund the client directly and then cease relationships with that supplier until they meet the level of service that we require for our customers.” As I say, always kind and reassuring… and, now one month later, ineffective.

After four months, numerous phone calls, and one final call in which I told Auto Europe that I held them fully responsible, Auto Europe refunded all but the train station pick-up fee and the currency exchange fee that went with the original overcharge. I let matters end there. But they insisted on reminding me that their internal communications system was being run by a six-year-old by sending me an e-mail stating that in order to “compensate” me for my troubles they were allowing me to keep the $76 gas reimbursement—even though it had been owed to me from day 1. Such generosity! Such hell!

(Update: More than two years after car rental, two letter from a collection company sent on behalf of Europcar, and dozens of e-mail exhanges with Auto Europe, the problem has yet to be fully resolved. I’m still blackballed from renting from Europcar, Auto Europe refuses to confirm that the financial dispute is closed, so I remain with an active complaint against Europcar and Auto Europe.)

National and international rental car companies are all capable of screw ups with or without vouchers or intermediary.

Avis proved incapable in dealing with an overseas rental–in this case a rental that I made in France for a car in the U.S.. Arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport the Avis agency manager informed me that the company would not honor a pricing agreement. The manager explained that incompatiabilities between Avis France and Avis USA did not allow him to rectify the error even though it clearly appeared on the screen. He and a member of his staff actually mocked my attempt to solve the problem in the agency, saying that I should go back to France to resolve the situation despite having all of the necessary information at his fingertips.

Avis USA was in fact quite capable of correcting the problem and returning to the orignal agreement but only after I insisted by phone and e-mail that the company look at the record to prove the deficiency of their default international phone and online reservations systems.

Lesson learned: A familiar logo does not mean that an agency in one country will honor an agreement made in another country. Print out agreements and bring them with you when you travel so as to have some proof in case of immediate dispute. But even that may not help since reservations made online or by phone will not necessarily be honored overseas, as the Avis experience shows. Time consuming as it may be, you should try to find the overseas policy on-line or have it sent to you. Also, when shopping around, keep in mind that the higher prices practiced by some international brands (in this case Avis) do not necesssarily translate into better customer service, particularly when their default position is that they have no relation with the company’s overseas division.

In another Irish tale, husband-wife travel writing team Ronald and Linda Jacobs explain that their education in the tribulations of overseas car rental came from an experience with Dan Dooley Car Hire Ireland in which the company’s New Jersey office had told them that damage insurance through their credit card was sufficient, only to find once at Shannon airport that they were required to purchase additional collision damage insurance (“almost as much as the daily rental charge!”). Once back home (without a collision), they were unable to convince the company’s US or Irish office that they should be reimbursed for the insurance costs. Their conclusion: “Now much wiser and careful, for the last decade we’ve been infinitely more prudent in dealing with overseas car rental firms—and have never had another bad experience.”

Question insurance. Verify with your credit card company exactly what kind of car rental insurance it includes, for what destinations and for what type of vehicle. Decide what kind of insurance you require before renting; don’t let rental agencies scare you into insurance you may not need or want.

If unaccustomed to manual transmission, one of the first rules in car rental in Europe is to find a friend at home willing to give you practice with using a stick shift or to be sure that you’ve reserved a car with automatic transmission. Brian Greenberg learned this when he took his family to Germany and, having made an online reservation with Sixt, discovered that he’d rented a stick shift van that he wasn’t going to able to pull out of the parking lot without constant stalling. Sixt isn’t to blame for the situation since this appears to be a case of inadequate research by the consumer, who then had to look for an alternative. “I started walking down the row of car rental desks and all had only sticks… until I met up with Hertz, who saved our collective lives by having a larger Mercedes minivan with automatic.”

Lesson learned: Be prepared to change rental agencies. Since major rail stations and airports typically have several different rental companies, it may be possible to shop around at the counters nearby when surprises occur at the first agency. You can’t always count on an available vehicle or a similar rate at the other agencies, but don’t hesitate to check out the competition on site.

One man’s savior is another man’s foe. After touring the Loire Valley for a few days, Jim Loomis drove his Hertz rental car back to the rental location in Saumur at the appointed time but there was no one there for check-out. He’d been warned by Hertz that his might be the case in which case he was instructed to leave the keys with the shop owner next door. When he eventually received the bill, the tab included charges for three additional days. “Fortunately, I was able to produce a receipt from a hotel in Vienna, proving I couldn’t have been driving that car when they said I had.”

Lesson learned: When possible, avoid picking up or dropping off a vehicle just when the agency is closing. Otherwise, when picking up or dropping off car without an attendant at the rental location or without an attendant willing to look over the car for possible damage, thoroughly check over the car on your own. If at pick-up, return to the agency to note your observations on the rental agreement. If at drop-off, make not of the condition on any official document, e.g. “Vehicle returned at 7pm/19h00 on May 18, 2009, with no damage or additional scratches.” For what it’s worth, feel free to add any pseudo-legalistic language you can think of, e.g. “I cannot be held responsible for any damage that occurs to this vehicle after I leave it off at your office at… on…” or “No additional insurance or charges can be made to this other than the acknowledge rate upon reservation.” It will at least make you feel self-righteous should any dispute arise regarding the condition of the vehicle.

“It’s probably unfair,” Jim Loomis concludes, “but I haven’t rented from Hertz since, largely because they wouldn’t take my word and forced me to produce that hotel receipt to prove my innocence.”

Jim, I’m sure, was just being diplomatic when he told me that because it is quite fair indeed to learn from such hellish experiences and to avoid renting from the same company when possible. As a final note, anecdotal evidence indicates that all rental companies and their partners are able to lead travelers down the path to frustration and overcharge. Nevertheless, do indeed refuse to give your business to international companies that fail to provide you with full, prompt, rightful satisfaction.

© 2008-2017 Gary Lee Kraut