| Hire car scam (EUROPCAR)
On the subject of scams we recently booked a Europcar hire car over the 'net, got to Malaga at just past midnight and duly collected the car. Drove out of the airport and realised the blasted thing only had half a tank of petrol on board. Given the time we decided to carry on and explain on returning the car after our holiday. Took it back and explained to the girl at the check in desk what had happened and after some discussion she accepted our word for it.
Today I got a bill through the post for 25 litres of fuel and a 12 euro charge for "Special Equipment Replacement".
I've written them a polite fax explaining the situation and asking which particular special equipment was missing from the car but doubt I'll hear back from them.
It's a simple scam but when viewed on a large scale quite a money maker, I doubt many people bother to quibble about 39 euros (total cost inc. tax) but it's the attitude which annoys me, they could easily have checked the fuel level from the previous users records but chose to rip me off. I expect the next user will have the same problem if they don't check before leaving the airport.
First time we've used Europcar, usually use Crown, doubt we will be using them again in a hurry  | 
07-Oct-2004, 19:59 
Paul James
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