Europcar Ipswich

Poor, swapped van I ordered 10 minutes before collection for a smaller one which meant I had to do more trips and therefore more cost. They then charged me for excess mileage that I never drove and when I challenged it they refunded and claimed it was added in error to the system, which seemed a bit convenient, lucky I challenged it

TLDR; They cancelled my reservation without notice, and almost ruined my family vacation plans!

My online booking was paid in full, weeks in advance, for an Automatic car, pick-up time 2 pm from Ipswich branch. I called their number at 1:20pm, to notify that I’ll be late, and will be picking it up at 5. The lady said “No problem, we close at 6, and we’ll hold your car for you”.
I arrive at the location at 4:40 to pick up the car, gave the rep my reservation ID, but he said “we cancelled your booking for no show, and the car was rented to someone else”. Claimed they didn’t receive a note from the call center about my call. Didn’t even apologize, admit or own their mistake. No other Automatic cars available. Didn’t bother to find a solution. No manager available at the branch to speak to. Rep name is Keiran, and he refused to give his surname.

I got a courtesy car from
europa car today 08/7/2022 1 pm with a faulty air conditioning. I was trying to report and replace the car from that moment. They will answer the calls after long waiting time and they are giving wrong information … some representatives says they will replace the car but they don’t know when it will happen. Some says they will repair for us but they also don’t know when they will do . They gave different contact numbers to call . We tried every numbers they gave . No one giving me proper response. We actually don’t know what to do with the faulty car .
I thought europcar is a professional company. I will never ever deal with them any more . There is no option to put a 0 star. Otherwise I would have done that.

Reservation and prepayment may not help you to get a car here. Upon arrival weve been informed that there is no car class Ive booked and prepaid (Ford focus), but instead there is Skoda and I will need to pay additionally twice the price that I’ve paid already. Vacation is ruined. No help to find something similar were offered. In addition Ive learned that Europcar allows this kind of upgrades when the customer is being offered another car with twice+ higher cost of renting. Im renting cars many years, and it is the first time I have this situation with an international brand.

Initially we made a booking for a car that was available in their website. But, after we made the booking, they called us saying that the car was not available so we had to order another one that didn’t suit our preferences 100%. Today, we came to take the preordered car but it wasn’t here so they suggested to give us another car for 50£ per day EXTRA. We called the main offices of EUROPCAR but they couldn’t help the situation.
At the end of the day, we got a car not preferred by us, at 350£ extra (for 7 days)
Never again…..

I signed up to rent a car before I read the reviews so was worried but credit when credits due, no complaints. Didn't have car I ordered but replacement was probably better as it was virtually brand new.
Plan to go away bext year and would definitely use again.

Hired a van to transport 9 bikes back from London after a charity event.
Process was straight forward and quick.
Weekend rental was easy with keys dropped off through dedicated hole in the wall.

I had the misfortune of using the Ipswich branch. List of things that were bad is too long but here's a selection:

- delivered late
- Branch doesn't answer phone - rang at least 20 times and got through once
- customer service non-existent
- collected 24 hours late
- couldn't get heater working in car
- foreign call centre for customer service who try to put you back to the branch (who don't answer)
- staff not empowered to make decisions
- took over a week to get a response to my complaint (Despite customer service saying they have a 7 day target they asked for more time)
- I was promised a call back from the branch manager. Never called back

Only way I got compensation from them (which I did so keep at it) was to email the Group Chief Exec and it was resolved in a day

I had another car booked for next week which I have cancelled.

Expensive, poor service, smelly car, nobody cares. I'll never use them again.