Story and photograph by Emmjay
I had hired this car in Cairns for two months for my work through a travel agent. Returning it to the airport and hurrying to catch my flight. The inspection guy found the tiniest scratch on the front bumper (see photo) and submitted a report. I didn’t even know the scratch was there – it might have been supermarket rash. If I had known it was there, I would have touched it up myself with a duco pencil.
Then two months later I got an unsigned letter saying that they were going to charge my credit card $424.60 including $100 claims administration fee.
No evidence of a competitive quote, no correspondence. So, I cancelled my credit card to prevent this charge. Who knows, it could even be a scam.
Fortunately, I had travel insurance purchased through the travel agent (Cost $3.50 per day instead of Europcar’s $35 per day – which was more than the daily rental for the little Hyundai.) These people were counting on the fact they thought I had their insurance – and were charging me just under the amount they think I would have had to pay to make a claim. The alleged repair bill was equivalent to about one week’s additional hire. Money for nothing.
So I am going to let my insurance company, the major travel agency chain – and the NRMA and RACQ know about the experience.
Rest assured I will never, ever hire a car from Europcar again.
Check out other reviews at https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/e425f44f-610d-39f0-8683-2e2de13b3f04
I have since found that quite a lot of people out of some 800+ reviews have had “repair” issues with Europcar. What a curious co-incidence.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Ouch.
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I’ve had similar small scratches on hire cars dismissed as normal wear and tear.
Product Review is a great resource, isn’t it? I’ve gone out of my way to write reviews for good and bad products.
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That ‘scratch’ looks like a hand drawn job – fake. Impossible to have a scratch like that. Nice felt tip pen. A complete con.
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It’s a con all right. Amazing that there was just one. Installed by hand maybe ?
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Interestly the Wollongong branch has recently closed.
**************** Frances Cairns
Phone Number: 0408415748 ****************
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I would like to think that a business that relies on ripping off customers has a pretty short lifespan. Good news for Wollongong 😊
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Europcar has a dreadful reputation. They are well known for these sorts of rorts.
We used some small company in Perth which a few later found was some sort of front for organised crime in that state. Since then we’ve used Hertz personally and paid full insurance, made the hire about twice the price but any issues were there’s not ours. We always check the car before taking off too. Once we were returning the car someone else was shunted as they were returning theirs. Not their fault but Hertz helped themselves to $1700 on their credit card for the excess.
For work we used Avis and never had a problem, one was a little miffed though when we checked a car that had all of 300kms on the clock.
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The last time I hired a car my Visa card was cancelled , because it had been scammed, about an hour prior to returning the car. I was up front about it, stating that I wouldn’t have a new card for a couple of days. The clerk nearly became hysterical. She wanted me to provide another credit card. I only had one…the Visa card. “What if there are other charged that come up, we can’t charge your card direct?” That’s what it’s all about, being able to charge prior to notification and without discussion. Must be the biggest rort in Australia.
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I’d have asked which charges they were going to apply. It’s about gouging the punter.
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